VT Garment Earns GSD Excellence Gold Certification with Coats Digital

Global apparel manufacturing powerhouse, VT Garment Co. Ltd., has become its first customer partner to achieve GSD Excellence Gold Certification as part of its new GSD Excellence Programme. The initiative has been launched to empower manufacturers to reach new levels of efficiency and sustainability through best practices and GSD’s data-driven methodology – helping them meet increasingly rigorous standards set by global brands.

Since its adoption of GSDCost, VT Garment has boosted sales orders by 30 percent; improved its on-time delivery performance by 13 percent, increased production efficiencies by up to 30 percent and significantly reduced unnecessary overtime, air freight, machine rental and material costs.

Founded in 1981, VT Garment is an award-winning global manufacturer of outerwear, sportswear and protective equipment, such as: ski jackets and pants, boardshorts, polyester padded jackets, woven jackets and pants, knitted jackets and bulletproof armour-plated materials. Around 20 per cent of VT Garment’s electricity usage comes from solar energy and it has ISO 9001 certified facilities in Thailand and Myanmar which produce over 136,000 pieces per month. The company boasts an annual turnover of 45 million USD and its customers include: Patagonia, Jack Wolfskin, Montbell, O’Neill and other big and small brands in the United States and Europe. VT Garment supports a workforce of 2,560 and has one of the largest Original Equipment/Original Design Manufacturing (OEM/ODM) factories in the world with Fair Trade certification. The company’s dedication to innovation, local sustainability, environmental protection, fair wages, and advanced digitisation has secured it a raft of other awards including: the Thailand Quality Award (Golden) and the Thailand Kaizen Award (Golden).

As part of Coats Digital’s goal to drive fashion businesses towards manufacturing excellence, its new GSD Excellence Programme has been designed to help fashion businesses create optimal production environments by promoting industry-leading standards that reduce waste and increase productivity. Through a three-tiered structured framework, the annual accreditation programme helps fashion manufacturers to advance progression from Bronze, to Silver, through to Gold Certification.

Accreditation is based on a company’s GSD practitioner capability; its adoption of GSD methodology on the factory floor measured by the rate of production style adoption; factory benchmarks based on production efficiencies and the consistency and quality of its Standard-Minute-Value (SMV/SAM) data. Accreditation enables supply chain vendors to position themselves as market leaders in manufacturing by creating an optimal and sustainable production environment through best-practice consultation and by optimising the benefits of GSDCost.

“GSDCost has proved a real game changer for us,” adds: Chalumpon Lotharukpong, Managing Director of VT Garment. “Not only has it enabled us to achieve more accurate planning and a substantial productivity boost across the business, but we’ve also eliminated overtime costs—saving approximately $595 each week. Our monthly machine rental expenses have dropped by $1,160 thanks to precise requirement calculations, and with our ability to quickly deliver accurate CM quotes, we’ve seen a remarkable 30 percent increase in profitability along with a notable enhancement to our industry reputation. We are truly honoured to have achieved GSD Excellence Gold Certification and extend our heartfelt thanks to Coats Digital’s expert consultants, our dedicated GSD practitioners, and the entire VT Garments team for their diligence and commitment in making this achievement possible.”

To secure GSD Excellence Gold Certification, Coats Digital’s team of GSD experts conducted a series of rigorous audits at VT Garment to assess its GSD standards, the precision and consistency of its GSD practitioners, and the direct impact GSD methods were delivering in terms of efficiency improvements.

Before implementing GSDCost, VT Garment faced significant challenges due to the absence of a scientifically-based time and cost standard. This gap made it difficult to accurately forecast costs and capacity, resulting in unpredictable production and capacity management. Relying on outdated historical data from various IT systems, the company struggled with inconsistent efficiency targets, frequent defects, delayed deliveries, wasted materials, increased freight expenses, and unplanned overtime.

With GSDCost, VT Garment introduced standardised benchmarks using predefined times and motion codes, allowing cross-functional teams—such as sales, costing, planning, and manufacturing—to collaborate using a unified, scientifically grounded approach to cost analysis. This alignment fostered clearer, data-driven communication across departments. The improvements were substantial: VT Garment saw productivity gains of 6.5% to 30%, depending on product type, and achieved a 13% boost in on-time delivery. The company also reduced overtime, air freight, machine rentals, and material waste, ultimately enhancing profit margins by more than 30%.

Key Benefits and ROI for VT Garment Co.  Ltd.

• Improvement in SMVs of between 6.5% – 30% depending on core style
• Improved OTDP of 13%
• Boosted profits by over 30%
• Eliminated overtime costs – saving 595 USD per week
• Reduced machine rentals costs by 1,160 USD per month
• Reduced material wastage
• Eliminated last minute freight costs
• Seamless CM negotiations between sales and factory floor
• Fair negotiated price costings for customers
• Ability to deal with complex orders
• Fact-based stable manufacturing costs
• Achievable performance incentive programme