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MBM Group increases fabric use by 1% and automates 72% of its cutting room processes with FastReactFabric

Coats Digital’s FastReactFabric provides MBM Group, Bangladesh with real time fabric planning and reporting automation to deliver an effortless approach to fabric utilisation.

MBM Group automates their fabric cutting floor with FastReactFabric.

MBM Group was established in 1983 with 150 sewing machines in Dhaka, Bangladesh with an aim to redefine product quality, enable innovation and achieve on-time delivery performance. Today, the organisation has an annual turnover of $100 million and operates with a workforce of more than 3,500, producing 18 million woven garments annually.

Over the last 4 decades, MBM Group has gained recognition in the global apparel industry and currently caters to big brands such as H&M, Levi’s, American Eagle and JC Penny. MBM is the only factory in Bangladesh to have JC Penney self-audit certification and has received 6 national export trophies and numerous 4-star awards from Levi Strauss.

  • Blue icon of a sewing machine Production capacity – 18 million woven garments annually
  • Blue icon of three people Workforce – 3,500
  • Blue globe icon Bangladesh
  • icon label
    • JCPenny logo
    • G-Star logo
    • H&M logo

Challenges

1. Lack of process automation

The entire process from order planning to order execution on MBM’s production floor was highly dependent on human skill and effort. Huge amounts of production data was handled manually in spreadsheets which not only took a lot of time and created additional cost, but also created inconsistencies that impacted the accuracy of reporting and search-ability of data.

The team wanted a solution to help them stay hassle-free and organised with a higher productivity level.

Solution:

MBM group using FastReactFabric on their cutting floor
MBM group using Coats Digital’s Fabric utilisation tool FastReactFabric on their cutting floor

FastReactFabric(formerly IntelloCut) helps MBM Group to automate the entire process from order planning to execution on the production floor. Each step involved in fabric planning of multiple orders such as marker ratio making, lay planning and marker planning, can now be performed at a much faster pace with more accuracy through FastReactFabric.

FastReactFabric’s tablet application installed on the cutting floor helps to capture data in real-time for better and informed planning and execution. With MBM team’s hard work and dedication, 72% of the total cutting room processes are automated through FastReactFabric.

2. No visibility over fabric tracking and consumption

Fabric is the major constituent in the total cost of a garment and if managed well, can help to boost the profitability of a manufacturing business. MBM Group needed a digital tool that could track fabric usage and wastage in real-time and enable informed decision making for the business.

Solution:

With the help of FastReactFabric, MBM can now have visibility over every inch of the fabric use that goes from the fabric warehouse to the cutting room, along with a track of the fabric utilised, wasted and saved.

FastReactFabric helps to deliver actionable insights in intuitive reports for stakeholders that are downloaded in a single click and used to arrive at informed data-backed decisions.

MBM team using FastReactFabric on their cutting floor
MBM team using FastReactFabric for fabric planning
MBM team using FastReactFabric application in their tablet on the fabric cutting floor

“FastReactFabric helped us to keep a track of 100% fabric on the cutting floor and provided end to end control of the cutting processes in real-time. FastReactFabric not only helped us to automate the cutting room processes and identify the process gaps but also the reports enabled us to analyse data trends across various departments and identify the scope of improvement in order to achieve higher efficiency and productivity.”

Kamran Sadique,
Director, MBM Group

3. End bit management and utilisation

In order to ensure minimum wastage in a garment factory, it becomes really essential to do proper scrutiny of fabric consumption and tracking of end-bits. The lack of fabric tracking in the factory and unstructured end-bit management resulted in lesser visibility of end-bits and consequently, higher end-bit wastage and poor fabric utilisation.

Solution:

FastReactFabric’s real-time data recording and advanced tech stack enables the person laying on the cutting floor to have visibility of the end-bit data for better fabric planning. FastReactFabric provides real-time lay re-plan suggestion whenever the end-bits are enough to complete the order.

Additionally, the Coats Digital team helped MBM to set-up the process of end-bit tagging and sorting which made it easier to spot the end-bit suggested by the system for use in a particular order. As a result, MBM Group has  increased their fabric utilisation by 1%.

4. Inter-department communication

In order to ensure maximum flexibility and productivity in the cutting room, it becomes essential for the cutting department to have effective inter-department communication to keep the correct information flow and exchange of data. Prior to the installation of FastReactFabric in the factory, most of the communication with departments such as CAD, merchandising, fabric warehouse and fabric inspection, was done either via email or manually generated spreadsheets and reports.

As a result, the MBM team had to skim through large amounts of data to track the status of each purchase order, with multiple purchase orders running at multiple stages.

Solution:

As part of FastReactFabric training and implementation, the Coats Digital team set standard processes which enabled MBM to communicate in more hassle-free ways using FastReactFabric generated reports. The communication of marker ratios between the planning and CAD team is automated using FastReactFabric’s Marker Plan Report.

Similarly, the communication between the merchandising team, planning team and MBM Group management was made easy using FastReactFabric’s Fabric Reconciliation Report which provides an order-wise fabric summary with running wastage and consumption.

“The 1% improvement in fabric utilisation is a sign of our team’s hard work and Coats Digital’s perseverance towards delivering a quality product. We look forward to building this relationship even stronger in the future.”

Kamran Sadique,
Director, MBM Group
MBM team with Coats Digital's after implementing FastReactFabric
A happy team with Coats Digital
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