Bi-Weekly Technology Communicator |
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Seats are still open for the Digital Textile Printing Conference, October 25 – 28. Click here for more details.
Gerber Executive Summit - September 27 - 28, 2004
 Gerber Technology held its first Executive Summit in conjunction with its annual WebPDM and ACCUMark user's conference. The purpose of this summit was to provide a forum where industry executives and users of its products could discuss issues and share information about technologies that are critical to the future of the industry. Dr. Mike Fralix, [TC]²'s president, served as the moderator of the three “roundtable” discussion topics.
The first roundtable was intended to explore the importance of PDM (Product Data Management) and PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) solutions, particularly when companies are managing their businesses across different continents and different time zones. It was also intended to help the participants understand the differences between PDM and PLM as well as the benefits of each.
 Robert Franey, Kellwood's Director of IS and Chief Technologist, reviewed the implementation of WebPDM across all of their divisions. Paul Herring, Global Apparel IT Director from Nike, discussed the process by which they had selected a PLM provider and shared some of the things they learned through their implementation. Jay Craft from VF Corp. submitted his notes about how VF has developed its own internal PDM/PLM system.
During the session, Dr. Fralix commented that he was impressed upon discovering that two of the three speakers were not using Gerber's products. Sabrena McBride of Gerber responded that the purpose of hosting the summit was to discuss the issues in a vendor neutral manner, not to promote Gerber's products.
The second roundtable was titled “Speed to Market.” David Baron, Vice President of Quality and Technical Services for Liz Claiborne, was the featured speaker and he outlined very concisely the importance of this topic to his company. He also presented some sound guiding principles for those companies that wish to improve their performance in this area. He stated that there was more opportunity to reduce cycle times in the product development side of the business, even though there are still opportunities for improvement in the operations side.
The third roundtable was titled “Sourcing and Selling in China” and was presented by Mary O'Rourke of Jassin-O'Rourke and Paul Richards of Li & Fung. Together they helped the audience understand the importance of China as a source of supply to the U.S. market and the longer-term needs it will have to satisfy its own domestic market. Mary projected that by 2010 China would control about 50% of the U.S. apparel market. Paul Richards agreed and also shared how Li & Fung has expanded its role from being an agent to providing complete supply chain management services.
From a technology perspective, [TC]²'s conclusions from its participation in this summit are that:
1. PDM, and more importantly WebPDM, is rapidly becoming a requirement for global sourcing.
2. As globalization continues in the industry, PLM will play an increasingly important role, and companies should be investigating its potential application today.
3. As major brands and retailers evolve their sourcing strategies, product development processes and technologies will need to be implemented in Mexico and Central America.
4. Some of the ways in which the Western Hemisphere can compete more effectively with manufacturing in Asia are to streamline the production process, implement short cycle manufacturing techniques, assume responsibility for product development, and invest in those technologies that support these initiatives.
5. As quotas are removed, logistics may become somewhat simpler because there will no longer be a need to transfer subassemblies and/or finished products between countries in order to meet quota restrictions.
6. The importer of record may become the company that has manufactured the product, particularly when the shift to full package production is complete.
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Cotton USA 2004 CBI Trade Mission to the U.S. - September 28
 The purpose of the Cotton USA Sourcing Program is to facilitate business relationships and information between the U.S. cotton textile industry and garment manufacturing companies throughout the CBI and Andean regions. The Cotton USA Sourcing Program began in January 2000 in anticipation of the passage and implementation of the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBPTA). Cotton Council International partnered with a group of U.S. textile mills to sponsor the Cotton USA Sourcing Program. Cotton Incorporated, a sister organization, is a sponsor of the Cotton USA 2004 CBI Trade Mission.
The trade mission meeting was held at Chateau Elan in Braselton, Georgia on September 28. Speakers from Cotton Incorporated and NC State University presented subjects on Producing Better Knit Products and Dyeing and Finishing in the morning. In the afternoon, [TC]² speakers Kim Munro presented Product Development and Sampling, Richard Atwell discussed Improving Quality through Six-Sigma and Jim Lovejoy focused on The Impact of Lean Manufacturing. The audience then participated in a hands-on demonstration of the productivity and quality differences among Traditional Manufacturing, Kanban and Team-Based Manufacturing.
Richard Atwell closed the session with a story¹ demonstrating why some people seem to be lucky and others are not. He reported on an experiment where groups of lucky and unlucky people were to count the number of photographs in a newspaper. On average, the unlucky people spent about two minutes on the exercise and the lucky people spent a few seconds. Why the difference? The lucky people noticed on page 2 of the newspaper, large letters stating ”Stop counting: There are 43 photographs in this newspaper.” The lesson is: “Unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they are too busy looking for something else. Lucky people see what is there rather than just what they are looking for.”
Attendees visited several domestic mills seeking sources of fabric and yarn on the following day.
¹ Based on “ The Luck Factor”, 2003, by Dr. Richard Wiseman.
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[TC]² Activity
3D to 2D Pattern Unwrapping
 When a body scanner is used to take measurements, several thousand points of data are collected and software, such as [TC]²'s Body Measurement System (BMS), is used to produce a 3D model of those measurements.
3D to 2D automatic generation of garment blocks/slopers and finished patterns using direct data conversion from 3D body scans is available as a feature of [TC]²'s 3D body measurement software package.
A custom pattern is created from the 3D body model data. Design features such as pleats and darts are pre-defined, along with fit and ease parameters. Detailed style-specific components can be added in a CAD system. The BMS software is easily customized to interface with numerous scanner products and multiple CAD packages.
The software provides automatic sloper generation for women's pants, skirts and bodices. Patterns are output in the industry standard Drawing Interchange File (DXF) format. The current release of the software has pattern generation for ladies and men's slacks; a future release will include functionality for pattern generation of jeans wear.
The 3D to 2D pattern unwrapping tool provides user customizable measurement definitions, batch processing of measurements and unwrapped patterns and customizable print output. It also provides direct pattern generation via 3D to 2D unwrapping for select garment types and 3D data conversion for other body scanners.
Training classes in the use of this tool are offered at no charge. The next session on October 20th has availability. Contact Kim Munro at (919) 653-3515 for details.
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Member Profile
Gerber Technology
 In the late 1960s, Joseph Gerber invented a revolutionary cutter which automatically cut large amounts of material with a computer-controlled knife. The first GERBERcutter, used by General Motors for over twenty years to cut seating materials, is now on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
Gerber Technology, a business unit of Gerber Scientific, provides product lifecycle management (PLM/PDM), computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing ( CAM ) solutions to manufacturers and retailers in the sewn products and flexible goods industries.
Gerber Technology's software products automate conceptual and pattern design, grading, and marker making/nesting operations. The company markets a leading product lifecycle management (PLM) solution to manufacturers and retailers worldwide to reduce product development time and costs.
In 1981, Gerber introduced the AM-5 which has evolved into AccuMark, a product used worldwide for pattern design, grading and marker making. In 2004, AccuMark V8 was introduced.
Gerber Technology serves more than 15,000 customers globally. Their world headquarters is located in Tolland, Connecticut, with regional offices, agents and distributors in 117 countries.
You are invited to visit Gerber's website at www.gerbertechnology.com to learn more about the company and it products.
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Important Dates
October
November
11 |
Apparel Tech Conference at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) in Los Angeles, CA www.apparelmag.com |
For detailed information about industry events, visit www.techexchange.com
Thanks to the techexchange site sponsors Blinco Systems Inc., Gerber Technology and Methods Workshop.
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A Look Ahead
Apparel Executive Forum - October 8 - 10
AAFA Supply Chain Meeting – October 13 - 15
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View previous editions of this newsletter
[TC]²
211 Gregson Drive
Cary , NC 27511
www.tc2.com
Phone: 919-380-2156
Fax: 919-380-2181
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