By Melissa Donovan
Part 4 for 4
When manufacturers implement digital printing and finishing capabilities for their textiles, a robust software solution is required. There are different software programs with features tailored to textile manufacturers using digital print and finishing technologies in house. They address all parts of the production process including design, printing, finishing, and management.
Management software such as inventory, ERP, and MIS are important to a manufacturing environment. From controlling costs to gathering leads, watching a sale go from a quote to reality can be streamlined using automation software specifically tailored to a business.
“Management software is now giving digital printers the dashboards they need to be more productive and profitable. By estimating the costs of each print before actually printing, they can actually make sure their margins are good and the jobs are profitable,” says Sebastien Hanssens, VP marketing, Caldera.
Seeing it All
It’s all about gathering the data and managing it appropriately. “Business owners and production managers need a system to easily see actual data that helps them make better business decisions. With that in mind, knowing actual data and actual job costs helps establish the right production workflows that help eliminate bottlenecks and identifies areas of waste,” explains Jonathan Rogers, international marketing manager, Onyx Graphics, Inc.
The Pricing Management Platform from Crea Solution allows companies to create price lists and manage sales. It includes features like sell-in/sell-out prices administration, target costing, international currencies and multiple lists administration, outlet prices and massive operations on price lists, mark-up prices calculation, ecommerce integration, ERP and PLM integration, and administration of static and seasonal collections.
Datatex’s NOW ERP is designed for the apparel industry, brands, private label, and verticals like fiber or yarn to garment or cut and sew only. Features include production development, measurement of sizes, merchandising schemes, purchasing flow, planning, inventory, shop floor management, order management, and product development. The program is an organized approach to the whole textile and apparel supply chain.
Gerber Technology recently announced AccuMark 11. It is a pattern design, grading, market making, and production planning software solution. Software enhancements in the suite include AccuPlan V11, which continues to expand on integrating the manufacturing workflow from ERP order to finished product. With AccuPlan V11, users can now customize a work order containing the elements that are needed to import work orders from their ERP system. AccuMark, AccuNest, and AccuPlan together with equipment from Gerber to allow for end-to-end management of production orders via integrated cut tickets, and customers can view production efficiency data via GERBERconnect.
Lectra offers Lectra Fashion PLM 4.0. It enables companies to connect technology, people, and processes by creating a fully digitized supply chain.
Methods Workshop Quick TruCost (QTC) is ideal for early-stage design and development costing requirements. It can be used as either a standalone system or companion to Engineered TruCost—also from Methods Workshop. With the answers to eight or ten product questions, QTC provides an immediate prediction of total manufacturing costs with near-engineered cost accuracy. It uses information on common construction details to calculate total manufacturing time and cost.
ONYX Hub enables visibility into the entire production environment, supplying real time and historic data. Job details include reprints, submissions, printer information, time stamps, job tickets, ink usage, and media waste. It is licensed on any ONYX Thrive network key and easy to install.
With the recent introduction of Zünd Cut Center V3.0, the Zünd print-to-cut production workflow now includes several components that facilitate the overall manufacturing process. These range from pre-cut functions such as production time estimates to assist with quoting and production planning, to the Dashboard with real-time onsite or remote production monitoring of the cutters in operation, to post-production data analysis and export to MIS/ERP systems.
Software for Textiles
Design, printing, finishing, and even inventory/ERP/MIS software minimizes touchpoints. As textile production houses take on digital printing and finishing capabilities, it is more necessary than ever to have a robust software solution in place to power the entire process from end to end.
Click here to read part one of this exclusive online series, Software Solutions.
Jun2018, Industrial Print Magazine