Technology

As the industry emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic, Thailand’s leading garment manufacturer, Hi-Tech Apparel ensures business stability and boosts profitability by digitizing its production planning and control processes with FastReactPlan from Coats Digital. FastReactPlan, Coats Digital’s market-leading solution, will support Hi-Tech with effective master planning across multiple factories, as well as detailed and accurate scheduling of manufacturing lines, providing a firm foundation for a faster, more efficient and agile production and delivery process.

Established in 1991, Hi-Tech Apparel Co Ltd is one of the leading garment manufacturers of Thailand, with production facilities in 10 different locations including cities in Thailand, as well as in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. They manufacture a wide range of sportswear and formal wear and caters to leading brands, including Nike, Target, Warrix Sports and Joe Boxer.

The Hi-Tech team was faced with numerous challenges in their planning process which was having a huge impact on the profitability of their business. There was a lack of a centralized planning mechanism, which meant it was difficult for the team to monitor planning across multiple factories at the same time. Unanticipated issues related to critical path and material availability meant that the team had to spend a lot of time and effort firefighting, which affected the on-time start of production, delivery performance and increased air freight costs.

Hi-Tech recognised that the digital transformation of its business was essential to respond to these challenges and gain a competitive advantage in a market that is rapidly changing. In December 2020, Hi-Tech selected Coats Digital’s FastReactPlan solution to enhance control and visibility in its planning process to optimise efficiency, lead time and delivery performance.

“The Covid-19 crisis has brought unprecedented changes in the industry which affected our business as well. There is increased uncertainty and a high level of competition in the industry. So it was important for us to carefully prioritise business initiatives that provide firm foundations for a faster, more efficient and agile production and delivery process.

FastReactPlan was the answer to all our critical business needs. We wanted to quickly adapt to the best-practice planning process and improve communication and coordination across departments without wasting any time. We’re confident that FastReactPlan will enable us with sustainable improvements in our performance which is really essential, particularly in the current situation.” said Wason Vitanakorn, CEO of Hi-Tech Apparel.

The project at Hi-Tech Apparel will include detailed planning of the sewing factories using FastReactPlan’s highly visual planning board, scheduling and visualisation of load on secondary processes such as cutting and printing, dynamic planning of material requirements (MRP) as well as third party integration to a wide range of in-house business systems.

Kholchapol Chuensawang, Director (IT), Hi-Tech further commented, “Considering the rapidly changing consumer demands and increasing competition in the industry, we realised it was important to take a step forward to streamline and digitize planning, communication and coordination in and across our factories. We found that Coats Digital was the perfect partner to enable us best practice processes and digitization of production planning and control (PPC) through their solution FastReactPlan.

Earlier it was difficult for us to have visibility of planning boards of multiple factories in one place. We’re confident that FastReactPlan will enable fast, detailed and accurate planning and order confirmation process, with informed order allocation and management across our multiple factories. FastReactPlan’s master planner will allow us to manage total demand and capacity and have a consolidated picture of materials and pre-production activities across the business.”

Before FastReactPlan, the Hi-Tech team had to spend a huge amount of time and effort to solve unforeseen problems either related to material availability or pre-production critical path activities. This directly impacted the on-time start of production and the delivery performance.

FastReactPlan will help Hi-Tech to ensure that all departments have shared priorities and clear visibility of key tasks that they need to complete to achieve an on-time start of production. Alerts highlighting late events will help them take proactive actions and reduce firefighting and ultimately achieve the date of delivery as committed to the customers.

Coloreel, with its unique well-patented technology for digital dyeing of textile thread on-demand, has raised SEK 70 million in a private placement to existing and new shareholders. The funding will be used to support the company’s market expansion and growth and to initiate expansion into new application areas such as sewing.

“In this private placement, we bring in a number of exciting and strong investors alongside the existing major shareholders, Robur Ny Teknik, SEB Stiftelsen, Svea Ekonomi and Ilija Batljan, who also participated in this placement. In parallel to this, we now receive more and more new expressions of interest from additional investors which feels very exciting.”, said the company’s founder and owner Joakim Staberg.

“We are noticing a sharp increase in activity as more and more markets open up. Larger orders such as the one recently announced from Tryckhuset AB is great proof that we are on the right track in our ambition to modernize the use of embroidery in the textile industry.”, added Mattias Nordin, CEO of Coloreel

Product and customer benefits

Coloreel’s technology for digital dyeing of textile thread on-demand gives embroidery manufacturers and fashion designers a number of significant competitive advantages. The technology maximizes the users’ creative potential while minimizing the environmental impact. Higher embroidery quality, no thread waste, no wastewater, creative colour changes and above all a complete freedom in the use of colours.

Market and deliveries

The interest from the market is great, from the smallest to the very largest brands in everything from lifestyle and sports to exclusive fashion apparel. Coloreel has chosen to initially enter into close collaborations with some of the world’s most famous brands and leading embroidery manufacturers.

The embroidery market is large and includes about 8 million installed embroidery heads worldwide. Each of these embroidery heads can be equipped with Coloreel’s technology. Despite the ongoing pandemic, Coloreel, with the help of existing distributors, has delivered its ground-breaking technology to eleven countries in Europe, the United States and Asia, albeit in limited volumes. It has also started business with the world’s largest distributor of embroidery machines, US based Hirsch Solutions, which has already installed the technology with several reputable end-customers in the US.

DushaGreya is a well-known brand from talented Moscow-based designer, Natalia Dushagreya, who puts her all into her unique creations. Combining her outstanding creativity with cutting-edge digital printing technology, Natalia has been delighting women with eye-catching, comfortable clothes, which boast unparalleled individuality and vivacity for several years.

To create this original silhouette and colour collections, tireless innovator NataliaDushagreya not only uses traditional techniques and her own know-how but also actively integrates the latest digital technology into the production line, namely large format printing on textiles. Digital printing equipment allows the designer to reproduce any patterns, ornaments, abstracts, medieval themes, and natural graphics on fabric with high resolution and in an unlimited range of colours–from delicate pastel shades to bright and deep saturated colours. “The quality of digital prints surpasses that of traditional fabrics, both in the variety of colour compositions and in the contrast and clarity when printing small details or complex geometric elements. Digital technology makes it possible to achieve exceptionally smooth colour transitions, which is almost unattainable when using analogue printing methods. As a designer, I make sure to fully leverage the advantages of digital printing when designing and producing my collection”, says Natalia.

Natalia began her creative endeavors’ as a pattern-designer; for many years she was engaged in batik and the decoration of finished textiles. Her creative achievements, based on an active imagination and a constant desire for unique innovative solutions, took shape in several patents, which became synonymous with this artist. In 2015, with a lot of professional experience and brimming with creative ideas, Natalia was able to realize her long-time dream – to design women outerwear and create fundamentally new products in fashion. This was the beginning of the DushaGreya brand. Natalia, who never liked the frosty winter, understood what everyday outerwear should be, and through a combination of creative ideas, modern technologies, and materials, she was able to bringDushaGreya products to the top, which became especially popular among connoisseurs of comfort and originality. For Natalia, winter is now another great reason to show off her elegance and individual style, and not feel so negative from the harsh Russian climate.

Printed to Size: By the time the DushaGreya brand begun, Natalia and her like-minded associate and father, Alexander Kordovatov, already had experience in the field of sublimation printing and knew that printing on fabric for subsequent tailoring would be carried out using this technology. However, no third-party performers could be found that would meet the quality and deadline requirements of the brand, so they decided to purchase new equipment and start printing at their own site.

Alexander Kordovatov, being a specialist of the highest level in the field of sublimation technology and a leading technologist in the DushaGreya printing room, made every effort to choose the best sublimation complex; he visited a huge number of international exhibitions, compared models, tested samples taken from different equipment suppliers. Textile prints were subjected to long-term tests for resistance to washing, fading, and weathering, with all indicators being repeatedly checked. Based on these findings and the recommendations of colleagues who already ownedMimaki equipment, the Mimaki JV300-160 printer was chosen.

“The Mimaki JV300 is a very popular and best-selling dye-sublimation printer in Russia, so we were very interested in it from early on,” Alexander says. “We also found out that Smart-T (Mimaki’s distributor in Russia), the supplier of this equipment in Moscow, is highly rated by the industry community and customers due to its professional expertise, first-line service support, and highly qualified engineers.”

“In addition, we also needed a specialized RIP that would allow us to create rapport images and adjust ICC profiles to suit our needs. It turned out that such a RIP is included in the standard set of Mimaki printers. Also, Mimaki Sb54 ink is exceptionally bright, dries quickly, retains the sharpness of image detail during thermal transfer, and shows excellent resistance to a variety of external influences.

“The sublimation complex, which includes the Mimaki JV300 printer, ensures that the textile print is exactly the same as the designer originally intended. As Natalia. noted, sublimation allows you to produce a huge range of products very quickly, with minimal financial and labor investments. If a designer came up with a concept in the morning, they are able to immediately print it, reiterate if necessary, and by the evening they would have a complete piece. Thanks to the sublimation technology, DushaGreya releases several capsule collections with different themes every season.

Keeping Ahead of the Trends: Now new trends in fashion are especially relevant, and Dusha Greya, offering beautiful and original clothing, is undoubtedly at the forefront of this trend. The designer’s ideas have already extended far beyond the original concept of the fashion house and require new solutions for their implementation. To expand the range of clothing and complement the lines with alight dress and accessories, it became necessary to use not only synthetic fabrics but also natural ones with different compositions and textures. Dusha Greya again opted for the Mimaki printer, which is able to carry out direct printing on cotton and linen fabrics, satin, and footer for sewing fashionable light clothing.

At the end of 2019, Smart-T installed the highly anticipated Mimaki Tx300P-1800direct textile printer at the Dusha Greya facility. Today it prints fabrics for dresses, skirts, T-shirts, fleeces, jumpers, hoodies, trench coats, and other midwear. “MimakiTx300P-1800 is the only printer in the Mimaki line that allows us to print on natural fabrics without pre-processing,” Alexander comments. “This gives us the ability to produce short, original print runs at no extra cost, which is vital in achieving our goals. The TP400 pigment inks used in this printer have an expanded colour gamut, so the prints are always bright and saturated”

If you are looking in the textiles printing business and looking at new ways to improve higher productivity, increase the range and quality of fashion products that you can offer to your clients, the ‘EFI Reggiani VOGUE’ is just the right kind of industrial textile digital printer that customer need. It is a state-of-the-art industrial textile printer that can perform direct-to-textile printing enabling users to get the most accurate fabric printing. So, using this innovative printer, you can print different kinds of apparel, fashion wear and home furnishing.

Efficient Eco-System: This cutting edge printer comes with the entire ecosystem of EFI printing software, environmental sensors and even an EFI printing server that makes it possible to work seamlessly to create high-quality printing on any kind of fabric.

Recirculation System: The re-circulation system reduces the need for specific airconditioning and humidity controls, saving energy and reducing overall usage costs.

Speed and Resolution: The Reggiani VOGUE can print at resolutions up to 2400dpi with 16 printing heads and 8 colors using any type of printing ink with a maximum production speed of up to 325 sq. mtr./hr.

Saves time: The printer automatically detects fabric widths and sets margins thereby saving time for operators to measure fabrics before loading.

The EFI Reggiani VOGUE is an industrial textile printer designed for superior-quality direct-to-textile printing in fashion applications. The printer boasts an innovative recirculation system that saves ink and reduces maintenance during machine operation and between stoppages. The re-circulation system also reduces the need for specific air conditioning and humidity controls, saving energy and reducing overall usage costs. An innovative new enclosed printhead design on the VOGUE simplifies the carriage layout and ensures easier print head removal. A new composite carriage with a steelhead plate eliminates the need to align individual heads. The printer also automatically detects substrate widths, centers images and sets margins for jobs Coming from the reputed EFI Reggiani family, a global leader in digital textile printing technologies, the printer is manufactured to the highest quality standards to be used across a broad spectrum of industries.

The EFI Reggiani VOGUE is known to help customers get high productivity with a higher degree of reliability, performance and fewer stoppages. VOGUE reduces the need for environmental conditioning, saving energy.

EFI Reggiani Inks are Water based inks evolution which will enhance your print capabilities and performance. Outstanding printing results will boost your home-textile and fashion productions. Deliver incomparable shades and deep intensive colours to your most demanding customers.

These eco-friendly water-based inks are designed to leverage Reggiani digital printers performance. They are specially designed for the Kyocera printhead technology, which ensures an extraordinary level of print durability, longer life of printheads, and reduced maintenance costs.

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