Estmark Finds a Solution for Quick Fabric Costing
Costing fabric can be a tricky game for apparel and textile producers. Since much of the business has shifted overseas, the bidding process is left up to contractors and bidding too high or low can cost a company significant coinage.
Veteran technology executive Robert Broadhead thinks he’s found a solution. He’s developed a costing software program, which he claims can estimate production consumption of fabrics down to 1 percent of actual consumption. He has been using the program exclusively at companies like Gap Inc., Koret of California and Koramsa in Guatemala over the past nine years. Now he’s established Estmark Inc. in Asheville, N.C., and is marketing the product, also called Estmark, to the trade.
Estmark is a PC-based package, which uses CAD (computer-aided design) data as well as marker and grading data, fabric damage percentage, bias allowances and fabric testing allowances, to compute fabric yields.If done with accurate numbers the program can estimate yields to within 1 percent, said Broadhead. Traditional methods such as using previous season numbers or making an estimate marker, generally come to within 10 percent or higher.
Broadhead cited one review in which 17 styles of women’s five-pocket jeans all marked at 61.5-inch-widths showed final production yields from 1.11 to 1.32 yards per garment—a 19 percent variation.
Offshore sourcing has changed the cost structure of production whereas domestically sourced fabric would account for 25 percent to 40 percent of production costs. Now it’s gone up to 40 percent to 60 percent, said Broadhead.
And as a result, contractors bidding on package programs have little information and time to make more accurate assessments.
“If they’re bidding too low, they take a bath. If they bid too high, they lose money. This is the best and only tool available right now,” said Broadhead. “A company can easily cut in half their error rates with this.”
Broadhead estimated Estmark can save 5 percent to 10 percent off of traditional cost estimates and reduce the need for production knowledge in costing departments. The software only takes minutes to process an order, he added.
Broadhead spent 38 years in the apparel manufacturing business, mostly in the cutting room, where he worked with cutters and spreaders. Estmark is being sold at $8,000 a copy. The company has teamed with Cary, N.C.–based [TC]2 to include Estmark in the company’s demo room. [TC]2 is a technology resource for the apparel industry and provides sizing and other data to companies.
Estmark is being marketed as a stand-alone package, but the company is working on integrating it into other systems as well as working on licensing agreements with companies. For more information visit www.estmark.com
