The Orient Craft Ltd Export House - Free Essay Example

Orient Craft Limited a four star Export House was established in 1978 and is one of the leading manufacturing and exporting houses of India. It has a turnover of around 16 billion. It is dealing with European buyers like GAP, Tommy Hilfiger, FCUK, Ralph Lauren, NEXT, and US Armani Exchange and DKNY among others. Over these years Orient Craft has earned a great success for which many have rewarded it reputed national as well as International organizations associations. The major exports comprise dresses, skirts, shirts/t-shirts, mens shirts, jackets, kids wear, rompers. ÂÂ  The company also has a specialized home furnished division where in all soft furnishing products are manufactured and exported to some of the most prominent brands such as William, Sonoma, Donna Karen, ELM Street and Marks and Spencer. Orient Craft, one of Indias largest garment exporters, has acquired a Levis plant in Spain for 25 million. Orient Craft, has also entered into a joint venture with Germany based S.Oliver for its foray into front-end fashion retailing. It has launched their exclusive S.Oliver brand stores in National Capital Region Delhi and Mumbai and invested 15 million to set up them. At present, Orient Craft has 20 production units spread across India. The company importing all raw materials, trims free of duty from any part of the world. The company has in house lab testing for garments, fabrics, and trims. The labs are well equipped to test for all parameters including color fastness to light. Orient Craft` has several in house latest computerized embroidery machines, washing plants and dry-cleaning units. About Orient craft have multi divisional structure because they support function services and number of different product line. Orient craft also flow the matrix structure because company one department is related to another and every person have two boss to report about their work. Below this it show how they use matrix structure because how their activities are related to each other in order to perform their duties GARMENT MANUFACTURING ACTIVITIES Orient craft flow the production structure because they support function services and number of different product line. All the activities of Orient Craft are built around the needs and demands of the buyer and organized in such a way to produce profit. The company goes through a series of steps in developing products from the design state to a finished garment style. Following flowchart gives a simplified overview of the major steps in producing a garment. The detailed discussion of these steps as executed in Orient Craft Limited. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT STAGE There are two stages here- Predevelopment stage (before the order is placed) Post development stage (after the order is placed) Pre development At this stage Concept development based on the buyers needs and ideas developed, a well-targeted product is selected in the first meeting. The design may be completely original, or selected from styles developed in past. Once the ideas of the buyers have taken birth in the merchandisers mind, an initial cost estimate for the style is made. Now the first patterns are made which may be modified later during the fit process. Initial patterns are normally done manually. Using these patterns prototype garments (first samples) are made and reviewed. The buyer sits together with the merchandiser to finalize the looks, eliminate some styles and order for final development samples with more specific instructions. These samples are then reviewed for cost, production feasibility, styling, sourcing for production, fabric requirements and availability, and profit potential. The decision is made at this point whether the garment will be accepted as a part of the new line and the final order is p laced. Post development Once the final selections from the line have been designated for production, the next steps of pre-assembly occurs. The styling and the fit are perfected for the final garment. Making the production pattern A highly skilled pattern master makes the production pattern for the garment in one size and a fit sample is developed for the buyers approval for fit. Pattern grading After the basic pattern is perfected and approved by the buyer, grading instructions are received to produce patterns for that garment in all the sizes. This is called size set. It is again sent for buyers approval and the finalized sealed sample becomes the pre-production sample. No design changes will be incorporated after this. Marker making The next step after grading is marker making. The marker is made according to the ratio of Orders. The marker is a long paper diagram that shows the placement of all of the various pattern pieces for all the sizes produced as they should be laid in order to cut the cloth economically and in appropriate grain line. Ordering of production fabrics and supplies By this time the fabric team will have already be in touch with textile mills and vendors of Trims, buttons, zippers, and other components. Up to this point the company had ordered only enough to make the samples. But once the purchase order and the quality approval for the fabric from the buyer are received, the final order is placed with the vendors based on sales orders. Final arrangements for production are made Production, planning and controls and Methods engineering are now brought into the picture to prepare the production floor for the new style. Final specifications are developed Specifications are brief written descriptions or guidelines for how the garment should be Produced and standards for the finished item. This includes standards for materials used, how Assembly should occur, and details for what is expected in the garment. Final costing Although a quick pre-costing occurred early in the predevelopment stage, a final costing occurs in the post-development stage before production begins. This is detailed costing to provide an accurate picture of what actual costs are going to be and to find ways to minimize costs wherever possible. PRODUCT SOURCING AND PRODUCTION Markers, production instructions and specifications are developed and sent to the cutting room. Cutting occurs with the marker providing the cutting plan. A cut order is sent to the cutting room to determine the quantity of garments to be cut in various sizes. Layers of fabric are rolled out on long tables, marker is fixed on top of the layered fabric and then the cutter uses electrically powered portable knives and follows lines on the marker to cut through fabric layered several inches deep. The cut parts of the garment are then collected, identified, and passed along for the sewing Operation. At Orient Craft, progressive bundle system is followed i.e. workers sew one part of the garment in an assembly line manner. Workers are paid according to the number of pieces they produce. After the assembly the garments are inspected in a separate inspection department to ensure that the garments meet the quality standards expected by the buyer. After inspection, workers finish th e pieces by trimming the loose threads and prepare it for Pressing. Garment comes into finishing department where they are pressed to give a pleasing appearance to customers who will view finished items. Now the garments are ticketed where price tags and other hangtags may be attached. SHIPPING Once the garments are off the finishing line they are now ready to be packed and dispatched Whenever and wherever the buyer demands in the most cost-effective manner. Garments are Shipped to the buyers warehouses in different countries, usually in cartons. Thus we see how many steps are involved in getting a garment on the sales floor and how many people have contributed in important ways to produce and deliver the garment. There are many decisions and activities are part of the apparel development and production process. Each step is important in producing the merchandise that will ultimately satisfy the buyers customers and the Orient Craft strives to do his best in achieving it. FABRIC SOURCING Orient Craft maintains its own in-house centralized fabric store, which caters to the needs of Units spread in Gurgaon and surrounding areas. Fabric storehouse is the actual area where the fabric for production is received or dispatched for processing. Besides storage the Fabric store department is also responsible for the inspection of the goods received by it. Fabric sourcing department is basically engaged in determining how and where its merchandise i.e. fabric will be obtained. It works in co-ordination with the merchandising department and Looks after the delivery of the required goods within the scheduled time and cost. A fabric Sourcer must have knowledge about all varieties of fabrics in order to execute their functions Effectively. Once the merchandiser receives the Purchase Order, the fabric sourcer gets to know the delivery schedule of the raw materials needed to meet the requirements of the Production schedule. Then before seeking the suppliers for fabric, he stu dies the specifications of the goods that have to be ordered. These specs include tolerance limits for all the parameters of the raw material, construction, esthetics, durability, utility and processing performance. The merchandiser receives these specs from the buyer and hands-over them to the fabric sourcing department for procurement of the fabric accordingly. Fabric sourcer also sources for trim fabrics and other specialty fabrics. Once the fabric sourcer knows what he must get and when it is due, he prepares a list of suppliers National or international who can furnish the required quality and quantity, when and where needed at the desired price. He presents his requirements and specs to the vendors and finalizes the supplier on basis of the consistency of raw material supplied, on-time delivery and competitive prices. Knit fabric is also imported from countries like Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Singapore. The factory may send the yarn from the store to the fabricators fo r fabric production, buy Greige fabric for dyeing or directly order the processed fabric to the vendors. The fabric sourcer has the responsibility to get the ordered fabric approved from the buyer before issuing it to bulk production. Correct shade match, GSM, color fastness, washing behavior etc. are some of the most important properties that are looked for in the fabric. When the fabric is procured, it needs to be dyed in the same shade as required by the buyer. Here fabric source approaches dyeing units for its dyeing program. First it gets Lab Dips of the fabric in the required color shade from the dyeing unit. These swatches are sent for buyers approval for nearest match. Then only the dyeing unit is given a go ahead for dyeing the goods in the approved shade. Fabric source department has a track of all the information about the goods available in its store. Order Tracking System installed in the store keeps their databases updated with the latest arrival and dispatch of goo ds from the store. These databases inform them about how much fabric is in-house, how much has been issued, what fabric is available in the store etc. People from the department keep in regular touch with the fabric and trims vendors for their latest offerings. They visit other countries; meet the suppliers and source out most up to date varieties of fabrics and trims, which they can offer to their buyers in future. FABRIC ISSUE The fabric store issues the fabric to the cutting department on reproduction of the job card. The job card contains information regarding style no, color, buyers name, and quantity to be issued and issued for which production unit. The fabric department then issues the fabric according to the details furnished in the job card. Orient Craft has fabric library updated with the new fabrics coming in store to help the buyer to choose desired fabric for his upcoming collection. A huge range of assorted fabrics is available in the fabric library. The list includes: Dyed Printed Embroidered Crinkle (using twisted yarn) Jacquard Flat-back Drop needle Semi-dull Enzyme wash Bio wash ORGANIZATION structure So after telling how company work is performed we can say it is multi structure organization because it deals all over the world so it have different culture environment so they can deal easily around the world. Even I describe how each department is related to other department, which is related to the organization. All this information show that it is necessary for this company to flow the matrix structure because if the company dont have proper communication among each other it will be hard for them to work together. This company also has vice president for deferent department so to do this they flow product division structure. Then they have different teams for research and development Organization culture This company is flexible for everyone because orient craft have to deal with the international buyer for their product so they have to keep the company culture fixable so that they can deal with any kind of situation easily. Such as employees dont have a pressure of work all the time if they are done work they dont have to take so much of the stress, they are not forced to wear just the formal dress, they even can were their casual dresses. Even this company provides a different culture environment, so that every work is perform as a team work and whatever work is allotted to this team they consider their work as a mission statement because these big export houses have to maintain their reputation in the market to make their name bigger in global market, that how people can know them as one good export house. These mission statement make the buyers satisfaction for future because then they can know the company potential that they can work good, so they can trust them for future. Conclusion Orient craft is a one of the successful export house in India. All this success belong to the workers and their efforts because they made this name big because of their managements skills . This success made orient craft to spread all over the world because of their efforts and ability