High-Powered CAD Saves Manpower at VFI

With two in-house labels, a Nike account and a private label operation, Vanity Fair Intimates (VFI) has a full product development plate. To efficiently serve up the best products, the division of VF Corp. is trimming manual labor with the latest automated CAD systems.

Product development is no simple task at VF Corp.'s Vanity Fair Intimates (VFI) division, where a team of approximately 65 coordinates the pre-production process from design concept through the preparation of final production style packages for four different businesses. Amid a fast-paced environment, there's a constant quest for new ways to streamline processes and improve employee efficiencies, which has quickly propelled the organization to the leading edge of CAD technology.

Based in Alpharetta, GA, along with 200-plus other employees in VFI's administration, purchasing, planning, sourcing, MIS and finance departments, the now-consolidated product development department was established three years ago through the combination of the division's New York, NY, design studio and Monroeville, AL, pre-production operations. VFI, which manufactures bras, underwear, daywear and sleepwear, currently offers its own Vanity Fair and Vassarette brands, the latter of which is sold through the mass market channel; produces sports tops and bottoms for Nike; and operates a private label division that does work for companies including Victoria's Secret, Lane Bryant and JCPenney.

The product development department currently is using software packages from Gerber Technology Inc. and Nester Software Technologies Inc. to manage VFI's front-end processes. Serving as a beta test site for both vendors, the group has been working to test drive and implement both the Nester automated marker making system and Gerber's WebPDM specification management package. Moreover, the department has been looking at new ways to integrate the two products as well as link them with the division's Monroeville production headquarters, which houses one of the company's two cutting rooms. (The other is in McAllen, TX.)

Honing the Process

VFI's product development process starts with "concept action plans," which are created by product merchandise managers. These blueprints, which represent the vision for a product grouping or an individual garment, are then passed to product development teams, which are responsible for creating and costing prototypes. Prototypes that are selected for the division's lines are then passed back to the product development teams, which fit the garments, grade patterns, create standard markers, set up bills of materials and estimate production costing. The final step is to send what is called a "production-ready package" to Monroeville or McAllen that includes all relevant product specifications.

At the prototype stage of the process, a garment is created in a sample size (i.e., 34B for bras) and a marker is made using only this size. Standard markers, on the other hand, are created after the grading process and include the entire size range. Up until one and one-half years ago -- when the company began testing Nester, a software package that uses advanced algorithmic systems to develop markers -- a dedicated pre-production marker maker created both the prototype and standard markers on a Gerber Technology MicroMark CAD system.

According to Bruce Smith, VFI's manager of product technology, when the division initially began testing Nester, it pulled approximately 500 markers representing all of its product categories. "We took our historical markers and ran them using Nester so we could make a comparison. Our goal was to fall within plus or minus 3 percent of our manual markers [in terms of material utilization]," he explains. "We were able to do that. In fact, it was even closer than we expected, in the plus or minus 1.5 percent range, and there were certain markers that Nester actually could create better than a human."

Based on these results, VFI decided to move full steam ahead with a beta test implementation under the direction of Kyle Sanford, systems support specialist. The Nester system has since become an integral part of the division's day-to-day pre-production process and now creates 95 percent of all markers.

"We are now using a four-PC setup with the Nester system," Smith relays, "and because we have the four computers working at one time, the turnaround time is quick. Generally, if you put a marker in at 9 a.m., you will get something back by 10:30 a.m. or 11 a.m. And even if there is a large backlog [in the queue], you never have to wait more than a day because Nester can run after hours."

Not considering wait time in the queue, VFI's markers are loaded to run on a 60-minute constraint, and most are completed in 50 minutes. When a marker is finished, the system generates an 81/2-inch by 11-inch printout of the lay. "Visually, this allows you to analyze the marker," says Smith, who notes that VEI also uses the lay data to continuously crosscheck pre-production and production yields. "The [production marker makers] yield every marker that they make back against our standard marker. And if anything falls outside of a fairly narrow range, they will send the results to us so that we can determine if something is wrong with the production marker or something is wrong with the standard marker," Smith explains. "So far we have not seen any problems with Nester."

Approximately 12 associates in VFI's product development teams currently are using the Nester system, which is integrated with the MicroMark pattern de sign system. The training required was minimal, points out Smith: "We have to train the employees on the data entry part of the system and how to pull the results. One two- to three-day training session is all it takes."

As a result, it's been possible to reassign the department's marker maker to another job, and Smith estimates that the total labor savings from the Nester system is 1.5 to 2 people. (Some other members of the product development teams also were contributing to the marker making process.) Quantifying the labor reduction in another way, Smith notes that the system is saving 30 minutes to 45 minutes per marker, which is time that the team members can use to analyze product or carry out other tasks that add value to the products.

"We didn't go into this looking for fabric savings," Smith emphasizes. "We wanted to break even there. It was more of a manpower issue."

And speaking of manpower, Smith adds that Nester has cut labor from the product development teams' carryover costing exercises, which take place in the fall. As he explains: "Every year we take all of the styles that are in the line, and that are considered carryover styles, and update our specs to reflect how those styles will look in the following year. It gives our financial people a good estimate of our average profit margin, etc."

One part of the carryover costing process is to check all the fabric widths for rolls used during the previous year and update standard markers based on the actual widths received. "The cut plants keep a running report that compares the standard width with what they actually got," Smith says. "Let's say the standard width is 32 inches, but the year-to-date results show that we have been receiving 30-inch [widths]. We will change the following year's standard [marker width] to 30 inches. That means that a new marker has to be made for every style that uses the fabric."

Before the introduction of Nester, one to two people would spend 150 hours recreating markers, which put a strain on the department's resources. Today, the process begins with a meeting, during which members of the product development teams compile a list of markers to be recreated. They are loaded into Nester, and the system completes the project within three to four days.

Moreover, the department has been using Nester to model hypothetical situations, such as width variations. As Smith notes: "There are always times when you look at a particular fabric and say 'What if the vendor made this 39 inches instead of 35 inches? What impact would that have [on material utilization]?'"

At this point, the only markers that Smith's department is making manually are those that require what VFI calls "constructs." For example, styles that use tubular goods have a crease that runs down the middle. VFI adds a two-inch vertical line that runs down each side of the crease, creating a dead zone in which patterns cannot be placed. However, notes Smith, he is expecting the next release of Nester software to handle this requirement.

Integration Issues

The next step in improving the product development process at VFI is to integrate Nester with the division's mainframe system and the WebPDM specification management package. Currently, marker length and width data from Nester must be manually plugged into VFI's mainframe, which generates costing information. However, Nester, Gerber and VFI are now working together to create an interface that would allow Nester to automatically load marker results into WebPDM for costing purposes. Additionally, the team is looking at adding more pattern functionality to WebPDM to allow VFI to incorporate a Nester marker as a page within the specification package for a garment.

According to Smith, this would offer the production department an added reference. "If the [production] marker makers wanted to see how one of our markers was made, they could visually take a look at the Nester lay before they started and see the strategy used to build the marker."

Other CAD system upgrades currently in-process at VFI include the development of graphical interfaces for Nester and a conversion to Gerber's Pattern Design 2000 system, which automates many parts of the pattern design process and combines the best features of the vendor's MicroMark and AccuMark systems. Sanford has been coordinating the conversion to Pattern Design 2000, as well as overseeing the Nester integration initiatives.

Going forward, perhaps the most exciting possibility for VFI is the incorporation of Nester at the production level. Is it on the horizon? According to Smith, "We are going to try to work something out where we can begin doing production markers with Nester. It's still in the early stages, but it has great possibilities."

Lisa C. Rabon is editor in chief of Bobbin.

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