The Importance of Agility in Apparel Print-on-Demand Manufacturing
I was talking to a print on demand apparel manufacturer last week who was really pleased about their shift from DTG to DTF, and it struck me that they saw this as a really turn off one and turn on another type of decision. It’s not the first time I’ve heard this – many apparel manufacturers view their production method as a fixed choice—one technology over another. We see things in a lot more fluid or agile way. It shouldn’t be a) or b), rather what’s the best fit. It got me thinking about how agility in apparel is just as important as what we see in digital print.
Here are five places I see agility as being really important:
Agility in Manufacturing Method: Apparel manufacturing shouldn’t lock into just one method. Whether it’s screen printing, DTG, DTF, or dye-sublimation, businesses should set flexible rules to select the right method based on product type, MOQ, and job requirements, seamlessly switching as needed.
Agility in Batch Sizes: Batch sizes should adapt automatically, based on day of week, customer parameters and manufacturing method. This allows companies to dynamically balance production with due dates and optimize for efficiency.
Agility in Manufacturing: We are fans of using a pre-dispatch wall to aggregate items in production allowing batching to optimal count or enabling aggregation across different SKU’s. Rather than treating each product type in an order separately, businesses combine different items to streamline shipping and reduce costs plus this also plays into applying least cost ship rules.
Agility in delivering a personalized customer experience: Agility should extend to customization at the fulfillment stage. Using business rules based on customer history (e.g., loyalty, past order issues), companies can automatically add vouchers, custom notes, or upgrades to enhance the unboxing experience, adding value and building customer loyalty.
Overall Flexibility: Collectively These principles together allow manufacturers to run their businesses in line with what’s right for them in terms of method, quality, MOQ to achieve least cost manufacturing.
With ZenSmart this agility is baked into the essence of the platform. These agility principles provide a toolkit for apparel manufacturers to achieve “their” ideal balance of quality and efficiency.
