Automated cutting allows for a machine with an automated moving blade to cut rolls into parts of garments, for better worker safety, since the traditional cutting method required for employees to handle cutters manually. Furthermore, the cut pieces are repeated perfectly to reduce waste.

 

​Cutting waste is one of the least talked of issues in fashion: tiny pieces of fabric are either incinerated or thrown to landfill. You can read more about the upcycling of fabric waste in ‘End of Life’.

 

There is also a big problem of minimum order quantities that is not well known. Fabric is considered a high volume low price product, therefore manufacturers who have to run extremely big machines and use vast amounts of chemicals in their production set a minimum order quantity. Garment manufacturers however receive an order from brands, who do not take responsibility over the order quantity from the mill, so they end up with unused fabric that they have to store or dispose of.

 

Best Practice

 

CAD design is a program used for placing patterns and connecting with cutters. Experts would use their knowledge to reduce the fabric waste by maximizing the fabric used with clever pattern placements.

 

Cutting waste highly depends on the design, size range, and fabric details, and the percentage of cutting waste can vary from 0 up to 20%. Although being used more widely in Fashion classes than in practice in industrial settings, Zero Waste Pattern Cutting means that the pattern pieces fit together so that no fabric is wasted during the cutting phase. This also allows to reduce the amounts of cuts that are required. 

 

Intellocut is a fabric planning optimization software designed to help apparel and textile businesses save fabric in roll form in order to boost topline. It distributes patterns along the rolls to maximise fabric utilisation and reduce offcuts. Think of this as a puzzle solved by software!