Made to measure shirts and Innovation leadership : Alessandro Gherardi
The company
Alessandro Gherardi is an Italian company from Tuscany founded in 2001 and specialized in the production of made to measure shirts. In just a few years the company has become a reference point for men’s shirts, producing for the most luxurious international fashion houses and giving impetus to its own brand. The turnover is around 19 million euros, of which 35% is produced in Italy and 65% in foreign markets. The creation of made to measure shirts is an important part of the company’s production, both for its own brand and internationally renowned brands. All with the essential seal of a 100% Made in Italy production.
FOCUS: The most common critical issues in made to measure shirts industry
Even in the most technologically advanced fashion companies, made to measure and made to order shirts are produced with dilated times and high risks of human error, this is due to the fact that each company division involved in the process is disconnected from the others.
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- Made to measure fragmented order collection and manual transcription
The order management is often fragmented on different communication channels (Fax, email, telephone, notes ..) both for the measurements of the final customer and for the personalization of the garment. This leads to disorder and inhomogeneity in taking orders as well as obviously the lack of reliable order history.
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- Made to measure unfunctional nesting and fabric cut
The process of nesting is carried out using automatic software but there was no connection with the real condition of the plaid and striped fabric that had to be manually trimmed.
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- Made to measure pattern creation
The data relating to the order are today manually entered in CAD for the creation of the made to measure pattern, as well as the data relating to the choice of fabrics and accessories that were inserted in the software for production. Also, in this case, the process is subject to errors and discrepancies in the communication between all the departments involved.
The objectives of Alessandro Gherardi
Alessandro Gherardi, the CEO, immediately felt the need to fully integrate the made to measure garment creation processes. Made to measure is a tendency to ride, but in order for it to be a source of profit, it must have processes capable of reducing delivery times and errors. “The integration of the workflows was the missing piece for a 4.0 production.”
The integration of the workflows was the
missing piece for a 4.0 production.
A completely automated process from order collection to model cutting
Alessandro Gherardi has chosen Crea Solution as a partner for a total system integration path, becoming one of the global innovation leaders at the level of automated clothing production. Crea Solution is, in fact, the only company able to supply artificial intelligence systems which, combined with vision systems, mathematical algorithms, and software design, allow the total integration of the systems from order taking of tailored shirts to fabric cutting, automating everything the whole process, without interruptions. Software customization on its systems and best practices is the only way to maximize company productivity.
The results
With a fully integrated system, it is possible to obtain products that always maintain the same quality standards, obtained automatically and without human errors. Once the final customer’s measurements are entered in the portal (inside the store), the order is automatically processed and sent to the production, to the ERP management and the pattern making room. A special MTM CAD will automatically create the pattern as well as nesting on fabric. With this system it is possible to reduce the time between the taking of the order and the cutting of the fabric, just 120 seconds, which include the automatic creation of the pattern, the vision of the fabric, the automatic nesting (with vision of paintings and lines ) and finally the clean-cut, without the need for manual blanks. With this unique system, Alessandro Gherardi officially enters the elite of apparel companies that drive innovation in production processes.
