Getting more for the money … working faster and smarter: learn how to streamline the digitizing process and pump up profits

Bobbin, April, 1999 by Tim Vack

Time is a limited resource, and as the old saying goes: "Time is money." Within the embroidery industry, this adage means that the more stitches you can produce in a given period of time, the more money you will make.

Speed definitely determines productivity in an embroidery operation, and if a design can be embroidered faster, more profits can be made. But ensuring stellar output levels is easier said than done. It depends on much more than simply purchasing a high-powered embroidery machine that is capable of running 600 or even 1,000 stitches per minute (spm). For example, there are many factors that can slow down a machine, including thread breaks, color changes, jumps, trims, extra-long stitches, etc. Faced with these circumstances, many companies look for shortcuts to save time. Unfortunately, cutting corners usually results in unappealing designs that do not have enough underlay or density.

Fortunately, there is an answer to improving productivity without sacrificing quality: better digitizing techniques. With improvements in digitizing, an embroiderer can save time, increase efficiency and enhance design appearance. This approach moves beyond typical "embroidery" issues - such as thread, backings, needles, hooping procedures and scheduling - and focuses on what can be done in the digitizing and editing processes to achieve faster-running designs.

For this method to be effective, digitizers must not be limited in their design choices, such as stitch patterns, stitch lengths, textures, directions and mapping. In other words, if the operations end of the business does not know proper hooping techniques and/or proper backing combinations, it should not be the digitizer's job to cheat a design out of aesthetic properties to make up for a lack of production knowledge. Hence, all phases of the embroidery process must work together in harmony.

The key elements of effective digitizing are to 1. place the right number of stitches per the allotted fabric by utilizing the correct densities, underlay and pull compensations and 2. map the design in a logical manner so the machine travels or stitches the design in the least amount of time, while still achieving the desired aesthetic results. This means the correct physical placement of color changes, jumps, trims and color groupings. The following sections outline ways to realize improvements in these areas.

The Right Design for the Job

There are those who believe a design can be digitized once and placed on all fabric and garment types. This is erroneous thinking. For example, a design digitized for a Supplex jacket will not look good embroidered on a performance fleece pullover - even if it looked great on the Supplex jacket.

The first rule of digitizing is to create a design for a specific fabric group. All the stitch values chosen by the designer need to relate to the fabric. For example, a fill density of .36 mm may be used for performance fleece or corduroy, but a density of .48 mm may be used for a woven fabric such as a chambray shirt. This change of .12 mm may not seem like much, but it equates to a 33 percent difference in stitch density and stitch count. This means that a 6,000-stitch design digitized for performance fleece typically needs only about 4,000 stitches for woven goods. (Differing circumstances may alter this percentage.)

Based on this example, if a production facility uses a design digitized for performance fleece to produce more than 24 designs on a woven fabric, it will lose profits. The reason: In the same time it takes to run 144 woven garments using the fleece design, an embroiderer could run 192 garments - an additional 48 - by using a modified version of the design. If the shirt sells for $12, that is a $576 loss.

Remember that the digitizer cannot even begin work without knowing the fabric for which the design is intended. Armed with this information, in the case of adjustments, a digitizer can minimize underlay, lighten density and alter stitch length to lessen the number of stitches, depending on the characteristics of the fabric. Using this approach, the digitizer can provide multiple design versions for embroidery based on fabric groups.

Mapping for Efficiency

Poor mapping is another common error made by novice digitizers, as they are not familiar with production equipment and the importance of maximizing run time. Mapping a design is similar to taking a road trip - the idea is to visit all the places you want to go using the least amount of fuel and time. Looking at mapping from this perspective, each design element should end where the next one begins or at the closest possible point. This means digitizing text and other elements backward if necessary. And while digitizing, the designer must always look ahead to see the beginning and end of each subsequent design element until the design is completed. Often, it is easier to determine where and how the design should end and then work the mapping plan backward to calculate the start points of each design element [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED].