The Cutting Room: Where Production Starts and Margin Is Won

Garment production begins in the cutting room, where fabric is cut into components. On a mass scale, the cutting section sets the pace and the quality for everything that follows: sewing quality and productivity both depend on how well cutting is done. And because cutting controls fabric, the single biggest cost in a garment, it has an outsized effect on profit. Get it wrong and you get production hold-ups and costly re-cutting.

The three objectives

The cutting room exists to do three things:

1. Cut components accurately.
2. Cut components economically.
3. Ensure an uninterrupted supply of cut pieces to the sewing floor.

Accuracy, economy, and flow, in that order of visibility, but all three matter to cost.