Fashion designers roll out collections every season based on the latest trends and the fashion forecast. To receive a good response for a newly released collection through orders is the most satisfying experience for any designer. But many times, designers fail to live up to the expectation and may end up producing substandard quality products.
Even a single flaw can jeopardize a designer’s reputation as soon as a client wears their designed garment. To avoid this, finding an efficient workflow to optimize productions is necessary for both regular and customized product manufacturing.
The biggest problem for a fashion business is task management. To make work more organized, there are various tools that will help fashion designers manage their workload. These tools allow them to get a bird’s-eye view of everything in their business so they can work on new ideas to produce better results.
One of the most revolutionary tools that can streamline productions is a project management software. There are multiple options that you can opt for from a project management tools list depending on your budget and your business demands. If you’re on a tight budget, you can opt for an open source project management software to allocate and execute work.
Here are three strategies fashion designers can adopt to streamline & optimize productions:
Communicate clearly
In a fashion business, there are various departments teaming up to create every single product. A lack of effective communication skills can cause issues in quality of production and the end product may turn out completely wrong. When a designer clearly puts forward every detail, it becomes easier for everyone to act on it.
For instance, when a designer wants a certain change in a design before it goes on the website for sale but fails to communicate the exact details and process for achieving that, the production head is free to assume any other method which may not guarantee the same look the designer wanted. This can cause delays in production and the overall product flow.
Automate manual tasks
For a fashion designer, streamlining the productions can make a massive difference and significantly increase the revenue being generated from the business. This requires that the systems be automated to reduce errors and generate quickers results. When you automate manual tasks that require no human involvement, you end up saving a lot of time.
Creating and designing new products cannot be automated, but the documentation of orders being placed on a certain design can be automated. An automated platform allows designers to have accurate information about every order and full control over the processes. The more you introduce automation into your systems, the less likely you have to troubleshoot issues.
Ask daily end-of-day report
Every fashion designer has goals for each collection and plans production accordingly, but it is equally important to verify daily work progress to ensure you are generating meaningful results everyday. Asking your production head for an end-of-day report with every task documented in it helps you spot any potential drawbacks in the workflow.
It also provides you crucial information to understand what is lacking so you can highlight areas of improvement. When you regularly audit the production process, it helps in avoiding any mistakes caused by lack of coordination between employees. It also helps in gauging whether the manufacturing processes are on track or you need to speed up the process.
Conclusion
A fashion business must consistently provide high quality products to its customers in order to gain a positive reputation. This is possible by having a strong hold on all the departments, communicating goals clearly to every department head and regularly verifying processes to identify bottlenecks.
