Printwear & Promotion The Total Promotional Package
Managing director of Amaya Sales UK, Peter Wright, explores what changes UK embroiderers can expect to see happen in 2020 and what changes you can make to improve production.
Year 2020 should see major changes to the way industrial embroidery companies run their business. Whether you voted for Brexit or not, it’s here to stay, at least we can all now concentrate on going forward without the uncertainty.
The next few years are going to be different in many ways, lets hope that the government can make the new deals that they have promised, and we can all now concentrate on our businesses.
One thing is certain, if you want your business to flourish in the future you may need to make sure it is working as efficiently as possible.
Now is a good time to look at all the areas of your business and check if every part is operating in the best possible way.
You need to try and keep one step ahead of your competitors so that your company is the one that customers will turn to first. To do this you should make sure that your embroidery is top quality, the orders are despatched on time and your pricing is spot on.
The place to start
The place to start for top class embroidery is the digitising of the design. If the designs are not digitised correctly then its impossible to produce a quality product. Use a professional design company and make sure the file is tested before going into production. If you do your own digitising, again make sure you thoroughly check for accuracy of design and smooth running on your embroidery machine.
If you are creating your own designs, it’s worth sending a design file to your design software supplier and ask them to check what they think of your design. It could be that you need more training to raise the level. Remember that an embroidery design must look good, but must also run well. A design that keeps stopping for thread breaks will cost you a lot of down time and money.
Organise your production area so that there are no hold ups to delay your orders. Make sure you have the correct thread colours available, so check as soon as you receive the order. Create or order the new design, if you use an outside digitiser it should take no longer than three days. Order the garments required if not in stock.
Take a good look at your embroidery machines when they are running and take note of how much downtime is taking place. Make sure that thread and bobbin breaks are dealt with immediately. You would be amazed at how much time is lost during a working day. This all costs money and loss of production.
Also check on the speed that your operators are running your machines at. If your machine’s top speed is 1,000 stitches a minute, then they should not be running at less than 800 or if the top speed is 1,500 stitches per minute it should not be below 1,200. On a good machine the embroidery quality should not deteriorate with an increase in speed.
There are embroidery systems available that offer modular design which will help tremendously in preventing down time. Remember down time is caused by thread breaks, bobbin breaks, reframing, changing thread colours and set up time. On conventional fixed head machines, all heads stop for all the aforementioned down time issues.
The price is right
Pricing your embroidery correctly can be the difference between successful business and no business. Charging too much will put customers off and charging too little could put you out of business. Maybe you have you pricing just right but if not, take a good look around at what your customers are charging and then work out your costs and compare.
Another essential to creating more business is a good website and a social media presence. If you are just starting, try pay per click on Google. This could give you immediate success and generate sales leads. This can also be set up to streamline orders from your customers. They can create their design online and then submit straight into your ordering system.
My last point is that you should visit trade shows and see what equipment and products could help improve your business. I hear customers say that they only visit shows about every three to four years because there is nothing new. I promise you that there are new products being shown every year that will help you increase production. Just look at the equipment you have and see if there is anything out there that could help improve your situation.
Hope this helps and good luck for 2020.
