ImagesMagUK_August_2021

www.images-magazine.com AUGUST 2021 images 29 TIPS & TECHNIQUES only the start and, in order to remain competitive and to meet customer requirements, the expansion of production with further decoration processes is the logical consequence. Another decorator might have several facilities worldwide that need to be linked together; another might want to outsource to these facilities. There are many variations that need to be considered. What are my expectations? Should stocks be replenished for warehousing or should missing blanks be ordered and supplied intelligently on-demand? Do you run your own store and produce garments to sell direct to consumers, or are you a fulfilment company? Are you a start-up, with only one machine, but could be a global player in the next few years? Are your customers Shopify operators who want to connect to your production, or big online suppliers who need API access to your production? Flexible and independent Everyone should ask themselves what they need and where they want to be tomorrow. With a workflow system you External workflow systems, on the other hand, are capable of working with different machine manufacturers, finishing processes and system interfaces, and do so without dependencies, making the garment decorator strong and open to all possibilities for their business’s expansion in the future. By using an external workflow system like Smake or Wurkflow, decorators have the freedom to inform themselves about the market and be able to react flexibly to it. Individual choice Garment decorators can only decide for themselves and their customers what works best for them if they ask themselves the right questions. A good SaaS (software as a service) workflow software is a constantly growing process and it is primarily about automated production control and error prevention in production. With the right product, a producer will be able to scale infinitely and globally, and take better care of expanding their business. www.smake.com need to be committed to it. Workflow systems from machine manufacturers can be attractive, and if you are sure that you only want to work with this manufacturer for the next few years and do not want to add any other production processes such as transfer, embroidery, sublimation, roll-to-piece, laser, thermal transfer, screen printing, etc, then this may be the right decision for you. Additional services, co-operations or finishing processes that go beyond the core process of the machine manufacturer may, however, be difficult to implement. In addition, you should also consider that your business becomes 100% transparent to the manufacturer. All-in-one systems, where you can already tell from the front end who is behind it and which do not offer interfaces to store systems, enterprise resource planning systems, client relationship management systems and logistics systems, and have no or a restricted data exchange, are often very limited and can hold back your scalability in the long-term. They are, however, quick to put in place and are often low cost in the first instance.