Comments on: Batch, UPS and Modular (Batch pt.2)

By: J C Sprowls

J C Sprowls — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:24:54 +0000

Oxanna,

The answer is no. As Babbette points out, the springs are incredibly strong on an industrial sewing machine – they need to be. Originally, they were designed with such force to compensate for vibration. But, as technology advanced, it was soon uncovered that the pressure also melds the seams, as Kathleen points out.

Even though they are making machines with less vibration, the pressure is still needed for other reasons.

By: Babette

Babette — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 23:50:11 +0000

The pressure on an industrial machine is suprisingly strong. Having been the tech officer in a fashion school it was always interesting to watch the new students coming off domestic machines into an industrial world. They were always trying to back off the intensity of the industrials – both speed and pressure.

You need the level of pressure to keep up smooth feed at the sewing speed which is achieved on industrials.

If you back off the pressure on an industrial to the lowest level and don’t adequately tighten the holding nut, after a short period of sewing it will jolt loose and the spring will fire out the top of the head with amazing force. It’s a large spring and quite thick which means it can hold a lot of pressure. It was my job to find them where they had flung and fit them back in. No mean feat.

By: Oxanna

Oxanna — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 08:39:54 +0000

Interesting food for thought. And very interesting about the pressure. I knew industrial machines had greater pressure, but I didn’t think about connecting pressing & pressure. I always wondered how they did that in factories, whipping through garments so fast, when pressing takes So. Long. in home sewing. Of course, overlock machines help simplify some of those pressing problems, too.

Theoretically, if I increased the pressure on my old domestic machine to max pressure, would it come close to reaching an industrial machine’s pressure? (AKA, for normal medium-weight garment fabrics, should I be using the heaviest pressure instead of the lighter pressures like I’ve been doing. It has a 0-1-2-3 range.)

By: Eric H

Eric H — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 03:52:50 +0000

There’s a story in … Kaikaku? … in which the author is visiting a parts plant run by Ohno in his semi-retirement and notes a machine that is making multiple (6?) copies of a thing at each pass. Ohno points out that he’s not an ideologue – you batch process when that makes sense, and one-piece-flow the rest of the time.

By: Abigail

Abigail — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 01:36:37 +0000

In the beginning, when I was a one woman show, I did a batching system. But it was slightly modified because I might do several seams at one time on each garment but leave all the zipper insertions to do at the same time. Or I might to the shoulder seams only to start and then do linings plus side seams together. I had a very simple pair of pants with no pockets and I would stitch all the seams except the elastic waistline and hemming. Then I would do all the waislines together and then all the hemming together.

My decisions on workflow really came down to resources (machines) available, space, manpower and skill level. Therefore, one solution that works for one person may not always work for the next person due to different work flow parameters.

In a small shop, with a couple employees, I could see the same solution occuring as a one-person show. It’s grouping different parts of the production together or not based on machines available and skill levels. The ‘floor manager’ or designer in a small shop could easily oversee the progress of their workers and adjust the situation very quickly to optimize everyone’s workflow.

By: Vesta

Vesta — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:43:35 +0000

This is such a good line of discussion. For someone like me, who won’t ever be a one-woman shop, but who will likely start with a very small shop, what does a “beginner” lean shop look like? I imagine we’ll run one style per day, then reconfigure for something else the next day. One cell. Beyond that, I’m not sure.