Cutting
for a given quantity of garments, a high lay rather than a low lay gives a lower cutting labour cost per garment. The higher lay will, of course, also be shorter, giving a lower overall cutting time which is important if the sewing room requires the cut work urgently. The shorter lay will also require a shorter marker and in the above example the marker planner may make two markers, each containing six garments, one with two size 12 s, two size 14 s and two size 16 s and the other with two size 14 s, two size 16 s and two size 18 s. The planning of two shorter markers may not take more time than the planning of one long one, and since shorter markers are easier for the planner to work on, a more tightly packed and efficient marker could result. For complex garments, however, long markers generally offer more opportunities for savings than do short ones. The mixing of sizes in a marker is to be encouraged because in general the more sizes that are included in a marker, the greater is the scope for fabric savings. If, in the above example, the marker planner could create a marker which contained the pattern pieces for a dozen garments, it would include the pieces for two size 12 s, four size 14 s, four size 16 s and two size 18 s. Unfortunately, there are a number of reasons, in addition to the production planning restrictions given above, why this may not be possible. The marker will be long and may even be too long for the cutting tables. A piece of cloth when spread to this length will not give many plies before it runs out, and it may not be possible to mix garments cut from it with garments cut from another piece because the shade may not be exactly the same. In many sewing rooms, the operators work on bundles of garments, a bundle consisting of garments that are all the same style, size and colour. Small numbers of plies of one colour spread in a lay lead to small bundles and increased costs of handling those bundles. An alternative to the marker described above, when order quantities do not reduce to a simple ratio, is the use of single size markers on a stepped lay. If it is required to cut 95 singles of a size 14 dress and 65 singles of a size 12 dress, all in the same colour, two markers would be made with one containing the size 12 pattern pieces and one containing the size 14 pattern pieces. Sixty-five plies of the fabric would be spread to a length to include both markers, followed on top and at one end by a further 30 plies of a length to fit the size 14 marker. The marker containing the size 12 patterns would then be placed on top of the 65 plies and the marker containing the size 14 patterns on top of the 95 plies. This is illustrated in Fig. 2.2. Greater fabric savings, and often lower total cost, although with more time taken, would normally result from cutting this stepped lay as some combination of lays with mixed-size markers.
11