"Minute" is the new scale for fashion. How many minute is your outfit?

Why should you read this? Now one of the most important variables in fashion industry is the minutes required to produce a garment. Both for costing and capacity; you must know the correct minutes to do smart business.

There is a term for it. It's called SMV (standard minute value) or SAM (standard allowed minute). We'll proceed with the term SMV here. Now, let's start with the definition of SMV of a garment.

"It is the time in minutes required for qualified/skilled workers working in a standard environment with proper methods to produce the garment." SMV includes all required allowances for human rest/relaxation, machine delay and anticipated contingencies. In simple words, SMV is the time in minutes required to produce a garment. And generally industrial engineers (IEs) are qualified and responsible to estimate the SMV of a garment.

Now, why is it so important? Here are the 3 fundamental areas;

1. Capacity management

Traditionally the capacity of garment production is calculated in pieces. In such method both shirts shown in the image above would be considered same; as casual full sleeve check shirts. Therefore, the assumed productivity and allocated capacity would be same for both shirts.

But, if you consider the time (SMV) required to produce these two shirts, clearly you'll get two different values. Just take a close look on the pocket flaps and the cowboy shapes in the left shirt. Surely it'll take more time to produce. Such practical simulation is only possible when the garment is converted into minutes (SMVs).

Definitely the plan would be in jeopardy with traditional method.

2. Cost estimation and negotiation

In today's advanced scientific pricing or fact based costing, the prices of most items of a garment are fixed or preset. For an example the unit price of fabric, trims and other accessories are often set by customers for all vendors.

Therefore, the only variable part among the costing heads remains as the making charge. And the most accurate way to estimate it is to measure the time (SMV) required to produce the garment and multiplying it with the per minute cost of the production facility.

Now if you don't know the correct SMV, you'll be only beating around the bushes on a negotiation table.

3. Work evaluation

This is perhaps the most important of all! How do you evaluate your worker performance? How do you identify the skill development needs and balance your production lines for maximum efficiency?

The only way is to know the standard time required to perform the task and using it as a benchmark for evaluation and process development.

If you don't know the time (SMV) required to produce the garment, how would you know how efficiently you're running your production?

Minute based capacity and costing management is a timely need. Unfortunately, many of our RMG factories are yet not accustomed enough to take the advantage of it. For smart capacity forecasting, production planning, fact based negotiation and operational excellence; we must focus on correct SMV and it's utilization.

Now take a close look at the garment you're wearing and try to guess it's SMV.