Cutting section plays an important role in manufacturing Footwear, Garments, Leather goods etc. as 70% of the cost of product is influenced by Cutting Department in the form of material.

To run this department successfully, following goals must be achieved:

Third target is most important as leather saving not only effects the costing of product but also intangible money. These are several tips for minimizing leather wastage:

Proper Leather procurement plays a vital role in leather saving. For continuous order if leather is needed again then previous consumption of lots should be analyze. This process is vital in last stage of ordering, to reduce excess incoming. Often sample leather is transported from supplier by air mode even if we have margin to wait. If leather is urgent, then only it can be get by air, to avoid unwanted landed cost of leather. It is better to appoint leather technician as compared to take leather direct from tannery. This minimizes the flow of poor leather in factory premises. Technician is responsible for maintaining quality of wet blue or crust, colour shades, thickness, quality of chemicals used (azo free), leather cost and requirement of customers. There should be good tuning between technician and cutting department as the objectives of both are cutting profits. Leather assorting should be done article wise. It should be assorted color wise as colour variation is a very normal phenomenon with aniline dyed leather. Its milling, shade, printing pattern etc. should be considered depending on the quality of leather. Average size of piece i.e. big pieces for plain vamp article and small pieces for small components article should be assorted.

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The author is working as Senior Technical Faculty at Footwear & Design & Development Institute (FDDI)