by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Production
As a small embroidery shop owner, have you ever had a situation where you needed to train a new embroidery production employee but really had no idea where to start? This can be very frustrating for the small embroidery shop owner that has always worked alone and has never had to teach anyone how to efficiently help them.
In this article, I will start with the very first employee that a small embroidery shop owner should start training for the embroidery production floor.
Start The Training Of A New Embroidery Production Employee With The Final Process – Finishing!
If you have hired a new employee for the production floor, the best place to start them is with the finishing process. Regardless of what you have hired them for, start them trimming, folding, and packing. This helps them to see how the process is completed and gets them excited to learn more. If a new employee cannot trim, they need to be dismissed. This is a very basic function but takes dexterity and attention to detail. Many people feel that this part of the process is for low paying individuals that cannot do anything else. This could not be farther from the truth. A trimming mistake can ruin the entire process if close attention is not paid to detail. They need to have a positive attitude, and their attitude will really show up during this process.
How To Start Training A Production Helper
Once the new person has learned the finishing process, they can then be moved into a helper’s position. A helper is someone that can tie new threads onto the machine, load and unload the machine, carry work from the hooping area to the machine and carry the finished work from the machine to the trimmers. The training of this helper is very important. They must be shown everything that they are supposed to do and be thoroughly tested on these skills. This may seem like it is so simple that anyone should be able to do it, but they still need to be taught exactly how each step is done.
Step One – Show them where the threads are stored and how you put them onto the machine. Teach them how to do the Weavers knot so that the threads will pull right through the needle eyes. Have them do it over and over until they have it mastered. Make sure that they understand exactly how and why each step of the process is done the way it is. Do not let them go to step two until step one is mastered.
Here is a video showing you how to tie the Embroidery Threads so that they will go right through the needles! It works 99% of the time. Huge time-saver!
Proper training is extremely important when you hire a new employee for your embroidery operation. Without the proper training this new employee can end up creating a lot of mistakes which will lead to lost production. This is just as important for the small embroidery shop owner that is hiring their first employee as it is to the multi-head shop that has many employees. Learning the right process to train a new embroidery production employee is very important. It is going to mean the difference between a well-run shop and one that is only mediocre. You want to make sure when you train a new embroidery production employee that everyone is on the same page, so to speak!
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Production
There are some basic issues that can have a huge effect on the quality of your designs. We need to go back to the basics to create high-quality embroidery designs.
Machine Speed
Machine speed has a huge effect on the quality of your design. I cringe when I see a machine going faster than 850 stitches per minutes. I run mine on an average of 750 stitches per minutes but if I am working on caps, it is down to 600 or 650 spi at max.
The machines today are being sold on the fact that they go a lot faster and there you can get more production done in a day. Yes this is true, but it can also cause many issues that slow down production. The faster your machine is sewing, the more pull you have on your thread. This can cause distortion in your small lettering and in satin stitches that border fill areas. The faster the machine speed, the tighter the thread pulls, and the narrower the stitch sews out. If the machine is going too fast, it can skip stitches or force the needle to penetrate in a bad spot and form a stitch that is uneven such as on heavy pique or fabric that has wide ribs such as twill. This really shows up on a twill cap.
The machine speed can also cause the thread to come out of the needle at the beginning of sewing and can leave a long thread or a loop at the beginning of the first part of your stitching.
Bad Tension
Your machine needs to be using either rayon or polyester thread. You should not be switching back and forth if you can help it. This is something that we have to do at times and I am very unhappy when we have to do this, but we have customers that insist on a certain shade and if it matches in the rayon rather than the polyester, then that is what we use. I do not want to use any rayon thread on a garment that is going to be washed in the strong laundry detergents because it can fade. We do not have any many issues with our thread bleeding.
If you stick to polyester, you eliminate a lot of issues. In today’s world this is the thread that you should be using. We have been gradually switching over and we are using more and more polyester. It is much stronger and of course, it will not fade out when bleached. Your polyester thread has to run with a tighter tension than the rayon thread. When you are switching back and forth, it is very tough to keep your thread tension correct. It needs to be adjusted for the different type of thread.
Worn or Wrong Needles
Worn or Wrong Needles can create holes in the fabric. On knits it can create runs. You really need to be careful with this. Sometimes you can get away with a sharp needle on a knit such as a pique if you are using the 70/10 needles and they are new needles. It is strongly recommended that you change your needles to ballpoint needles if you are working with knits, especially the performance wear knits. You can almost count on holes in your fabric if you do not switch to the ballpoints on those types of fabrics. This can have a huge effect on your design.
They recommend that you change your needles every 2,000,000 stitches or after every 8 hours of constant stitching on that same needle bar. That is hard to keep track of and something that we really do not do, but I always had operators that were very much detail oriented and knew exactly when the needles needed to be changed. You can hear the difference in the sound when the needle goes down into the fabric. This comes from lots of experience and a lot of trial and error.
Wrong Backing
Using the correct backings or stabilizers is extremely important in the stabilizing of your design on your garment. If you are using the wrong backing or a cheap backing your design can rip right through the backing and it just does not sew out very good. It becomes very distorted, especially after it has been laundered.
This is something that you have to be very careful of. For all of your wovens, you need to use a tearaway backing. Do not ever use a cutaway on the woven fabrics, not even the no show. Many times the backing shrinks and it will cause the design to pull up and pucker. I have had several complaints about the no show backing shrinking. I have had several students tell me that they have discontinued using it because it was shrinking and their designs were distorted after they had been washed.I have some items here that have been washed and you can plainly see that this no show has not shrank at all! You need to always use quality backings.
Cheap Supplies
Do not use cheap bobbins either. This is huge! Not only do they slow down your production, but they run very erratic and it is almost impossible to keep an even flow of tension. I highly recommend the Filtec bobbins. The can run all the way to the end without the tension changing and rarely do we have a bad one. Yes, they are more expensive, but the difference is the look and the production more than pays for the difference in the cost.
No Topping On Your Knits
This is a tough concept to get across to a lot of people. The difference in your designs is night and day when you use it. Every knit that went out of my shop was done with topping on it. It keeps the thread on top of the fabric instead of letting it sink into the garment and is very easy to remove. Yes it is another step, but at the same time that we are steaming it off, we are also removing the hoop mark from our item. I do not ever want to see a garment go out of here with a hoop mark on it. There is no excuse for that one at all.
Garments Not Hooped Correctly
When you are hooping your garments you want to make sure that they are tight enough. If it is, there will not no movement of the fabric inside of the hoop and you can hear a drum noise when you tap on it.
Size of Hoop
The size hoop that you use is critical. Many embroiderers will use the same 15 cm hoop for all of their designs. This is fine if the design was created for that 15 cm hoop, but if the design is smaller than that, you will not get the same effect.
Many times, we just need to go back to the basics to create high-quality embroidery designs. We sometimes forget the basics and how important they really are.
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
Preventing possible issues with production runs is essential when planning your daily embroidery production. Trying to get the best production possible out of every single day is a must if you want a profitable embroidery business!
In today's economy, where so many embroidery business owners are doing all they can to keep expenses down with less employees, this is extremely important.
You always sew out all of your embroidery designs before you start any new jobs. Right!! Paying close attention to every detail of a logo is important when you are trying to prevent errors before starting a long production run! You want to thoroughly examine your design as it is stitching to see if there are any issues you need to correct or improve on.
You must watch the machine as it is sewing out your design in order to be able to pinpoint any of the possible problems! You cannot start the machine and walk away then expect to be able to find the issues, it just does not work. YOU MUST watch it as it sews out! As it is sewing out, ask yourself these questions:
- Is there something that you can do to shorten your run time?
- Are there any thread breaks? If so, find out why. Maybe your density is too heavy. Check for a dull needle, bad thread, or tension that is too tight.
- Is it locking as it starts and stops? If it does not lock at the beginning, the thread can come out of the needle. This can cause a real production nightmare! No lock at the end, the thread can unravel.
- Is it trimming where it is supposed to?
- Do I see any threads between my letters? If you do, they are not close enough.
- If I change my running order of my text will it run faster? First line left to right, second line right to left, third line left to right.
- Are all of the colors correct and are my colors running in the correct order?
- Do your letters or columns look to thick or too thin? Your letters may be pushing because your density is too heavy or your pull comp is too heavy. If too thin, your pull comp needs to be increased.
Check your sew out and have it verified before the job is started. Make sure that you watch each stitch as you sew out the design to see if there are any mistakes or problems that can be prevented. Slowing the machine speed down can help you pinpoint any issues.
- Do you have any jump stitches that are too long? This can cause the thread to get caught and your needle to break.
- Are all of your starts and stops in the correct location? If not, your machine has to move too far to start the next sequence causing wasted production time.
- Is your sew sequence in the right order? You do not want any travel stitches showing. A wrong sew sequence can create too many trims that could have been prevented if the sew sequence was changed.
- Can any of your color changes be combined? This will depend on how your design was created and what it is going to be sewn on. Sometimes like colors can be combined if your design is going to be sewn onto a flat garment. I do not recommend doing this for embroidery on caps. Please note: This can cause registration problems. Before you take this step, make sure that you can combine the colors and not have any registration issues.
It does not matter if you digitized your embroidery design or had the best digitizer out there doing your work, make sure that you sew out every design before you start the job and watch it sew out stitch by stitch. Not only will you prevent issues; you can also learn from watching your designs sew out. This is also true if you have set up a design or lettering in your software. Every design is a new design, digitized or not, and needs to have the same close attention to detail.
Create a checklist of all of the items to look out for as you are doing your sew outs and go right down that checklist to make sure that you have covered every item. This is going to help you save a lot of time and frustration as you are going through your long production runs.
There is nothing any more frustrating than having constant thread breaks or knowing that something could have been changed in your design to make the entire job get done in a lot less time! Time is precious and time is money! You cannot get it back once you have lost it!
It may seem like a waste of your time to watch designs sew out but it never is. I have been digitizing for many years and planning out production for many more years. I never send out a design to production unless I have sewn it out at least once to make sure that it has no issues, and yes, I watch it! Preventing unnecessary production issues is part of planning for all your embroidery production runs. This is going to help you create more profit in your bottom line!
Would you like a copy of the same checklist I use while sewing out each design? We will be happy to send it to you. You can pick one up for free by filling out this form.
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Management
As a new embroidery business owner, do your family and friends have the opinion that you should be available for their every need 24/7 because you are working from home? Set boundaries and create your own space when you are working from home. This is very important for new embroidery business owners.
This was a huge problem for me when I first started my business from home. I still had one teenage daughter at home and I had always kept up with running the kids everyplace they needed to go and kept up with all of the regular home duties that a housewife is expected to do. No one in the family expected any part of their life was going to change when Mom started her own business.
For a while, I was driving myself crazy trying to be all things to everyone in the household and run my business at the same time. It just was not working and I could not accomplish anything in my business.
New Embroidery Business Owners Must Set Boundaries
This is a problem that so many new embroidery business owners are faced with when they are first getting their business started from home and they do not know how to say NO or to set boundaries and create your own space for those around them!
I learned very quickly that I had to set regular business hours and regular family hours. I have to admit, this was not easy at first, but it was a must if I was going to succeed with my business and keep my sanity.
Setting boundaries is absolutely a must for the health of your family life and your business life. Without certain “rules” and even physical divides in your home, your children assume that you are available for their every need, and even partners and friends can impose on your working day, causing frustration and tension for everyone involved. This is very hard on relationships.
Set Aside One Room To Create Your Own Space
Set aside one room to create your own space if at all possible; one that you can close the door to the rest of the world. This is very important. If you cannot separate yourself from the family you cannot do your business justice, you will not be able to concentrate with all of the interruptions and you will not be able to grow your business.
When my door is closed in my office, my family knows that they are not to disturb me for any reason unless it is an emergency. I established this rule several years ago and it has worked very well. Now my husband is retired, another big adjustment, and he knows DO NOT ENTER!
I now have 2 rooms, one is my office and the other one is my workroom that has my embroidery machines and all of my other equipment in it. The door to my workroom is always open but the embroidery machines are not going to stop unless there is an emergency. They can come in and talk to me but they are not to disturb the workflow.
Running your business from home is entirely possible for the new embroidery business owner if you do set boundaries and create your own space, but you must stick to your rules. Your family will soon learn what the rules are and both you and your family will be happier at the end of the day!
If this has been a problem for you, let me know what you have done to eliminate the issues and how you enforced your rules.
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing, Training Embroidery Employees
Do you have high-quality standards set in your embroidery business or are you focused on just getting the job done? Quality is extremely important if you want to build a business that is going to last no matter what state the economy is in.
Many customers are unaware of what good quality is when it pertains to embroidery. When you educate them and show them the difference, they get it. They also realize you want to provide them with the best!
I have certain standards that we have always gone by and if they are not met, the person responsible has to either be retrained so that they can produce the quality that I want or they will no longer have a job. If there has been a mistake on a job or if the job does not meet my standards of quality, I will not charge the customer for the job.
Case in point! We finished a set of 49 football jerseys that I was not happy with. While I was out training a new student, an operator embroidered the school name on the back of half of the jerseys instead of the front below the V of the neck where it belongs. I truly do not know how he ever made such a mistake, but it happened! These were $70.00 jerseys, which the customer supplied, before the numbers and embroidery were ever applied to them. This was an awfully expensive job, but I could not charge the customer for this. The mistake was rectified with the customer's help, but I could not in good conscience charge him for this job.
When I called him and told him about the problem, he was extremely grateful and happy that I was so honest about it. When I told him that I would not be charging him for the job, he was thrilled and said that they would live with the issue and that he would be sending me a lot more work!
If a mistake is made, do not try to pass it off on the customer without them being totally aware of it. Mistakes do happen to all of us, but you must own up to it, keep the customer informed, correct it, and in most cases let him make the decision on how to handle the job. It does not matter how large or how small the job is.
If you do not have high-quality standards set in your embroidery business, you will not stay in business for the long haul. This is especially important.
