22 May 4 Questions You Need To Ask Before Choosing Your Clothing Factory
Creating your own fashion collection can be difficult. There are so many different aspects of the process to complete, and each stage has its own specific challenges. One particular stage is often complicated, and can cause problems for designers who don’t have much experience of clothing manufacture. This is the process of choosing a factory. Choosing the right manufacturer is very important as it can help ensure the success of your clothing brand. But with so many manufacturers in the UK, it can be hard to know where to start. Here are some questions to ask a clothing manufacturer when you are deciding on your shortlist of possibilities.
- What Lead Times Do You Work To?
One key practical consideration that needs to be answered as soon as possible in the selection process concerns the lead times. You need to discuss this at an early stage so you can work out if the factory will be able to meet your deadlines. Different factories work to different time scales. The most important thing is to get a clear indication of lead times so the whole process is more transparent and there are no surprises.
- How Do You Like to Communicate?
It may be often overlooked, but it is an important consideration. How does the factory communicate? Their method of communication needs to fit with yours. For example, if you can never talk on the phone you don’t want a factory that leaves you tons of voicemail. Ask the manufacturer how they will get in touch with you, and how often.
- Can I Visit?
If you are looking for one of the clothing manufacturers london offers and you live in London, it is reasonable to arrange a visit to see the factory in person. Not every manufacturing plant will be open for visits. If this is important to you it is important to ask during the selection process.
- How Busy is Your Factory?
Different factories will have different availabilities at different times of the year. Most probably a factory will be busiest right before a season starts but many will hire extra staff during these time periods and you won’t see a difference in service. If a factory is very popular, ask how they will manage to work to your timeline and balance their various priorities. In addition to asking about general workloads it is also important to ask when a factory can start to work on your clothing order. This is crucial if you are running up against a tight time schedule.
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