Apparel Resources has long been talking about the rising traction in textile toy and pet bed manufacturing in India as buyers have already started looking at alternate manufacturing destinations as they move away from the Chinese supply chain.
It seems that, after initial reluctance, the apparel manufacturing fraternity has started showing serious intent to think about diversifying into textile toys and pet bed manufacturing, a space which China has long been dominating just like apparels.
Recently, a group of apparel factories associated with Noida Apparel Export Cluster (NAEC), Sahu Exports (Noida) and Pearl Global (Gurugram) paid visit to one of the first textile toy and pet bedding factories in India – Avanti Overseas (Noida) – that proudly calls itself a “Tech Company which manufactures textile toys and pet bedding.”
Avanti Overseas – just 14-month-old set up established by Raghav Modi– has already opted for digitisation by converting the factory into smart factory and transforming processes from Analogue to Digital – this is what lured all the visitors as they were keen to know how entire digitalisation works on the shop floor.
“Factories don’t even know what all to measure! Tracking of processes is another challenge which apparel factories are looking to eliminate. The way digital tools are helping Avanti Overseas in its textile toys and pet bedding manufacturing is just exemplary,” commented Nikhil Thukral, Director, Maharana of India.
Kapil Mago, Director, 360 Clothing (Noida) mentioned, “Pet toys and bedding are products that are season-less unlike apparels that are still seasonal products…One can book capacities for entire year in textile toys and bedding. Adding to this is the digitalisation that’s helping factories keep pace with the global standards of productivity and efficiency to make them more profitable.”
Manoj Sahu, Managing Director, Sahu Exports (Noida), seemed quite engrossed while visiting the shopfloor of Avanti Overseas and observed closely how digital solutions – implemented by STITCH MES – are proving to be beneficial right from fabric checking to quality inspection.
Vidur Nath, Owner, Nath Brothers (Noida) had his say on the products Avanti is dealing with and the future aspect of the same. “This product, pet toy, looks fantastic…And, the way it is handled by Team Avanti is just brilliant,” mentioned Vidur.
The man behind this visit was Nimish Dave, Founder, The Idea Smith and iSmith as well as Director (Operations) in Avanti Overseas who has been talking about the opportunities India can grab in textile toy manufacturing for a long time now.
“Fetching even 5 per cent of China’s share can help India book orders of over US $ 1 billion…If factories diversify in this category and implement end-to-end digital solutions in the manufacturing processes, I am sure there is no looking back for factories. Start with an efficient MES solution which, I would say, is virtually the heartbeat for all things happening on the shop floor.”
Nimish also shared with team Apparel Resources that buyers of pet toys and beds, especially the ones that have been sourcing from China for ages, are looking at India as a key sourcing destination. “We have orders of around US $ 500 million in hands if we are able to accommodate this shift coming from China. Now that our factory in Noida is booked, we are looking to set up another factory in Ahmedabad, which is nearer to port, by this year’s end so as to save cost on logistics front and further reduce our lead times,” mentioned Nimish.
With an MES in place, KPIs, performance data and future intelligent planning begin to become available and that’s what a stronghold of Avanti is which was lauded by all visitors. Durga Das Charan, Co-founder, STITCH MES explained everything about digital solution he and his team have implemented in Avanti and didn’t hesitate in taking technical questions from visitors.
“With our solution, Avanti has been able to improve efficiency from 35 per cent to on an average 55 per cent, while it sometimes reaches 75 per cent too. DHU has come down drastically to just under 1 per cent. This is the kind of changes we are bringing in factories,” shared Durga.
The industry may note that textile toy and bed products are something team AR has already discussed with Piyush Goyal, Minister of Textile & Commerce and Industry, India last year in an event on which we had received positive feedback from the minister.
Read about our conversation with Minister Goyal here –
