Lean Manufacturing

Our garments are sewn at the Nisa workshop: a single-room factory, store and office. We produce our garments in a way that reduces waste during the manufacturing process, and avoids the creation of unwanted stock. The result of our policies is a flexible production line that's responsive to demand.

Some key definitions are:

Lean manufacturing

Verb

A production method aimed primarily at reducing times within the production system as well as response times from suppliers and to customers.

Kanban

[ kahn-bahn ] Noun

A Japanese manufacturing system in which the supply of components is regulated through the use of an instruction card sent along the production line.

Single unit flow

Noun

A state where items are produced one-at-a-time, and flow (are pulled) through the development process as a single unit.

Our process

Trigger cards

We have cardboard signs tucked into our underwear drawers. Once stock runs low enough to require a new batch, the card is taken from dispatch to production.

These cards then get sorted by our Production Manager or Supervisor, to determine which styles and colours we will make that day.

Small bundles

Depending on the type of garment we want to produce, we sew styles in batches of three or six. If some styles are super popular - like our size medium black briefs - we might sew several bundles of six at a time.

We can still get efficiency gains by sewing similar styles one after the other. For example, sewing black briefs in different styles one after the other means that we only need set up the machine with black threads once.

Built-in quality control

Single unit flow means that you hand the garment you've just worked on to the next person in the production line. If you've made an error, the next person in the line can notice it and send it back before you repeat the same mistake for the rest of the bundle.

Ensuring quality during the production of a garment, rather than just at the end, reduces the number of garments that end up being seconded.

Smart storage

Every garment that we make is stored in our workshop. We've packed them into drawers that allow us to tuck kanban cards in the right place, so that when we've sold enough of that style, the process is triggered and can start again.

By using minimal packaging, we can save space and reduce storage requirements.