Pre-production meeting (pp meeting) in garment factory and in the buying office

 What is pp meeting?

PP meeting is a word that is very commonly used in garments industry. A pre-production meeting must be held before bulk production takes place. In this meeting, a lot of the issues related to the garment is discussed in detail so that no mistake is being made during bulk production. This meeting is not just about the final garment, but in this meeting date of inspections, time and action plan, production completion date, shipment date and different precautionary measures that the production team has to take in order to meet the requirement of the buyer are discussed.

When PP meeting is held?

• The size set sample, Pre production sample, Red tag sample must be fully approved by the buyer.

• The merchandiser must prepare the production file and submit it in the planning department.

• Planning department then prepares the layout plan, manning level plan, line rearrangements are done depending on-

1. Buyer demand quantity

2. Order urgency.

3. Sewing availability

• When all the planning is done, planning department along with the concerned merchandiser arranges a pre-production meeting.

Who attends the pp meeting?

It depends on the order, if it is a repeat order, then the number of attendees will be less. If it is a new order or a critical style, then there will be more attendees.

Generally the attendees are:

1. Production manager/ Assistant manager.

2. Concerned merchandiser

3. Responsible quality controller.

4. Quality manager

5. Quality auditor

6. Production supervisor

7. Line supervisor

8. Cutting master

9. Sewing head/ Representative from that section.

10. Finishing head/ Representative from that section.

11. Responsible personnel from IE department.

Also read:

Different types of defect in garment manufacturing | List of 12 major quality defects found in the finished garment with images

 

What are the materials that should be presented in PP meeting?

As a lot of technical and non-technical matters are discussed in this meeting, some material must be presented here. Such as-

1. Techpack

2. Red tag sample (must)

3. Size set sample and pre-production sample (both the sample with comments and the revised one so that the problems in the rejected sample can be clearly discussed).

4. All the critical points (written).

5. Before wash and after wash sample.

6. All the pattern templates.

7. All the lab test reports

8. All the care instructions (written).

9. Go through all the buyer’s comments.

10. How to measure manual for proper measurement of the garment.

What are the topics that are discussed in PP meeting?

• All the issues related to techpack is discussed here. If there is any kind of confusion regarding any material, color, composition, it must be solved in this meeting.

• Lab dip program, sample fabric program, development sampleprogram must be discussed clearly.

• Time and action plan that is made by the planning department should be presented and the representatives from all the department should be aware of the time frame that they need to follow.

• All the important dates like- shipment date, production completion date, final inspection date should be discussed and finalized.

• They need to review the red tag sample to know how the final garment should be.

• Size set sample and production sample, both the defective one (samples that had comments [if any]) and the revised one should be presented so that they can compare both the samples and understand the defects that they have made previously.

• All the critical points in the garment must be discussed.

• Re-check all the measurements and match them with the ‘How to measure’ manual to check whether or not the measurements have been taken correctly.

• All the small details related to the garments like- SPI (stitch per inches), fold width, dirt, pleat, types of folder and other work aids that needed to be used are discussed here.

• Re-check to make sure all the approvals are in place.

• Check the before wash and after wash sample so that the washing department can understand the difference easily.

• All the lab test reports of the sample (like- strength, color fastness, wash fastness, shrinkage etc.) should be discussed thoroughly so that the bulk product can match the sample.

• All the care instructions provided by the buyer must be rechecked.

• All the patterns that are prepared during sample production should be checked.

• All the other material that will be needed for the production like- hanger loop, hang tag, price tag, tag pin, hanger, poly, carton etc and their quality should be discussed.

 

PP meeting at buying office:

After preparing the production file, the factory merchandiser sends one file to the quality controller of the buying office. After getting the file from the merchandiser, the buying office carefully studies the production file to find out any deviation from their actual order. This meeting is not as detailed as the factory meeting. The attendees in this meeting are-

1. The concerned buying office merchandiser

2. Buying office quality controller.

3. Buying office technical team.