Major operations of the ready-made garment industry fall under these three categories:

1. Pre-production
2. Production
3. Post-production

Pre-production: This phase involves arranging materials, line planning, sample development and approval, sourcing, and production scheduling.

Production: During production, fabrics are spread, cut, bundled, and sewn.

Post-production: Post-production includes inspection, pressing, folding, and packing, making the garment ready to sell.

The labour dependent nature of cutting and sewing makes the readymade garment expensive. Fabric costs and cut-and-sew costs are two of the largest expenses in garment manufacturing. While raw materials contribute up to 50 to 60% of the total product cost, sewing contributes approximately 35% of the total cost.

Efforts have been made to lower labour costs through supply chain management by locating production facilities in developing countries like India, Bangladesh, etc. However, this strategy is becoming complex and difficult to sustain, forcing the industry to find alternative solutions. Thus, automating ready-made garment manufacturing processes are becoming the need of the hour!

Automation not only improves productivity, but also the quality of the finished product by minimising human intervention and preventing errors. Some of the automated techniques adopted by the industry includes:

1. Mechanised fabric handling
2. Computerised cutting
3. Automatic sewing
4. Use of robots

This industry has not only lived up to Dubai’s love for pushing the limits of human ingenuity, but also met its constant requirement for construction materials to feed the high demand. One such material is cement, the lifeblood of the real estate and construction industry.

To power this journey, ​one of the ​largest​ ​producers ​of​ ​cement​ ​in​ ​the United Arab Emirates (UAE)​, has been at the forefront of this sector fulfilling heavy demand, and making heavy investments in technology including state-of-the-art air compressors.

ELGi has been focused on ensuring that its products are energy efficient and therefore have minimal impact on the environment, at no additional cost. With a first-of-its kind heat recovery system, ELGi is using 96% of the waste heat generated by air compressors to heat air (space) and water. This in turn eliminates the need for additional equipment to heat water and reduce CO2 emissions.

Apart from this, ELGi has been involved with several projects around the world to help conserve natural resources.

Cleaning Mirror Lake in the US

When the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control in the US wanted to clean the historic Mirror Lake in Dover, they partnered with ELGi air compressors.

ELGi’s Rotair D300K compressors were used to fire carbon pellets to the bottom of the lake to trap contaminants.