Whose fault is it anyway…

Greetings everyone,

In the wonderful world of embroidery the oldest argument there is when a job goes wrong is, “Whose fault was it, embroidery or digitizing?”  The truth of the matter is it is almost always a combination of both but there is  times when blame can be assigned.  While this can be a delicate conversation because no one likes to admit when they are wrong a true professional will keep their ego in check and learn from a mistake.

So how do you know who is to blame?  What is most important is to understand why you want to know.  The answer is, so you can prevent it from happening again.  To that end there are things you can do to prevent embroidery jobs from going awry.

1. Never use a design programmed for a specific application on something it was not designed for.   You should never use a design specifically programmed for application on a polo shirt on a hat, period.  Yes, you might get lucky and it might work but sooner or later this will bite.  Designs embroidered on hats should be programmed for hats.  Similarly, if you are going to embroider a nylon windbreaker and the logo was originally designed for a knit sweater you will almost certainly have damaged product.  There are a host of other examples.  The most important thing to understand is embroidery designs are not “one size fits all.”  In the past embroidery digitizing was far more expensive than it is today and understandably operators would try and make a design work on as many different products as they could.  IN the current world you can get a brand new design (from Qdigitizing) for as little as $25 and edits for $10.  It simply does not make sense to risk damaging hundreds or even thousands  of dollars’ worth of product to save $10 on an edit.
2. Just because you can it doesn’t mean you should.  Quality embroidery requires significant attention to detail.  Embroidery is not baseball,  my personal mantra is “one strike and you’re out.”  What that means is, if I answer NO to even or more preproduction questions I will not run a job, period. Embroidery can be very unforgiving.  With the possibility of eating high dollar garments and damaging a customer relationship I will not step up to the production plate with so much as one strike against me.  Examples of questions I ask to myself are:

1. Am I 100%, absolutely, positively certain the design I am about to run will fit in the hoop I have chosen?
   1. This is regardless of whether or not my fancy new machine has hoop detection capabilities and told me it is OK!
2. Have I run a sample on my machine using test material that is as close as possible to the apparel and backing solution and I am about to run?
3. Is the design I am about to use intended for this product?
4. Has this design been re-sized by anyone who does not know what they are doing?
5. Is the proper backing being used for this design AND this product?
6. Has the garment been properly hooped?
7. Is the design I last used on shirts programmed for the caps I am about to run?
8. Am I using the right needle for the job?
9. Has the machine been properly programmed to run this design?
   If I just changed from hats to flats (or vice-versa) are the right throat plates on the machine?
10. Do I have the right thread colors on the machine?
11. Do I have a reasonable level of confidence that top and bottom tensions are properly set.  If I just changed from Rayon to Polyester (or vice-versa) have I adjusted tensions?

Poor bobbin tension can cause catastrophic, garment destroying failure in the blink of an eye (bird nesting). See >> https://www.quiltingboard.com/attachments/main-f1/382389d1355598957-birds-nest.jpg and https://ourembroideryroom.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/birdsnest-2.jpg

Poor top thread tension can kill a garment just as dead as poor bottom tension but it usually takes longer and can be salvaged by an attentive operator

About 20 years ago when I was still running my 60 head commercial embroidery shop I was about to take a short cut (not run a sample) because I was up against a deadline for an important and high pressure customer.  My lead production lead came up to me just as I was about to start the run came up to me and said in Spanish, “El hombre perezoso trabaja el doble de duro.”  Loosely translated this means, “The lazy men works twice as hard.”  Instead of taking offense I thought about it and I realized she was 100% right.  What I was about to do had a high probability of failure that could cost me far more in the way of time, money and aggravation than the 10 extra minutes it would take to do it right.  Sure enough, after running the sample we found a “tie off” stitch had been missed on a .40” capital letter L.  Had we run the full job (and not been vigilant) we would have spent hours in the finishing room applying “Fray Check” or even worse, use our manual machine to manually sew tie down stitches on hundreds of shirts.

The mental checklist above is probably the single most important thing I can ever pass on to my fellow embroidery people.  It was so important in my shop we developed a check list that each operator and shift leader had to sign off on before starting a job.  Over the years this saved me thousands upon thousands of dollars.  One year I can demonstrate how waste went from $41,000 in one year to less than $5,000 the next due to maintaining a rigorous set of pre-production standards.

At the end of the day it is not about “whose fault it is” anyway because ultimately because as business owners and/or leaders in our shops it is our fault regardless of the reason.  Because of this reality the most important thing (in my humble opinion) is to never let yourself step up to the plate with so much as a single strike against you.

If anyone out there would like me to address a specific issue related to commercial embroidery or digitizing please don’t hesitate to reach out to me here or send me an email to steve.freeman@qdigitizing.com.

Steve Freeman
Managing Partner
Qdigitizing.com
877-733-4390