A Case Study - Tukatech

Tukatech
A Case Study
From Inspiration to Innovation
About Brandix
38 Manufacturing Facilities in
Sri Lanka, India, and Bangladesh
In Business since 1969, Brandix
itself formed from several
other companies in 2002
Specializes in product development,
manufacturing, and
marketing
Makes their own fabric,
thread, buttons and hangers
R&D, washing, dyeing, finishing
and quality control.
Utilizing TUKAcad and
SMARTmark
Company Vision “To be THE
inspired solution for branded
clothing.”
World’s first LEED Platinum
rated apparel factory and first
apparel manufacturer to be
ISO 50001 certified
Tukatech
Brandix Casualwear’s headquarters.
With a long list of international customers and an even
longer history in the apparel industry, Brandix is one of
the leading garment manufacturers in Sri Lanka. Brandix
Casualwear, a division focused on creating valueadded
bottoms for men, women, and children, has
switched to Tukatech’s design and pre-production systems
with excellent results.
Sri Lankan owned and operated, Brandix Casualwear
has produced garments for many of the world’s leading
retailers for more than two decades, and has established
itself as one of the most prominent manufacturers
in the world. With customers including Gap, Banana
Republic, Old Navy, Marks & Spencer, Land’s End, Jack
Wills, Columbia, and many more, Brandix Casualwear
has grown rapidly in the last few years and has cement-

Case Study
ed their place in the upper
echelon of garment producers
worldwide.
“Our strength is making
value-added bottoms with
elevated washes and finishes,”
said Dhananjaya
Rajapaksha, CEO of Brandix
Casualwear. With many international
retailers working
with manufacturers based
in Bangladesh or Vietnam,
Brandix Casualwear and
other Sri Lankan garment
producers are positioning
their country as a place
where clothes can be made
under some of the best
working conditions in the
world and with exceptional
added value.
“We have to look for improvements,”
said Dhananjaya.
“Woven bottoms have
the biggest price challenge
in the industry, because of
the less expensive work
coming out of other countries.
We must be sharper in
our cost structure than we
have been before.”
“We looked around for solutions
to improve our cost
base in order to grow and
even sustain the business
that we have here,” said
Dhananjaya. “We have a lot
of skills that we have developed
over the years that
we just can’t abandon, we
had to take certain steps towards
preserving our operation
in Sri Lanka. The question
was who would take
these steps with us. We
already had big investments
TUKAcad 2012 edition, the advanced pattern making software.
in CAD systems, and our
people are already trained
to work a certain way.”
Dhananjaya admits that
there were no real problems
with the company’s
previous CAD system, but
that something needed to
drastically change in order
for Brandix
Casualwear
to remain
competitive
in a shifting
global
market, and
based on
the work
done in a
different division
of Brandix, it became
apparent that Tukatech was
able to provide that change.
Dhananjaya credits Brandix’s
Denim division with
showing him the benefits
of using TUKAcad and
SMARTmark. Brandix Denim
had started using Tukatech
systems in March of
2011 and within few days
reported considerable savings
and had more than
doubled their efficiency.
“I’m happy to say that we did
improve our efficiency [by
33%] and met our goals in
phase one, and Tukatech was
a part of that.“
-Dhananjaya Rajapaksha
CEO, Brandix Casualwear
After seeing these improvements
in their sister division,
Dhananjaya said that
he was convinced that there
was a lot of potential for
Tukatech

savings, and he decided
to meet with Mr. Ram Sareen,
Tukatech’s founder
and CEO. “
“Mr. Sareen came in and
showed that he had an
extensive knowledge
“Our first submitted sample
approval has reached the
highest level possible.”
-Thushard Saumydasa,
Head of Product Development
about garment manufacturing.
He knew what our
technical people needed,”
said Dhananjaya. “He
worked with us to give
us what we wanted in
a software system, like
unique features to calculate
shrinkage in any
pattern at any segment,
get better fitting garments
first time without
having to make a sample
to learn the mistakes. He
sent his technical team
from USA and India, and
many of our requests for
what we wanted to see in
the software were accommodated.”
“When we initially
switched to using Tukatech,
it was part of an
overall project, which was
to improve the overall efficiency
of our operation
by 33% in three months,”
said Dhananjaya. “Whether
that meant refocusing our
resources or moving to a
new location, that was what
we set out to do. I’m happy
to say that we did improve
our efficiency and met our
goals in
phase one,
and Tukatech
was
a part of
that.“
“Today,
our people
are using
Tukatech’s
CAD to a
much larger
extent than
they were with our previous
CAD system” said Thushard
Saumydasa, Head of Product
Development.
“Cost alone is not our focus.
We want to provide speed
Case Study
and value to our customers,”
said Dhananjaya.
“And in providing speed,
everything else matters.
Tukatech has helped us to
cut fabric faster and more
accurately, which are two
very key components to our
continued success.” He further
added, “we are getting
better quality, more productivity
and better fabric
utilization from our automatic
cutters because the
data coming from TUKAcad
is further engineered. This
really is an added bonus we
never expected”
“Another change we have
seen since switching to Tukatech’s
system is a drastic
improvement in our sample
approval,” said Dhananjaya.
“Almost one hundred
percent of our samples are
approved by our customers
Pattern Makers at work in Brandix Casualwear’s CAD room.
Tukatech

Case Study
the first time.”
“The feedback I’ve gotten
from my managers is that
the new Tukatech system
has more functionality compared
to the latest CAD
systems they had and it is
much easier to manage and
use,” said Dhananjaya. “The
most encouraging thing I’ve
heard from the employees
is the way that the implementation
of the system
was handled. The way Tukatech
brought in the initial
team and interacted with
our technical team was very
beneficial. They listened to
what we do and customized
the systems to our needs.
Many of our requests regarding
the software were
addressed during this implementation
period.”
“Working with Brad Whiteley,
Ganesan and Boris
Vishnevsky, Tukatech’s
Chief Technical Officer, we
were really able to customize
the TUKAcad software
so that it was able to meet
our specific needs,” said
Thushard. “we know what
our customers do and what
they expect from us, we
About
Tukatech
Tukatech is a Los Angeles-based company that provides 2D and 3D
software solutions and manufacturing equipment to garment producers.
It also provides web-based product development services and PDM/PLM
systems, supported by brick and mortar centers strategically located in
garment hubs worldwide. With over 12,000 systems sold and about 3,500
competitive systems replaced, Tukatech is the fastest growing garment
CAD/CAM company in the world. Tukatech has been ranked by Apparel
Magazine as the #1 Apparel software company in the world.
know what patternmakers
needed, we knew what we
needed from our systems
and TUKATECH made it
happen. I had the opportunity
to discuss with Tukatech’s
team and learn how to
do those things.”
Though Dhananjaya and
Thushard acknowledge the
savings are big with productivity,
fabric consumption
and quality of patterns, they
say it is too soon to provide
exact figures as to how
much time and money they
have saved since switching
to Tukatech. They acknowledge
that the operation as
a whole has improved in the
last few months, and that
with the system in place,
there is a lot of potential
for growth and further improved
efficiency.
Further, Thushard has taken
advantage of TUKAcad’s
automated reports. “Instead
of creating the reports myself,
the software creates
them automatically, which
saves me time and increases
my overall efficiency.”
Dhananjaya expressed his
enthusiasm for the reports
generated by TUKAcad, and
indicated that the reports
make far-reaching improvements
for Brandix Casualwear.
“These reports are
essential for non-technical
employees, like merchandisers
and sales people.
This is a whole new area for
us with a lot of potential applications.”
“We are currently in our
second round of training,
the advance training for
non-CAD users to get best
possible results from their
CAD data,” added Dhananjaya.
“We would like to use
Tukatech to make more
structural changes to our
infrastructure, and advance
our company’s mindset.
“When I was looking at the
whole operation, I realized
that our technology
has advanced, but certain
mindsets have not changed.
We’d like to use Tukatech
to bring technology into
our merchandising, product
development, planning,
engineering and sales departments.”
The Windows
based system is almost like
a built-in PLM system with
work-flow engineering done
by TUKATECH, really, it is
not just a CAD system, it
is way more than that” he
added.
“We are in the fashion apparel
industry, and fashion
keeps changing fast. We
must also be fast,” said
Dhananjaya. “Tukatech allows
us to be faster, more
efficient, and ultimately improves
our bottom line.” •