The just concluded Garmentech fair in Chittagong, irrespective of its small scale, was able to draw a decent crowd, which included decision makers and heads of garment factories. The fair held from August 29 to 31, 2019 hosted around 50 exhibitors and catered to the needs of the garment industry with products such as sewing machines, finishing equipment, CAD, boilers, servo motors and ERP.

Shirt automation pioneer Maica showed its automatic buttonhole indexer MA04. The machine, with its patented suction system, precisely ensures the buttonhole linearity and sews the front plackets of shirts of different widths. Japanese finishing company Naomoto was present with its basic irons, tables and steam generators. Naomoto has developed irons that reduce electricity consumption based on how customers use it.

As manufacturers are bracing up to eliminate productivity woes and cost challenges due to mismanagement in supply chain, they are receiving substantial support from ERP providers. One such company which participated, Skylark Soft, has created a cloud-based software to track real-time garment production from cutting to finishing. This is a fully Bangladesh company with a desire to fill in the information gap and improve data accuracy for the readymade garment sector. Its software has been adopted by some of the biggest garment manufacturers in the country.