Sri Lankan Apparel giant MAS Holdings has implemented a high-tech digital material service hub which can be leveraged by brands as well as vendors who require digitisation closer to the source.

Digital Product Creation (DPC) is on a growth trajectory in the apparel industry. With the boost from the pandemic era to move to a more agile and efficient product creation process, brands and supply chain partners are building capabilities to drive end to end digital sampling.

Material Digitisation is a key focus area in our Digital Product Creation journey and Vizoo’s technology enables us to achieve a realistic appearance in our materials second to none

With DPC, brands can enjoy dramatically faster time to market, positively influencing product newness and profitability. Such value is only created with true to life digital twins that can represent the physical garment both visually and technically. Digital materials play a crucial role in demonstrating the accurate textures, colours and properties of the materials that eventually influence the look and fit of the garment.

“Material Digitisation is a key focus area in our Digital Product Creation journey and Vizoo’s technology enables us to achieve a realistic appearance in our materials second to none. This certification assures our processes to digitize materials are aligned to the highest industrial standards, strengthening confidence in the quality of our process amongst the brands we service.” said Tharindu Meemaduma, Director Innovation at MAS holdings.

Dedicated material digitisation unit

With increasing demand for digital materials, MAS established a dedicated material digitisation unit in 2020 to provide high quality property and texture scanning services across its apparel and supply chain divisions. The unit has now been accredited by Vizoo, recognizing the standards and quality of MAS’ material digitisation process.

With years of expertise in DPC, MAS now has the capability to build digital twins across multiple stages of sampling such as concept, prototypes, colour, and salesman samples. Their mission is to enable as many digital decisions as possible and build in expertise in digital to physical translation to achieve a first time right physical product at every stage of sampling. Leveraging this capability, MAS develops over 3000 unique digital styles annually.

“Digital Product Creation is a part of our future proofing strategy, and we are constantly improving our skill set and process to enhance the value created through digital twins. This means identifying and investing in adjacent capabilities that would help us get there faster. The material digitisation centre is one such area, where we saw the opportunity to strengthen our goal of end-to-end Digital Product Creation by offering world-class material digitisation services under one roof,“ said Anupama Fernando, Group Lead DPC.

MAS is one of the examples where digital solutions are adopted not just on request

With years of expertise in fabric digitisation technology, Vizoo has been a strategic partner to MAS, working together to build a world class digitisation unit. Today, Scan Hub is equipped with Vizoo’s xTex material scanners and xTex software, measurement devices for physical parameters for Browzwear and Clo 3D along with other quality control devices.

Renate Eder, CCO of Vizoo commented: “We hear a lot from brands that their vendors would not invest in digital. However, I must say that I do not share this view. MAS is one of the examples where digital solutions are adopted not just on request. In this case, digitisation is influenced and driven by the vendor partner.”

From Renate’s prior experience with Adidas and 6 years at Vizoo, Renate is aware that it is not only about using the correct tools. Unfortunately, sometimes the discussion is too focused about the tool being the problem solver instead of thinking how to best implement innovative technology. However, the skillset of the users combined with efficient processes is what results in high-quality services.

Growing demand

The growing demand for digitisation services has quickly put many service providers on the market, with varying quality. With a universal certification program, Vizoo is influencing the industry with global standards for digitisation.

With more brands and vendors working in 3D, Vizoo saw the need to create a certification program for digital material creation. “We need reliability when multiple parties are involved in the digital product creation process” stresses Renate Eder, CCO of Vizoo. “Users must be able to trust on digital assets being able to benefit from them.”

“The certification program by Vizoo is a comprehensive and practical approach in validating the quality and standards of the digitisation process. With all the necessary knowledge and guidelines from Vizoo along with our decades of know-how in physical product and material development, we have been able to incorporate best practices to provide a superior digitisation service across our 50 plus brands” said Hasini Weerasinghe, Senior Associate Digital Evangelist.

Vizoo is looking to expand its certification program towards more service and scanning hubs to support the Digitization- as-a-Service industry. However, the certification is not limited to service centres. Brands and suppliers are interested in signing up for a certification course to train their staff and to improve their internal processes and contribute to eliminating the skill gap in the industry.

www.masholdings.com

www.vizoo3d.com