Embroidery Digitizing In-House vs. Outsourcing

Digitizing is main and important part of Embroidery, it is the initial step in the embroidery process.

While some designs are, complex like animals, some medium logos and few simply lettering or monogramming keyed from pre-programmed alphabets, custom digitizing is the designs that are digitized from customer supplied logo or art. An average embroiders with few of computer skills can learn to digitize lettering. However, the skill sets and experience needed to convert art into custom designs are not quite as simple.

Many embroiderers or embroidery shops sometimes face a question whether or not they should learn how to digitize in-house or outsource their embroidery digitizing.

The process of digitizing high-quality design with minimum breaks and minimum stitches is an art. It is acquired through training, practice, and experience of graphic design. The best way to assess a digitizer is to consider their hours or years of full time digitizing experience.

For any start-up process where the embroidery shops have little or no prior embroidery experience, it is better to outsource digitizing. As with any business start-up, there are many skills to learn. Outsourcing the digitizing task saves time, improves quality and adds profitability to new embroidery business.

How well the final design will look will depend on digitized design, thread condition, machine condition and operator skill sets. By depending upon a skilled digitizer, you can ramp-up quicker and reach higher production yields.

For any regular embroidery operation, the decision to digitize in-house or outsource can be assessed with the following considerations:

Prices:
Think about price per design which comes to compare in-house and outsource digitizer, if you have 10 to 20 design per month, than to outsource, it will cost only around $200 depending on how many digitizers charge.

Volume of designs
A skilled, full-time digitizer can produce approximately 1 to 2 left chest designs per hour, depending on size and complexity of the design. That’s 8 to 16 designs per day. If your demand reaches these numbers, an in-house digitizer could be a good economic decision.

Type and size of orders
An embroidery shop who processes numerous, single piece orders will consume a lot of designs. Orders that vary the material or application of designs may require a lot of editing to get the best performance on all jobs run. Shops that provide mostly personalization would consume very few custom designs. Shops who process mostly large orders will also consume fewer custom designs.

Customer types
While some customers allow a lot of discretion on the part of the embroiderer, others are more particular about the design details. In order to service these customers, a quality digitizer can be considered to outsource.

Control desired
Every shop has different management styles and controls comfort levels. Those with more quality and comfort levels may choose to work with an outside digitizer.

Graphic art skills in-house
Digitizing requires a certain temperament and certain computer graphic skills to succeed. So a digitizer with graphics skills is the great digitizer.

So final choice is quality and price, if you get quality and best price from any digitizer, it is better to outsource