Applied Series: Cutting Edge Unlocking Efficiency with Digital Pattern Precision with N-Hega's Eliane Yeung

AI & Pattern Cutting
Whilst the art of fashion pattern cutting is still rooted in flat drawings done by hand, artificial intelligence is bringing the practice into contemporary design and produce development processes.  N-Hega is a company that taps into AI to help brands to achieve results such as lay planning optimisation, waste reduction, and bringing the physical into the digital. In this conversation, host Peter Jeun Ho Tsang, speaks to Marketing & Product Development Director of N-hega on why digital pattern cutting is an important part of the fashion supply chain.

Digitising Pattern Cutting
Counting clients like Rag & Bone and H&M, and more left-field like NASA, N-Hega's N-Scan Premium Scanner and N-Shot camera systems are bringing teams into the digital world. With teams that are not necessarily digital, the power of AI is truly demonstrated by making it so easy for non-digital pattern cutters to use. Eli gives us insights as to why she thinks digital pattern cutting is part of the future of fashion design and product development.

Eli and N-Hega are featured in chapter 3 of the book Fashion Tech Applied.  Check it out.

Find out about N-Hega here.
Connect with Eliane on LinkedIn.

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

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Transcript

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 0:03

Fashion Tech Applied is published, my co-authored book taking you through six chapters and covering the technologies and innovations powering the fashion industry. I'm Peter Jeun Ho Tsang, founder and CEO of Beyond Form, and welcome to the special podcast series Applied. Each episode, I'll be sitting down with incredible fashion tech professionals that are featured inside the book. On today's episode, I'm sitting down with Eliane Yeung, marketing and Product Development Director at N-Hega, a digital pattern cutting software that combines green screens, AI and more to help pattern cutters digitize their physical paper patterns. The first time Eli showed me how the software works was when I was setting up Beyond Form's Fashion Tech Lab. I was truly blown away by not only its simplicity, but also the accuracy and ease while executing some of the most tedious pattern cutting tasks Featured in chapter three of the book. We discussed just how easy or difficult as the case may be for some going from manual physical cutting to digital.

Eliane Yeung: 1:03

It's not made to burden your life or place you. It's just a tool that will help your life be easier because you know, like you already created a pattern, created a template, why would you waste your time? And you know redraw it manually and do everything that you already did With our system? You know you're scanning, you're taking a picture and our software is finding all the markings for you and assigning it, edit it if needed.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 1:27

And let's get some conversation with Ellie on this episode of Venturing into Fashion Tech. How are you today, Ellie?

Eliane Yeung: 1:33

Hi, I'm good, Peter, thank you for having me here.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 1:36

Thank you for being with us, where we're going to be talking about Enhager, digital pattern cutting, a little bit of AI and everything to do with product development To set the scene for our listeners. The fashion, design and production software market size was valued at 2.1 billion US dollars in 2023 and it's projected to reach 5.4 billion US dollars by 2030. In terms of lay planning, cutting fabrics in production and book production, specifically on the factory floor, quite often it is cited that there's at least a minimum of 15% cutting waste that ends up on the factory floor, so as, as you can imagine, that amounts to a lot of fabric eventually. In some cases, it can be as high as 30% cutting waste. So we'll get your thoughts about that a little bit later on, ellie.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 2:34

In terms of the landscape of digital pattern cutting, we have the big behemoths like Lectra and Gerber, which many fashion professionals, of course, are aware of, but there's also smaller guys like yourselves and Hager doing some amazing things, and your tools are very powerful in their own respect, and I have been working with you now, ellie, for quite a few years, since 2019, in our fashion tech lab, green screen pattern cutting. When I first saw it was, I was just like oh, that's really cool. I didn't know. You could pretty much do that with a green screen to pattern cut essentially and we'll hear more of how that works a little bit later on. But, ellie, before we get stuck in into the technology itself, we want to know more about you. You studied at fit in new york when advertising and communication, so how did you end up mark digital pattern cutting software?

Eliane Yeung: 3:39

yes, uh. So I studied at the fashion shoots of the knowledge in new york and I got a business degree in advertising and marketing communications. I always like business and fashion. My family is an entrepreneur family and fashion, I think, is kind of like a form of art. You know, that is very fun and creative and the way you dress can determine your mood and influence a lot of things in life. I think so. After I graduated from FIT, I worked in some startups and then I started working at Inhega, and Inhega is very interesting because it's a beautiful merge between, you know, the fashion industry, the fashion tech industry and business.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 4:21

You said that your degree was in business. To go from pattern cutting, which is quite technical in many ways, what was it like switching from business to then, somewhat, product development?

Eliane Yeung: 4:33

Yes, but I think I do a little bit of both. It's not only the product development side, but it's also the business side of product development, and how did you find the startup world when you graduated from FIT?

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 4:47

How was it like for you?

Eliane Yeung: 4:49

Yeah, so I was working on like a digital marketplace and another like a shoe fashion company. It was also in the business side and then I had a friend that worked at Enhega before and she was like oh, they're looking for someone with your profile with that has business and fashion background, and it was kind of like perfect, so essentially the power of networking, very much what fashion industry is about all the time.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 5:14

It's quite often said that it's about who you know, as opposed to your experience or your skills, and I think, case in point, that you obviously got your job through your friend. And how long have you been there? Now is it 13 years?

Eliane Yeung: 5:26

yes, yes, it's been a long time you know it inside out, then.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 5:32

So for our listeners, what is nhk specifically?

Eliane Yeung: 5:35

um and he is a small technology company that's specialized in uh pedagogy systems, automatic pedagogy systems. Uh, we've been around for, I think 23 years now and we were founded by award-winning professors that focus on artificial intelligence that has a background in manufacturing. Currently we have three different digitizing solutions the N-Scan Premium Scanner, which is considered the best digitizer available on the market, and also the N-Shot Pro and N-Shot Live, which is an automatic camera digitizing system. We also have other complementary products in the same realm for marker making, material utilization, the N-Estimate Auto and N-Estimate Manual. We work with fashion companies, which is the focus here, but we also work with any type of company that manufactures. We work with companies that do furniture, aviation, composites, so it's not limited to fashion. So if you create a product and you need to digitize, vectorize the template you know, you can use ours.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 6:45

That's very interesting because quite often when we think of pattern cutting and digitization of templates, we think of fashion normally, but as you just said that actually it can apply to the verticals as well. If you're dealing with any type of product that requires a template or a pattern of some sort, then I guess it is applicable. You mentioned there as well that one of your solutions is potentially considered one of the best or the best quite a big claim digitizer on the market. What makes it so special?

Eliane Yeung: 7:17

qualities of all the details and with the n-scan system. We use a high definition scanner called Context, from Denmark, and you know, like there are five cameras in a controlled environment where all the lighting, shooting, dpi, control, the calibration tube and also our AI how we're able to capture the image and vectorize everything so you have all of these different solutions.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 7:41

How long did it take for you to learn how to use the software? Because there might be some listeners that are very anxious about you know they may be traditional fashion designers or product developers. Developers, you know doing pattern, cutting by hand, that thinking, going digital, and I have met many designers that you know are quite reluctant to even pick up the mouse and try a software like yours. So how long did it take you to learn such a software?

Eliane Yeung: 8:09

to learn depends on the individual. But for me I am good with technology. Um, I do have a like background in fashion, so I understand, like you know the language. So for me it wasn't, it didn't take very long. But of course our software you know. When you're learning, you know to really understand in depth, to like show it to other people, I really have to know all the tools and all the capabilities. So it's like a different level of understanding that I have.

Eliane Yeung: 8:38

But we have many clients that have never used a computer. Our system is the, you know, the first introduction to technology for them. And if you know the language, the pattern, engineering language, and then you go to our software, it shouldn't take that long to learn. I feel like maybe in one or two weeks you know if you really like start using and trying it out. It's very simple because it's basically scanning and our ai does the rest for you, like in the background. So you're scanning a pattern that you're like already created and our AI is determining what is the cut line, what is the notches, what are the you know, like the other elements of the pattern for you. But of course it doesn't do magic and you know you have to double check and everyone has, like, a different type of pattern. They create patterns differently. But once you learn how to, you know, like, where everything is and how to adapt the software for you.

Eliane Yeung: 9:34

I think it's uh, it shouldn't take long to to learn our system. Any new product there's an initial hurdle. It's not like you know, like if anything, even if it's simple, uh. But after you go through that, you know, I think it's pretty easy. It's easier than the CAD system. So oftentimes people uh, when people like get our system and they're transitioning to using 2D or 3D CAD, they're very happy because it's much more intuitive. It's again, the first step into digitalization.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 10:04

I think the key word there is hurdle. I'm just breaking that hurdle mentally. But even then, one or two weeks to learn a new software it's quite a quick way of learning a software. Um, so you must remember things very easily. And how did you feel when you just got it?

Eliane Yeung: 10:25

I'm always learning is it's not only about the tools, uh, it's about, like you know, your patterns like. So I have certain clients that have patterns. They're like super different and they're made in a different way, so I have to adapt and understand what they want and how they work. So I'm always, like you know, learning more and more and seeing different ways that I can do the same thing or like that I can help a client do you ever wish that you did a fashion design degree where you had to learn pattern cutting software?

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 10:56

Or do you think because the software tool is now so powerful that it's not necessarily needed for pattern cutting? You know those foundations to use the software.

Eliane Yeung: 11:06

Pattern engineering is so important. I think a product like a design is only as good as the patterns that you make. I feel like it requires a product like a design is only as good as the patterns that you make. I feel like it requires a lot of technical knowledge. It's not the fun drawing, like you know, like the creative part is more like technical part. So I do think you know like people benefit from getting you know, taking classes or if you're good, you could learn like anything is online right now. You can learn it online too. But you know there's a thing that you can also network when you take classes. So I think it's, you know, depends on the person. But that's with anything in any industry no, absolutely.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 11:41

Did you take classes for pattern cutting?

Eliane Yeung: 11:43

no, I did not take classes for pattern cutting, so you're such a genius, then in pattern cutting you didn't need the classes.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 11:50

So then you're featured in chapter three of the book, all about the fashion supply chain and prototyping. We discuss how the cutting part of the production can create a minimum of 15% cutting waste, as I said in the introduction. But AI is used in tools such as N-estimate, which can help to reduce this number by calculating the optimal late plan. However, the technology can only go so far if designers and product developers are still designing with initial patterns without waste in mind. So what can they do whilst also know how the tech is there to help them with this process?

Eliane Yeung: 12:30

I think it's always important to do the marker making, to create a marker If you don't have a software. A lot of like individuals maybe they don't have a software but it's okay. You can get the fabric and then just lay the patterns and maybe take a picture. If you do have a software, you can import the picture of the fabric and then lay it on top to check you know how much uh fabric uh you were using. And also, like a lot of people, when they're creating the first product they don't use their actual fabric because it's expensive.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 13:02

They maybe use, they use a muslin or paper and then like they drape and check you mentioned that in your answer that of course you have some clients that use the n estimate tool just to go off. You know, to give some context to our listeners, some of your clients do include Rag Bone, the fashion brand, h&m, the fast fashion giant, and then, left field as well is NASA, the space company, which is very interesting. How have the pattern cuttings within all of these organizations adjusted from moving potentially traditional hand pattern cutting to digital cutting?

Eliane Yeung: 13:54

adjusted from moving potentially traditional hand pattern cutting to digital cutting. Yes, I think they're all different cases. For rag and bone, I think they've been using our system for a while. One of the like. As you mentioned in the beginning, the fashion industry is very connected. So, uh, there was a person very knowledgeable about, uh, you know, production like fashion production that worked in another company that has user and scan digitizing system and I think when they went to Rag and Bone, they saw that I think they were using like more manual ways to digitize and then they brought our system there With I think you mentioned h&m I. I think it was also like they heard about us from the the industry and then also reached out they needed like a way to digitize uh, you know, digitize everything automatically and more efficiently and what was that transition process like for them?

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 14:48

did you have to handhold them, or were they okay by themselves?

Eliane Yeung: 14:51

oh no, these people are very, you know, good with technology. Very, uh like, understood right away.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 14:57

Like no handholding here and how about a brand like well, it's not necessarily a brand, but it's an organization, nasa. Like how did you feel when nasa approached you like we want your system because there's like nothing to do with you. Know fashion, shall we say?

Eliane Yeung: 15:13

yeah, but I think they do make you know spacesuits right or like other things um, but it like just, it's a really good company and precision is very important for them and well, if of course, it felt good, but I know that our end scan is very good and very precise oh so what book bears do you always see when people start digital pattern cutting?

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 15:37

What are some of those pet peeves that you have that you just go with? They need to really think about their process or maybe get some further training in some way.

Eliane Yeung: 15:47

It depends on the client. But I think again, when you're starting with a new system, there's always, like you know, you don't know it's a new language, new tools. Even if it's easy, there is a learning curve. And as humans I think everyone, you know we don't like change that much. So I feel like it's more like a feeling of change and accepting it, change and accepting it and then or and then working through and understanding that the software is not made to, you know, like, burden your life or replace you. It's just a tool that will help your life, uh, be easier, because you know, like you already created a pattern, created a template, um, why would you waste your time? And you know know, redraw it manually. You know and do everything that you already did With our system. You know you're scanning, you're taking a picture and our software is finding all the markings for you and assigning it. And after that you can, you know, double check if it did it correctly and then, easily, you know like, edit it if needed.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 16:53

So it sounds like it's more like a mental barrier and challenge more than a technical one.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 16:58

So if I paraphrase that correctly, you know, anyone new to digital pattern cutting just needs to basically take a step back and think about okay, by going into digital pattern cutting, this is potentially going to help optimize the pattern cutting process and essentially create efficiencies in the workflow. And I think that point is very pertinent because many fashion designers just kind of freak out when they just see digital pattern cutting or any software for the matter and they can like don't necessarily take that step backwards to think about, okay, how can it make their lives a little bit easier, as you'd say. And that's my. I guess my advice to anybody and our advice anyone listening to this episode is to think about how can those workflows be improved on a daily basis. And on that point you know digital fashion has exploded over the last few years. I mentioned right in the introduction of this episode Lectra and Gerber are still major market shareholders. So how does interoperability in IE and Hager's outputs work in other software work amongst all of this different software that's out there?

Eliane Yeung: 18:08

A lot of our clients work with Gerber, electra. But we do have other clients that work with you know, optitex, browseware, solidworks, autocad. So more and more I see variations of you know CAD systems. Our software can export to all major file formats, including native Gerber, native Lectra. But we also have a DXF and DXF is kind of like a universal CAD file format that most CAD systems can open. But DXF is not like PDF or JPEG, where you know there's one kind. There's a small variation. It's not as standardized as you know, pdf or JPEG. But we also create different variations for the different CAD systems that exist. For instance, we have DXF ASTM that was made specifically for OptiTags. We have DXF made for AutoCAD that can also be edited. You know you can edit the layers. We have DXF for PAD, for StyleCAD, for you know essentially all major CAD and CAM systems.

Eliane Yeung: 19:22

But of course a lot of people prefer the native file format because it has more information. But it's possible to adapt the DXF to contain this information as well. And since we work with a lot of lecture clients and a lot of group of clients and they're a bit different from the other CADs and feel like in a way they're file formats. We have this native file to help communication. I think when people um like larger companies, especially when they have like a system they like tend to stick to one brand. Uh, but there's a reason why sometimes they get other brands because, you know, sometimes like for instance, us, we specialize in what we do and that's a very specific area that is small but very important in the long run. So a lot of our clients are from like Trapper and the other major CAD and CAD systems.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 20:16

In a nutshell, if you are using the NHAGAR suite of tools, you can actually then create outputs that can be used in the other software. And I think it goes back to our point earlier again, that workflow getting more streamlined and easier and this is not just applied to your software, but the entire process where you might be using other software along the way as well and I think also from a production perspective, certainly when I was doing production out in China, if the client was able to supply file formats that were then usable by our factories, it just made the whole process a lot easier. There was none of this. You know backwards and forwards of shipping physical patterns. You know paper patterns.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 21:01

That did happen quite a lot with some of my clients. They didn't have those digital patterns and it was just like, oh my goodness, you know you've just spent like a hundred dollars, two hundred dollars, on shipping these paper patterns to us from you know like australia to hong kong, which then I have to go to china. All of this cost involved, all of this. You know that process in itself takes a week, for example, whereas if they were just to provide a dxf file, as you say. But whatever file is needed digitally, then you know that can be done at a click of a button.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 21:35

But I think it's definitely worth. You know training, you know people internally. They can make those workflows a lot easier. I know from a production perspective they also prefer that as well, because then everything is recorded digitally as to every adjustment that has been made and we can track which pattern cutter or product developer has done the change itself. And there's a communication element there as well. That is just made a lot smoother and I've certainly seen this firsthand, as you know one of the benefits of doing digital pattern cutting. Do you think digital pattern cutting is the future or do you think people always want to do manual pattern cutting at the same time?

Eliane Yeung: 22:16

I think, for in a production lab is definitely the future because, again, it's much more efficient. As you mentioned, everything is very true. A lot of our clients have the issue that you describe, like they will ship something and they will get lost, which is worse, or it will take weeks, um to get there, but with a click of a button you can just send the information, the vector information and also an image information, um, and in just this stream stream, the more data, the more you know, since you're communicating not only internally but with different locations. More data is important and it's also like when you put it digitally, you have an archival of things. We have a lot of clients that companies that have been you know for a long time and they have gigantic physical archivals.

Eliane Yeung: 23:06

Imagine if a fire happened or something happens, or to find an old style that you want to use as a base and adapt it. That's very time-consuming, but I think manual pattern engineering will always exist and a lot of high-end fashion companies. They care a lot about detail and fit and they do it manually. It's also about the skills of the person using it. There are super talented, amazing pattern makers that create very artistic, beautiful. I'm thinking I forgot their name, but there is like a person, a Japanese guy. They do origami, like patterns that are like. It blows my mind every time I see. So I think there's always space for a manual. It depends on you know your skills, and also when I feel like for a hobbyist or like you're making your own clothes, like you know, it's easy to drape on your own body too, uh, things like that, so both can exist so it's never gonna, of course, remove the need or the desire to do things by hand.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 24:22

And for readers of the fashion tech book, you will see in chapter three the setup of actually how the N-Hager solution does work, and it's pretty much a plug and play solution and it's super, super easy. I just want to finish off this episode, ellie, with a quick fire round of questions. So the first answer that comes into your head are you ready? Yes, have you read fashion tech applied yet?

Eliane Yeung: 24:49

I got the book last week so I haven't had time to read. It.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 24:52

Come to me oh, it took really long, then, to get to you in new york. It was set ages ago. Okay, you'll. So you'll read it soon the last fashion item that you digitally cut it's probably a sample that a client sent digital or physical pattern cutting.

Eliane Yeung: 25:07

Bold for production I'm not 100% sure digital but for like individual, like sometimes I do like making my own clothes and I just drape it on myself. So physical, because I'm only making for myself on my own Favorite brand that gets fit and cut right brand that gets fit and cut right. There is a brand called da wang is a new york brand that streetwear uh, chinese, modern chinese inspire. I'm wearing it right now that I love. And there's also another, uh, new york brand called paiso inspired.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 25:40

That I really love okay, is that going to your cultural heritage le?

Eliane Yeung: 25:44

yes, I think the version they make is so beautiful. It's like a mix of east and west and it just like really fits my body very well. I think they have a good grasp on like feet, the feet and everything's good.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 25:57

Best tip for someone looking to go from physical to digital pattern cutting.

Eliane Yeung: 26:02

Just go for it, don't be scared. I feel like sometimes people get you know hesitant and scared of changes, but after the initial hurdle it will just help you be more efficient, probably save money, save fabric, good costs.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang: 26:16

Thank you so much for your time, Ellie.

Eliane Yeung: 26:18

Thank you, Peter, for having me again.