‘Made in Japan’ is cheaper than ‘Made in China’

With garment factories today facing all kinds of severe competition globally, what garment manufacturers really want to know is how they can produce garments both at low cost and high quality. While many people compare sewing machine prices, Yamato focuses on reducing garment production costs to improve overall factory profitability by manufacturing superior-quality sewing machines.

In fact, considering their high- quality performance, Yamato’s sewing machines quickly pay for themselves and in effect are cheaper than standard Chinese- made machines. That is because while Yamato’s Japanese-made sewing machines are more expensive than standard ones made in China, they significantly reduce garment production costs compared to Chinese-made machines.

Quick return on investment
“We don’t really consider other countries to be our competitors. Our products are superior in terms of return on investment, time to profitability, quality, durability, and longevity,” says Yamato President Shogo Kondo, who explains how the company’s flagship product can generate quick returns on investment for garment manufacturers. “If a garment factory uses our EZH-B/UTQ model, which is our latest semi-automatic workstation with an under-thread trimmer with Stitch-Lock function, then the need for follow-up processes using a bar tack machine and its operator can be eliminated when factories and buyers collaborate. If you have two Yamato workstations per sewing line, and you have 10 sewing lines, then in 3-4 years, you can not only recoup your investment but also save enough money to buy a Mercedes-Benz car.”

Model EZH-B/UTQ, semi-automatic workstation for hemming, equipped with an automatic thread trimmer with anti-unravel function

Quick start-up time in new locations
Once garment production has been shifted to a low-labor-cost country, it is difficult to find skilled sewing operators, resulting in lower productivity for the first several months and lower profits due to poor product quality. Yamato’s latest “deskilling sewing machines” solve that problem. With these machines, anyone can sew with even difficult-to-stitch fabric to create a beautiful finished product to high-quality international standards without special skills or extensive experience. Such innovations are the results of Yamato’s efforts to continually create improvements that reduce its customers’ start-up costs and time to profitability.

Order-winning features—Only from Yamato
Many apparel companies have chosen Yamato’s excellent “-8” series because it raises their quality level and allows them to make competitive proposals, leading to the acquisition of new customers and more orders from existing customers. Yamato’s innovative engineering and product development capabilities have been highly regarded by leading garment manufacturers and their clients. Famous brands say that “Yamato has the most professional engineers in the industry” and that “Yamato leads the industry in innovation.”

“‘Made in Japan’ is the mark of good quality and our customers can rely on our machines for 15-20 years. To manufacture various machine models flexibly and with short production lead times, Yamato has used the Toyota Production System and the Toyota Management System since 1995.” With the Yamato Way of marketing and the use of Yamato’s Production System as its core, Yamato has remained consistently profit- able and financially robust, even when faced with major economic crises, such as those after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the 2008 global financial crisis, the 2010 European debt crisis and the 2020 Covid-19 crisis. This is one of the reasons why Yamato always keeps growing despite intensified global competition.

No. 1 choice for leading garment makers
Major leading garment factories all over the world are using Yamato sewing machines as their primary equipment. The most successful companies Yamato has worked with from the beginning now rank among the top 10 large-scale garment factories in the world today. The largest have over 80,000 employees and around 60,000 machines each. These entire leading garment companies trust in the ‘Made-in-Japan’ quality machinery offered by Yamato to ensure the quality of their own end- user products.

“Yamato is the best choice for customers who want to distinguish their products from their rivals’, reduce costs and deliver the highest-quality products, leading to the acquisition of new, high- end customers and higher profits,” explains Kondo. “Therefore, overall, garment factories have increased profits and savings, strengthening them financially year after year. Yamato’s latest sewing machines are the best choice for garment factories to remain competitive.”

In six years, Yamato will mark its 100th anniversary, which will serve as a fitting moment for the company to reflect on its proud history of high-quality, while also envisioning its future role as one of the industry’s leading innovators. “We at Yamato are proud of the fact that everyone recognizes Yamato’s Brand as the highest quality in the industry,” concludes Kongo, “We always want to remain one step ahead as a reliable ‘Solution Provider’ and innovation leader serving the garment industry. We cannot reduce our machines’ prices, but we can reduce your T-shirt production costs. ‘Made in Japan’. It means more than words.”