Submitted By; Abhishek Sinha

Faculty Guide: Garima Srivastava

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Make a Calendar Plan for a Men’s Shirt whose in-store date is 1 st

October 2012 and order quantity is 80000 pcs. No. of machines are 150 and working hours are 8 hours per day.

Calendar Planning

In Apparel Manufacturing, “Production capacity” is one of the most important criteria used for vendor selection by the buyers. It is because; the production time of an order is directly proportional to vendor’s production capacity. So it is very important that marketing and planning personnel should aware about the production capacity of their production units.

Capacity of a factory is primarily expressed in terms of total machines factory have. Secondly, how much pieces the factory produces on daily for the specific products? In general, total numbers of machines in a factory mostly remains same for a period. But factory may produce various types of product during the season. According to the product (style) category, machine requirement may change and daily average production in each style may vary. So to be specific during booking orders, planner should know exactly how much capacity he or she needed to procure the order in a given time period.

A factory’s capacity is presented in total minutes or hours or in pieces (production per day). The method used to calculate capacity has been explained in the following. To calculate Daily production capacity (in pieces) one needs following information.

THE PLANNING PROCESS IN CLOTHING MANUFACTURE

The basic process includes the following stages:

1. Receive the order

2. Plan to check if there is available capacity in sewing to achieve the delivery date required

3. Plan to check the available capacity in non-sewing areas (cut, embroidery; print, wash and pack)

4. Plan to check sufficient lead time to order and receive fabric, trims, approve sample, carry out lab tests

5. Confirm delivery date to customer and reserve capacity

6. Communicate plan to all departments

7. Monitor progress against plan

8. Re-plan as required and return to Point 5.

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1. Calculation of factory capacity (in hours): The factory has 150 machines and it runs for 8 hours a day.

Total number of machines = 150

Shift hours per day = 8 hours

So total factory capacity (in hours) = 150*8 hours = 1200 hours

2. Calculation of Product SAM (SAM): Supposing our product to be a shirt whose SAM is 33.53. The SAM value has been taken from the IE department of Orient Craft3. Factory Average Efficiency: This data is collected from industrial engineer. Or calculate it with historical data. Suppose average line efficiency is 50%. Read the article - How to calculate efficiency of a production line or batch?

3. Calculation of production capacity (in pieces): Once we have above the above information, we can use the following formula to calculate production capacity.

Production capacity (in pieces) = (Capacity in hours*60/product SAM)*line efficiency

Suppose the factory has 5 sewing lines and each line has 30 machines. Total 150 machines and working shift is 8 hours per day. Total factory capacity per day is 1200 hours (150machines * 8 hours). If factory is producing only one style (Shirt) of SAM 33.53 minutes and used all 150 machines daily production capacity at 80%

= (1200*60/33.53)*80% Pieces

= (1200*60*80) / (33.53*100) Pieces

= 1717.86 Pieces

= 1718 Pieces

The term Capacity refers to the production capacity available or the potential daily output of the company. Production capacity can be expressed in number of units per day.

So time taken to complete 80,000 pieces assuming 6 days working in a week,

No. of days taken to stitch 80,000 pieces = 80,000/1718 = 46.56 days

If there are 6 days working in a week, the no. of weeks required = 46.56*7/6

= 54.32 days

= 7.76 weeks

= 8 weeks

[Note: Production will vary according to the line efficiency and during learning curve or in the initial days when style is loaded to the line]

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Production (capacity) planning is normally done based on sewing capacity. Having knowledge of the capacity in other processes (internal or external) is also very important. Otherwise planner may fail and will not be able to meet the dead line. Other departments such as Cutting room capacity, Finishing room capacity, Washing Capacity and capacity of the value added jobs.

The production planning department (PPC) computes the available capacity annually and advises the marketing and merchandising department to fill the same. Apart from efficiency of the work force, planning also takes into consideration, the changes in products. For example a shirt may be of different styles such as long sleeved, short sleeved, two pockets, single pockets, without pockets, formal collar, casual collar, collar with or without fusing, with or without front placket, with or without back yoke or with saddle stitch or decorative stitch on the shoulder. There may be many more variations. Similarly, other garments such as women’s shirts, skirts, pants, jeans, dresses also have tremendous variation. Based on the design, its construction and complexity and finally the fabric, the daily productivity and thereby the capacity is estimated for a month but changes are incorporated the very next day! Such are the exigencies of the industry.

Resource Planning

A planner has to consider the resources available to accomplish the planned production. These may be in the form of raw materials, manpower and finances. Based on the available capacity and orders booked by the marketing and merchandising department, the raw material schedule is prepared by the planner. Each confirmed order received has to be planned and produced for it to be delivered on time.

Based on the capacity allocated to a product, resources required are communicated to the product management team, which works closely with different agencies such as raw material suppliers, finance and commercial department to make these available to the production department.

The production plan is based on customer demand and market conditions. While the capacity may be insufficient sometimes, it is also possible that capacity will be underutilized on some occasions. Gaps in the plan due to underutilization increase production costs. Hence, it is the responsibility of a planner to alert whenever such breaks or gaps occur in the plan. He or she can only plan the extent of the visible horizon, which, is a season in the garment industry and starts to implement the initial decisions. Often due to uncertainties in either demand or raw materials, revision in the plan becomes necessary. Fabric for a style planned for production may not arrive in time for inspection, and cutting

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or approval from the customer is not received. In such instances, the planner has no alternative but to revise the plan and schedule another style for production instead.

Among all the resources, the manufacturing department or the production department plays a vital role. A merchandiser and the sourcing manager may make all the raw material available for the production department to commence its activity. However, production in the garment industry heavily depends on the efficiency of each individual on the production floor. Various machines available increase the efficiency of the operators but they cannot substitute for them.

The making of the full-sleeved men’s shirt involves 66 operations and requires 62 machines. The resources available to the planner are 45 machines and 40 operators. He or she will therefore plan production with the available resources perhaps by combining some of the operations and modifying some so that they can be performed in the cutting room.

Tools like RSDB will also enable the planner to assess the work involved when the merchandiser gives a sample to him initially and calculate the time it takes for production. Based on the time taken for a garment, the planner estimates the total time required for production. This will enable planning the material requirement date and setting a time schedule for other pre-production activities.

Timely action

Time and Action Plan refers to simple managerial tools that can be used to complete a certain task within the defined time frame. Simply put, it is a list to things that must be done, along with the time by which it should be done, to complete a certain task. In the garment industry, Time and Action Plan, also referred to as TnA, is mostly used for manufacturer exporters who need to submit a TnA for each export order that they receive. However, TnA can be used for various tasks that need to be done. This article will deal with the application of TnA in the production cycle.

For garment exporters, TnA is generally a reverse calculation, wherein the date of the shipment is taken as a zero day, and then all the actions that are required to be done to execute the order are listed and the time taken to complete the job is indicated next to it. The date for execution of the job is calculated in an inverse manner and also indicated next to that activity. A typical TnA for an export order, which needs to be shipped on say October 1, 2012 may look like this.

Activity No. of days (Lead

Start Date Completion Date

Remarks

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Time)Sample package received from buyer

5 days 01-March-2012

05-March-2012

The garment is a Shirt.

Approval of 1st

Prototype Sample(Style Ref)

15 days 06-March-2012

20-March-2012

Approval of 2nd

prototype sample15 days 21-March-

201205-April-2012

Finalization on price of samples given by the buyer

15 days 06-April-2012

20-April-2012

Fit Sample approval 20 days 20-April-2012

10-May-2012

Salesman Samples(With actual fabric/trims)

20 days 11-May-2012 30-May-2012

It has been assumed that same fabric has been sourced for making samples

Purchase order for fabric

1 day 31-May-2012 31-May-2012

PO has been issued.

Receipt of Fabric 15 days 1-June-2012 16-June-2012

Here the fabric reqd. for 80000 pcs. Has been ordered.

Cutting 7 days 17-June-2012

23-June-2012

Cutting will be in lots of pieces, after the 1st lot is cut, it is sent for sewing

Stitching 55 days 24-June-2012

16-Aug-2012

Stitching will complete in lots

Washing 8 days 17-Aug-2012 23-Aug-2012

Last lot sent for washing

Finishing 6 days 24-Aug-2012 29-Aug-2012

Last lot sent for finishing

Approval by the buyer

3 days 30-Aug-2012 01-Sept-2012

Initial Inspection 5 days 2-Sept-2012 6-Sept-2012Packing 3 days 7-Sept-2012 9-Sept-2012Final Inspection 2 days 10-Sept-2012 11-Sept-

2012Here, we are considering these times for the final lot, the previous lots will take the same time but they have been completed as soon as one lot had completed sewing

ORDER CONFIRMATION- LEAD TIME FOR PRODUCTION: 55 days lead timePre-Production Samples

5 days 12-Sept-2012 17-Sept-2012

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Buffer Days 2 days 18-Sept-2012 19-Sept-2012

Shipment 8 days 20-Sept-2012 28-Sept-2012

In-stores/Warehouse

3 days(in batches)

29-Sept-2012 01-Oct-2012

Loading of documents in bank

3 days 01-Oct-2012 04-Oct-2012

Receipt of payment 30 04-Nov-2012 04-Nov-2012

The above is a simplistic model of TnA, wherein broad activities are listed down and date by which they should be completed are marked against them. However, the concept of TnA can be applied effectively for domestic garment manufactures that produce various styles to be sold to various customers. If a detailed action plan is prepared for various activities to be done to complete a production cycle of various cutting orders or job cards that have been issued, then an elaborate system is also needed. In such a system, it should be possible to track the status of each job card in terms of its work done, and expected date of completion of the tasks.

Garment Men’s Shirt Style 1 Men’s Shirt Style 1 Men’s Shirt Style 1

Style 129899 129899 129899Color White Blue GreyDays Since Cut 51 51 51Gap 0 0 0Cut Issue (1st Lot) 4410 5700 4890Cut Issue date 17-06-2012 17-06-2012 17-06-2012Yet to cut 15590 24300 25110Planned prod. Qty. 1 1 1Stitching 1725 1692 1675Stitching Date(1st Day) 24-06-2012 24-06-2012 24-06-2012Embroidery 0 0 0Checking 546 467 520Checking Date(1st Lot) 30-06-2012 30-06-2012 30-06-2012Sorting 347 431 398Sorting Date 06-07-2012 06-07-2012 06-07-2012Washing 2398 2763 2634Washing Date(Random Lot)

17-08-2012 17-08-2012 17-08-2012

Finishing 3460 4289 5751Finishing Date 24-08-2012 24-08-2012 24-08-2012

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Stage-wise production status

The next process is to have a report wherein the status of each process for various colors in the same style are listed with actual quantities and actual date when the task was carried out. This is illustrated with the help of the following report:

For the control mechanism to work, it is necessary to record the expected values of various events right till the completion of the manufacturing cycle, and then the actual values can just be compared with the expected. This will greatly reduce the burden of the top management of the medium sizes owner-driven companies, where almost all decisions are referred to the owners. A proper application to implement control is necessary to achieve the above, as against the more common method of control through manual workings on MS Word or excel statements. Implementing such applications will mean better use of the computers in the organization, and also better control over various production activities, leading to timely deliveries, customer satisfaction, and improved business, with reduced dependency on human factor.

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