Calendar Plan or Action Plan For Production
Calendar Plan or Action Plan For Production
Calendar Plan or Action Plan For Production
Make a Calendar Plan for a Mens Shirt whose in-store date is 1st 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 vendors 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 factorys 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 womens 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.
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Fabric for a style planned for production may not arrive in time for inspection, and cutting 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 mens 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.
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Activity
Sample received buyer Approval of 1st Prototype Sample(Style Ref) Approval of 2nd prototype sample Finalization on price of samples given by the buyer Fit Sample approval
No. of days Start Date (Lead Time) package 5 days 01-Marchfrom 2012 15 days 15 days 15 days 20 days 06-March2012 21-March2012 06-April2012
Remarks
Salesman 20 days Samples(With actual fabric/trims) Purchase order for 1 day fabric Receipt of Fabric 15 days Cutting 7 days
20-April10-May2012 2012 11-May-2012 30-May2012 31-May-2012 31-May2012 1-June-2012 16-June2012 17-June2012 24-June2012 17-Aug-2012 23-June2012
It has been assumed that same fabric has been sourced for making samples PO has been issued. Here the fabric reqd. for 80000 pcs. Has been ordered. Cutting will be in lots of pieces, after the 1st lot is cut, it is sent for sewing Stitching will complete in lots Last lot sent for washing Last lot sent for finishing
Stitching
16-Aug2012 Washing 8 days 23-Aug2012 Finishing 6 days 24-Aug-2012 29-Aug2012 Approval by the 3 days 30-Aug-2012 01-Septbuyer 2012 Initial Inspection 5 days 2-Sept-2012 6-Sept-2012 Packing 3 days 7-Sept-2012 9-Sept-2012 Final Inspection 2 days 10-Sept-2012 11-Sept2012 Here, 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 time
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55 days
12-Sept-2012 17-Sept2012 2 days 18-Sept-2012 19-Sept2012 Shipment 8 days 20-Sept-2012 28-Sept2012 In3 days(in 29-Sept-2012 01-Oct-2012 stores/Warehouse batches) Loading of 3 days 01-Oct-2012 04-Oct-2012 documents in bank Receipt of payment 30 04-Nov-2012 04-Nov2012 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 Style Color Days Since Cut Gap Cut Issue (1st Lot) Cut Issue date Yet to cut Planned prod. Qty. Stitching Stitching Date(1st Day) Embroidery Checking Checking Date(1st Lot) Sorting Sorting Date Washing Washing Date(Random Lot)
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5 days
Mens Shirt Style 1 Mens Shirt Style 1 Mens Shirt Style 1 129899 129899 129899 White Blue Grey 51 51 51 0 0 0 4410 5700 4890 17-06-2012 17-06-2012 17-06-2012 15590 24300 25110 1 1 1 1725 1692 1675 24-06-2012 24-06-2012 24-06-2012 0 546 30-06-2012 347 06-07-2012 2398 17-08-2012 0 467 30-06-2012 431 06-07-2012 2763 17-08-2012 0 520 30-06-2012 398 06-07-2012 2634 17-08-2012
3460 24-08-2012
4289 24-08-2012
5751 24-08-2012
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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