Critical path of merchandising

Critical Path Method and Garmenting

Time consumed in product development is the biggest issue. Approvals and bulk fabric in house consumes approx. 75% of the total pre-production activity time and as far the most time consuming task. Whole supply chain needs a system which

•       Reduces time spent in PD.

•       Co-ordinates   internally   for all    pre -production activity each.

•       Producing a high quality clear cut specifications for manufacturing and quality purposes

About 60% of the delays are at Pre production stage and remaining at the production stage and reduction of such time can help the company in meeting the delivery dates on time. Controlling the delay would enable the company to reduce the deviation   from the schedules lead time and honor the delivery date.

STEPS IN PROJECT PLANNING

•       Order  Identification

•       Activity Differentiation

•       Activity sequencing

•       Activity Duration estimation

•       Critical Path

•       Gantt Chart

•       PERT Chart

•       Analysis of activities

SCOPE OF CRITICAL PATH METHOD

•       Garment merchandising activities are characterized by people oriented function .

•       Interdependent activities are synchronized between succeeding and preceding activities to make process network .

•       Critical chain is the solution the garment industry is looking for as it is based on task dependency.

CRITICAL PATH METHOD

•       The Critical Path Method, abbreviated CPM, or Critical Path Analysis, is a mathematically based algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities. It is an important tool for effective project management.

•       It was developed in the 1950s by the US Navy when trying to better organize the building of submarines and later, especially, when building nuclear submarines. Today, it is commonly used with all forms of projects, including construction, software development, research projects, and product development, engineering, and plant maintenance, among others. Any project with interdependent activities can apply this method of scheduling.

•       The essential technique for using CPM is to construct a model of the project that includes the following:

1. A list of all activities required to complete the project (also known as Work breakdown structure),
2. The time (duration) that each activity will take to completion, and
3. The dependencies between the activities.

OUT PUT

•       The shortest time possible to complete the project.

•       The longest path of planned activities to the end of the project.

•       The earliest and latest that each activity can start and finish without making the project longer.

•       Which activities are "critical" (i.e., on the longest path) and which have "total float" (i.e., can be delayed without making the project longer.

PROCESSES INVOLVED IN APPAREL MERCHANDISING

Activity Identification

PRE PRODUCTION ACTIVITIES

•       Garment shrinkage test sample

•       FIT Sample

•       AD Sample

•       Wash sample

•       Garment processing test sample

•       Yellow tag sample

•       Green tag sample

•       Fabric shade band

•       Fabric Processing test

•       Size set

Production activities

•       Garment shade band

•       Production pull

•       TOP Sample

•       Final inspection

Activity sequencing according to the requirement of the order

1.Order Confirmation

2.Garment spec sheet (GSS) & Wash Standard receiving

3.BOM Recd.

4.SBD-Po Receipt By

5.Sampling yardages booked

6.S/Ydg. In-house By

7.Bulk Fabric Booking

8.Fabric Process test report from buyer

9.Fit Submit

10.Fit approval

11.Wash Sample submission

12.Wash Approval

13.Garment Processing test sample submission(GPT)

14.Yellow tag sample submission(YTS)

15.Yellow tag approval

16.Receiving of fabric bits from supplier

17.Fabric Shade band submission

18.Fabric shade band approval

19.GTS Submit On (Green tag sample)

20.GTS Comments/Approval Or Sealed

21.Fabric In house

22.Trims Ordered On

23.Trims In house By

24.GPT Report receiving

25.Size Set ready and approval

26.PPM(Pre Production meeting)

27.PCD(Production)

28.Garment shade band submission

29.Garment Shade Band Approval

30.Production Pull  Submission

31.Production pull approval

32.TOP Submission (Top of the production)

33.TOP approval

34.Final Inspection

35.X-Factory

36.X-india

Sequencing of activities and application of critical path method

•       Activity sequencing chart

•       GANTT Chart

•       PERT Chart - to elaborate but powerful tool

Time Taken In Critical & Non Critical Activities

Critical Activities	Planned Duration	Floats
Order Confirmation	1day	0
Size Breakdown receiving from the buyer	8 days	0
Bulk Fabric booking	1 day	0
Fabric In House	35 days	0
Size set ready and approval	3 days	0
PPM	1 day	0
PCD(Cutting)	1 day	0
Garment shade band submission	4 days	0
Garment shade band approval	4 days	0
Production Pull Submission	4 days	0
Production Pull approval	2 days	0
TOP Submission	6 days	0
TOP approval	4 days	0
Final Inspection	1 day	0
X factory	1 day	0
X India	7 days	0

Non critical Activities	Planned	Float as per CPM
GSS and wash standard receiving	1 day	3 days
BOM receiving	1 day	3 days
Sampling Yardages booked	1 day	3 days
Sampling Yardages In house	2 days	3 days
FPT Report receiving from the supplier	15 days	20 days
FIT submission	7 days	8 days
FIT Approval	10 days	8 days
Wash Sample Submission	10 days	3 days
Wash sample approval	10 days	3 days
GPT Submission	7 days	18 days
YTS Submission	10 days	8 days
YTS approval	8 days	8 days
Receiving of fabric bits from the supplier	7 days	17 days
Fabric Shade band submission	11 days	9 days
Fabric shade band approval	3 days	9 days
Green tag submission	10 days	3 days
Green tag sample approval	7 days	3 days
Trims ordered on	1 day	10 days
Trims in house	32 days	10 days
GPT Report receiving	15 days	18 days

EFFECT OF POOR MPP

IMPROPER PRODUCTION PLANNING

General Reasons of delay in pre-production activities

•       sampling yardages

•       Order of trims and fabric

•       sampling threads

•       wash standard achievement

•       GTS sample

•        Internal Miscommunication

•       Concept of two buying houses

•       Load in sampling and R&D Washing

•       Late delivery of sampling trims and sampling yardages

•       Difference between the lot of fabric used in development stage and sampling stage

•       Improper handling

•       Time of Issuing & stores

•       Holidays & leaves

•       Delay from buyer side in sending the standard  and sample

•       FPT Report

•       GPT report

General Reasons of delay in Production Activities

•       Improper Documentation

•       Start up loss

•       Delay in Fabric/Trims  becoming in house

•       Delay in approval of Garment shade band(as it was seen in many styles)

•       Improper checking of trims at the time of in house

•        Delay in approval/Review of Production Pull

•       Improper quality checking

•       TOP rejection or delay in approval of TOP

•       Improper presentation of TOP

Merchant’s priority and critical path method

•       While estimating tasks hidden safety should not be taken into account for each task .In the  case of Arvind following are the tasks where hidden safety  should not be taken:-

• Ø  FIT Sample approval
• Ø  Wash Sample approval
• Ø  Production Pull submission(specially in the case of small order quantities)
• Ø  TOP Submission.
• Ø  Wash sample submission

.

•       Early finishes should be promoted rather than completion on time   .

• Ø   No due dates for individual tasks but finish as early as possible and hand over   , next person for next task. In the case of issuing a Sampling indent a merchant generally does not issue it to the sampling by the time sampling Yardages comes in house. In most of the cases it kills time as sampling yardages comes late .Merchant should   issue Sampling indent as soon as the order is confirmed, so that they can focus on another task.

•       Lapses in the information Communication

• Ø  . In   these cases Merchant should communicate directly face to face with the concerned person and formalities can be done in later stages. As Arvind works on Oracle data base   , so it creates such kind of problem.

•       System related problem should also be removed , these problems pertain to the delay which are caused due to excess time taken in documentation, interdepartmental Communication, the release of orders, flow of work, process followed etc.

•       Planning of Pre production activities

•       Resubmission

•       Improve resource scheduling to reduce bottle necks and improve efficiency.

• Ø  Mostly in the case of resubmission, before the sample goes into the sampling every item should be in stock

•       Un availability of sampling yardages at the time of re submission

•       Actual thread and Wash sample.

•       Item issue delay from the store

•       Identification of Opportunities to change sequential tasks into parallel activities by understanding the true predecessor and relationships among activities.

•       Creation of  proper Mechanism for communication

• Ø  Speak clearly
• Ø  Write clearly
• Ø  Repeat the things
• Ø  Get feed back from the respondent

•       Criticality of wash

•       Fabric/Trims In house Problem

•       Imported and Local items

•       Approval Problem

•        Internal and external Tracking down mechanism of samples

•       Proper co ordination among the team