Production planning

management in a garment
industry

Submitted by;
GARIMA
SHANKHDHAR
 Major departments of apparel industry
Layout of a plant of both department and machines should be the
expression of purpose. the most important is that the layout of the plant
should be even such as to facilitate the flow of material to pass through
various operations involved in the manufacturing of the garment. the size of
the plant will increase based on the number of machines to be placed on a
production floor, which is the main floor and the heart of all operations.

Let us see the various departments:

Merchandising department

Merchandising is a process through which products are planned,

developed, executed and presented to the buyer. It includes directing and
overseeing the development of product line from start to finish. Marketing
and merchandising department: A team of merchandisers and marketers
work together under a profit controls head. Merchandisers handle the
foreign buyers. The teams are made according to the buyers being
handled.

Merchandising is the department which mediates marketing and production

departments. Sometimes, merchandising department will have to do
costing and pricing also. In any case, the merchandiser is the person
whose responsibility is to execute the orders perfectly as per the costing
and pricing. So it is a very valuable department. Following are the main
responsibilities of merchandisers.

Two type of merchandising done in garment exports

 Marketing merchandising.
 Product merchandising.

Marketing merchandising

Main function of marketing merchandising is

  product Development
 Costing
 Ordering Marketing merchandising is to bring orders costly products
development and it has direct contact with the buyer.

Product merchandising

Product merchandising is done in the unit. This includes all the

responsibilities from sourcing to finishing i.e. first sample onwards, the
products merchandising work start and ends till shipment.

A Merchandisers key responsibility is as follows:

 Product Development
 Market and product Analysis
 Selling the concept
 Booking orders
 Confirming Deliveries
 Designing and Sampling
 Costing
 Raw Material
 Flow Monitoring
 Production Follow Ups
 Payments Follows
 Internal & external communication,
 Sampling
 Lab dips
 Accessories & trims
 Preparing internal order sheets
 Preparing purchase orders
 Advising and assisting production,
 Advising quality department about quality level
 Mediating production and quality departments
  Giving shipping instructions and following shipping,
 Helping documentation department
 Taking responsibility for inspections and
 Following up the shipment.

Internal and external communication of merchandise department:

Earlier, we had seen the importance of communication with buyers. By the

same way, internal communication is also very much valuable. As the other
departments will follow the instructions given by the merchandising
department, they have very high value. Other departments don’t know the
buyer’s instructions; they know only the merchandising department’s
instructions. So it is the sole responsibility of merchandising department to
instruct other departments the specifications and instructions of buyer’s
orders clearly.

Even a small omission, mistake or deviation of instruction may create big

problems. Sometimes, they may not be correctable. Hence all the
instructions to be double checked before being informed to other
departments. Prevention is better than cure.
Department structure
  
 Functioning of Merchandise Department

Production planning and control:

The production process involves the planning and control of how goods will
be manufactured. This usually includes the identification of raw materials
required, the quantities of components needed to manufacture items, and
the human workforce required to produce these products. These functions
are the tasks carried out by the Production Planning and Control
Department.

Production Planning Process

The production planning process within the production department involves

the planning of what materials are required for the production of supplies
and what is required to put these materials together. Issues to consider
when conducting the production planning process include:

 Future Demand Planning – what is the trend of customers’ orders?

Are there any upcoming events that might increase or decrease the
number of orders?
 Lead Times – What are the time frames to manufacture an item? Are
all the materials and tools required to manufacture an item available?
 Components Availability – are the components required to
manufacture an item in stock? If the components are to be ordered
this has to be taken into account and included in the time required to
manufacture the item.
 Workforce Availability – this takes into consideration the skills and
availability of the workforces.

The above considerations will be taken into account by the production team
during the planning activity as a reference to organize the work involved
according to the skills and machinery available.
By drawing up thorough production planning procedures that take into
account all the materials and time required to manufacture a product, it is
possible to calculate the production planning tools required and the cost of
manufacturing.

Production Control Process

Production quality control involves the monitoring of the product

manufacturing to ascertain that the products are produced according to the
methodology specified and that the product performs to the planned
functionality.

These functions are performed by the Quality Control team. Their role is to
check products to ensure that they meet the company’s manufacturing
standards. Quality control inspection will then proceed to identify any flaws
in the established process.

The ultimate aim of production control is to minimize the number of product

rejections and ensure that the process of production is optimized.

Importance of Production Planning and Control

To summarize the planning and control functions within a production

department involve three main activities:

 Production work is initiated

 The work carried out is measured and monitored
 Any necessary alterations are made.

These three main activities are referred to as the classic feedback control
loop. The feedback control loop may yield results that indicate a necessary
change in raw materials, manufactured items and so on.
 Sampling
The Details Attached to the Garment Sample

After the confirmation of order, each sample sent to the buyer has the
following details attached to it, with the help of a tag. It contains the details
pertaining to both, what the buyer has demanded and what supplement
fabric/trim etc they have used (if applicable).
 Ref no.
 Color
 Fabric
 Composition
 Description
 Quantity
 Style n0/ Size
 Store

 There may be a separate sampling department in a company. But as the

merchandiser is the person who is interacting with the buyers regarding
samples and other requirements, this sampling department will work under
the supervision of merchandising department. Also as the samples are to
be made according to the buyers’ price ranges and quality levels,
merchandiser has to advise sampling department suitably.

Types of samples:
 Salesmen samples or promotional samples
 Proto samples or fit samples
 Counter samples or reference samples or approval samples
 Wash test samples
 Photo samples
 Fashion show samples
 Pre-production samples
  Production samples
 Shipment samples
Workflow of Sampling

  
Development samples or enquiry samples

When we work with some buyers continuously, we will have to keep on

sending samples to them very often. Whenever they have enquiries, buyer
may need samples. Buyers may like to see the garments in a new fabric.
For one enquiry, they may need samples in different fabrics to choose
from. If they want to develop new style in new fabric, then also we will have
to send these samples.

We may have to spend too much on these samples. But these samples are
inevitably important to develop business. Sometimes, even the buyer is not
so confident of some enquiries, if our samples are good and attractive at
reasonable prices, they will bring orders to us.

Also we will have to send samples to the newly contacted buyers to show
our workmanship, product range, quality standards and price level. These
samples should be sent so that they would attract the buyers.

So it is better for a company to have a separate sampling department so

that they can create new styles in new fabrics to impress the buyers.
  
Salesmen samples or promotional samples

Some buyer needs these samples for getting the orders from their
customers. If the buyer is having 7 salesmen in his office, then the buyer
will ask us to make 7 samples in each style. The salesmen will book the
orders from their customers, by showing these samples. Buyer will place
the order to us accumulating the quantities.

If we have sent samples for 5 styles, some times, we may get orders for all
5 styles, 3 styles or 1 style. Some times, we may not get order for even a
single style. Expected sales may not be possible, due to poor quality,
unsuitable colours, improper measurements, unmatched prints or
embroidery, etc of salesmen samples. Or it may be due to local business
recession or competition or unsuitable prices. Any way, we have to make
these salesmen samples perfectly with sincere interest to get orders.
We might have spent more money, time, etc for making these samples. But
as we don’t get orders, we can not blame the buyer. He too can not help us
in this regard. To avoid this embarrassing situation, it is better to discuss
about the cost of these samples with the buyer before proceeding for
sampling.

Normally the sampling will cost us approximately 3 to 5 times of the

garment price. We can not expect to get the full cost from the buyer. Of
course these samples will help us for our business. Hence we can ask the
buyer to accept 2 or 3 times of garment price as the sampling cost, for the
styles which we don’t get orders. Some genuine buyers will agree for this.
  
Photo samples or fit samples

These samples are to be made after getting the order sheets. These
samples are needed to check the measurements, style and fit. So they can
be made in available similar fabrics but in the actual measurements and
specifications.

Some buyers may need these samples if they want to print the photos of
garments on photo inlays, packing box, hang tag, etc. These samples may
be needed for local advertisement or buyer’s promotional occasions.

In any case, the samples will be worn by the highly paid models. The
buyers will arrange the photo shoot session, by spending huge money to
the advertising agencies. So the buyers will need these samples strictly on
time. If they don’t get samples on time, the buyers will have to pay more
compensation to the advertising agencies and models.

Buyers will ask us to make the photo samples according to the intended
model’s body fit. So it is important to strictly adhere to these
measurements. Buyer may ask these samples to send either from
production or before starting production.
  
Counter samples or reference samples or approval samples

These samples are to be made in actual fabrics with actual trims. If the
order is for 3 colours, buyer may need samples in any one colour and
swatches (fabric bits) in other colours. These samples should be strictly as
per the specifications in the order sheets. We have to get the approval for
these samples from the buyer before starting production.

After getting the approval, the approved samples should be followed in

production. Some times, buyer may comment on fabric, measurements,
making, etc. We have to follow his comments carefully in production.

Some buyer will mention that the order sheets subject to the approval of
counter samples. So these samples are very important.
  
Wash test samples
If these samples are sent before starting production and if we get some
remarks or comments on these samples, we can correct them in
production. But some buyers will need us to send these samples from
production before shipment. In this case, these samples may be
considered as ‘shipment samples’. If these samples are rejected due to
some complaints, then we will not have any excuse and we will be in real
trouble.
  
Pre-production samples
These samples are almost like approval samples. They have to be made in
actual production fabric with actual bulk trims. They will represent that the
production will be like these samples.
  
Production samples
These samples are to be sent before shipment to get the buyer’s
confirmation for shipment. Hence these samples are needed to be perfect
in all manners. Buyer may check these samples for everything or anything.
Sometimes, they may do wash test also. We should not get any remark or
comment. We have to get only ‘OK’ from the buyer. Then only we can ship
the goods and we can be sure of getting payment. So these samples are to
be sent with more and more care.
   
Shipment samples
These samples are to be sent after shipment. They should be sent in actual
packing with all labels, tags, etc. (Generally these samples will not be
tested by buyer for anything. And even if we get some comments from
buyers, we can save ourselves by saying that these samples were sent
from the left over garments after the shipment; hence there might be some
mistakes. If we expect any comments in these samples, it is better to
inform the buyer during sending these samples).
 Fabric sourcing

Fabric sourcing department is basically engaged in determining how and

where its merchandise i.e. fabric will be obtained. It works in co—ordination
with the merchandising department and looks after the delivery of the
required goods within the scheduled time and cost. A fabric sourcer must
have knowledge about all varieties of fabric in order to execute their
function effectively.

Storage

Location system of storage is followed i.e. fabric packages are stored in

two areas
 Checked fabric and
 Unchecked fabric.

Such system maintenance of the store makes it easy to locate the fabric
whenever needed in future.

Fabric Issue

The fabric store issues the fabric for cutting on challan. All fabric is not
issued at one go; instead it is issued as required. The challan contains
information regarding style no, color, buyer’s name, and quantity to be
issued and issued for which production unit.
Fabric Sourcing Workflow
Functioning of the Department
 Purchasing department

The purchasing department is similar to the sourcing department but the

main difference is that the sourcing department works for sourcing the
fabrics alone while the purchasing department works for sourcing the
accessories and trims. However, the working procedure is the same. The
working is as follows.

The merchandisers give the tech-pack and the BOM (Bill Of Materials) for a
particular style to the purchasing department and the concerned person will
start the further process and for costing purposes the in—house price is
given like, the cost involved in the production and also the price involved for
a unit involved with respect to the complete procedure involved for its
production. In the process of doing the in-house pr ice , suppose the cost of
100 pieces of button is Rs.32 then a Taxes of 2% + 14% of exercise duty +
10% of per unit price is added as the transportation charges and this all
together makes the in—house price (a hidden margin of 5% is also taken
into consideration).

This breakup is given to the merchandiser by the purchasing department

for the costing purpose, the cost sheet is made by the merchandiser s and
the order is confirmed by the buyer based on the cost sheet given by the
merchandiser.

After the order is being confirmed by the buyer the merchandiser will sit
with the other concerned departments and then the exact quantity required
and the breakup of the trims and accessories with respect to colour, size, M
OQ, etc., will be given by the merchandiser to the purchasing department in
the form of a sheet which is generally followed in the industry for all the
orders irrespective of the buyer.

Once the purchasing department receives this format, then the PO is sent
to the concerned department for accessories and trims. Once the first shot
of the raw materials is sent by the supplier then the lab dips is done and is
approved by the buyer.
After receiving the goods from the supplier they are checked for the
quantity and also checked according to the inspection criteria specified by
the buyer and replaced if any of them are not meeting this criterion. This
department also keeps in track of all the quantities received in-house
timely. The goods are generally received in breakups as suggested by the
merchandiser according to the requirements stated by the planning and the
production department and this breakups will have specified date and
quantity and if this breakups is not being mentioned then the order is being
placed with the supplier several times for small quantities and PO’s have to
be sent all the time so, in order to overcome this a breakups are being is
given.

Then the purchase department has to follow up with the supplier for
deliveries as and when the merchandiser asks for the new set of the
materials for that particular style and then the department also has to
maintain the receipts and al so they have to maintain the documents of the
inspections that are being carried out for those materials.
 Finishing department

The costs involved in this department are excessive in almost every factory
surveyed, it is vital that this department is thoroughly investigated since
there is a great potential to achieve a large financial saving.

The time taken to finish the garments is

surprisingly high. Some of the companies are
examining the garment as many as 5 times, and
the number of repairs is excessive.

Finishing departments are over-staffed in most

of the factories studied; the time taken to finish a
garment is surprisingly high. Garments are being examined as many as five
times and the repair rate in most of the factories is shocking. This is
obviously driven by the fear of order rejection or re-works. Work content
can be reduced by installing a proper work control system and a culture for
quality product production.

Layout and control

The layout and work flow was generally poor and

disorganized. Not one of the finishing departments
have  adequate systems of control, the emphasis is
only directed to delivery and not productivity, this is understandable in the
present circumstances but must be re-thought since it is excessively
expensive.
 Finishing Time

Finishing times are excessive in almost every

company; with the average finishing time per
garment varying from 11.2 minutes to 57.6
minutes.

Bundle System / Operator control

None of the finishing departments use bundle systems

for control, nor do any of them have any form of
scientific performance measuring techniques. There
are no monitoring controls except to record the number of repairs

Finishing department

Headed by the section in-charge with ironers and with few helpers in the
pressing section, garment is ironed to the specified size, pinned up along
with a cardboard back support to hold the garment stiff. If it is a shirt
cardboard collar, PVC collar ring etc are to be placed at this stage. if it is of
stiff standup collar shirt then a small butterfly is placed near the collar
button. Now the garment is ready for packing.

Packing department

The packing supervisor heads this section with packers and helpers. after
the garment is nearly pressed and folded to size and color; tags are hung
from the top button to show the trademark, label, size, color code etc. the
garment are put in to a poly bag closed with cello tape. The buyer specifies
the ratio of the packing. only cardboard cartons are used for packing
purposes.
 Thank you