Cardiff Metropolitan University

International College for Business & Technology

Business Information Systems 2021

CSE4003

Apparel Manufacturing Company

Group Assignment

Submitted by

Reg. No Name
1. CL/HDCSE/CMU/100/11 G.W.S.C De Silva
2. CL/HDCSE/CMU/100/03  K.M.K.D M. S Fernando
3. CL/HDCSE/CMU/100/27 M.R.M Nazick
4. CL/HDCSE/CMU/100/07 S. Krishikesh
5. CL/HDCSE/CMU/100/02 H.D.D Rusirika
 Executive Summary

The report is completely based on Brandix a leading Garment Company in the world which
we selected to conduct a business information management assignment. The main aim of this
assignment was us to collect details about the information-based systems of company.
Further, to find out the innovations and the pros and cons of the business used to solve
problems and overcome future errors. As we have conducted business errors and solution to
overcome them had been illustrated within the report and successfully brought out the
information’s systems of the organization.
 Acknowledgement

The reason for the success of this project is the dedication given by our team and we would like to
give our heartful regards and appreciation for our Lecture Mr . Thiviyan Senthilrajah for helping
us throughout the semester and briefing us all about lessons covered  in this project.
Furthermore, a special appreciation and a credit goes to Mr. W.G. Nalaka Pushpakumara
(Executive Production Supplier Brandix) who guided us about the company and provided
information regarding the process of the workplan and helped us to develop ideas to this project
and complete within due to the deadline.
 Contents

Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................................

Acknowledgement.......................................................................................................................................

About us......................................................................................................................................................

Vision...........................................................................................................................................................

Mission........................................................................................................................................................

Goals............................................................................................................................................................

Task 1..........................................................................................................................................................

Functional Areas of Brandix Manufacturing Company...............................................................2

Human Resources Department...................................................................................................2
Marketing department................................................................................................................3
Finance Department....................................................................................................................4
Information Needs.......................................................................................................................4
Financial Reports.........................................................................................................................4
Merchandising Department............................................................................................................4
Functions of Merchandising Department..................................................................................5
Information Needs.......................................................................................................................5
Washing department.......................................................................................................................5
Cutting department.........................................................................................................................5
Functions......................................................................................................................................5
Product Development & Innovation Department.........................................................................7
Functions of Product Development &Innovation Department................................................7
Information Needs.......................................................................................................................7
Task 2..........................................................................................................................................................

Categories of Information System of the functional areas............................................................8

Task 3........................................................................................................................................................

Suggested Information system for the current problem.............................................................11

Task 4........................................................................................................................................................

Information systems used by the Functional areas of the Business...........................................12

Task 5........................................................................................................................................................
Task 7........................................................................................................................................................

Latest Information system Proposed............................................................................................18

References.................................................................................................................................................

Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................
About us

Brandix is one of the largest apparel solutions in Sri Lanka and it provides services around
the world. 40 years of experience and Brandix has 23 factories around the countries which
involves around 50000 employees, and it has distributed branches in India and Bangladesh as
well.

Vision

We place a value on creating and maintaining an environment that encourages our people to
learn.
Our Vision at Brandix is creating and sustaining cultures that would introduce or promote our
learning techniques among our employees to provide excellence in short period to lead in the
market share. Simply we want to provide Inspired Solutions to our customers, enabling
Brandix to earn the trust of global fashion and clothing brands over the years.

Mission

To provide extraordinary general and specialty clothing Material services for the population
locally and internationally and to maintain customer loyalty.

Goals

Provide services to Fullest potential to gain Customer services and invest the company brand
to gain customer loyalty and to be recognized all around the world. Further, these desires are
considered to be done by our empowered employees.

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Task 1

Functional Areas of Brandix Manufacturing Company

Human Resources Department

Many large companies and even smaller companies do have a HR Department since the
coordination of the company, or the organization been recorded and maintained in this
department. Further, this department conducts orientations in order to show the services and
benefits done and given by the company.

Functions of Human Resource Department

 Advertising Job Vacancies
 Receiving and recording all job opportunities, applications, arranging interviews and
notifying candidates the results.
 Notifying staff of promotion opportunities.
 Monitoring the work conditions of the staff.
 Checking health and safety and keeping accident records.
 Recording Sick leaves and reasons for absence at work
 Carrying out Company Welfare policies.

Information Needs
 Employee Demographics (Name, age, gender etc.)
 Staff attendance Records.
 Exact salaries and wages of Employees
 Interview tasking.

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Marketing department.

Marketing department is the department which promote sales the product. It provides
necessary points to increase the market of the product through targeting the customer. This
team is responsibility design the write product at the right time with right price. Marketing
department also responsible for build a good connectivity with customer.

Functions of Marketing Department.

 Analyzing the apparel business and collect the market knowledge to make good
decisions in the company.
 Using regular process, capitalizing on financial strength with new customers.
 Expand the profitable of customers and promote business with keeping with the
company goals.
 Make ensure that budget is achieved.
 Verify that all the projects’ activities are implemented according to functionally for
the given time frame.
 Developing business relationships by maintaining and managing the CRM tool inside
the team.
 Leading projects to minimize process errors and introduce more robust/user-friendly
and time-saving technologies that provide clear insights for key company decisions.
This is done with the help of Power BI and other tools.
 Working on industry analytics projects (internal/external) tools to predict future
insights so that marketing plans can be developed.

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Finance Department

The finance department is also in charge of handling the company's cash flow and ensuring
that significant funds are available to meet the company's obligations.
What you would expect from your finance department is largely determined by elements such
as the owner's or manager's level of engagement in the company. Managers can access
management accounting information to monitor operations and decide where further actions
are taken. Your bookkeeper will oversee the company's day-to-day transactional accounting.

Functions
 Producing invoice, checking payments are received and chasing up overdue
payments.
 Recording and checking money received and paying invoices received.
 Maintain the payroll procedure.
 Producing the accounts each year for make decisions.

Information Needs
 Daily sales Reports
 Invoices of day-to-day expenses and incomes
 Inventory Reports

Financial Reports
 Financial statements
 Profit and loss reports
 Day to day Cash flow reports
 Declaration of equitable changes

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Merchandising Department

The Merchandising department prepares and develops a strategy to enable a firm to offer a
variety of items that meet sales and profit goals, and it collaborates closely with buyers to
guarantee that the product purchased will help them meet their sales goals.

Functions of Merchandising Department

 Promotions and advertising campaigns are created and organized.
 Maintaining product inventories
 Collecting information on market trends and customer responses to items.
 Analyzing sales information
 Make an inspection timetable with the buyer's inspection team.
 Confirm on-time and trouble-free delivery to the customer.
 Reporting to the department's leader on a regular basis

Information Needs
 We need to know if they're delivering the appropriate goods to the proper
location.
 To improve sales, we need to acquire information on how to advertise certain
items and services.
 Guarantees that a business has the right number of items on hand.
 Merchandisers should be aware of their suppliers' contact information as well as
distribution stock information.

Washing department.

Garment washing is a very important departments as Brandix Company is an apparel

company before the product moves to the customer. There are many types of washing like
cloud wash, acid wash, stonewash etc. washing is used to improve bulkiness and soft hand
free, to remove chemicals which are used during manufacturing.

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Cutting department.

This department is available in every garment industry and cutting department has special
importance in this industry. This cutting department has a huge contribution in this company
also, because the first step in the manufacturing process. This department steps up with the
cutting department head, cutters, spreaders, quality checker and helpers for storing.

Functions
 Get fabric from the fabric store.
 Relaxation of fabric.
 Cut order planning.
 Fabric spreading.
 Planning and making marks.
 Fabric cutting.
 Shorting
 Bundling.
 Number of garment plies.
 Inspection component.
 Re cutting panel.

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Product Development & Innovation Department

This department simply ensures the development of the products and conducts the market
introduction of new or redesigned products. It also improves the good service given to
customers.

Functions of Product Development &Innovation Department

 Strategy- Building the right process at the exact time
 Engineering- Constructing the right production
 Analytics- Creating a goal to achieve the objective in the end.
 Conducting operations – The struggle made for testing.

Information Needs
 Conceptualization
 Product Design plan
 Exact deadlines
 Exact Customer requirements for orders.
 Required Design development.

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Task 2

Categories of Information System of the functional areas.

Transaction Processing system

Transaction processing system (TPS) which also known as real time processing which that
helps to maintain day to day transections activities that helps to conduct business activity
examples as follows,
I. Records of each employee
II. Payroll
III. Orders of sales entry
IV. Shipping

By the way TPS process information for the business transactions that includes collections,
modifications and retrieval of data and process data to the database.

Functions of Transaction Processing system

 TPS ensures integrity, availability, and security of data’s it ensure the quick response
and transections of data’s which known as system routine functions
 It helps to configure, monitor, and manage users’ transections which known as
System administrative functions.
 Can enter data into customs business information’s, perform intercomputer
communications and finally to manage user interface we can name it has Application
development functions.

Management Information System. (MIS)

A management information system (MIS) is a computer system that consists of both

hardware and software and serves as the backbone of an organization's operations. MIS is the
study of information technology, people, financial, organization and relationship among
them. These records, store, and process to use in day-to-day decision. The goal of
management information systems (MIS) is to collect data from a variety of sources and create
insights that help businesses grow.

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Need of the Management Information System.
 Decision makers’ needs information to make effective decision.
 MIS facilitate to build connection within outside of an organization.
 MIS records all the transaction records of the organization
 Provide accurate results.
 Useful for planning.
 Provide update results.

Marketing department is playing the main role in the company. MIS support to the marketing
department to product development, distribution, pricing, promotions, and sales.

Data processing.
It consists of the collection, transmission, storage, and output of data. As all these are
kept as records, MIS can be able to facilitate all these services.

Functions of predictions.
It predicts future decisions. The team can create those decisions by comparing those
MIS records.

Functions of the plan.

MIS arranges the plans for each functional departments and it also provides suitable
planning reports for each functional department.

Functions of control.
It monitors and inspects the operations of plans by comparing the differences between
operations and planes. After analyzing why those differences come.

Office Automation Information System (OAS)

An Automated Information system is a system consisted with computer hardware, Computer

Software and valid data which performs several functions to complete a work task in the
department of an organization. Further, it increases productivity and indicates and keep
record of ongoing work and new projects to the department.

The main reason to use office automated system is to reduce manual effort in an organization
to increase work speed to result and achieve the daily productivity levels.

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 Several Functions Used
 Collecting
 Processing
 Storing
 Transmitting
 Finally displaying information.

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Task 3

Brandix is one of the most successful and leading renown garment company in the world, but
any company or business will have to face problems and negativity and overcome them in
order to lead ahead in the market and survive in the competition carried out in garment
industry. We conducted an interview with a management employee at brandix therefore we
discovered that they are facing production delays in an affectable way.

Suggested Information system for the current problem

 Since Brandix is a company based on garment materials production delays will be

occurred, but they will have to overcome this situation to achieve their goal in
satisfying customer needs therefore Management Information system would be ideal
to use to increase the productivity levels. By using this information system human
errors will be cancelled out since details and records will be up to date and relevant
information regarding production will be in proper manner in day-to-day activities
conducted by the organization. Further, MIS system creates the higher-level
management employees such as managers to conduct inspection on work therefore the
necessary work will be done accurately.

 In addition to this, MIS System provides firmed and quick decision making which
will increasing working speed of the ideal department to work efficiently and this will
result in an increase in the production side therefore this will prevent in production
delays.

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Task 4

Information systems used by the Functional areas of the Business.

There are different and many departments in a business organization to improve the
workflow and improve the quality levels of the business. In order to improve the business
these departments use several information systems such as mentioned below.

 Marketing department.
Marketing department uses the Marketing Information system (MIS). This
information system is designed to approve the decision-making process of the
department which means that MIS helps to improve and support marketing decisions
of the business. Usually, the marketing data has been gathered, stored, analyzed, and
distributed to managers of the department therefore MIS enables quick decision
making therefore this would prevent errors in the department.

 Human Resources Department

HR Information system is a system to gather data and store employee’s info in the
organization. This system is ideal for HR department since HRIS is capable of
handling recruitment, performance management, learning & development. Further, by
using the above-mentioned information system the HR department will be able to
satisfy their employees and it will result in a higher efficiency level in the business.

 Finance Department
Finance department is simply known to handle the cashier or the accounts part of the
business or the organization therefore it uses finance information system to keep track
of the day-to-day financial transactions taken place in the organization without any
error. Thus, this system is a compulsory system used for any business whether it is a
massive or a tiny business since the transactions containing financially larger amounts
must be handled safely and securely therefore, this will provide time and save time for
extra work and prevent mistakes.

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Task 5

Management information system provides the needed data for the owner and other key roles
of the company. It also provides current data and trend analysis in the correct situation. MIS
always used help to get the correct decision at the correct time. At the new start the company
must justify where the business must go. So, the company lists out the goals for the
betterment of the company to guide the business. MIS is a system which provides all records
to guide the business.
The goal of the MIS system is to establish performance standards and to notify the business
owner when those standards are not met in time to take corrective action.

The Management Information System helps to be competitive in the business world.

Several Methods of MIS or Management Information System supporting the company.

 Managing business data.

When the owner needs to know how much sales happened, managers must be
responsible to provide those data. Management information systems provide with
important information about each department and the organization overall.

 Information business decision.

MIS is helpful a lot in decision making. As an example, let’s look around in the
marketing department and see how important MIS is to be deciding. Product, price,
place, and promotions are the components which include for the decision making in
the marketing department. So, MIS is very important as they deliver accurate, timely,
relevant, and complete information. So, it helps to get a better decision. MIS has self-
checking and cross-checking features. From those system MIS reduces the errors.

 Analyzing business trends.

The MIS consists of past sales, productions, customer services. So those records help
to create strategic planning and budget report. MIS has advance mathematical tools
that can access relationship and calculate correct future trends.

 Examining strategy and scenario.

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Information and trends can sometimes indicate an evolving situation that the company
wishes to change. Management information systems can assess various options and
allow to examine various scenarios. What-if scenarios are a useful tool for
determining the best strategy for the company. Management information systems
predict what will happen based on historical data on how the company's operations
performed.

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TASK 6
Business Problems and Solutions
Knowing your concerns can help you develop to confront them and solve. The number of
things arise and get an impact online output, performance, product quality, and timely
delivery. Here are a few challenges that many manufacturing companies deal daily.

 Covid 19 Outbreak (Pandemic time) - In October 2020, Brandix was the center of a
large scale industrial COVID-19 pandemic. The Brandix outbreak has resulting in
10,000 COVID cases, accounted for nearly half of Sri Lanka's total. Following the
outbreak, Sri Lankan police set curfews on several factory.

 Sewing Mistake Development - Mistakes would come because of incorrect materials

or cutting during the sewing process. Even if certain flaws are discovered and
resolved, there will exist flaws during the final manufacturing steps.
Quality control teams are in place in brandix. They oversee ensuring that the
production respects the rules. On-site testing will be performed by the inspector to
ensure the garment's durability and functioning. These exams are easily like what
most persons do on a daily.

 The Issues of Raw Materials - The raw materials are sometimes missed and only
received when there is a pressing need for them, and they are often of poor quality.
Production Setup Slow - The scheduling will be planned in a timely way by the
production planning department, but the fabrics will not be provided by the intended
cutting date. Lines are ready with machine operators but cutting teams can take more
time to cut and managers receive materials late, resulting significant delays.

 Absence of a machine operator - In the production line, there is an increase in

worker delays related to worker absence. As a result, business is encouraging
employees for being present on all days of the month.
Heavy Downtime - Machine operators in Sri Lanka are waste crucial point based on a
variety of factors, including poor organizational coordination and earlier design flaws.

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  Limited Information - Production plan meetings and weekly meetings are organized
at factories. Even after getting the meeting's specifics, the production department is
not given the exact details. Additional strain of reaching timelines, mass production
begins well before order's entire objectives are known. We know you work in the
garment or fashion industries and have worked with these difficulties.

 Product testing - Set a tolerance for each point of measurement when providing your
clothing details only with manufacturer. Garment quality management begins with
proper garment measurements and dimensions. Quality control teams are in place in
some firms to assure that production follows the guidelines at every level. These
exams are basically equal to what most persons do on a daily basis.

Solutions
 Manufacturers can restore wasting space and save money and cut work-in-progress
and automating stock control via improving materials transportation and storage.
.
 Manufacturer' top three issues are machine safety, maintenance, and the environment.
Finger guards used in sewing, cutting, and different purpose are simple and keep
employees safe. Increased levels of dust and textile fibers can degrade final product,
and exposure to solvents used to clear oil stains causes stress and headaches.

 Good lights for high-quality products and workstations raises process and efficiency
workers' life easy. Is it true, however, that higher lighting equates to increasing power
costs? No way: by employing direct sunlight while doing normal cleaning and
maintenance, you should improve lighting while decreasing your electricity costs.

 Simple increases to ventilation, heat, and pollution would have a big impact. Even in
older buildings, much may be done to boost productivity and improve ceilings, walls,
and floors. Narrowly to refer for heating, ventilation, and air quality would have a
major impact.

16
 Recombining work and building buffer stocks are simple management approaches
that are simple to implement. There are advantages to introducing multi-skilling,
developing group workstations, and planning production around products. These
benefits of improving product quality and a smoother, more efficient workflow.

 Good welfare facilities are an essential for any apparel industry. Attendance, job
satisfaction, motivation, morale, and health are all increased. You'll be shocked at
how many low-cost types of investments exists in this part of your industry.

17
Task 7

Latest Information system Proposed.

Knowledge Management System (KMS).

KMS is used to store extract information. Knowledge Management System include employee
training materials, company policies, procedures etc.

The goal of the KMS is, to increase an organization's efficiency while also preserving its
knowledge. This system is boosting the efficiency of the organization, when making the
decisions.

KMS is used by customers, employees, other stakeholders, and management. It ensures that
technical skills are distributed throughout the organization while also giving images to assist
employees in making sense of the data they are provided with.

This system also provide access to external information required by workers to complete their
role.

The importance of knowledge management grows, as the market grows increasingly

competitive, one of the best ways to stay ahead of the competition is to create your company
in a smart, flexible approach.

Advantages of KMS.
 It’s made more efficient workplace.
 Faster decisions making.
 Building organization knowledge.
 Increased collaboration.

Decision support system.

This system is storing the data which required for management to tack correct decision. DSS
is analyze and summarize large quantity of data and put into visual. It’s made more
understandable. Decision support system can be computerized and manpower. This following
support system access evidence and authorizes actions to be taken. Finally, user makes the
final authorization. By conducting a system like DSS, can be used to predict a company's
revenue over the next six months based on new product overall sales.

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Characteristic of DSS system,
 Information can understand easily to the customer.
 Can produce many types of reports.
 DSS can loaded to any kind of a computer.

Advantages of DSS.
 Improves efficiency and speed of decisions making.
 Encourage learning on training.
 Increases the organization's control, competitiveness, and ability to make futuristic
decisions.

Executive Support System.

Executive Support System is also known as Executive Information System. ESS is like DSS.
This system is use by leading role of a company like executive leaders and owners.

Executive support systems are designed to be used directly by top managers to provide
support for non-programmed strategic management choices.

ESS is software that allows users to transform enterprise data into executive-level reports that
are easily accessible. This system is used by billing, accounting, and staff department.

Executive support system provides for higher-level managers to make better decision as
following.
 ESS provide summarized external and internal form information to top level
managers.
 ESS us an important tool of top-level management. They can help an executive in
identifying a problem, an opportunity, or a trend.
 ESS will simply focus on interactive and executive assessment tools that end-users
may utilize on their own.
 ESS is user friendly and fully customized tool.

Advantages of ESS.
 Easy for upper-level executive to use.
 Ability to analyze trends.
 Better understanding.

19
 Contribution to the flexibility of strategic control.
 Early identification of company performance.

20
References
Anon., 2020. [Online]
Available at: https://www.starmind.ai/resources/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-so-
important
[Accessed 5 october 2021].

Anon., 2021. [Online]

Available at: https://cleanclothes.org/news/2021/sri-lankan-garment-workers-suffer-during-
pandemic-while-brands-and-manufacturers-continue-to-make-profits
[Accessed 5 october 2021].

Anon., 2021. [Online]

Available at: https://qsstudy.com/business-studies/how-executive-support-sysem-helps-making-
better-decision
[Accessed 5 october 2021].

Anon., n.d. [Online]

Available at: https://www.pharmapproach.com/roles-responsibilities-finance-department-
pharmaceutical-industry/
[Accessed 4 october 2021].

Anon., n.d. [Online]

Available at: https://bizfluent.com/list-6765198-duties-production-department-.html
[Accessed 5 october 2021].

Anon., n.d. [Online]

Available at: https://www.speedstepsoftware.com/news/blog/236-common-problems-found-in-
garment-production
[Accessed 6 october 2021].

bert, 2019. chron. [Online]

Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/role-management-information-systems-
decisionmaking-63454.html
[Accessed 5 october 2021].

ronald, n.d. kengo blog. [Online]

Available at: https://blog.kenjo.io/main-functions-of-a-human-resource-department
[Accessed 4 october 2021].

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Conclusion
The necessary Business Information has been collected and justified according to suitable
tasks and required details have been provided with the ideal references therefore, the project
was done completely within the details taken related to business information systems,
functional Areas of the business, and the difficulties faced by the apparel manufacturing
company we have chosen thus, the pros and cons have been justified. Realistic example has
been recorded and collected to finalize the project.

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