Benefits of ERP in Apparel Industry

Supplier Benefit
Information in time about material to be provided.

Management Benefit
Cost savings, production control, transparent information flow, good customer relationship,

Employee Benefit
Satisfaction in working and achieving goals with good team work.

Customer Benefit
On time delivery, cheaper price

What is ERP?

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a category of business-management software—typically a suite of integrated applications—that an organization can use to collect, store, manage and interpret data from many business activities, including: product planning, purchase. manufacturing or service delivery.

How to Calculate SAM of a Garment?

SAM or Standard Allowed Minute is used to measure task or work content of a garment. For the estimation of cost of making a garment SAM value plays a very important role.

General Sewing Data (GSD) has defined set of codes for motion data for SAM calculation. There is also  other methods through which one can calculate SAM of a garment without using synthetic data or GSD. 

Method #1: Calculation of SAM Using Synthetic Data

In this method 'Predetermined Time Standard' (PTS) code are used to establish 'Standard Time' of a garment or other sewing products. 

Step 1: Select one operation for which you want to calculate SAM.

Step 2: Study the motions of that operation. Stand by side of an operator (experienced one) and see the operator how he is doing it. Note all movement used by the operator in doing one complete cycle of work. See carefully again and recheck your note if all movement/motion are captured and correct. (for example motions are like - pick up parts one hand or two hand, align part on table or machine foot, realign plies, etc.)

Step 3: List down all motion sequentially. Refer the synthetic data for TMU (Time measuring unit) values. For synthetic data you can refer GSD (without licence use of GSD code prohibited but for personal use and study one can refer GSD code and TMU values) or Sewing Performance Data table (SPD). Now you got TMU value for one operation (for example say it is 400 TMU). Convert total TMU into minutes (1 TMU=0.0006 minute). This is called as Basic Time in minutes. In this example it is 0.24 minutes.

Step 4: Standard allowed minutes (SAM) = (Basic minute + Bundle allowances + machine and personal allowances). Add bundle allowances (10%) and machine and personal allowances (20%) to basic time. Now you got Standard Minute value (SMV) or SAM. SAM= (0.24+0.024+0.048) = 0.31 minutes.

I like to refer you an article Secret Behind Calculation of Machine Time in SAM for better understand of SAM calculation. 

Method #2: Calculation of SAM Through Time Study

Step 1: Select one operation for which you want to calculate SAM.

Step 2: Take one stop watch. Stand by side of the operator. Capture cycle time for that operation. (cycle time – total time taken to do all works needed to complete one operation, i.e. time from pick up part of first piece to next pick up of the next piece). Do time study for consecutive five cycles. Discard if found abnormal time in any cycle. Calculate average of the 5 cycles. Time you got from time study is called cycle time. To convert this cycle time into basic time you have to multiply cycle time with operator performance rating. [Basic Time = Cycle Time X performance Rating]

Step 3: Performance rating. Now you have to rate the operator at what performance level he was doing the job seeing his movement and work speed. Suppose that operator performance rating is 80%. Suppose cycle time is 0.60 minutes. Basic time = (0.60 X 80%) = 0.48 minutes

Step 4: Standard allowed minutes (SAM) = (Basic minute + Bundle allowances + machine and personal allowances). Add bundle allowances (10%) and machine and personal allowances (20%) to basic time. Now you got Standard Minute value (SMV) or SAM. SAM= (0.48+0.048+0.096) = 0.624 minutes.

What is Line Planning?

Line planning is scheduling and allocating of orders to production lines according to product setting (product is being made in the line) and due dates of production completion. A line plan defines when a style is going to be loaded to the line, how many pieces to be expected (target) from the line and when order to be completed. For example, please refer to the following Table-1, where a simple line planning has been shown in spread sheet.

Benefit of Line planning: It helps production manager as well as line supervisor with information such as what is the daily production target for line. They set their line (machines and manpower) accordingly. Line plan also provides information such as how many days style would run, what is the next style going to be loaded?

Table-1: Line Plan

	Line 1		Line 2		Total
Date	Daily Prod.	Cumm Prod.	Daily Prod.	Cumm Prod.	Daily Prod.
1-Dec	loading #2341A, Qty -3000 pieces		300	1200	300
2-Dec	200	200	300	1500	500
3-Dec	250	450	300	1800	550
4-Dec	400	850	200	2000	600
5-Dec	400	1250	loading #Polo , Qty -1500 pieces		400
6-Dec	400	1650	0	0	400
7-Dec	400	2050	100	100	500
8-Dec	400	2450	300	400	700
9-Dec	400	2850	350	750	750
10-Dec	150	3000	350	1100	500
11-Dec	loading #432K, Qty -5500 pieces		400	1500	400
12-Dec	100	100	loading #YK45, Qty -4500 pieces		100
13-Dec	250	350	200	200	450
14-Dec	500	850	250	450	750
15-Dec	500	1350	400	850	900
16-Dec	500	1850	400	1250	900
17-Dec	500	2350	400	1650	900
18-Dec	500	2850	400	2050	900
19-Dec	500	3350	400	2450	900
20-Dec	500	3850	400	2850	900
21-Dec	500	4350	400	3250	900
22-Dec	500	4850	400	3650	900
23-Dec	150	5000	400	4050	550
Daily Prod. – Daily production or line output Cumm Prod. – Cumulative production of the style till date

How Many Days a Factory Needs to Make 5,000 Polo Shirts?

To find the answer of the above questions you must have following information

1. SAM of the Polo Shirt (i.e. 16 minutes)
2. How many machines will be used to make the order (i.e. 20 machines)
3. Daily working hours (i.e. 8 hours)
4. Line efficiency (i.e. 100%)

To make 5000 polo shirts-

Capacity required = 5000 X 16 minute = 80,000 minutes = 1333 Hours

Available Capacity/Day = 20 X 8 hours = 160 Hours

Assume that line works at 100% efficiency.

So, Days required (theoretical) to produce 5000 polo shirts = 1333 / 160 = 8.3 days (9 days)

If factory run at 50% efficiency then = 9 X100%/50% = 18 days

For planning add one more day as in practical one day will be lost for loading and line setting.

If you production is calculated at 50% efficiency then you need 19 days to complete the above order.

How to Make Line Loading Plan for Garment Production?

In “Line loading plan” planner decides on which date a style to be loaded and how many lines to be considered for the style to meet the production completion date.

Step 1: Make a list of current orders with details such as order no., order quantity, style description, and production completion date. Refer to the Table-1. Suppose order has been received on the month March and production completion date on May from 4^th to 21^st.

Table- 1: Order list

Order No.	Garment Description	Order Quantity  (pieces)	Production completion date
OCS101	Dress	2000	10th May
OCS102	Blouse	3000	12th May
OCS103	Trouser	5000	15th May
GAP104	Long sleeve Tee	3000	17th May
GAP105	Skirt	3000	21st May
GAP106	Dress	1500	21st  May
GAP107	Long sleeve Tee	10000	10th May
GAP108	Skirt	1200	04th May
	Total	28,000

Step 2: Suppose a factory has 5 production lines. Calculate available capacity of the line using capacity calculation formula considering absenteeism (10%) and line efficiency %. You should have knowledge about line wise production efficiency to calculate actual capacity of a line. Or calculate it prior to line loading plan.

Available capacity in hours = {(No. of operators/machines x working days in a month x daily work hours x 60) – absenteeism %} x Efficiency %

Line wise available capacity has been shown in the Table-2. It is considered that each line is equipped with 25-32 machines (operators), factory’s normal shift time is 8 hours (480 minutes) and line efficiency is in the range of 39% to 55%.  

Table- 2: Available capacity calculation

Line No.	No. of Operator	Minutes/Day (Daily working Hrs. X 60)	Line Efficiency	Absenteeism %	Capacity available
Line 1	30	480	40%	10%	5184.0
Line 2	28	480	50%	10%	6048.0
Line 3	32	480	55%	10%	7603.2
Line 4	32	480	45%	10%	6220.8
Line 5	25	480	39%	10%	4212.0

Step 3: Next, calculate required capacity for each order (style) in minutes and in days. Assume that above 8 styles to be run in 5 lines and styles will be loaded only in single line. Consider that all lines blank and you have no issue with starting date. In this stage you have to also decide which line to be chosen for the styles. Allocate order to the line according to product category and line set up (machines laid).  In Table-3 line number has been mentioned against the order number. Use the following formula for the calculation.

Capacity required in minutes = Order Quantity X Style SMV 

Capacity required in days = Capacity required in minutes / Capacity available per day.

Refer to the table-3 for calculated minutes and days required for each style.

Table-3: Required capacity calculation

Order No.	Loaded to Line No.	Order Quantity	Style SMV	Capacity Required (Minutes)	Capacity available per day	Capacity Required (Days)
OCS101	Line-1	2000	28	56000	5184	11
OCS102	Line-2	3000	25	75000	6048	12
OCS103	Line-3	5000	20	100000	7603.2	13
GAP104	Line-4	3000	10	30000	6220.8	5
GAP105	Line-5	3000	18	54000	4212	13
GAP106	Line-1	1500	28	42000	5184	8
GAP107	Line-4	10000	10	100000	6220.8	16
GAP108	Line-5	1200	18	21600	4212	5

Step 4: Now do backward calculation to find the date for style loading. Days needed to complete production on due date, Sundays and holidays must be excluded in day count. And add one to two days initially for line setting according to style requirement.  If required, you can add buffer for one to two days. To make it easy in calculating the loading dates considering above points use spreadsheet based planning board. For example refer to the following image-1. I have made loading plan on the planning board for theses styles. Light blue colored columns represent Sunday (weekly off days).  Finally make another table (Table-4) representing loading date against orders.

Image-1: Planning Board

Table-4: Order loading date

Order No.	Garment Description	Loaded to Line #	Production completion date	Capacity Required (Days)	Loading date	Comments
OCS101	Dress	Line-1	10th May	11	26thApril
OCS102	Blouse	Line-2	12th May	12	27thApril
OCS103	Trouser	Line-3	15th May	13	28thApril
GAP104	Long sleeve Tee	Line-4	17th May	5	11thMay
GAP105	Skirt	Line-5	21st May	13	5thMay
GAP106	Dress	Line-1	21st  May	8	11thMay
GAP107	Long sleeve Tee	Line-4	10th May	16	21stApril
GAP108	Skirt	Line-5	04th May	5	28thApril

Step 5: Once you gone through this article, practice this with some of your real styles. I wish you can make it. If you feel you need further assistance then write us.