Production Planning for Manufacturers

To remain competitive in today's 'rapid change' fashion environment, it is essential for manufacturers to achieve effective production planning.

More styles, smaller orders, increased product complexity and much shorter lead times are just some of the issues faced by today's fashion manufacturers as they strive to 'keep up and stay ahead of the competition'.

Recognising a real need for effective planning solutions within the garment and footwear industries, we have continuously evolved our FastReact solutions over many years to address exactly these issues.

Business Benefits:

• Improved use of available capacity
• Improved 'on time' materials availability
• Fewer production stoppages and lower excess costs due to 'waiting time'
• Improved control of 'Work In Progress', hence reduced use of overtime to solve problems
• Improved 'on time' delivery performance
• Lower air freight and late delivery penalties
• Ability to respond quickly when requirements change
• Rapid ‘What if’ planning to look at alternative solutions
• Ability to reduce lead times through improved control

Benefits For Users:

• All information in a single place to allow improved decision making (critical path and materials linked to the plan... see the immediate effect of a change in one area on all other areas)
• Ability to respond quickly when requirements change
• Rapid 'What if' planning to look at alternative solutions
• More time spent actually addressing planning issues, not just 'working the numbers'
• Advanced capabilities for vertical planning, machine planning and embellishment

= IMPROVED BUSINESS PERFORMANCE, COST SAVINGS AND INCREASED COMPETITIVENESS (see customer testimonials)

Most importantly, FastReact provides a single point of reference to view all the information needed to make effective planning decisions (product details, order details, free capacity, material requirements and availability, critical path progress (sample approvals etc) on one easy to use and understand planning screen. With manual systems, it is impossible to bring all this information together into a single coordinated view.

Planning Boards. At the heart of the FastReact solution are easy-to-read planning boards. These planning boards enable merchandisers and planners to do their job quickly and accurately whilst keeping them in control. In addition, the planning boards provide customer facing staff and management with a wealth of up to date information.

High Level Planning Board(s)

 

The high level planning board provides a Company level, 'Control Tower' view. This is particularly useful in businesses with multiple manufacturing sites. It provides visibility of all orders and their status and provides the planner with a mechanism that can be used to effectively manage free capacity and the allocation of orders at the most appropriate factory/supplier.

Detailed (Low Level) Planning Board(s)

 

The low level planning board enables the planner to perform detailed planning at production line or machine level. Orders are sequenced through the key resource (finitely scheduled).

Download File

20_Apparel_Manufacturing.pdf []

Download File

20_Textile_Manufacturing.pdf []