Page 28 - Industrial Cutting of Textile Materials

Lay planning and marker making in textile cutting operations 15

processes in a cutting room. The management systems ensure completion of the fol-
lowing work steps:
Processing of production orders, export, and transfer of data;
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Calculation of the most efficient marker combinations for each order (see Section 3.4);
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Estimation of fabric requirements for purchasing or allocation purposes;
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Generating a cutting schedule synchronized with the plan for further sewing processes;
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Supervising the cutting room to monitor the operational state of every workstation/machine,
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processing the production dockets to the workstation/machines, assessing their workload,
delivering planned work tasks to the spreading and cutting equipment, and monitoring the
productivity of machines and the department.
Unlike a traditional sequential step-by-step approach, the management software
processes all factors simultaneously in high speed and provides an optimal solu-
tion considering a large range of inputs. It is able to schedule jobs to production,
select optimal raw materials and utilize remnants, generate cut plans and nests,
track production activities, and provide management reports for analysis and future
planning.
A centralized database is the main part of the computerized management system.
It ensures possibility to view and edit style, inventory, labour, costing, an order, cut
planning, and manufacturing information. The data are transparent and easy available
for all members of authorized staff. There is no need to enter identical information
more than one time. Once a change is made, it is instantly available for all database
users. During work process, all data are accumulated, and a company gradually gains
knowledge and experience about its material consumption, costs, and their optimiza-
tion options.
Often, the management system includes also material requirement planning soft-
ware. Optimal material purchase is calculated using a set of special techniques and
data from the database – previous bills of material and production orders, as well as
current inventory data.
The management systems include two inventory systems: finished goods inven-
tory and raw material inventory. The finished goods inventory system provides the
ability to enter incoming stock from manufacturing orders or a raw material pur-
chase orders. The raw material inventory system tracks everything not covered by
the finished goods inventory. The system is able to transfer and maintain inventory
levels between different warehouses and contractors. At any point in real time, the
company knows the current status of its inventory. The system ensures informa-
tion about raw materials on hand, ordered raw materials, raw materials in work
process, available inventory amounts, raw material utilization, and raw material
requirements.
Based on inventory data, cutting orders, or finished goods requirements, material
purchasing software can automatically generate a purchase order for needed items and
post them directly to suppliers. Thus, materials are delivered just before their process-
ing. There is no need to do long-term purchases of regularly used materials, such as
interlinings, elastic bands, packing material, hangers, and labels.