Apparel production experiment

In the apparel industry, the assembly process involves a set of workstations in which a specific task is processed in a pre-defined sequence. Before production, in order to achieve a balanced line, the sewing line supervisors assign one or mote sewing operatives to each task based on the standard time required to complete the task. However, industrial experience shows that it is difficult to achieve a perfectly balanced line because the production rate of each workstation is different. Imbalance occurs due to various factors, including fluctuation in operative efficiency, frequent change of product style, order size, prior experience and some unexpected factors, such as absenteeism, machine breakdown, and so oa Line balancing control is required to smooth away the bottlenecks. 

Some commercial PPS systems only provide a platform for conducting PPS arrangements, but carmot automatically provide scientific and optimized solutions. PPS decisions in the apparel industry still rely heavily on production schedulers experience, intuition and assessment rather than a scientific and systematic approach. 

The balance control of an apparel assembly line relies heavily on the shop-floor expert s knowledge, experience and intuition. The effectiveness of a decision depends on the subjective and ad hoc assessment of production line supervisors. Small order size and frequent changes of styles can make the matter even worse for optimal production control. With the recent development and adoption of real-time shop-floor data capture systems, real-time production statistics and progress reports can be generated to assist production line supervisors in line balancing control and bottleneck elimination. However, their deeisions may not be consistent even under similar conditions and may thus be non-optimal. 

Consumers do not have the experience and technical knowledge to decide which care treatment is suitable for a product. Thus, care labelling, which is the responsibility of garment makers, helps the consumers maintain the apparel s aesthetic value and durability. The manufacturer is responsible for proper labelling of textile fibre products when they are ready for sale or delivery to the consumer. The importer is responsible for proper labelling of imported textile products. Custom m chants and tailors are responsible for showing properly labelled bolts, samples and swatches to customers. Domestic manufacturers must attach care labels to finished products before they sell them. 

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