INTEGRATION OF PROCESS PLANNING AND SCHEDULING FOR

APPAREL INDUSTRY

M. Hashemipour

Eastern Mediterranean University Department of Mechanical Engineering, Gazi

Magusa, Mersin 10, Turkey

The objective of the paper is to develop a computer aided process planning tool

(software called PPSGAR- process planning and scheduling for garment manufacturing

unit) which takes into account the concept of integration of process planning and

scheduling using the object oriented paradigm for an apparel industry. It provides the

management, prior to accepting an order, with the suggestion for the production cost

and the due date combination by considering the shop-floor conditions. Also, it can

provide suggestions for possible changes in the design of garment in order to reduce the

cost or shorten the delivery date. Process planning is achieved by adopting Hybrid

Variant-Generative process planning method. Scheduling is done by SALB (Stochastic

Assembly Line Balancing) methodology for the solution of a single-model assembly

line balancing, in response to the stochastic environment. For the system validation, the

Software PPSGAR has been implemented successfully in a firm in the apparel industry

in North Cyprus.
 Precedence
Feature Operation Criteria Option
Rules Resources
DB (Probability
Distribution)

Manuf. Workstations
Data
Activity Network
& Gantt Chart

Efficiency
PROCESS PLANNING SCHEDULING(SALB)
Product
Process Times Balance Delay
Design

Possible changes to design

Fig. 1 An overall view of Integration of Process Planning and Scheduling

 Start

NEW FEATURE
(UPDATE)
FEATURE OPERATION
DATABASE

PROCESS PLANNING

ORDER Possible
Precedence
PROCESSING Changes
Rules

Gantt Chart SCHEDULING

& No
Activity Network

FINAL RESULT
(WORKSTATIONS)

ACCEPT

Create Report & Display

End

Fig. 2 An overall View of the Software

Figure 3: Manufacturing Information System integration by MAKE-IT agencies
(Redrawn from Montaldo, E. et al. Inf. Syst. Frontiers, 5, 195, 2003)

The description of these workflow functionalities is summarized in Figure 3, where the

numbers are respectively related to:

1. Query of the RDBMS to check if a new order has arrived

2. Query of the RDBMS to check if the order is already in the warehouse
3. Updating of RDBMS
4. Check of the possibility to produce the order
5. Updating of RDBMS
6. Check of whether inventory is under a fixed threshold
7. Message sent by the sales agency to the production agency when the order is not
already in the warehouse
8. Message sent by the production agency to the sales agency about the delivery time.
9. Message sent by the production agency to the purchasing agency when it is not
possible to produce the order
10 E-mail supplier
11email customer
12 information to shof floor
13 information from shop floor
14 information from customer
15 E-mail from supplier
16 information from web and e-mail server, such as new orders from customer, a new
customer registration or a new delivery form supplies.
Fig. 3 The welcome menu of PPSGAR software
Fig. 4 Product selection menu
Fig. 5 Product specification menu for a shirt
Fig. 6 The collars and cuffs module and its features
Fig. 7 A sample activity network diagram
Fig. 8 A sample Gantt chart obtained from the table
Fig. 9 Order processing menu
Fig. 10. Best Assembly line result