Case Study Summary Sonam Apparels has manufacturing unit in Hazipur, Bihar and makes womens, Mens and

Kids wear for both Export as well as Domestic market. Since 1990s when the Indian Garment Industry growth was normal and quota system prevailed companies remained competitive by reducing cost, enhancing quality and being able to deliver rapidly. As a lot of demand came from customers that wanted customized products with new colour and style in 2006 the company decided that changes are to be made in the manufacturing to be competitive and cater to customers. Thus R.Ankit & sons (consulting firm) were hired to re-engineer its manufacturing process and scheduling was immediately identified as a critical component. The manufacturing process at Sonam has grown complex and scheduling is done in ways impossible 3 years back. Though order quantities are small, the number of orders has gone up. Due to better pre production and post production planning in terms of fabric, color, style and doing line balancing the process/plant have become more efficient. Sonam now accepted orders of customized items by understanding the effect of these on all the other orders. Earlier it wasnt responsive to such orders. Various departments were coordinated and the levels of work in progress (WIP) were increased to schedule and optimize the plant. But WIPs storage costs money and unfinished garments dont create revenue. DISHA, a capacity scheduling systems developed by M/S Gates Ltd. was thus selected after six months of search. The systems helps consider the capacity of each line and determines the quantity of different materials needed and when for suitable operation. Not only because rapidly release a detailed schedule to the production floor, it has the ability to balance all manufacturing parameters viz., machine efficiency, inventory levels and on time delivery. It could quantify these decisions, doing away with guesswork, reducing the risk factor. Lead time reduction was identified as the main goal of the overall project. The benefits were lower inventory and customer satisfaction. It requires more than installing scheduling systems viz., streamlining the product line, real time dispatching and production floor feedback were the additional steps to create an agile manufacturing environment. Sonam was able to reduce its manufacturing cycle time by 30% within one year. A real time dispatch and feedback system was installed in next 12 months to move to 50%. Through proper management of the WIP buffer at the output and operating all subsequent work centers in the made to order mode, all the other inventories from the plant were rid by 60% within the same time by properly managing the WIP buffer at the output of the manufacturing process and operating all subsequent work centers in the made to order mode. DISHA is essential tool to the process of continuing scheduling and its day to day scheduling simulation tool to analyze and improve the efficiency of the whole plant.