What is Line Planning?

In this article, line means sewing production line or production batch. Each line contains a set of machines to make garments for mass production and set of machines vary depending on product category.

Line planning is scheduling and allocating of orders to production lines according to product setting (product is being made in the line) and due dates of production completion. A line plan defines when a style is going to be loaded to the line, how many pieces to be expected (target) from the line and when order to be completed. For example, please refer to the following Table-1, where a simple line planning has been shown in spread sheet.

During booking orders or allocating orders to the production line, planners must check what is running on the line and how many days it will take to complete the running style.

Benefit of Line planning: It helps production manager as well as line supervisor with information such as what is the daily production target for line. They set their line (machines and manpower) accordingly. Line plan also provides information such as how many days style would run, what is the next style going to be loaded?

Table-1: Line Plan

	Line 1		Line 2		Total
Date	Daily Prod.	Cumm Prod.	Daily Prod.	Cumm Prod.	Daily Prod.
1-Dec	loading #2341A, Qty -3000 pieces		300	1200	300
2-Dec	200	200	300	1500	500
3-Dec	250	450	300	1800	550
4-Dec	400	850	200	2000	600
5-Dec	400	1250	loading #Polo , Qty -1500 pieces		400
6-Dec	400	1650	0	0	400
7-Dec	400	2050	100	100	500
8-Dec	400	2450	300	400	700
9-Dec	400	2850	350	750	750
10-Dec	150	3000	350	1100	500
11-Dec	loading #432K, Qty -5500 pieces		400	1500	400
12-Dec	100	100	loading #YK45, Qty -4500 pieces		100
13-Dec	250	350	200	200	450
14-Dec	500	850	250	450	750
15-Dec	500	1350	400	850	900
16-Dec	500	1850	400	1250	900
17-Dec	500	2350	400	1650	900
18-Dec	500	2850	400	2050	900
19-Dec	500	3350	400	2450	900
20-Dec	500	3850	400	2850	900
21-Dec	500	4350	400	3250	900
22-Dec	500	4850	400	3650	900
23-Dec	150	5000	400	4050	550
Daily Prod. – Daily production or line output Cumm Prod. – Cumulative production of the style till date