How to Make Line Loading Plan for Garment Production?

Do you like to prepare line loading plan? But finding difficulties to allocate multiple orders.

In “Line loading plan” planner decides on which date a style to be loaded and how many lines to be considered for the style to meet the production completion date.

Line loading plan is an important task for a production planner. Planner needs to do backward and forward planning based on lead time.

In this article I will explain how to make line loading plan and what things are important during making a loading plan.

There is lot of mathematical calculation. So, I will suggest you to use spreed sheet  for the making the plan.

Step 1: Make a list of current orders with details such as order no., order quantity, style description, and production completion date. Refer to the Table-1. Suppose order has been received on the month March and production completion date on May from 4th to 21st.

Table- 1: Order list
Order No.
Garment Description
Order Quantity
 (pieces)
Production completion date
OCS101
Dress
2000
10th May
OCS102
Blouse
3000
12th May
OCS103
Trouser
5000
15th May
GAP104
Long sleeve Tee
3000
17th May  
GAP105
Skirt
3000
21st May
GAP106
Dress
1500
21st  May
GAP107
Long sleeve Tee
10000
10th May
GAP108
Skirt
1200
04th May
Total
28,000


Step 2: Suppose a factory has 5 production lines. Calculate available capacity of the line using capacity calculation formula considering absenteeism (10%) and line efficiency %. You should have knowledge about line wise production efficiency to calculate actual capacity of a line. Or calculate it prior to line loading plan.

Available capacity in hours = {(No. of operators/machines x working days in a month x daily work hours x 60) – absenteeism %} x Efficiency %

Line wise available capacity has been shown in the Table-2. It is considered that each line is equipped with 25-32 machines (operators), factory’s normal shift time is 8 hours (480 minutes) and line efficiency is in the range of 39% to 55%.  

Table- 2: Available capacity calculation
Line No.
No. of Operator
Minutes/Day
(Daily working Hrs. X 60)
Line Efficiency
Absenteeism %
Capacity available
Line 1
30
480
40%
10%
5184.0
Line 2
28
480
50%
10%
6048.0
Line 3
32
480
55%
10%
7603.2
Line 4
32
480
45%
10%
6220.8
Line 5
25
480
39%
10%
4212.0


Step 3: Next, calculate required capacity for each order (style) in minutes and in days. Assume that above 8 styles to be run in 5 lines and styles will be loaded only in single line. Consider that all lines blank and you have no issue with starting date. In this stage you have to also decide which line to be chosen for the styles. Allocate order to the line according to product category and line set up (machines laid).  In Table-3 line number has been mentioned against the order number. Use the following formula for the calculation.

Capacity required in minutes = Order Quantity X Style SMV 
Capacity required in days = Capacity required in minutes / Capacity available per day.

Refer to the table-3 for calculated minutes and days required for each style.
Table-3: Required capacity calculation
Order No.
Loaded to Line No.
Order Quantity
Style SMV
Capacity Required (Minutes)
Capacity available per day
Capacity Required (Days)
OCS101
Line-1
2000
28
56000
5184
11
OCS102
Line-2
3000
25
75000
6048
12
OCS103
Line-3
5000
20
100000
7603.2
13
GAP104
Line-4
3000
10
30000
6220.8
5
GAP105
Line-5
3000
18
54000
4212
13
GAP106
Line-1
1500
28
42000
5184
8
GAP107
Line-4
10000
10
100000
6220.8
16
GAP108
Line-5
1200
18
21600
4212
5


Step 4: Now do backward calculation to find the date for style loading. Days needed to complete production on due date, Sundays and holidays must be excluded in day count. And add one to two days initially for line setting according to style requirement.  If required, you can add buffer for one to two days. To make it easy in calculating the loading dates considering above points use spreadsheet based planning board. For example refer to the following image-1. I have made loading plan on the planning board for theses styles. Light blue colored columns represent Sunday (weekly off days).  Finally make another table (Table-4) representing loading date against orders.

Image-1: Planning Board


Table-4: Order loading date
Order No.
Garment Description
Loaded to Line #
Production completion date
Capacity Required (Days)
Loading date
Comments
OCS101
Dress
Line-1
10th May
11
26th April

OCS102
Blouse
Line-2
12th May
12
27th April

OCS103
Trouser
Line-3
15th May
13
28th April

GAP104
Long sleeve Tee
Line-4
17th May  
5
11th May

GAP105
Skirt
Line-5
21st May
13
5th May

GAP106
Dress
Line-1
21st  May
8
11th May

GAP107
Long sleeve Tee
Line-4
10th May
16
21st April

GAP108
Skirt
Line-5
04th May
5
28th April



Step 5: Once you gone through this article, practice this with some of your real styles. I wish you can make it. If you feel you need further assistance then write us. 



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