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TO REDUCE SOURCING LEAD TIME AND FORM PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT CALENDAR

SUBMITTED BY:

GUNJAN SUYAL

DFT-VIII SEM

COMPANY PROFILE:

Adidas Group is a German multinational corporation that design and manufacture sports clothing and accessories based in Germany. It is the holding company for the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company,TaylorMade-Adidas golf company (including Ashworth ), and Rockport. Besides sports footwear, Adidas also produces other products such as bags, shirts, watches, eyewear, and other sports- and clothing-related goods. Adidas is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Germany and Europe and the second biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world.

Adidas was founded in 1948 by Adolf Dassler. Registered in 1949, Adidas is currently based in Herzogenaurach, Germany.

BRANDS

Adidas and Reebok branded products include footwear, apparel and accessories, such as bags and balls. TaylorMade-adidas Golf includes the three brands TaylorMade, adidas Golf and Ashworth. TaylorMade designs, develops and assembles or manufactures high-performance golf clubs, balls and accessories. adidas Golf branded products include footwear, apparel and accessories. Ashworth designs and distributes men’s and women’s lifestyle sportswear. Rockport predominantly designs and markets leather footwear for men and women. Reebok-CCM Hockey designs, produces and markets hockey equipment such as sticks and skates as well as apparel under the brand names Reebok Hockey and CCM Hockey.

OWN OPERATIONS

The activities of the company and its subsidiaries are directed from the Group’s headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Also located here are the headquarters of brand adidas and the strategic business units for Running, Football and Tennis as well as the Research and Development Centre. Additional key corporate units are based in Portland, Oregon in the USA, the home of adidas America Inc. and where the strategic business units Basketball, Adventure and Alternative Sports are based. Reebok headquarters is located in Canton, Massachusetts and TaylorMade-adidas Golf is based in Carlsbad, California. The company also operates creation centres and development departments at other locations around the world, corresponding to the related business activity. adidas Sourcing Ltd., a fully owned subsidiary headquartered in Hong Kong, is the worldwide sourcing agent for the adidas Group.

EMPLOYEES

On December 31, 2011, the adidas Group employed 46,824 people.r. adidas Group employees represent a cross-section of cultures, ages and backgrounds. Women account for 50% of the employees. At the Group’s global headquarters, for example, they have employees from more than 60 nations.

SHARE LISTING

The adidas AG share is included in a variety of high-quality indices around the world, most importantly the DAX-30 and the MSCI World Textiles, Apparel & Luxury Goods Index. The DAX-30 is a blue chip stock market index consisting of the 30 major German companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The MSCI World Textiles, Apparel & Luxury Goods Index comprises our Group’s major competitors. The social and environmental efforts are also recognised so that the adidas AG is included in a variety of high-profile sustainability indices like the DJSI World, the FTSE4Good Europe Index and the ASPI Index.

SUPPLIERS

To remain competitive, they outsource over 95% of production to independent third-party suppliers, primarily located in Asia. While they provide them with detailed specifications for production and delivery, these suppliers possess expertise in cost-efficient high-volume production of footwear, apparel and accessories.

LICENSEES

For some product segments or markets, the adidas Group has licensing agreements with independent companies that manage the design, development, manufacture and distribution of specific product lines. In 2011, the Group worked with 44 licensees that sourced products from 269 factories in 45 countries.

ADIDAS-INDIA

Adidas-India:

Adidas India Adidas Technical Services

Adidas India

RETAIL SALES MARKETING

Adidas Technical Services:

APPAREL SOURCING FOOTWEAR SOURCING

PRODUCTS:

Global range SMU (local creation)

GLOBAL RANGE: The designs are made in the Germany office and the samples are prepared in Germany and Shanghai. Together these two headquarters create the global range whose samples are distributed to all the liaison offices.

In India, the LO for domestic creations is situated in Gurgaon while the LO for exports creation is in Bangalore.

The global range is studied by the marketing team and they pick up certain styles from the global range to prepare their collection for a particular season.

Those samples are then replicated for mass production here in India through various vendors. Some styles are imported as from the global nominated source.

SMU: SMUs are locally developed or modified styles made for the local market. Example: Pullovers are a SMU as they are part of the Adidas India collection but not the global range.

OBJECTIVE

The current demand of market is such that the total lead time needs to be minimal so as to reach to production as soon as possible.  The aim is to reduce the lead time in Product Development.

-Study the current processes in the Product development cell

-Identify loopholes and the non value creating processes

-Analyze the identified problem areas and brainstorm to suggest changes

-Implementation of principals of lean to reduce the waste in terms of time lost

-Get results and compare with older situation and get feedback

INTRODUCTION

Representation of the Product Development life cycle in Adidas:

ADIDAS INDIA

DESIGNS

VENDORS MATERIALS PATTERNS

PROTO SAMPLE

MARKETING REVIEW FIT TEST (REVIEW)

NOT OK OK OK RESUBMIT

DESIGN/FABRIC CHANGES FIT APPROVAL

SMS

PRE-SALES

MCS

PRODUCTION

The Product Development life cycle starts with the receiving of the design packs by the Development team from the marketing team.

The design sheets are consequently analyzed by the Development team for the fabric requirement and the construction details and thereby proceed for the closure of fabric used per style, guided by the Materials team.

Simultaneously the vendor allocation is done on the basis of fabric used and vendor capacity as guided by the Planning team.

The design packs are forwarded to the Patter Master for the generation of specs and the pattern blocks.

After the vendor allocation, fabric closure and the pattern generation, the next step is to proceed for the Proto sample as prepared by the specific vendor according to given spec/pattern and with the same or recommended (closest possible) fabric.

The proto sample received is reviewed with the Marketing team for the design aspects and the fabric look and feel and any changes to be made are recorded.

The proto sample is proceeded for the fit approval against the generated specs. If not found okay, a resubmission is required with the suggested corrections.

Once all the changes as made by the marketing are incorporated, the salesman sample is prepared for the purpose of PRE-SALES which is a trade show made for the distributors where the entire range is presented before them from which they pick up the styles they want and a final order is made against those styles. Thus, a line-list is produced.

After the final order is confirmed we directly move to production with reference to Salesman sample if the sample had received a fit approval from the Pattern master against the required specs.

If not, the resubmissions as a second fit for the fit approval.

Once the specs are closed, a MCS (Marketing Confirmation Sample) is provided in the exact actual fabric and trims before proceeding to bulk production.

The three main factors are:

COST LEAD TIME MOQ

PROBLEM AREAS:

Re-submissions in fit approvals

Authorization delays/marketing approvals-lack of co-ordination between departments, no common grid/database

Lag in deadlines of calendar

Delay in the information and samples sharing with vendors

Delays in line list processing and order placing/ allocation

Materials development lead time

GOALS

Reduce time lost in line-list processing and allocation

Study Material development lead time and time taken in order placing

Study Fit testing process to reduce number of re-submissions

Study authorization delays due to marketing approvals

Compare Fabric Costs with Garment Costs

Application of principals of lean to remove the unproductive activities and reduce time lost at every stage, wherever required.

Study the present Product Development Calendar and strive to meet all deadlines

Formulation of the next season’s product development Calendar

LITERATURE SURVEY

ADM4307 Apparel Manufacturing

By S. H. Shin, Ph.D

Sourcing:

Sourcing is the determination of the most cost-efficient vendor of materials and/or production at a specified quality and service level.

Producer goods and consumer goods:

Producer goods are products or materials that are used in the production of other goods. (e.g. fiber, yarn, grey goods, etc.)

Consumer goods:

Consumer goods are end products.

-Integration in both producers and consumer goods market.

Fiber production and marketing:

Natural fiber and manufacture fiber (75%): Example source fiber from: Cotton inc., Fiber Link Trading, Inc. (www.Fiber-Trading.com)

Yarn and fabric production marketing

Fabric categories:

Fancies: Short run Staples: No change

Primary sources of fabrics:

Mills: produce grey (=greige) goods. Converters: finishers providing the dyeing or printing, and finishing.

Secondary sources of fabrics:

Jobbers (buy mill overruns or tailings and sell) Brokers Wholesalers (sell broad assortments of fabrics) Market prices of fabric, fibers, and yarns in Daily News Record (DNR)

The Role of Sourcing Decisions:

Sourcing decisions are related to business plan

Make or buy decisions may arise as:

The result of the development of new products, Desire to reduce costs Need for specialized equipment, skills Unsatisfactory supplier performance, Increase or decrease in demand.

Factors in make or buy alternative (sourcing decisions):

Costs (Price quote, bid) Production capacity Required capacity is the total need for output of materials, finished goods. Demonstrated capacity is the volume of output that a plant, work center, or

machine is capable of producing. Quality Timing (hot items, quick response)

Sourcing plans for Make to Stock or Make to Order

Both inventory strategies depending on its product lines and target market.

Make to Stock (for basic goods)

Sourcing plan= Forecast+ (Desired ending finished goods inventory – Starting finished goods inventory)

Make to Order (for fashion goods)

Sourcing plan= Forecast + (Starting order backlog-Desired ending order backlog)

* Backlog refers to all orders received and not yet shipped.

Materials Sourcing Processes:

Materials sourcing seek and negotiate the acquisition of materials.

Materials supply determines the availability of fabrics and findings for production of finished goods.

Sourcing specialists (buyers):

Retail buyers:

Select finished goods from product lines in apparel markets and manufacturer’s showrooms

Work with manufacturers and contractors to develop merchandise for their firms, and they attend fashion shows to review product offerings and fashion trends.

Material buyers:

Make higher volume purchase from fewer suppliers. Attend semiannual fabric shows held in the U.S, France, Germany, Italy, Japan

and etc.

Selecting Fabrics:

Product identification

Appropriate fabrics are identified based on product information and testing.

Sources of information include:

Fabric samples (about 5 yards) Fabric specifications Product name, Fiber content, width, finishes, dyes, style number, quality

standards. Fabric certification of product quality

Lead times

Lead time varies with point of origin, shipping methods, open stock or custom designed.

Imported fabric (6~9 months)/ domestic (a few days~3 month) Open-stock materials have shorter lead times

Order minimums

The smallest quantity a vendor will sell on a single purchase order.

Open-stock fabric:

Smaller minimums (about 500 yards)

Custom or special order:

Larger minimums (about 3000~6000 yards), exclusivity, and higher priced fabric

Converters:

Quicker delivery, smaller minimums than fabric mills

Fabric put-up:

The manner in which the fabric is folded and/or rolled by the vendor

Roll length:

A full roll (60 ~100 yards)

Shorts, tailings, (40yards) and remnants (10 yards or sell by pounds)

Over-the-counter fabric (less than 30 yards)

Material testing by the apparel manufacturer

Prices, price adjustments and costs

Professional credibility of suppliers

Receiving and inspecting materials:

Ensure correct shipments, on time, width and length, quality standards, damage.

Use a fabric inspection system

Fabric problems

Patent defects:

Visible variation

Shading (color variation), Fabric flaws (knots, holes, streaks, stains, and slubs), bow and skew, inconsistent width, etc

Latent defects

Cannot be detected by viewing the fabric

Examples: Shrinkage or stretching, Snap back,

Colorfastness

Production Planning:

Sourcing issues:

Sourcing issues (2 things):

Social responsibility

Financial options

Social responsibility:

Related to human rights

Child labor, working condition

The Sourcer (=a firm) has a written code of conduct.

The contractor (=a vendor) compliance (international trade regulation) with the code of conduct.

A buying agent (=rep. of sourcing company in country) or subcontractor is involved.

Example of outside auditing system: WRAP (=Worldwide

Responsible Apparel Production)

Financial options for production sourcing for manufacturers and retailers:

1. Own the manufacturing capacity (direct or joint investment).

Example: Retailer and manufacturers are vertically integrated.

2. Purchase the materials and have production done by contractors (Cut-make-trim = CMT). Contractors cut and sew garments.

3. Have the contractor source materials and produce finished goods (Full package program =FPP). Contractors develop patterns, sources materials, produces. (Hong Kong)

4. Purchase or provide materials and have product development and production done by contractors (half package program = HPP). Sourcing firm provides the fabric.

5. Generate part of production and contract the rest (Item 807): Called shared production. Parts are assembled in the Caribbean Basin by the contractor. U.S. labor rate tariff paid is very low, therefore the total cost of garment is reduced.

6. Purchase the finished goods from a manufacturer (wholesale): Called Outsourcing.

7. License the production.

Global Sourcing:

Domestic production sourcing

QR (Quick Response) or Speed sourcing

International sourcing

Developing countries: Less labor wage rate.

Economic development trade legislation

Sourcing Processes:

(1)Selecting a production contractor:

FPP or CMT Review of potential contractor through international sourcing fair “Source

International”. Resume of an apparel contractor Plant visits.

(2) Product development for production sourcing

Technical style specifications and detailed costing Specific measurements are important for quality audit Potential contractors use the bid package

- Sourcer (a firm) has to know SAM (Standard Allowed Minutes) in each style to determine potential labor costs.

-FPP contractor send style sample

- Approve contractor

- Preproduction style samples (counter samples)

-Production samples to be made in the actual factory.

Managing sourcing:

Managing materials sourcing

-Quality management of sourced goods

- Managing production of sourced goods

- Managing logistics and customs issues: Packing and shipping & Quick Response.

Costing Imported Goods:

•CMT arrangement: Fabric cost will not be included in FOB

•FPP: Yes. Fabric cost must be included in FOB

Kathleen Mitford, PTC’s VicePresident of Product & Market Strategy:

What is Cycle Time Reduction ?

Cycle Time Reduction focuses on minimizing the amount of time spent on the entire product development cycle – from product conceptualization to retail store delivery.

Why Is This Trend Important?

Until recently, Cycle Time Reduction was a term that was limited to the fashion world, and most commonly associated with leading fast fashionapparel companies. Some trailblazers like Zara and H&M became so adept at cutting cycle time that they were able to go from concept to retail store in as little as two weeks.

Increasingly, though, Cycle Time Reduction is being applied to all types of products, not just fashion apparel. Today, there is a ‘fashion’ aspect to almost every type of product that the apparel industry offers and consumers can purchase.

Fashion’ can also be thought about as predicting the latest market trends, whether the trends address shape, size, color, logo or cartoon character. Once trends are recognized, the ultimate goal for manufacturers is to translate them into a product idea that will entice customers to buy. In today’s fast-paced environment, the challenge is to complete the analysis of a trend and then deliver a product before the trend has passed. To capture the latest trend, it is important that design decisions be made very late in the product development process, so that the most up-to-date thinking can be incorporated into the product concept. This strategy also leads to a higher percentage of products being sold at full retail selling price, thus avoiding future markdowns and excessive inventory levels.

Another factor that’s forcing manufacturers to deliver the right products to the store at the right time is that, because of today’s volatile economic environment, consumers have less discretionary income to spend. To avoid excess inventory, management must make design decisions later in the process, which gives a company the opportunity to analyze the recent sales data, so quantities of products can be accurately forecasted.

Business Processes Impacted Most by Cycle Time Reduction-

To make a significant impact on your overall cycle time, managers must take a close look at every process in the product development system. Companies that have significantly reduced their cycle time realize that all departments – from up-front planning to back-end delivery – must work together in a choreographed way.

Here are the areas impacted most by Cycle Time Reduction:

Merchandising and Design Processes:

Merchandising kicks off the product development process by providing clear direction of the plan for the seasons to come, including the financial goals, with information such as:

• Target retail

• Target cost, and margins

• Assortment goals for the type of product mix

• Creative goals based on the current season trends

These merchandise plans, created either in a Merchandise Planning System or directly in a PLM system, are translated into line plans with placeholders that include directional product information for the design team.

In a PLM system, designers can design multiple product candidates for each placeholder and easily share the product concepts with the merchandising team. The tight collaboration between Merchandising and Design, early in the product development process, allows the design team to focus their design efforts on the type of products that merchandising will be adopting into the line, thus ensuring valuable time and effort are not wasted either on products that will never make it to line adoption, or on late adds.

Creative Design

Integration of Adobe® Illustrator® into the Design Process:

As the design process continues, PLM provides multiple ease-of-use features to accelerate the translation of a designer’s idea into a product concept that can be shared with the rest of the team. Advanced PLM solutions, such as Flex PLM™, offer a direct integration with Adobe Illustrator (AI), which allows a designer to quickly create a product specification from within AI. From within the familiar Adobe user interface, the designer can access color and material libraries from Flex PLM and assign these to a product–along with descriptive product attributes–to generate a product ‘design card’. The fast generation of the product spec is important early in the design process, so a product can either be accelerated or failed quickly.

Calendar Management

One of the most important – and most challenging – disciplines for achieving Cycle Time Reduction is adhering to a calendar. The difficulty here is that, each product has its own cycle time, but all products must be delivered to the retail store at the same time.

PLM solves this issue because it allows you to manage seasonal calendars, yet maintain different calendars with different milestones by product type. For example, a ‘fashion’ item may have a six-week calendar, but a core or basic item may follow a traditional 32-week calendar.

Easily managing multiple calendars is a key requirement for reducing non-value added activities during the product development process.

Specification Development Process

The Specification Development Process can be accelerated using a PLM solution because data from the design concept has already pre-populated the product specification. PLM allows you to define product templates for different product types, so you can then quickly create the product specification. In addition, PLM offers multiple ease-of-use features–such as defining copy rules by product type, linking specifications of similar products, and clipboard copying–that enable the quick generation of the spec. This ease-of-use feature is key to delivering the spec to the manufacturer faster, as well as reducing time spent resolving quality issues once the product has been produced.

Early Sourcing

As all job functions in the product development process are accessing a common, web-based PLM system, the Sourcing team has visibility in to the line from conceptualization. This insight allows Sourcing to begin thinking about those manufacturers best suited to producing the product. A search of suppliers against the product requirements can be executed quickly, so potential suppliers can be identified to place a request for quote. PLM is capable of housing vital supplier information, such as the supplier’s current capacity and past performance, in a vendor scorecard, so that decisions can be made quickly. As quotes are received from the supply chain, PLM provides an efficient way to analyze multiple quotes, so that Sourcing can make informed placement decisions fast.

Supply Chain Collaboration

Once a product has been placed with a supplier, PLM enables supply chain collaboration by giving the supplier direct access to the related product information residing in the PLM system. With proper authorization managed by the PLM system, the supplier has access to view information, as well as to make updates to parts of the product specification or calendar that they own. This direct integration to the supply chain saves valuable time otherwise spent communicating through email or updating data in multiple systems.

Benefits of Addressing Cycle Time Reduction-

By leveraging web-based, collaborative PLM tools, companies have greater visibility into the right data, which allows them to make smarter decisions faster – as late as possible in the development cycle –without impacting costs and schedules.

A more difficult benefit to measure in PLM is the increased efficiency of the product development team. PTC’s experience shows that by having all internal and external team members working from a ‘single source of the truth,’ team members are not wasting precious time chasing down data or working on inaccurate information. As a result, designers, in particular, benefit from being able to focus on innovation.

Lastly, PLM can directly benefit sell-through and inventory management, as companies can make smarter design decisions later in the process regarding what types of products should be offered for a particular retail delivery.

With PLM, companies in Retail, Footwear & Apparel, and Consumer Products can achieve the ultimate goals of Cycle Time Reduction: cutting overall man hours and eliminating wasted inventory.

Optimize Lead Times, Maximize Profits:

(By  Mark Burstein

President of sales, marketing and R&D)

Fashion and apparel companies' investments in PLM technology are rising sharply, and the drive to optimize lead times in the design/production lifecycle is one of the top reasons why.

After all, understanding consumer trends, then executing with speed and agility across every area of design, production and logistics, enables fashion brands and retailers to deliver trend-right merchandise and improve turnaround time – while also driving higher sell-through and better margins.

According to the 2011 Apparel/Gartner PLM report, faster time to market ranks as the most sought-after benefit of PLM initiatives. PLM is an essential technology for optimizing lead times; respondents to the annual survey reported total cycle time savings of 8 to 11 weeks from PLM implementations, while also reducing development time by up to 30 percent.

Integrating PLM and global sourcing is essential for lead-time reduction

However, to achieve the greatest benefits, companies must extend the traditional PLM footprint to include the extended supply chain, which encompasses global sourcing and supply chain management. As noted in another recent Apparel/Gartner study,

"synchronized product development and sourcing capabilities are critical to achieving the leading goal of most apparel brand and retailing supply chain executives today – lead time reduction."

When PLM and SCM are fully integrated within one application, the extended PLM scope will reach beyond its traditional domain of product development and pre-production into the critical areas of supply chain management: purchase order creation, RFQs and supplier management, production management and Work in Process tracking, quality control, product testing and CPSIA compliance, and inbound logistics.

This integrated approach enables closer communication and accountability through the design/production lifecycle, putting designers, planners and production managers on the same page as their global trading partners.

Better collaboration improves supply chain lead times

Integrated PLM and SCM systems offer a wealth of productivity and communications tools, such as workflow calendars with exception management to alert the appropriate users when deadlines slip or issues arise. Integrated systems also improve collaboration in development, sourcing, production and logistics by centralizing all communications within a single system and linking each communication thread to the style, P.O, or shipment.

These productivity tools can lead to sharp reductions in total turnaround time; instead of waiting for potential problems to erupt into crises – materials running late, defective components, production schedules that are slipping – integrated systems identify potential trouble spots and help users resolve them before they impact production and delivery schedules. It's a level of supply chain responsiveness that simply can't be achieved through the patchwork systems of spreadsheets, fax and emails that many companies still rely on.

Shortening the product lifecycle to weeks instead of months

How can integrated PLM/SCM trim time from the production cycle? Consider the following scenario.

The senior buyer for a women's apparel company spots an innovative sweater design on a trip to Europe and uploads photos to the Extended PLM system; that same morning, the designers receive the information, create the sketches, and load them into the system. Fabric requests are sent through the PLM system to the mills, along with information on pricing and availability. When the samples arrive two days later, garments are cut in the sample room, and the tech-packs are transmitted via the

integrated PLM/SCM system directly to the factory – no spreadsheets, faxes or emails, and zero wasted time.

When the samples arrive the following week and are approved, the company has everything it needs to quote accurate pricing and delivery schedules and to book orders. The sourcing team can then place material and dye lot orders, make production commitments with the factory and reserve capacity – all out of the PLM/SCM system. 

As production begins, the company receives real-time updates from the factory on production status, shipping and arrival at the distribution centers; any problems or production delays will automatically trigger alerts, ensuring that schedules can quickly get back on track. Total time to market? In the example above, it can be as little as four to six weeks from concept to consumer.

Of course, this is not the way it is right now for most companies, but it's definitely within reach. It's the goal that fashion companies are focused on today, and integrated PLM and sourcing is the enabling technology. 

As another recent Apparel/Gartner study summed up, synchronized PLM and sourcing not only "speed the innovation cycle and shorten the length of time between product concept and delivery...they lie at the heart of a company's ability to achieve greater supply chain agility, effective cost management, improved profitability across the product portfolio, and perhaps the most elusive prize of all: freshness and relevance in your customers' eyes."

(Written by: Arturo Rodriguez)

Lean – concept born in post Second World war Japan due to the need of producing rationally, specifically in the Toyota company. Japanese could not afford the luxury of wasting at the time of production (they did not had the abundant resources Americans had in the 50’s). Therefore in a simple – but quite graphic manner – we can define that Japanese rationality saying that Lean is “Performance without Waste”. Although Japanese started applying it out of need – and without the intention of baptizing it with the world Lean – they are credited with creating that concept.

If we look at the time a typical production cycle of a garment takes, we notice that the biggest obstacle for the cycle to be shorter is located precisely in the product development area. There is a very graphic expression about this: “they cut me to be rich and left me basted”, because how often due to inefficient product development

garments are left “basted” or in the best of cases they are produced at a high cost of time and money.

Then, why not apply Lean principles to product Development? Maybe because many of us concentrate mainly in the sewing part, thinking that is where we find the possibility of ‘saving” time and money. And although this is partly acceptable, the truth is we cannot compare the days a garment remains in the sewing area with the months spent while it is going through Product Development.

In a typical garment life cycle, 70% of the time is spent in product development while only 30% corresponds to the specific manufacturing part of it. How can this be? Traditionally, product development – in the clothing industry – goes through the following activities:

Trend, product and sales research

Sketches/photos/copies

Sales forecast

Manufacturing decisions

Fabric samples

Color selection

Garment sample

Line review and approval

Sample for adjustments

Prototype evaluation

Placing manufacturing orders

Many activities, if not managed adequately, produce waste of time and/or money. The Japanese, classify the “Muda” (waste in their language) into 8 categories:

What if we look at some examples of how to detect those leaks of time/money in product development and thus be able to execute Lean in that area?

Movement:

Location of the sample area and fabric warehouse: are they close to one another?

Where do fitting trials take place?

Waiting Of course not! Imagine how much time is lost (wasted) waiting for an e-mail or a call from the boss to authorize – for example – taking  out a special fabric for a sample (and all because of not having foreseeing establishment of a system that does not depend only on one person)

An example of 21 Century Muda is Computer Disconnection that is generated when a sample’s information reaches the Design Department in a format that does not allow interface with one of the size gradation systems and therefore we need to reenter all the information.

Here a double-killing is generated, as not only time is lost but the opportunity for mistakes is created when manually reentering information required. The Japanese have also catalogued as computer disconnection the labor environment that does not encourage team work and therefore “hinders” staff initiative.

How to prevent Muda:

For this purpose in Lean there are a series of tools that might help us:

Kanban (the concept of establishing maximums and minimums on inventories of resources required for the task)

The 5 S or putting into practice the concepts of organize/correct/clean/normalize/institute

Visual administration

Kaizen (always trying to improve the process in a continuous manner)

Additionally, we must not forget technology, especially all that is related to the digital. Starting with a tri-dimensional vision of a human body, turning it into an avatar that looks like a real person and with his/her exact measurements, dressing it with a (digital) garment, see the fall of the fabric when the avatar starts to gain movement and finally approving that sample, all in the world of the internet, that is Lean! Here the double gain is in the time savings of having to send physical samples and of course in not wasting resources (fabric, labor sewing, etc.) because everything was done in the Digital world.

Lean, in the Product Development field is achieved applying this combination of order and discipline principles, administration tools, digital technology and most of all, common sense.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

To closely follow the season Summer-spring 14 from beginning till end for the product development life cycle and study the same for anomalies and their causes and repercussions.

Manually observe and record the time taken in the line-list processing and allocation and compare against the ideal-situation. Hence highlight loopholes and if possible, suggest changes.

Consider the material development lead time and time taken in ordering already developed fabric and analyze for any delays and respective causes.

Observe the Fit testing process and study the pattern of re-submissions made by analyzing the performance of past four seasons for the vendor performance and product categories to spot the problem areas.

Follow the Product development life cycle entirely for studying the authorization delays due to marketing approvals and map the total waste in terms of time lost and compare against the ideal situation. Hence highlight issues to be brought into the notice of internal management for discussions and resolving the same.

Study the pattern of increment in Fabric Costs and compare to the subsequent increase in the Garment Costs by analyzing the data of past four seasons and establish a relationship to depict the resultant change in the two. Use this data to help make the allocation decisions fasters.

Lean is a concept that is often seen to be applicable to only Production whereas it is an effective tool that could be applied before and after the production. Here, the aim is to apply various lean tools (Kanban, VSM, Kaizen, Visual management, Standard work process, quick changeover, 5-S) and making effective use of the statistical tools to reduce the non value creating processes and evening out the workflow to reduce time to bridge the gap between merchandising and production.

Study the present Product Development Calendar in detail and find out the key dates/critical deadlines and mark them important and check with the current status against them. Give pop ups as reminders to the concerned authority/team for the deadlines and provide follow-ups.

Study the present calendar and brainstorm to assist the developing team in formulation of the next season’s product development Calendar.

DELIVERABLES:

• Relationship equation between Fabric costs and Garment cost to make allocation decisions faster and avoid changes at later stage

• Fit testing evaluation charts in terms of vendors and product type to make analysis and identify problem areas to make changes upon

• Key deliverable: Revised product development calendar for next season from the data collected through questionnaires, extensive study based on the lag against the current calendar with the help of statistical tools-CPM and PERT.

• Quantify the time saved in terms of money saved.

LIMITATIONS

• Material development lead-time: Since the material development will consume a lot of time as fabrics can’t be developed in lesser time than that, this problem area is beyond the scope of this project as a time reduction dimension.

• Marketing approvals and authorization delays: There are certain protocols followed as an established route in a multinational corporation, authorization standards being one of them. This delay is a management concern so it becomes a limitation in the project.

• System downtimes: System downtimes and computer shut downs are two possibilities which are purely unpredictable in terms of time and occurrence. We do not hold a control on that. Thus this delay is beyond the scope of this project and thus a limitation.

SCOPE

• The number of days saved on the time-line will account for monetary benefits in terms of time and resources saved

• Increased efficiency

• Smarter decisions made quicker

• Time to prepare/plan for next season

PROECT MANAGEMENT

PHASE TIME

PHASE 1OBSERVE PROCEDURES, DEFINE OBJECTIVES AND SET GOALS, IDENTIFY PROBLEM AREAS, COLLECT PRIMARY DATA

4 WEEKS

PHASE 2QUESTINARES, ANALYSIS ON PRIMARY DATA, CAUSE AND EFFECT DIAGRAMS, SUGGEST CHANGES

3 WEEKS

PHASE 3FORMATION OF NEXT SEASON’S CALENDAR WITH REDUCED TIME LINE

2 WEEKS

DATA COLLECTED:

EFFECT OF CHANGES IN FABRIC COSTS ON GARMENT COSTS:

GARMENT COST

FABRIC LABOUR TRIMS

(60-70%) (20-30%) (10%)

The total cost price of a garment (to the company) is majorly decided by the following 3 factors:

Fabric Cost component - which comprises of around 60-70% of the total garment cost refers to the cost of fabric relative to its type (woven or knitted; piece or yarn-dyed), composition (Cotton, Polyester, cotton-poly), count (20s, 60s) and construction (Jersey, pique, plaited etc)

Labor Cost component - The cost of labors (from vendors) accounts for approximately 20-3-% of the total garment cost

Trims - The cost of the trims used, for example buttons, zippers, draw cords, neck tapes, badges etc account for roughly 10% of the total garment cost.

RELEVENCE: Since Fabric cost is a major factor in deciding the total garment cost, it is critical to find the effect of increase in fabric cost on garment cost. Once the relationship between the two costs is established and the pattern of the effect is highlighted, it would become easier to anticipate the garment cost for the coming season and hence appropriate vendor allocation could be done which would save time in decision making and saves doing re-work on the same.

METHODOLOGY: The fabric costs (both woven and knitted) of varying quality and construction of past 4 seasons was analyzed for the pattern of increase in cost. A similar study was made for the garment cost of certain core styles used in past seasons consisting of the same fabric quality as analyzed to attain such like graph. After this the two graphs were compared to establish a relationship of the two costs and effect.

FABRIC COSTS:

WOVEN:

SS12 FW12 SS13 FW13

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Series 1Series 2Series 3Series 4Series 5Series 6Series 7

KNITTED:

SS12 FW12 SS13 FW130

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Series 1Series 2Series 3Series 4Series 5Series 6Series 7Series 8Series 9Series 10

RESULT: As shown clearly by the two graphs, the costs of both woven and knitted fabric have gone up in past 4 seasons. It is clear by the steepness of the two graphs when compared, that the cost of Knitted fabrics have gone up more than that of Woven fabrics. The actual increment in terms of figures is as:

Woven- 5.48%

Knitted- 8.69%

GARMENT COSTS:

Some core styles comprising of the fabrics used above for the study were analyzed against the total garment cost across the same 4 seasons.

SS12 FW12 SS13 FW130

100

200

300

400

500

600

woven1woven2woven3kintted1knitted 2knitted 3

FIT TEST APPROVALS:

VENDOR PERFORMANC SEASON WISE:

FW11 SS12 FW12 SS130

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

METAPHOREKNITWELLRIDERPARAGONGE-WNGE-KNCC

VENDORS PERFORMANCE IN PAST FOUR SEASONS ACCORDING TO PRODUCT TYPE:

METAPHORE

KNITWELL

RIDER

PARAGON

GE-WN

GE-KN

CC

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

TRACKSUITBOTTOM WEARUPPER WEAR

VENDOR 1

VENDOR 2

VENDOR 3

VENDOR 4

VENDOR 5

VENDOR 6

VENDOR 7

PRODUCT-WISE BREAKDOWN OF RESUBMISISIONS:

RESUBMISSIONS

UPPER WEARBOTTOM WEARTRACKSUITS

CALANDER MAPPING TILL DATE

KEY DATES SCHEDULED ACTUAL DELAY

DESIGN KICK OFF 8/2/13 8/2/13 0

100% HANDOVER OF DES PACKS

11/2/13 25/2/13 14 DAYS

ALLOCATION PRE SEASON INPUTS

18/2/13 27/2/13 9 DAYS

TRIMS & AOP &YD BRIEGS DUE

12/2/13 27/2/13 15 DAYS

FACTORY ALLOCATION 18/2/13 1/3/13 11 DAYS

MATERIALS ENTRY IN FLEX PLM

7/3/13 7/3/13 0

FINAL ALLOCATION ENTRY IN FLEX PLM

7/3/13 7/3/13 0

FABRIC DETAILS TO PLACE SMS ORDERS

10/3/13 14/3/13 4 DAYS