A Web-based ERP System for Garment Production Base

A Web-based ERP System for Garment Production Base
LI Chuang
School of Economics and Management, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454000, China
[email protected]
Abstract: According to the related theories and practical situations of enterprises, theoretical models
were established for the module of production that are suitable to practical situation by selecting
advanced and reasonable management theories and network information technologies and taking into
consideration of the actual operational procedures of the garment corporation. Especially, all of the
optimization schemes are considered based on the web concept, which can effectively promote the rapid
growth of the core competitiveness of enterprises.
Keywords: Web, Garment production, Management system, ERP
1 Introduction
In the era of informationization, in order to meet the rapid changes in the market of the clothing
enterprises, the ideal production base management model can be simply summarized as follows:
(1) In the process of confirming the order, the production base always exactly tell the delivery time
according to production capacity and material supply situation.
(2) Quality can always be the assured to a degree. The production management system can
automatically dispose plans and tasks according to the orders.
(3) Basing on the changes of production capacity and the completed plans and tasks of various posts,
the production management system can dynamically analyze that whether the orders can be completed
as the original plan. And it can also remind us if the original plan cannot be accomplish.
(4) According to the changes in orders, the production management system can automatically adjust
the plans and tasks of various posts in the production base.
(5) The prepare time of production plans can be shortened, the collaboration efficiency can be
advanced, and the production cycle can be cut short.
As for the order-processing enterprise, the delivery time will not need confirmation with the
production base if there is complete network between the order-processing department and production
base. Production management system can automatically calculate and confirm the delivery time in
accordance with the priority-level of orders which can play a certain role in international trade.
Meanwhile, as for those enterprises that owned their brand and distribution network, they can cut down
the inventory, reduce business risk, save costs, improve efficiency and increase the competitiveness on
the market, because of the shortened production cycle. The ultimate goal of production base
management is to help enterprises to achieve this ideal mode. As shown in figure 1. Certainly, this
requires a certain amount of time, caring out in phases and the joint efforts.
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Processing order
Order from
Procurement
Production plan
marketing Dep.
Technical center
Production one
model
Stock:
Suppliers
materials
Marketing
Production two
auxiliary materials
etc.
Production three
Figure 1 Macro-sketch map of the production base management
2 Garment Production Management System Analyses
According to the actual production, this paper proposes some optimum management measures mainly
in the following aspects:
2.1 Production Plan and Process Data Management
In the clothing industry, the process data mainly refers to the material structure, the consumption, the
requirements of specification and product specifications, as well as some icon information similar to
products processing list. The “products’ material structure and consumption”, called Bill of Material
(BOM) in the production management system, is the base of material needs, inventory management and
cost accounting. Other process data can be customized based on different business requirements of
different enterprises, such as the format of some processing list and producing requirements. Those
enterprises producing by the orders can take the order as production plan after affirmance, according to
which the material needs plan could be made. After comparing the inventory, we can make out the
materials procurement plan and send all the needing information to the stocking part. The making of
materials procurement plans can be conducted as figure 2:
Processing order
Technical data
Procurement plan
Figure 2 Sketch map of making the materials procurement plan
Production plan can be divided into two parts: the making and issuing of production plan. In the
making process, comprehensive accounts are needed of available materials, production capacity, as well
as orders. Therefore in the development of interfaces all the information should be reflected in order to
conveniently develop the production plans. After the production plan, the material requirements should
be automatically calculated and picking list should be made, so as to get the corresponding materials for
every working procedure. Meanwhile, the schedule in the general workshop can reflect the process or
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the complement of corresponding production plan. And the managers can inquire and make statistics of
the production plan in every prospect. The issuing of production plan can be conducted as figure 3.
Technical data
Order form
Materials
requisition
Production plan
Stock
Workshop production
Materials
Products
Figure 3 Sketch map of production plan and its issuing
The issuing of production plan to the work shop should be done accord to the order or the enterprises’
plan, and combine with the material supply. The main interface is “Production Task List”.
2.2 Management of Producing Process
The process from cutting to finished products is the chief thing of management in the production base.
The general producing process can be divided in to several parts consisting of cutting, sewing
(overhanding), ironing, checking, packing and so on. Some enterprises or categories may have special
process or outsourcing, so the production management system should support them flexibly. In
circulation, the products are in the general receiving-sending process, while in some situations, the
charger may take a part-time job of both receiving and sending. However, the achievements in software
are same.
In the production line products are generally detached into sub-packages including more than 10
pieces or dozens of clothing. Every sub-package is enclosed a “Production Transfer Card”, registering
the contract number, style number, color, size, the processing staff number, and other information. The
constituting of Production Transfer Card is after packing. The data acquisition can be set up in the
receiving-sending point during the process, thus we could make accurate statistics of the producing
progress, as well as the stocks in various section. If the Production Transfer Card uses barcode for
collecting data, the efficiency of both making receiving-sending statistics and logistics in workshop
would be greatly improved.
The production management system should support the recording of producing progress concluding
the contract, style, color and size, and the making of all kinds of production report daily, weekly, and
monthly. Meanwhile, it also should be a strong auxiliary tool of the workshop manager that can greatly
improve the management efficiency.
2.3 Quality Management
Quality management can be divided into two aspects: (1) Traceability of the responsibility of quality
problems; (2) Statistical analysis of the reasons for quality. According to these two considerations, this
paper proposes the following solution:
As for the first part, we should record the operators in all the working procedures as many as possible.
In the inspection process, every information of the quality problem must be reiterated not only the
package number but also the working procedure number. After the registration of information in
Production Transfer Card, the computer can automatically trace back to the person responsible. For
those customer complaints after the products flowed into market, if the Production Transfer Card
number (or the SN of product) was registered on clothing, we can easily trace back to the person
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responsible through production management systems, as long as the working procedure number being
analyzed according to the quality problem.
As for the second part, the enterprises have to make standard classification of quality reasons, which
meets the requirements of ISO9000 quality assurance system. During the production testing or after the
admissibility of customer complaints, the found quality problems should be classified into one
standardized category, in that case, the statistics of standardized categories can be divided by time (for
example, month, quarter or year), which is not difficult to realize.
The manager may conveniently and emphatically strengthen the content of quality management
basing on the results of statistical analysis of computer, and reward or punish the responsible person
with the assessment system according to records.
Through the above two aspects to strengthen the quality management, we constantly analyze and
optimize the production and management processes which would play a positive and effective role in
the prevention of quality problems.
2.4 Outsourcing Process Management
Outsourcing process is relatively common in clothing industry. The distinction from the foreign
procurement is that the materials are generally provided by the production base of enterprises
themselves and the processing fees are paid after completion.
Outsourcing process may happen in any working section. Fabrics or cutting pieces or even some
embroiders, printings, and washing sand washing processes can be sent directly to the factory for
processing into finished products.
Outsourcing process management mainly involves factory information management, project
management, material management, receipt management, quality tracking management and factory
evaluation, etc.
In response to these aspects, the computer can be used to the personalize operation of the
corresponding information and can be substantially improve the management efficiency.
2.5 Personnel and Wages Management
Personnel and wages management has a large workload in the enterprise management. In the state of
manual management, personnel information can not be shared and is difficult to consult. The count of
wages is so large that it cannot or is difficult to do statistical analysis from every aspect. By seeing about
the actual situation in enterprises, this paper divides the personnel and wages management into the
following contents: the staff’s archives management, the maintenance of business sector and work type
information (post and responsibility), the maintenance of basic wage items, and the structure analysis of
work type, qualification, age, wage of sub-item, work type wage of sub-sector.
The characteristics of personnel and wages management enterprises are distinctive. Different
enterprises have different management requirements and wage system, so we need to do “tailored
making” according to the requirements of different enterprises.
2.6 Equipment and Spare Parts Management
The key issue of equipment management is to manage and analyze the current situation of equipment
that concludes the using and unused equipments.
After recording the information in detail such as the equipments’ production date, the purchase date,
and the information about whether it is available and whether it is in the use, we could analyze the
equipment structure, equipment utilization, the fluctuate situations and so on. The register of equipment
information can be achieved by using the computer collected data of the “Equipment Register Card”.
In most enterprises the spare parts management is a relatively big loophole. Through the general
analysis of the purchase of spare parts, inventory and using situation by computer management, it can be
easily worked out the problems of the use of spare parts, inventory and whether purchase situation is
reasonable, and other issues.
Through the inputting of “Spare Parts Purchase Apply List”, the manager of spare parts management
can judge that whether the apply is reasonable with the help of the providing information of the parts
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inventory and the used records by the production management system, and can analyze the rationality of
the use of spare parts by the “Spare Parts Purchase Apply List” with detailed records.
2.7 Cost Management
In the production base, the cost control and constant optimization are very important. Cost advantages
are important competitions in enterprises. There are a lot of methods of cost accounting, so we must
choose the one suitable for the actual situation in different enterprises.
The assessment of different departments of production base is usually regarded every department as a
cost centre to deal with, therefore the cost can be divided into two parts: the planned cost and the actual
cost. This paper evaluates the cost control of various departments mainly based on the actual cost and
taken the planned cost as a criterion. With the corresponding reward and punishment system we can be
fully mobilize the initiatives in cost control of all sectors as well as each individual.
The cost-accounting of closing industry will always consider the products and contracts. The one
different from the company's overall cost-accounting is called item cost-accounting in which the cost
should be classified. Generally speaking, it contains fixed costs and variable costs. Those detailed
categories are set under the specific circumstances.
In short, we must carry out the management of both the planned cost and the actual cost to strengthen
the internal assessment; and we need to divide the costs into fixed costs and variable costs
decision-making to manage them for the market decision and the analysis of enterprises’
competitiveness.
In those enterprises producing by orders, the item management is usually the management of variable
costs called the gross profit contribution of products or contracts, which can immediately reflect the
gross profit after the finish of products or contracts but not after the cost-accounting at the end of month.
Every enterprise has one system for the assessment of cost centre. However, the cost-accounting data
is difficult to get rapidly and accurately because of the manual statistics. This will make assessment
delayed, inaccurate or not happen, bring loopholes to the cost management and control, make the cost
lost control to a certain extent, and undermine the enterprise competitiveness in the market.
2.8 Special Mode of Production or Department Management Module
The special mode of production or department management module are mainly made for individual
enterprises, such as the management of distributing fabric center in jersey stitch enterprises; the
management of circular loom department and flat-bed machine in knitting enterprises, the management
of gray raw yarn and dyed-yarn warehouse, the single SN management of some senior apparel products
and so on.
3 Conclusion
In short, with the global economic integration and China’s entry into WTO, the international
competition of garment industry will become more intense. How to use network information technology
and modern management methods to speed up information-based construction and technical innovation
of enterprises and built up “the advantage of later-developing” according to the reality is a new topic for
garment enterprises.
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