In the the manufacturing of garments industry the production department comprises three major groups, which are cutting, sewing, and packing. These departments are part of the manufacturing section with each section is governed by section-in-charges. For instance an individual pattern master serves as the in-charge of this cutting machine. They oversee the their patterns’ placement on fabrics and cut the parts of the industry efficiently. Line supervisors are responsible for the sewing department. General maintenance is part of the department of production. Service engineers are the main in charge of this department. They repair or service machine sewing and cutting machines. In this article , I will talk about flow process charts and grids used in the garment industry.
Diagrams of Flow Process and Grids
A flow chart can be described as a visual symbol of tasks performed on the work piece of Industrial Engineering. Many producers, engineers and even manufacturers are aware of the usage of flow process charts for making production processes and plant layouts. But, the capacity to effectively use any tool will depend on the principles of design upon the basis of which the tool was designed. An examination of flow chart diagrams found in various textbooks and magazine articles revealed that flow charts widely used is actually a poor tool to use for the production plan purpose. These flow charts are not adequate because they do not have spatial or time scales. Any blueprint, diagram or chart should be built on these concepts time and space relations in order to be considered a reliable engineering tool to calculate plant layouts and production systems. The basis of efficiency of production systems is time as well as the basis of efficiency of plant layout is the value based on space relations as well as space-related values.
If a flow-process chart is intended to function as an effective tool for planning the chart should be designed using mathematical graph concepts and the grid of a y-axis coordinate, and an x-axis, the abscissa. The y-axis may represent an overview of garment industry manufacturing system as well as the layout of the plant. This timeline shows the time-based relationships that exist between the working and temporary storage facilities within the production flow. The x-axis depicts the lateral space relationship between the temporary storage and work stations. Work flows from the bottom of the graph which is the first time level, and then to high on the graph. This is which is the last time level.
The total time for production will be equal to time levels. Each level of time corresponds to y levels of time. Each level corresponds to the amount of time required to create a specified quantity of units of product. Production equipment and the number of workers at each workstation in the chart will the same as the amount of time needed to produce the quantity required for each units of time. This kind of flow chart, which has the grid structure of a graph that includes abscissa and ordinate values is referred to here as a flow processes grid’.
Differences between the Flow Process Grid and the Flow Process Chart
A flow grid represents a 3D diagram of the entire manufacturing process of an item, that illustrates the distinct space and time interactions of the various elements that are involved in the process, including process stations inspect stations, temporary storage facilities and transportation activities that are required to transport a certain quantity of clothes in the desired time and in a space. It is diagrams of the sequence of production without any consideration of the time or space relations in the process.
The layout for the grid of flow processes should contain the following components: (1) the spatial relationship between work stations to create the optimal layout of the plant as well as (2) the time relations that are required between work stations to produce the least amount of production time. To illustrate these relationships, it is crucial that the grid has the word, phrase or symbol for every transport and storage facilities within the production process.
Symbols are utilized in various flow process diagrams to mark reports with prefixes that identify each step within the garment industry production process. This allows one to determine quickly into categories for each phase of manufacturing. If flow charts were based using the grid principle it would be possible to determine the highest rations of transport and storage with respect to processing. This would allow the user to evaluate an entire production system quickly and with precision. It can also help identify the steps needed to alter the system to increase the efficiency of production. The most common symbols for flow of process that are used are listed in the above Table.
The Construction of Grids for Flow Process
The majority of laborers in the manufacturing of apparel is usually involved by sewing the sewing section and as this department typically faces the most all-over production issues of coordination between work stations, the underlying principles to create a flow process grid will be defined and illustrated through the construction of the flow process grid that is used for the production of a very basic shirt for men, a T-shirt.
Step 1: Write down all the sewing procedures needed for the creation of the garment industry.
Step 2: Classify the operations into stages in accordance with the order in which the operations can be carried out to provide the requirements for quality of the clothing.
Based on these specifications for quality can be seen that seams at the seams on the side seam and seams underarm can be combined into one operation, if it’s superior to performing it according to the specifications, two distinct procedures. This allows us to define the procedures on the following levels of the operational sequence:
- Shoulder seams and side seams seams collar seam, seam underarm
- Neck seam, sleeve hem, hip hem
- Covering stitch
- Armhole seam
