Challenges in the SAP Landscape of Manufacturing Industries – Textile Part 1

As textile industries are growing in a fast manner, it is difficult to map business scenarios after growth / maturation stage of industry. So, it is necessary to map / mitigate all complex / business scenario and he associated risks effectively.

The major challenges of the textile industry that I have come across in my experience are:

a.?????Multi-level Material / Article Management

b.????Complex BOM Structure / management (Calculation)

c.?????Sample Management / Lab Dip Management

d.????Trim Management

e.????Spinning Planning & Bale Management

f.?????Grey Planning & Scheduling

g.????Dye lot Planning

h.????Cutting Planning

i.??????Batch Traceability

j.??????Operation level WIP Tracking

k.?????Plan v/s Actual production

l.??????Order wise status in multi-level areas

Let us now discuss in detail each of the challenges listed above:

a.?????Multi-level Material / Article Management:

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The biggest challenge of textile industries is material as well as article management since in the textile industry, the material list is too high based on the colour, size etc. So, the management of materials like bill of material, routing with multiple variants, production version etc. is very difficult.?

Apart from the above, master data management entails a lot of complex scenarios for textile industry:

·???????Duplicate raw materials

·???????New designs

·???????Characteristics based materials

·???????Change management tracking for every material

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b.????Complex BOM Structure / management (Calculation)

?This is a subset of master data but it’s an imperative element in textile industries due to lot of complexity & challenges like:

?·???????Attachments of BOM items

·???????Product revisions

·???????Characteristics based products

·???????Quantity calculation of BOM items

·???????Selection BOM items with respect to customer requirements

·???????Change management etc.

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c.?????Sample Management / Lab dip Management

?It is process in which products supplied by buyers or manufactured in-house are matched with various dyes percentage in the laboratory. In some industries it known as Shade creation process also. It plays a major role in shade matching and recipe creation for the fabric dyeing department.

?In some industries or as per customer requirement, after shade creation but before handing over for bulk production, the sample sent to customers for obtaining approvals & further changes are made into this.

?So, in lot of textiles industries, it not captured well in SAP or any kind of ERP due to such complexity & manual processes that exist in labs / process.

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d.????Trim Management

?Garment trimmings are a?major component in the Textile industry. Garments can only be manufactured / prepared by using fabric & sewing threads. So, garment trimming provides good finishing & quality to products.

Apart from the above, this process also contains packing material to pack fabrics / garments based on selected trims by customers. So, lot of pain areas within trim management:

1.????Tracking of Trims approved / created by R&D department

2.????Multiple Trims for Single Product

3.????Multiple FG bill of materials due to various trims

4.????Sales order specific trims for FG product

5.????Visibility / Stock tracking

6.????Reduction of TAT (Turnaround time) of Stock

7.????Reduction stock keeping of Trims

8.????Reduction of wastage of Trims

Etc.

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e.????Spinning Planning & Bale Management

?Due to regular fluctuation in cotton prices spinning mills scenario impacted completely. The mills that have lower spindle capacity or narrow product range, face challenges during market fluctuation and deeply impacted. So, a part of the market scenario, industries have lot of in-house manufacturing challenges:?

?1.????Improper bale management in mixing department

2.????Usable waste mixing during bale laydown

3.????Different count range selection

4.????Change over matrix preparation

5.????Breakage capturing during planning & scheduling

6.????Doffing time & downtime

7.????Stock visibility & Rack Management

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In case you are wondering what are the solutions of the challenges enumerated above, please feel free to connect with me.

Thank you for reading this. I will discuss the remaining challenges like, Dye lot Planning, Cutting Planning, Batch Traceability, Operation level WIP Tracking, Plan v/s Actual production, Order wise status in multi-level areas, etc. in my next blog. So, stay tuned…