Custom Apparel Manufacturing Software for Garment Factory
The Result: Bundler completes the work of two employees with no additional overhead
The Opportunity: Automate manufacturing ticket workflows with an electronic tracking system
Our client was a family-owned apparel business struggling to keep up with the task of organizing many different clothing styles and sewing operations in the form of piece-rate tickets. Assigning serial numbers to tickets and maintaining piece-rate information to connect employees with tickets and garments was a monumental task that significantly diminished productivity. Lost tickets, slow manufacturing turn-around, and mistakes in data entry resulted in product waste, inaccurate counts, inability to scale production, and customer frustration.
Atigro developed custom software that not only streamlined the ticketing and production process, but integrated with Quickbooks so that employees could be paid based on work completed.
The Solution: Bundler: software that tracks manufacturing tickets and provides piece-rate information for employees and the products they manage.
Bundler is a kitting system which tracks manufacturing materials through assembly. A kitting system works by using “kits” or batches of raw materials grouped together as a single entity which is tracked through a series of operational tasks. A “kitting ticket” is generated to detail all required parts and operational tasks needed for the assembly of the kit.
Garment manufacturing relies on the ability to track garments from intake to shipping without losing track of necessary fabric pieces and needed sewing operations which makes the apparel industry a prime candidate for kitting.
When fabric and trim arrive for a new job, manageable bundles or kits are created to speed line efficiency. Bundles are given an ID that contains information on the operations needed for the bundle and a bar code which is attached to the bundle. Using the barcode system, employees are able to quickly complete necessary operations for each bundle and keep track of jobs through scanners connected to the electronic tracking system.
Using the “Work in Progress” page, employees can alter job specifications and view the WIP for all jobs associated with a particular client. Employees can run reports on current and completed jobs with information on piece pricing, machine cost, and total job cost; providing profit margins for various jobs and job types.
A built-in payroll calculation feature, based on time on-site and employee productivity, requires less data entry and produces greater accountability in real-time. More importantly, the integration of the product with the manufacturer’s payroll system allows for automated workflows from per person productivity to pay day. Administrators can export piece-rate and time-tracking information for every employee into the payroll system and know which garments each employee worked on, tracking employee productivity and possible bottlenecks.
Features:
- Export data to a payroll system, archive data, change the database connection, verify the integrity of the data, back up the data, print labels, and set passwords
- Quickly access to often used screens: operations, sizes, colors, customers, and employees
- Perform admin functions such as deleting jobs, deleting trim items, modifying terms and employee type, and viewing progress
- Print shipping labels, shipping tally sheets, and reports, including WIP, trim totals, payroll, and operations
- Move forms around within the main window and show currently opened forms.
Many apparel manufacturers use ERP solutions for production from design to distribution. In the future, an AI augmented ERP system could integrate a Bundler kitting module with inventory management and productivity tracking modules to automate all three systems. AI-ERP software would streamline order management, offer end-to-end visibility into the production process, and provide accurate data and analytics for informed decision making. Apparel ERP software, customized and augmented with artificial intelligence, has the potential to revolutionize product lifecycle management in the garment manufacturing industry.
The Impact: Improved order scalability, reduced administrative overhead, and enhanced productivity
The implementation of Bundler has simplified tracking the manufacturing process, employee time on-site and activity and allowed for real-time visibility of resource movement through the assembly line. It also provided insight into employee productivity, as piece-rate analysis has allowed the company to identify high performers and profitable jobs to optimize income and to reward productive employees.
Bundler reinvisioned the client’s manufacturing process through kitting to create a clear workflow from intake to shipping and ensure that product is not being lost or wasted. The previous production planning process relied on back office assignment of parts and did not have a manageable way of tracking products throughout the workflow. The barcode method enables continuous production updates, allowing information to be gathered on the most time consuming assembly processes so that action can be taken to optimize them.