Importance of Production Co-ordination in

Apparel Production

Apparel Production Management APRL 419

Mian Sohail Sarwer

Assignment Report

Meera Khan
APRL 419- ASSIGNMENT 1

Importance of Production Co-ordination in

Apparel Production

Introduction & Importance

Production co-ordination is a vital aspect in the life of an industry as well as in completion of an

order given by the customer. To retain and show value to customers or to simply enhance the

systems of an apparel industry the most important operation to target is production co-ordination.

In short, no industry can survive without production co-ordination; it is to say no order can be done

without co-ordination of processes and departments.

The job of production co-ordination comes under the production merchandiser or the one

overseeing the order given by the customer. Production co-ordination is not to find out the

processes to complete an order but to bring them together or merge them in a manner that makes

the production flow seamlessly until the order is complete.

As lead time or timeliness is vital in completion of an order, merchandiser needs to co-ordinate in

a manner that allows the industry to fulfil the order without and glitches or hindrance.

Production co-ordination is a term that is often confused with communication or follow ups.

However, these are three different terms that are required in co-ordination but doesnt complete it.

With communication the merchandiser transmits the information and with follow ups he gets an

update but co-ordination means to give information, find ways to bring all processes required in a

flow, join heads with people required to fulfil an order and then get updates and avoid obstacles

of time and planning.

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Without production co-ordination it is very difficult to interlink departments or operations which

is vital in apparel production as departments are interdependent to complete an order. Throughout

the merchandising process co-ordination is essential to give the manufactured goods to the

customer or buyer.

Co-ordination for Merchandiser or Production Coordinator

As mentioned above coordination is a vital aspect in apparel merchandising or even apparel

production. As a merchandiser oversees an order he needs to be vigilant and manage all the

operations or heads of operations required to fulfill an order. Co-ordination for a merchandiser or

the role of the production coordinator is to bring all the processes together whether they are inside

or outside the organization. This will result in a timely delivery of merchandise to the customer.

To fulfil the order a merchandiser needs to coordinate internally as well as externally.

Internal Co-ordination

Internal co-ordination is done within industry. The merchandiser lists down the operations that are

to be completed within the factory once the order is confirmed. After that, the merchandiser to co-

ordinate uses formats or computer software to coordinate with other departments. This is done to

bring all departments into the production loop and start the implementation of an order. Generally,

a merchandiser coordinates with the following departments in a factory.

1) Sampling 6) Sourcing or Procurement

2) Production or Stitching 7) I.E and Planning

3) Cutting and Pattern making 8) Finishing

4) Washing/ Dyeing/ Printing 9) Finance

5) Supply chain 10) Export and logistics

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11) Packing 12) Quality Assurance and Quality

Control

*not in given order

The merchandiser analyzes the order and sees that if anything has to be done outside the factory

and if there are processes he adds them to the list of external co-ordination.

External Co-ordination

External Co-ordination is done when the processes are of outside the factory with external

organizations, people or even third party suppliers or testers. The merchandiser has to be in contact

with them, exchange plans and ideas and coordinate with external entities to fulfil an order.

Sometimes the customer are liaison offices or buying houses who are to be reported and included

in production processes so the merchandiser has to co-ordinate with them and give them reports

and updates of the planning and production.

Apart from this, customer sometimes nominate sources of raw materials such as trims, accessories,

packing materials and fabric even nominate external testing laboratories which the merchandiser

has to update and plan the production with in order to fulfil customer requirements.

Generally, these are the entities the merchandiser has to co-ordinate with externally.

1) Customer or buyer 6) Freight forwarders or agents

2) 3rd party vendors or CMTs 7) Suppliers or Nominated suppliers

3) Liaison offices or buying offices 8) Other factories and Organizations

4) External auditor 9) Special processes done outside

5) Laboratories factory

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10) Fabric manufactures or merchants (if

nominated or not produced by

factory)

*not in given order

Tools for Co-ordination

In this technologically advanced world, merchandiser has a lot of tools to co-ordinate internally

and externally. Some of the conventional tools are time and action plan, critical path planning.

Other technologically advanced tools are ERP, OPS, Oracle and inventory software which helps

the merchandiser in successfully know the order status, planning and other updates to find out the

position of the order. This helps him by finding out the troubled areas and figure out the ways to

troubleshoot before its too late.

Importance & Conclusion

It is seen in many factories that the delays in order execution or apparel production is often due to

lack of co-ordination between departments. Lack of co-ordination or ineffective co-ordination

done by the merchandiser results into late order execution or problems with the order which can

lead to rejections and claims. The magnificence of production co-ordination is that is curtails the

problems and helps streamline the processes such that a positive impression is given to the buyer

and other organizations. Many enhancements have been done in recent years to help the

merchandiser in this area with effective results. Production co-ordination is not only a part of

merchandising but efficient and effective merchandising is done through production co-ordination.

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Today, production co-ordination is a vital part of supply chain processes of industries and not only

used to fulfil orders but as a core competency and is marketing edge to attract customers.

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