The critical chain approach to apparel production

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The critical chain approach to apparel production

Author: just-style.com | 19 March 2003

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Garment pre-production activities are planned and executed by people, not computer programs, yet the critical path approach ignores this human factor. The critical chain concept, however, recognises and plans for delays in resource availability - and crucially helps to deliver orders faster. This feature, by Swati Gupta, Chandrashekhar Joshi, Prabir Jana and Dr Alistair Knox looks at supply chain dynamics in Indian apparel export manufacturing. Critical path-based project management was introduced to deliver projects within the original cost and time estimates. It requires mutually dependent activities to be coordinated to make the process network, the longest chain of which is called the 'critical path.' Critical path-based time and action concepts are used to schedule pre-production activities in order to deliver on time. Reducing lead times is only possible by: Elimination (remove a process) Compression (remove time within a process) Integration (re-engineering interfaces between successive processes) Concurrence (operate processes in parallel) However, garment pre-production or merchandising activities are planned and executed by people, not computer programs. Also, pre-production process networks are not standardised. They are unique for every single enterprise, every single buyer, and sometimes for every single order. Because of this, it is impossible to apply the 'elimination,' 'concurrence' and/or 'integration' approaches across the whole industry. Instead, there is a time compression technique called 'critical chain' that makes it possible to explore generalised or standardised solutions which can be applied across the sector. What is Critical chain? The critical chain approach was first introduced in 1997 by Dr Eliyahu Goldratt. It tackles project management as a unified discipline and also addresses the individual personalities operating within the process. Like project management, pre-production activities in garment manufacture are driven by human parameters. Furthermore, some of the critical chain characteristics have a lot in common with garment pre-production activities, all of which are addressed specifically and decisively in the critical chain approach. These include: reverse scheduling - scheduling of activities start backwards from delivery date; multitasking - garment pre-production is organised chaos. Resources migrate from one project to the next to. Resources tend to migrate between orders in response to the latest, loudest customer demand in an attempt to keep as many customers satisfied as possible and also to show as much simultaneous progress as possible to different customers; and common resource dependencies - a typical apparel pre-production consists of 60 or more different tasks to be taken care by 3-5 executives in a time sharing approach. Traditional work environments put the emphasis on "not being late," but at the same time they don't promote the concept of "being early" - which leads to safety-nets, the 'student
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syndrome,' and Parkinson's Law taking over the process. Task estimating - When estimating the duration of a specific task, people often worry about the effect of unplanned work interruptions and add a hidden safety-net. A 10-day task may have an extra 5 days built into it. It's perfectly reasonable to include this safety factor (especially with third party activities), but because it's hidden its purpose is lost. Student syndrome - General human nature is to put off the start of any task until the last possible minute, thus eating into the safety buffer. Unfortunately, if the task then faces unplanned interruptions it will overrun the estimate because there was simply not enough time to recover. Parkinson's Law - Work expands to fit the allotted time. If a task is estimated at 10 days, it is usual for it to take less. This is because people will simply adjust the level of effort to keep busy for the entire schedule. Multi-tasking - Most people work in a multi-project environment and have to stop working on one task so that progress can be made on another task in another project. Jumping around like this results in reduced focus and loss of efficiency. Resources tend to migrate between projects in response to the latest, loudest customer demand in an attempt to keep as many customers satisfied as possible. This focus on showing progress on as many active projects as possible is the major cause of multi-tasking. No early finishes! - It is important to note that tasks seem to either finish on time, or late, but rarely early. This is because early finishes are seldom rewarded. In fact, early finishers often being accused of sandbagging their estimates instead of being rewarded for completing ahead of schedule. In this environment, people worry about their future estimates being cut based on their past performance, so they quietly enjoy the lull and officially finish on schedule. Traditional critical path concept Under the traditional critical path concept, tasks are scheduled as soon as possible from the project start date. Every task has a published start and finish date. While this might seem logical, it does not promote performance that is driven by speed to market. In fact, it ensures that early finishes are lost, and only late finishes accumulate in the schedule. Critical chain concept Let's elaborate upon the salient characteristics of the critical chain concept. Task estimating: Each task is estimated in terms of actual working days (without buffer). The buffer days are then cumulated and added at the end of the network or at important milestones. As pooled buffers are known to everyone - unlike hidden ones - time management is transparent. As-late-as-possible scheduling: Tasks are scheduled as late as possible based upon the target end date. There are many benefits to delaying project work: Using a production analogy, work-in-progress is minimised and doesn't incur costs earlier than necessary. From the project manager's viewpoint, there is better focus at the all-important start of the project because there simply aren't as many tasks scheduled to begin. But there's one drawback too. Once you're in tracking mode, all tasks are critical. An increase in duration of any task will push out the project end-date by the increased amount. Relay race approach: This means that when one task is getting close to completion, the next task's resource should be on the track and ready to go. This relay race approach means that tasks should be triggered by the progress of the preceding work rather than on pre-scheduled start and finish dates. Importantly, once a task is started, the resources work as fast as possible towards its completion instead of locking onto a finish date. Resource constraint and allocation: Critical chain is defined as the longest chain of tasks that consider both task dependencies and resource dependencies. Critical path is defined as the longest chain of tasks based only on task dependencies; this is a subtle, but important difference. Critical chain recognises that a delay in resource availability can delay a schedule just as much as a delay in dependent tasks. The above example illustrates the problem better. Imagine there are four tasks - A, B, C and D - with task dependency shown in picture one. Time estimates for each tasks are A = 2, B = 3, C = 1 and D = 2 man-days. A common conception in critical path concepts is that resources are freely (infinitely!) available. This means that if four different people are available then the project would take seven man-days to complete, A-B-D being the critical path. In practical situations, resources are not plentiful, so tasks B and C would probably have to be done by same person.

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So with resource dependencies (i.e. only 3 different people available) the same project would take 8 man-days to complete. This phenomenon is very common in the work environment - especially in the garment pre-production environment - but unfortunately is not addressed by critical path. Critical chain application in the pre-production process A pilot experiment was conducted on the use of critical chain concept at Delta Fashion, New Delhi, India during early January/February 2002. The experiment had two phases: set-up mode and follow-up mode. Set-up mode: 1. Select orders and team of people. Three orders were selected for the pilot. Post-order merchandise activities were monitored for all three orders. 2. Briefing. The critical chain concept was briefed to all team members. 3. Reverse scheduling. Developed a plan of all activities - task dependencies network or PERT (Programme Evaluation and Review Technique) diagram - backwards from the target delivery date for all three orders. 4. Duration estimates. The time for each activity is estimated using the critical chain concept. Time estimations were collected from two sources; firstly the merchandisers who are in charge of the activity, and second, the person who actually performs the work in the unit. 5. ALAP scheduling. Schedule each tasks as per the critical path (as-soon-as-possible or ASAP) concept as well as the critical chain (as-late-as-possible or ALAP) concepts. This is done to compare the two. 6. Pooled buffers. Buffers were inserted at end of project and/or distributed at different milestones along the way. All the interdependent activities are plotted in the PERT network (picture 1). The activities or tasks are classified on whether they are dependent on internal, transportation or external factors. Then the duration of each activity is estimated and put into the PERT network. Picture 2 shows each the duration of each activity (above each arrow), the project buffer and the total order completion date. Numbers in brackets (such as 9, 31) mean that particular activity starts 9 days from the beginning of the project and ends on day 31. The numbers in boxes are buffer days at important milestones.
Picture 1: Supply network for Delta Fashions

click on the diagram to enlarge

Source: Critical Chain, Changing the Apparel Industry

Picture 2: Critical Chain Network with Buffer

click on the diagram to enlarge

Source: Critical Chain, Changing the Apparel Industry

Follow-up mode: No due dates were set for individual tasks, but the aim was to finish as early as possible and hand over to next person for the next task. As the order activities moved forward executives were informed and prepared for tasks to arrive, thus ensuring prioritisation and speedy execution of tasks. Findings The actual performance, that is, the number of working days taken to complete the order, was compared with the scheduled number of days under the critical path (CP) and the critical chain (CC). The order was completed according to the critical chain schedule and well before the time laid out in the critical path (see graph 'Actual vs CC & CP'). It is important to note that the critical chain completion date is always followed by the project buffer. This means that even when the order overshoots the critical chain timing it can be completed within the buffer dates. Multi-tasking in the pre-production process In the absence of any pre-planning, garment pre-production activities are basically fire-fighting operations. People attend to problems wherever they are needed and then migrate to others, leaving the earlier task half-finished. Three activities - namely CAD, sampling and pattern making - saw the most multi-tasking is frequent, with the loudest customer being catered for first. The day-to-day activities of all the three departments were collected, including lunch breaks, and the standard time for similar activities was noted. Data was collected for one month relating to two pattern masters, one CAD operator and three sample tailors.

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The summarised findings are: Due to its lack of focus, multi-tasking induces an average 43 per cent loss of time at start-up. The increase in lead-time of a particular task can be as much as three days instead of two hours. For the pattern maker the time lost on multi-tasking was 32.85 per cent. The time lost on multi-tasking by the CAD department was 38.80 per cent. The above chart shows that styles ABC and TSR were abandoned halfway through, and another two new styles (XYZ and Jumper) were worked on before the employee returned to complete the half-finished styles. A different scenario is shown below. If proper priority was given to the pattern maker, and multi-tasking was not followed, three styles (ABC, XYZ and Jumper) could have been completed earlier without affecting the completion of other styles. Conclusion While the traditional "time-action-plan" concept in pre-production activities tries to control delays, it still gives rise to "me-first" mentalities. The critical chain approach, however, encourages team-working and has the potential to compress make-up time even further. The first ever pilot in the garment industry promises huge benefits by planning, scheduling and prioritising tasks in a multi-style environment. Minimising or eliminating multitasking can therefore result considerable gains in internal activities. Any organisation interested in experimentation of Critical chain concept should contact the author with a brief company profile. E-mail: prabirjana@rediffmail.com. References Towill, DR, Time Compression and Supply Chain management- a guided tour, Logistics Information management, Vol 9 No 6 1996 pp41-53 Goldratt, Eliyahu M, Critical chain, The North River Press, 1997 Gupta Swati and Joshi Chandrashekhar, Critical chain, Chaining the Apparel Industry, 2002, GMT Diploma Project Report, NIFT The article is based on annual research carried out at the GMT Department, NIFT during 2001-02, sponsored by Creative Garments and with technical assistance from Creatnet Services, India. This is part of doctoral research by Prabir Jana at Nottingham Trent University, UK. 0
Companies: CC

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Very interesting concept but would definitely need more trials before any solid

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The critical chain approach to apparel production

http://www.just-style.com/analysis/the-critical-chain-approach-to-apparel...

conclusions acn be drawn. Still believe that in all projects one factor is missing and that is of the human bias/attitude towards work. Vipin Atri GMT1992 vatri@dnet.net.id

Vipin said at 5:34 am, March 27, 2003 Reply to this comment

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