MM Exports shipped 7% more and raised OTDP by 5% in peak season

The Challenge

MM Exports speciality is value added processes such as embroidery, printing, bead attach, washing, tie-dye and laser. It is this speciality that gives MM Exports its competitive advantage but it was also this area that produced the biggest planning and control headaches. With some processes in house and few subcontracted plus multiple processes on the same garment, it was a real challenge to manage supplier capacities, provide accurate production schedules, measure work in progress and variances. With 95% of styles featuring these special finishes, any difficulties faced in managing them would quickly affect the bottom line profitability of the business so MM Export turned to Coats Digital’s FastReactPlan for help.

The Solution

Implementing FastReactPlan (sewing line planning and critical path management) plus the additional embellishment planning module, ensures that the complex value added process are controlled and managed effectively. The semi-automated embellishment module is designed to synchronize each process with the master sewing plan but allow the flexibility when required to override based on other factors such as supplier capacity constraints, minimum batch quantities etc. With the Embellishment module, as with all FastReactPlan planning tools, ‘what if’ planning is quick and easy with the knock on effect of changes calculated and clear warnings of conflicts (with other production processes or pre-production readiness) are highlighted instantly.

The Conclusion

Planning Manager at MM Exports said “Forward visibility has increased and now we can identify issues well in advance. Our decision making time has also been reduced and we can now make quick decisions as FastReactPlan provides us accurate information on time. ”Through FastReactPlan we establish better control over our vendors and their capacities as we know exactly what the situation of our outsourced processes are. It also helps us to feed the production lines continuously. Though we have not measured previously to quantify, we can see considerable reduction of idle time for past few months. In the last peak season we were able to increase our on time delivery performance by 5%. One customer actually rewarded us for our performance.”

Kawal continues: “Visibility of value added process capacities helped a lot to ensure that we optimise and manage those effectively. Work in progress data helped us to keep a better control over value added processes. The FastReactPlan is very professional and helpful, guiding us throughout the project. Their continuous consultation is really valuable to establish centralised planning and best practices.“