Line balancing

SOFT Student Handouts,

By, Sunil Talekar, Faculty, SOFTPune

What is line in apparel manufacturing?

Line: an assembly line composed of several work
stations, at which specific operations are
performed. To work effectively, with no work pileups between stations, the line must be balanced,
e.g. work must get through each workstation in
roughly the same amount of time.

What is Line Planning?

Line planning is scheduling and allocating of orders to production
lines according to product setting (product is being made in the line)
and due dates of production completion. A line plan defines when a
style is going to be loaded to the line, how many pieces to be
expected (target) from the line and when order to be completed. For
example, please refer to the following Table-1, where a simple line
planning has been shown in spread sheet.
During booking orders or allocating orders to the production line,
planners must check what is running on the line and how many days
it will take to complete the Running style.
Benefit of Line planning: It helps production manager as well as line
supervisor with information such as what is the daily production
target for line. They set their line (machines and manpower)
accordingly. Line plan also provides information such as how many
days style would run, what is the next style going to be loaded?

Line plan

Date
1-Dec
2-Dec
3-Dec
4-Dec
5-Dec
6-Dec
7-Dec
8-Dec
9-Dec
10-Dec
11-Dec

Line 1
Daily
Cumm
Prod.
Prod.
loading #2341A,
Qty -3000 pieces
200
200
250
450
400
850
400
400
400
400
400

1250
1650
2050
2450
2850

150
3000
loading #432K,
Qty -5500 pieces

Daily
Prod.

Line 2
Cumm
Prod.

300
1200
300
1500
300
1800
200
2000
loading #Polo ,
Qty -1500 pieces
0
0
100
100
300
400
350
750
350

Total
Daily
Prod.
300
500
550
600
400
400
500
700
750

1100

500

400
1500
loading #YK45,
Qty -4500 pieces

400

12-Dec

100

100

13-Dec

250

350

200

200

450

14-Dec

500

850

250

450

750

15-Dec

500

1350

400

850

900

16-Dec

500

1850

400

1250

900

17-Dec

500

2350

400

1650

900

18-Dec

500

2850

400

2050

900

19-Dec

500

3350

400

2450

900

20-Dec

500

3850

400

2850

900

21-Dec

500

4350

400

3250

900

22-Dec

500

4850

400

3650

900

23-Dec

150

5000

400

4050

550

Daily Prod. Daily production or line output

Cumm Prod. Cumulative production of the style till date

100

LINE BALANCING

LINE BALANCING (Process Organization) The Line Balancing is

to design a smooth production flow by allotting processes to
workers so as to allow each worker to complete the allotted
workload within an even time

LINE BALANCING (Process Organization) It is a system where you

meet the production expectations and you can find the same
amount of work in process in every operation at any point in the
day.

WHY LINE BALANCING

@ the main job in line balancing is to eliminate or
reduce wip (work in process) at bottleneck operations.
@ keeps inventory costs low, resulting in higher net
income
@ allows operator to work all day long giving an
opportunity to earn more money and increases his/her
work effi ciency
@ keeps the prices low which turns into repeat sales
@ means better production planning

There are 3 rules for

balancing
(1) HAVE AT
LEAST HOUR OF
WIP FOR EACH OPERATION
(2) SOLVE PROBLEMS BEFORE
THEY BECOME ANY LARGER
(3) MEET PRODUCTION GOALS BY
KEEPING EVERY OPERATOR
WORKING AT THEIR MAXIMUM
CAPACITY

LINE BALANCING TOOLS

Production
Dailysheets
production
report

The inventory
levels by operation

Production
boards
Stop watch
Calculator

PROCESS OF LINE BALANCING

Determine the tasks to be performed

Determine the order
Formulate the precedence diagram
Estimate the time
Calculate cycle time
Calculate minimum workstations
Use the heuristics to assign tasks

HOW CAN WE MANAGE WIP?

(1) Production planning
(2) Trims control
(3) Production Build-up
(4) Line Balancing
(5) Cut Flow Control

Line balancing in apparel manufacturing

STEPS TO A BALANCED LINE

STEP 1. CALCULATION OF THE LABOR
REQUIREMENTS AND CAPACITY STUDY
THE REQUIREMENT OF WORKER DEPENDS UPON THE PROBABLE EFFICIENCY
OF THE LINE SELECTED AND PERCENTAGE OF TIME THEY WORK.

List down all operations

with operator name as per
operation sequence
Check cycle time for each
operation for five
consecutive cycles
With average cycle time
calculate hourly capacity
of the operators
With the help of the hourly
capacity, calculate the labour
requirement

B.

With the capacity data set target

output per hour from one line.

C.

Target per hour = Total no of

operators X 60 /garment SAM

D.

Current hourly operator

production report is analyzed

A.

STANDARD
ALLOWED
MINUTES OF
EACH OPERATION

STEP 2. OPERATIONAL BREAKDOWN

AND SETTING THE TARGET
Line balancing in apparel manufacturing

Line balancing in apparel manufacturing

STEP 3: TARGET SETTING

With the above step 1 & 2 data set
your target output per hour from one
line.
Generally it is calculated using
following formula (Target per hour=
Total no of operators X 60 /garment
SAM).
Check current hourly operator
production report. Draw a straight line
with target output data on the line
graph.

*STEP
The4.time
at which the longest time is
IDENTIFICATION OF BOTTLENECK AREAS
required is called Bottleneck Process
* The state of line organization should be
evaluated as Organization Efficiency
* Pitch Time provides average time allotted
to each worker.
* Using the pitch time and Bottleneck
Process
Pitch TimeTime.
provides average time allotted to each worker
The time at which the longest time is required is called bottleneck Process. The
state of line organization should be evaluated as Organization Efficiency Using
the pitch time and Bottleneck Process Time.
Pitch Time
___________
x 100

Organization Efficiency (%) =

Bottleneck Process Time

100
= ______ X 100
140
= 71.4 %

(For the aforementioned case study)

STEP4. ELIMINATION OF BOTTLENECKS FROM THE LINE

Methods of eliminating bottlenecks from the line

Club operations where possible. Give the operator another
operation with less work content considering machine type
and sewing thread colors.
Shuffle operators. Operations that have low work content use
low performer while work content is higher use high
performers.
Add more operators at bottleneck operations. Also compare
the cost-benefits of putting additional machine into the line.

Improve workstation layout and improve methods

Reduce cycle time using work aids and attachments

Line balancing in apparel manufacturing

All in all
FROM IMBALANCED LINE..

To Balanced line