Proc 5820 Tour C and D

Tour C

1. Identify key production planning considerations (which, when and how much of each to

produce, methods of dealing with short/long term changes in capacity demand).

Planning at Jos A. Banks started with a broad figure of the ranges and aggregate counts of fabric

needed by type: plains, stripes, herringbones and plaids. Then it was broke down to quantities of

specific fabric needed and then it was broke down by what needed to be cut and assembled for

entire season. From there weekly batches were planned on monthly basis.

The production schedule ran in 8 week cycles and 2 weeks of that was given to cutting. The rest

was given to the shop. Computer generated group sheets provided information on how many unit

of each type of fabric would be cut to help follow up on the production planning. Other

paperwork controlled movement of material through the factory and assisted in coping with

irregularities

There were thousands of piece rates to be established and many parts of production to be

managed. For instance parts of coats were worked on separately in various areas of shop and

there were special projects to work in. Factory costs had to be calculated, deliveries to stores and

catalogs had to be figured, sales had to be monitored, and production had to be adjusted based of

analysis of those sales.

Location was also a part of Jos A. Banks planning considerations. Plants located in Baltimore

attracted a skilled workforce, but operations in Hampstead were closed.

2. Identify potential bottlenecks (use process flow diagram in text) and discuss possible

methods of breaking them.

If production of the back of a coat only takes 5 minutes and the front takes an hour, there is a

potential for backlog to occur is the section producing backs gets too far ahead of the front and

have to shift to another lot. Jos A. Banks resolution to this potential problem was to have more

people working on manufacturing the front side then the back.

Absent workers...