Computer

Aided
Production
Planning
Modules In
FastReact EVOLVE

DEEKSHA BARGUJAR (BFT/14/xxxx)

SUMIT PRAKASH (BFT/14/685)
6th Semester
B.F.Tech. 2014-2018
National Institute of Fashion Technology, Patna
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We wish to express our sincere thanks to National Institute of Fashion

Technology, Patna for the ample facilities made available in finishing this
project. We owe deep depth of gratitude to our faculty Mr. Prabhat Kumar
for the guidance and assistance rendered by him at every stage of this
project. We are highly indebted to him for his encouragement and keen
interest shown in our project.

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 Table of Contents

S.no Contents Page No.

1. Introduction 3

2. Need of Fast React 4

3. Getting Started 5-9

4. Module 1 10-11

5. Module 2 12-13

6. Module 3 14-15

7. Module 4 16-17

8. Module 5 18-20

9. Module 6 21-36

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Introduction

Fast React (Evolve) is a capacity planning and management tool,

developed specifically to enable fashion manufacturer to achieve better
efficiency and control.

Rising material and labour costs, pressure to hit demanding price points,
also shorter lead times and penalties for late delivery mean that
manufacturers have to achieve improved visibility, flexibility and control
of their manufacturing resources.

Many big companies in apparel industry deal with minimum of 200 style
changes per month, varying in quantities from 500 -50,000 pieces. With
such variety, the management of the pre-production activity (critical
path) and correct prioritization of the orders to ensure on time production
start becomes increasingly difficult. The use of manual methods
(spreadsheets and emails) would hold the business back from its goal of
continual growth. A huge amount of management effort would be
required to achieve smooth production flow and on time delivery. In such
situation company would be constantly running from one problem to the
next, trying to keep things under control. Fast React is the solution to all
these problems.

Fast React's highly visual and flexible, 'drag and drop' planning approach
allows fast and accurate scheduling of manufacturing lines, machines, and
supporting processes, including subcontractors. It brings together the
essential elements of capacity, critical path (time and action) and
materials into a single solution, which can also link to other business
systems. It provides clear priorities, reflects current performance and
provides early warning of potential issues and any urgent actions
required.

The Fast React training course consists of a number of sequential

modules, each one designed to demonstrate particular aspects of
production and business management. There are 6 modules in our
training course; which have been explained further in this document.

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Need of Fast React

Many of apparel manufacturers already have an existing business or ERP

systems. These ERP systems manage essential transactions within the
business, such as processing customer orders, raising purchase orders,
booking materials into inventory etc. However, they usually do not
support processes such as new style development, capacity planning, pre-
production critical path effective communication with suppliers etc. Almost
all companies even those with existing ERP systems, still use manual
methods such as spreadsheets, emails, word documents and telephone
calls to manage various functions.

Fast React (Evolve) provides the tools companies lack through ERP
solutions. Fast React (Evolve) eliminates all the loopholes and saves a lot
of time and resources of the company. It should be remembered that
many ERP systems were originally developed to meet the needs of
generic, engineering based businesses and have only recently been
adapted for use in the fashion supply chain.It is perhaps not surprising
therefore that they are not designed to support the often volatile and fast
moving requirements of Apparel, Footwear and Textiles.

Key features

 Multi-level capacity planning at both factory and detailed

line/machine level.
 Reduces Fire Fighting.
 Management of supporting processes, specialist machines and work
in progress
 Materials and pre-production critical path (T&A) priorities actively
driven to support the latest plan
 The plan is updated and dynamic, so it reflects current situation
including any slippage
 Flexible, management level reporting
 Improved planning efficiency.
 Real time data management and reduction of data entry
&redundancy.

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Getting Started
 Procedure for logging in the software.

Open the log in window. Enter the details to log in&click on the module
you wish to open.

Select the licence file.

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 Click on run to get started with the “Fast React”.

The Planning Board: Itopens up when you log in to the software. There are
several tabs and buttons on this window; their functioning is explained later
in the document.

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Function of the buttons

Close plan- This icon will close the current planning board.

Reduce row height- This icon reduces/compresses the height of the

rows.

Increase row height-This icon increase the row height it to its actual
position.

Reduce data scale- This icon enables us to see all the orders in
compressed view without having to scroll right or left.

Home position- This icon shows the starting date (position) of all orders.

Rotate display

 Orders- Orders icon will show the order reference number of an

order.
 Product details/orders colours- This icon will show the details of
a product with product type & product reference number.
 Product- This will show the product type & product reference
number with colour.
 Product Type- Thiswill show the product type with colours.
 Customers- Thiswill show the details of customer with their
names.
 Delivery- This icon will show that the starting & end date of a
particular style.
 Colours- This icon will show the no colour in bars but it shows the
product reference number.

Hide/show strip text- This icon will hide the product reference
number& only shows the strips of styles.

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Find planning items- In this we can search for a particular product.

 For example- Suppose we want to search a product of a particular

style of a particular customer
 Step I- Fill order number, product type, customer.
 Step II- Then click on find button then it will show the details of the
order.

Show/hide strip list- This icon will show the order number, product,
product type, customer, delivery, date with their quantity.

Reload plan- This icon reloads our plan.

Save plan- This icon saves the plan.

Lock plan- This icon locks our plan and other person cannot use that
plan.

Print planning board- Through this icon the planning can be converted
into a print form.

Undo last change- This icon undo the last changes made in the planning
board.

Accept an order to this plan- This icon will accept an order to the plan.

Remove plan gaps- If there are any buffers/gaps in between the orders
through this icon we can remove them.

Move to Delivery date- This icon will move product to its actual delivery
date.

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 Colour codes
Planning board
Yellow columns Passed days
Blue check columns Holidays
Purple line Passing hours
Module 1
Grey strip Order are on time
Dark blue strip Orders are too late
Fade blue strip Orders are late as per plan
Blank strip Idle line
Diagonal lines in strip Orders planned too early
Black and white check Booked capacity
Module 2
Parrot Green box in strip Efficiency below permissible limit
Module 3
Aa Font in black Learning curve not applied
Aa Font in red Learning curve is applied
. Green dot between orders Continue build up
Module 5
Orange strip Delay in critical activity
Yellow strip Delay in non-critical activity
Red dot in strip Unusual mode of transport selected
Red border WIP problem
Brown box in strip Fast tracked orders
Green checks Order delay due to non critical activity delay
Red – blue checks Order delay due to delay in critical activity
Pre- Planning board
Green mark Activities completed on time
Red mark Activities completed late
Green clock Activity pending but on time
Red clock Activity pending and already late
Material Requirement Planning
Dark green Material In-house
Light green Arrive on time
yellow On order, expected to be in-house but late

Red Material shortage, not ordered yet

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Module 1- An Introduction to the Planning
This module introduces students to the planning board. The function of
different tabs and buttons present on the screen are explained. A brief is
given about how to create and load orders.

A factory with two units, one in Patna and other in Bangalore is provided
to students. There is a healthy order list which is to be loaded on empty
planning board in such a way as to maximize on time delivery
performance. Late deliveries are to be avoided as much as possible.

Once this task is done students are supposed to add an order of about
2000 pieces with SAM not less than 20 minutes. Now the task is to add
this order in between the fully loaded planning board. While performing
these tasks students would see that pre-planned orders are now getting
late and there is a need to re-plan the orders.

To load an order: Open planning board- Load List- Select an order- Click
“Load Order”- Place the order where you want to plan it.

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Module 2- Matching Products to Resources
This module shows the need to correctly plan the products on the most
appropriate production lines (most efficient) and the resulting problems
that occur if this is not done.

In practice, different production lines have amix of operators with

different machines and skills that are suited for specific product types. In
this module also there are different lines which are efficient for different
products. At the start of the module there are several orders which are
running late and are fed on inefficient line. The task of the students is to
eliminate the late deliveries by placing the orders on most efficient line
possible. At the end of the module all orders should have been re-planned
to accomplish 100% on-time delivery. Although there will be some
mismatching of product types to production lines but in order to achieve
on-time delivery this could not be avoided.

To know the Row information: Right click on the row- Select row
information.

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Module 3- Introduction to Startup Allowances
This module introduces students with the importance of learning curves.
When new products are introduced into production the startup is usually
accompanied by a reduction in production efficiency, it is called start up
loss.

This module begins with all orders showing on-time delivery. The task of
the students is to apply learning curves in the orders. After applying the
learning curves, there would be a change in the production time of the
orders and some of them would run late. Now students are supposed to
apply follow-on learning curves. For every order that is the same product
type, a follow on learning curve is applied. As the follow on learning curve
is applied the strip length of some orders shortens and production time
reduces. Now students are supposed to plan the orders again in a way to
achieve on time delivery.

To change startup: Open the planning board- Right click the order for
which you want to change the startup- Go to change start up- Select any
one(Fast, Medium, Slow).

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Module 4- Introduction to Load on Specialized Machines
This module introduces the balancing of secondary capacity wherein,
students are supposed to re-plan the orders so that there are no
operation overloads.

In this module the task of students is to eliminate the overloading of twin-

needle sewing machines using bar charts. Fast React provide both a
graphical representation of the loading for each operation and a report
that can be used to show the capacity available versus load as required to
meet the sewing plan. Students are supposed to the order so that there
are operation overloads and so that as many orders as possible are on
time. It should be kept in mind that it’s not always possible to achieve on-
time delivery as well as balanced loading.

For viewing the secondary capacity: Open the planning board- Go to

barchart dropdown menu- Select special machine.

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Module 5- Introduction to Pre-Production Planning
This module introduces students with the importance of pre-production
activities. There is whole series of activities that need to be carried out
before a new order can be put into production. These activities are known
as pre-production critical path events.

Module 5 begins with some orders having pre-production problems which

must be eliminated before the plan can be executed properly. These pre-
production problems can be eliminated by fast tracking the order or by
changing the standing time. Once the pre-production problems are
eliminated students are supposed to arrange the planning board so as to
achieve on-time delivery of the orders. Through this module students will
learn that in practical situation it’s never possible to plan all the orders on
time. There are orders which may run late by a few days.

To change the standing time: Right click on an order- Go to “change

standing time”- Insert change by value- Update.

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To fast track an order: Go to pre-production planning- Right click the
order- Select order details- Change the fast track value- Update.

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Module 6
This module introduces some of the setup and configuration options of the
software. This module introduces the students how “Fast React” is
implemented in an organization. Initially, all the information has to be
imported in the “Fast React”. Usually this is done through ERP software
already installed in the organization. If ERP is not there then, all
information has to be fed manually in “Fast React”.

In this module, students are asked to configure the calendar, holidays,

operations, product type, efficiency profiles, startup curves etc. for the
unit. Students can also add factories and number of lines in the factory,
event framework, customer and products.

The steps involved in the implementation of the “Fast React” system are
shown below with the help of screenshots-

To select the week ending day: Select- Configure- Planning- Calendar-

Select week ending day- Update.

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To insert a new calendar: Setup- General- Calendar- Insert a new
calendar- Enter working hours- Update.

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Define processes involved: Select- General- Operations- Define the
Process involved.

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Add product type: Setup- General- Product type- Define name and
operation time.

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For efficiency profile- Setup- Configure- Planning- Check efficiency profile-
Setup- Production- Efficiency profile- Add new and define efficiency.

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For setting build-up curve: Setup- Configure- Production-

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 For adding a manufacturing unit: Setup- Planning- Plan groups- Insert
unit name- add calendar, throughput time, efficiency profile, operations,
standing time, capacity, etc.

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To add a manufacturing line: Setup- Planning- Plan rows- Define lines-
Insert capacity, efficiency profile, etc.

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To add an event framework: Setup- Event planning- Framework

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To add customers: Customer- Add/Amend- Insert description, seriously
late days.

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To add a product: Products- Add/Amend- Insert reference number, SAM,
etc.

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To add an order: Orders- Add/Amend- Insert product, quantity, shipment
address, order status, etc.

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