Daily reports in textile manufacturing

Client started their business in 2018 to sell apparel online through leading ecommerce portals like Amazon and Flipkart for India market. The client initially expected their goods to be sold in Tamil Nadu and southern states market but to their pleasant surprise they started getting more clients from northern part of India. Client reviewed the Amazon’s public data and found out the most profitable products to make and sell on Amazon. They started with clothes for ladys. They were doing very well and just became a prime vendor in Amazon and then COVID-19 hit India hard and the lockdown caused them to be in limbo. Finally when the lockdown was relaxed they were able to retain their prime status in Amazon and have added more products to their portfolio.

In this post we will explain the top three reports that the clients needed to look at everyday before starting the day. Without these reports they knew they will be off the track and working on wrong priorities. 

The first report they want to look at is the raw material inventory. Raw materials take more time to be delivered than making the apparel from cutting to packing. The activities like spinning, dyeing and printing takes more time and are dependent upon other raw materials in the market for production. They wanted to be proacive in placing purchase order for the raw materials. They wanted the information of raw materials at color, GSM and size level to order. This data about raw material must also be tracked along with wastage. The remnants from the cutting can be used for other products for babies. The raw material consumption must be tracked for each job order they are executing. This report is very crucial for them and the data for this report must be collected in real-time as much as possible. They review this report at the beginning of the day, before breaking for lunch and at the end of the day.

The important output of this report is the purchase order placed to procure the raw materials. The price of the raw materials is something that needs to be collected from the market and integrated into this system and help them make decisions about the raw material purchase.

This report helps them see the quantity on hand for each of the finished products. The quantity are also organized into batches to track their age. They wanted to sell the older products first and then this report will help the user drill down the inventory details of a product from the product level to batch level to job order level.

The outputs of this report are 1. to decide what quantity of it should be manufactured this week and 2. to do the lifecycle price management for this product based on the age of the product. If the product is getting old and irrelevant then it should be sold in clearance mode.

This report helps the clients to know the status of the job orders and they can drill down to know the status at color, size and bundle level. The number of pieces that are incomplete in each bundle is vital to them. They need to prioritize that first and finish making the incomplete pieces.

The output of this report is the calculation of wage and measurement of productivity. Some of their employees are contractors. They are paid based on the count of pieces they make. They want to pay only when the piece is complete and approved by QA and packed. For their permanent employees they want to measure their productivity to calculate bonus.

When we are trying to build a data-driven culture in a company one of the questios we ask is what reports do the users at various levels in your organization need before they start their day. What are some of the reports in addition to this that your team will need to use on a daily basis. Share it as comment.