DELAY ANALYSIS USING T&A CALENDAR AND

DEVELOPING DELAY SIGNALLING SYSTEM AND TIME

MANAGEMET SYSTEM HENCE IMPROVING
MERCHANDISING PROCESS
Problems:In the garment industry, the goal is not only to deliver the product at low cost but
most importantly in shorter time which we can be achieved by ensuring proper
coordination among different activities. In today scenario where lean is the buzz
word making the delivery quick and on time is the main objective of any retailer and
manufacturer. Reducing the delay elements which are normally non value added
elements and making the entire supply chain more efficient and agile. Hence entire
pre production, production and postproduction activities need to be managed
properly. This also leads to getting more order, more profit and good name in this
competitive scenario. Pre Production delays are the extension of the days beyond
standard and planned schedule for the activities starting from order enquiry to all
approvals required for bulk production.
Problem # 1 Delays
Unexpected delays in the existing activities, or addition of new work steps due to
some problem occurring in the chain. Discovering it too late that stocks of the lace
that was supposed to go into the peasant blouse are not enough and we need to
wait a week before the balance quantity becomes available. Or the rib fabric
needed urgently for the Navy Blue T-shirt is available, but only in light shades which
will need to be redyed and we lose two weeks. Delay happens but the customers
now have become more impatient and less tolerant. By putting in place a clear time
and action calendar, we should be able to know when each activity is supposed to
be begun and ended, and delays should be handled easily .
Problem #2-- Delays and Solutions are not Straightforward
The second problem that adds a layer of complexity is that very often the causeand effect" relationship between a delay in one activity and the total delay. As
explained in the previous section about critical path, this is the sequence which
determines the total lead time of the process. The same delay in different activities
does not have the same impact on the end-result. There is an impact on the endresult only when the delays happen in an activity that is on the critical path. This
fact is not accounted for in T&A calendars, this is why, when having lost a week in
one of the early activities in an order and the order is running late after trying and
speeding up a later activity doesn't seem to work! That is because, while the

delayed activity is on the critical path, the work-step that one is trying to speed up
is not on the critical path. Hence your corrective action produces no result.

Problem # 3 - Many Hands

Dependency between the activities already exists - some activities cannot be
started unless an earlier activity is completed. Take for example the instance of a
print strike-off approval. A factory will not place the confirmed order for the bulk
fabric, unless the strike-off has been approved. Or, looking earlier, the buyer cannot
approve the strikeoff, unless it has been sent to him by the factory or the mill.
Delegation or working in a team / organization also creates dependency on other
people. This inter dependence and mutual responsibility is something that is almost
entirely missed out when one is dealing with a table of task names and dates in an
Excel spreadsheet. Ignoring the interdependence, in turn, creates more problems.
Objectives of the project

To study the merchandising process.

To find the reasons behind the delay.
To recommend ways to control the delay.
To take a survey of the employees, to know whether they are aware of the
loopholes or is there any other way they can improve in.
Developing daily T&A calendar for each department
Developing delay signalling system for transparency of delay in each
department with reasons.

Literature review
A merchandiser is the most important person in garment merchandising. All the
work done in the process are done under the merchandiser. If the merchandiser
manages the flow of the system the right way, therell be very less problems faced.
Time consumed in the merchandising process is the biggest issue. Approvals and
bulk fabric in-house consumes approximately 75% of the total pre-production
activity time and as far the most time-consuming task. Whole supply chain needs a
system which

Reduces time.
Co-ordinates internally for all pre production activity.
Producing high quality clear-cut specifications for manufacturing and quality
purposes.

DELAY
Delay means retarding detention and postponement of set of event and activities
and to put off them to future time. It is unplanned deferment of a scheduled activity
because of something or occurrence that impede its commencement or
continuation. It has time associated cost effects on a contact which may be
measured in term of time money or a combination thereof. As far as apparel
industry is concerned Deviation from quoted lead is referred to as delay. Delays
occur due to several reasons and these can occur at various stages of product and
hence broadly main causes for the delay can be classified as:1) Technical Problem
2) Employee related Problem
3) System related Problem
1) Technical Problem These problems are incurred due to some problem in making
out the use of technology effectively and efficiently. Poor utilization of capacities
also lead to delay as it would result to piling up of work which would stand pending
until the earlier loads are completed.
2) Employee related Problem The garmenting activities are primarily people driven
functions and employee play a very important role. There are several reasons under
this category also some of them are miscommunication, wrong interpretation of the
information and work get affected as all activities are interdependent on each other.
3) System related Problem This is mainly related to the process activities and the
way entire system works. This includes the time taken in documentation, interdepartmental communication, the release of orders, flow of work, processes
followed. The system is unique to every company and it is way the various functions
are executed. And developing a system to work is very difficult.
Reasons for Delay There can be several reasons for delay some of them
can be:

Resource unavailability(Man, Machine, Material),

Non Clarities from Buyer Internal Communication,
Lapse External Communication Lapse Frequent change from the buyer
Priorities
and Internal Rejections.

Reducing lead times is only possible by:

Elimination (remove a process)

Compression (remove time within a process)

Integration (re-engineering interfaces between successive processes)
Concurrence (operate processes in parallel)

Critical Chain Approach Like project management, pre-production activities in

garment manufacture are driven by human parameters. Furthermore, some of the
critical chain characteristics have a lot in common with garment pre-production
activities, all of which are addressed specifically and decisively in the critical chain
approach. These include:

Reverse scheduling- scheduling of activities start backwards from delivery

date;
Multitasking- garment pre-production is organized chaos. Resources migrate
from one project to the next to. Resources tend to migrate between orders in
response to the latest, loudest customer demand in an attempt to keep as
many customers satisfied as possible and also to show as much simultaneous
progress as possible to different customers; And common resource
dependencies - typical apparel pre-production consists of 60 or more different
tasks to be taken care by 3-5 executives in a time sharing approach.
Traditional work environments put the emphasis on "not being late," but at
the same time they don't promote the concept of "being early" - which leads
to safety-nets, the 'student syndrome,' and Parkinson's Law taking over the
process
Task estimating- When estimating the duration of a specific task, people often
worryabout the effect of unplanned work interruptions and add a hidden
safetynet. A 10-daytask may have an extra 5 days built into it. It's perfectly
reasonableto include this safetyfactor (especially with third party activities),
but because it's hidden its purpose is lost.
Student syndrome -General human nature is to put off the start of any task
until the last possible minute, thus eating into the safety buffer.
Unfortunately, if the task then faces unplanned interruptions it will overrun
the estimate because there was simply not enough time to recover.
Parkinson's Law- Work expands to fit the allotted time. If a task is estimated
at 10days, it is usual for it to take less. This is because people will simply
adjust the level of effort to keep busy for the entire schedule.
Multi-tasking- Most people work in a multi-project environment and have to
stop working on one task so that progress can be made on another task in
another project. Jumping around like this results in reduced focus and loss of
efficiency. Resources tend to migrate between projects in response to the
latest, loudest customer demand in an attempt to keep as many customers
satisfied as possible. This focus on showing progress on as many active
projects as possible is the major cause of multi-tasking.

No early finishes! -It is important to note that tasks seem to either finish on
time, or late, but rarely early. This is because early finishes are seldom
rewarded. In fact, early finishers often being accused of sandbagging their
estimates instead of being rewarded for completing ahead of schedule. In this
environment, people worry about their future estimates being cut based on
their past performance, so they quietly enjoy the lull and officially finish on
schedule. Critical chain is the longest chain of dependent activities in a
project. Activities can be depend on each other because of project structure
or limited resources.
Manage the flow, not projects-Critical chain is a breakthrough for
streamliningflow of work through multi project pipelines in a high uncertainty
environment. Thus it greatly facilitates the management of projects. Indeed,
experienced project managers rely instinctively on aspects of critical chain
principles in planning and controlling their projects successfully Adopt
counterintuitive rules
Reduce the amount of work in execution. Instead of as soon as; possible,
release work based on the availability of most loaded resources (these are
whatlimit the amount of work that can be done) Place blocks of protective
time, called buffers where they can do most good. Remove safety from
individuals tasks, and concentrate it into explicit buffers that protect the
whole project-at the end of critical chain and where other chains feed it.Allow
individuals tasks within projects to be late. Use a buffer index (work
completed along any chain divided by the buffer consumed at the end of that
chain) to drive and measure performance. Based on above schedules can be
made aggressive and projects still be delivered on time, on budget and on
scope.

TIME AND ACTION PLAN

Time and action (T&A) plan is an inevitable part of merchandising. Time and action
calendar is a planned calendar which includes:

Major key activities

Planned dates for executing each activities
Actual date of each activity being executed
Remarks

There is a usual format maintained for T&A using spreadsheet. Once when an order
is placed then the merchandiser develops T&A which includes on which date the
particular activity should be started and ended so as to make the goods ready for
shipment on ex-factory date. Most of the time there happens many reworking done
on T&A by merchandisers due to many delays and uncertain things happening on
the way of execution of orders. The fashion industry's processes, indeed any multistep process, can be broken down like this and re-built into a time-and-action
calendar, that tells you how long your process is expected to take, and when you

should be completing each step so that you complete the entire process in time. In
simple terms a "time and action calendar" is something that captures several worksteps, the deadlines for completing those worksteps and also capture, as much as
feasible, the time when the work-steps have actually been completed. Typically, for
easy reference, the steps would have been mentioned in the sequence that they are
supposed to start, or in the sequence in which they are expected to be completed.
In brief, there are three main problems with this simplistic notion of T&A calendars.
METHODS FOLLOWED FOR MANAGING T&A

Some people manually calculate the likely timelines and note down the key
dates in their notebooks or diaries. Sometimes, unwittingly resources tend to
migrate between several projects and hence to a multi-tasking in response
to the customer demand in an attempt to keep as many customers satisfied
as possible.
Keeping track on the phone, through faxes and emails, and tick off things as
the happen or make notes of the new likely dates if there are delays. All the
time, they are mentally figuring out what the impact of the delay is going to
be.
Others use a hand-made chart that they might stick up on the wall. This may
have arrow diagrams similar to what we used above, or other forms of
notation to pinpoint planned starting and ending dates of activities. Naturally,
these charts get scribbled over, or redone, when things do not go to plan.
Most of the "computer-savvy" people use Excel spreadsheets in which they
note down the planned dates and actual completion dates of a limited
number of worksteps in the order

METHODOLOGY
Data collection
Primary data

Data is collected through observation and interview method. Studying

departments,direct interaction with the merchandisers and other team
members.

Secondary data

Secondary data is collected by understanding the process and information

flows, time and action calendar, past records and departmental reports of
orders executed by the company and vendor profiles in detail of the company.

Sample size:

Survey was taken of 15 members of the departments on order to get a clear

scenario of the current flow of the department.

Time and action calendar (T&A) prepared for various styles has been taken as
samples for the study. The TNA was done under the guidance of the head
manager of the department.

Collection of literature phase:

Research is being initiated and frame worked after going through various
library books, journals, company news and knowledge bases across internet.

Presentation and interpretation of data:

The collected data have been classified and tabulated. Simple tables have
been prepared. Graphical representations have been liberally used to exhibit
the classified data to provide easy and better understanding

Research process
In brief, the research process consists of following steps:
Study the current orders.

Study about the customer.

The required garment(construction and design). o
The required fabric (color and quality) o
Assortment and sizing.
Order quantity.

Survey of the employees.

To find out the major faced problems in the system.

To find if there are any loopholes, that needs to be worked upon.
To know their personal view on improvisation.

Make an activity sequence chart.

All the activities of the flow in a sequence.

Includes the planned start date and finish date.
Includes the actual start date and finish date.
Shows the delay in numbers.
Show the outputs graphically using Gantt chart and PERT chart.

Analyzing the information.

Analyze the information collected from the outputs of the surveys and the
charts.
List all the problems.
List all the loopholes.

Recommendations.