Finite Capacity Scheduling Puts A New Twist On Braided Rug Production at Colonial Mills
However, a new interactive scheduling system is making life easier for the production scheduler and others involved in manufacturing at Colonial Mills in Pawtucket, RI — MAX Finite Capacity Scheduling from Kewill ERP. The application also helps Colonial Mills meet today's supply chain challenges — fulfilling customer demand, delivering on-time and providing quality customer service. At the same time, Finite Capacity Scheduling helps keep production flowing efficiently while inventory levels and costs remain under control.
Colonial Mills has been in business for more than 20 years, employs more than 100 workers, and averages nearly $7 million in gross annual sales. It markets a line of braided rugs through retailers such as CarpetMax, JC Penney and Ethan Allen, has a factory showroom in Pawtucket, and sells its rugs through catalog sales. In addition, the company takes custom orders. For example, if a customer wants a standard red, white and blue rug in red, white and green, it's not a problem; Colonial Mills can do that. Likewise, a standard size is 10" by 13", but a customer wants a rug that measures 9" by 13". Colonial Mills will custom-size the rug.
Since installing Finite Capacity earlier this year, Colonial Mills has been able to better balance orders with workload capacity and improve manufacturing throughput — from the braiding machines to the sewing room, according to Dave Perrotti, information systems manager. "All I see is benefits," says Perrotti. "With more than 3,000 rugs going on the schedule each week, we now have the flexibility and versatility to group sizes and colors more efficiently, and also better manage inventory."
For example, with its previous system, the scheduler would have to go out on the shop floor at the end of each week and physically count inventory and finished and partially finished goods. Now, accurate production and inventory records are maintained in the system.
Colonial Mills is using Finite Capacity Scheduling as part of its MAX for Windows solution, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software suite from Kewill ERP. The company replaced its mid-range computer system, Perrotti says, because the software it was running was fragmented and it was not Year-2000 compliant. With MAX for Windows, Perrotti says Colonial Mills now has a client/server solution that is the foundation for delivering efficiencies throughout the supply chain. "We now have a system to go forward to year 2000 and beyond," he says.
How It Works The goal is to schedule work efficiently across Colonial Mills's 72 braiding machines. For the scheduler, it starts with running MRP (Material Requirements Planning), which produces a list of planned orders. Then, the production orders are firmed up, based on delivery dates to customers. At this point, the information is transferred to the Finite Capacity Scheduling system, where it is woven into the production schedule — with lots of room for flexibility (in the event of last minute order changes, for example). Finite Capacity Scheduling determines specifically where each step of the work process will be performed.
The system automatically schedules production based on like parts. Colonial Mills uses codes in the MAX part master system to ensure that rugs with similar parts run together. For example, Colonial Mills produces a collection called Deerfield, and all rugs in this style have similar yarn and colors. Any rugs that are coded "00" are recognized by the system as Deerfield rugs, and they are subsequently scheduled together.
Finite Capacity Scheduling also slices and dices production orders to keep capacity levels even on Colonial Mills's 72 braiding machines. For example, a braiding machine may be booked with orders for a popular yarn and color combination. If a flood of new orders arrives for similar rugs, it might take three weeks for the scheduled machine to complete the orders. Using Finite Capacity Scheduling, the work orders are rescheduled to nearby machines with like parts, but with lighter workloads.
"The difficulty is, if you have a group of rugs on machine 2, and you put some of the same groupings on machine 72 on the other side of the building, that's inefficient because you are going to have yarn all over the place," Perrotti says. "There are just too many different types of yarn, and too many different colors, to have each braiding machine operator keep them all in stock."
Colonial Mills uses more than 50 types of yarn, and a full pallet of colors. "It can be a real logistics problem," Perrotti says. Finite Capacity Scheduling, however, gives Colonial Mills full visibility of this segment of their supply chain. "With Finite Capacity Scheduling, you can visually see on the terminal screen where it's putting work orders. It's right in front of your eyes. You can see the 72 braiding machines on the screen. Each machine grouping is color-coded on the screen."
Once the braiding operation is complete, the braided yarn moves to the sewing room, where the rugs are sewn on machines by a staff described by Perrotti as "very efficient and talented." As he remarks, "you can't just get anyone to come in and sew a rug."
Because of its fast turnaround time on orders, Colonial Mills schedules production only a week in advance. "It keeps us right on top of our schedules. Delivery is normally from one day to two weeks from receipt of order," says Perrotti. Colonial Mills does stock some items in its warehouse for several retail customers, but the majority of its rugs are made to order.
Looking ahead, Colonial Mills hopes to install display terminals on the shop floor, so that operators can view the schedule without handling paperwork, as is the case now. And Colonial Mills would like to extend Finite Capacity Scheduling to other departments within the company, beyond the 72-machine braiding operation. For example, the sewing room could be added to the schedule, along with a separate cable-lock braiding function. "That way, we could have three work centers: from braiding to sewing; or from braiding to cable-lock to sewing. I see a lot of potential benefits with an integrated scheduling system that covers the entire process, from spooling the yarn right through to distribution," Perrotti says.