Dore - Dore

Background

Dore Dore, established by Jean Baptiste in 1819 was a world class manufacturer of fashionable knitted
products. Its hosiery division produced socks and stockings for men, women and children & accounted
for 88% of DD’s sales. Its knitwear division produced a line of children's knitwear such as play clothes,
sweaters and nightclothes. It produced hose not only under its DD trademark, but also for famous
designers like Yves St.Laurent, Nina Ricci and Chantal de Thomas.DD commanded a 30% to 40%
market share in the high end hosiery segment.

Operations

Its operations were divided between two main sites – MERY PLANT, which had all children’s
knitwear operations; and GRES COMPLEX, which had the company’s headquarters and central
hosiery factory. Currently they are facing problem of high manufacturing lead time and high inventory.
For e.g. in Mery Plant lead time is three months. This increases risk of forecasting and change in
fashion. So they are changing current layout to cellular layout to decrease manufacturing lead time
(MLT).

1. Mery Plant- Knitwear operations

In children’s knitwear division, the company is presently using a product and process design layout to
do the operations in the production. In sewing operation they are using product layout. Sewing
operation consist of 42 workers 55 machines. As an experiment they have designed one cell with 6
workers which resulted into decreased in MLT from 3 weeks to 1 day. They can make 6 such cells as
they have 42 workers.

PFD: Merry Plant

Knitting
(Lead Time: 2 weeks)

Dyed Yarn Non Dyed Yarn

Dyeing
(Lead Time: 5 weeks)

Cutting
(Lead Time: 1 week)

Sewing & Finishing

(Lead Time: 3 weeks)
Sewing operation

For Previous layout:

Labor content: 10 mins, Workers: 42, Available time = 8 x 60 = 480 mins.

Capacity= 42 x 480/10 = 2016 units

Daily Output = 2000 units

MLT = 3 weeks = 15 days

WIP = MLT x Daily production = 15 x 2000 = 30000 units

Cellular Layout

Workers= 6, labour content: 10 mins per pair

Capacity per day = 6 x 480 / 10 = 288 units

No of cells = Total number of workers / No. of workers per cell

= 42/6 = 7

Daily production capacity in sewing operation= 7 x 288 = 2016 units per day

MLT = 1 day

WIP = 2000 units

Similarly we can modify other processes into cellular manufacturing to decrease WIP and Inventory

Previous layout Cellular layout

1 MLT 15 days 1 day
2 Labor content 10 min 10 min
3 Capacity 2016 units 2016
4 Production 2000 units 2000 units
5 % Utilization 99.2 99.2
6 WIP 30000 units 2000 units
Advantages

• Manufacturing lead time is decreasing so it will decrease the risk of forecasting &
fashion.
• Reduction in inventory thus decreases in inventory carrying cost.
• Work balancing by the workers without supervisors.
• Batches could move in the cell without supervisors.
• Sense of togetherness in workers.

2. Gres Plant - Hosiery division

In Hosiery divisions they are converting post knitting processes into cellular layout. For this they are
making one cell with 36 workers. They will work in two teams.

PFD: Gres’ Plant

Knitting
(Lead Time: 1 week)

Closing the Toe

(Lead Time: 1 week)

Ironing
(Lead Time: 1week)

Quality Control
(Lead Time: 1.25 weeks)
Previous Layout:

a. Knitting operation:

Cycle time = 7 minutes/pair, Available time = 24 x 60 = 1440 mins

Capacity = 1440/ 7 = 206 pair/machine/day

Actual production= 37000 pairs

No of machines = 37000/206 = 180

b. Closing the toe:

Cycle time= 1 min/pair, Available time= 1440 min

Labor content= 1 min/pair, Total labors= 92

Capacity = 92 x 8 x 60/1 = 44160 pairs

Actual production= 37000 pairs

% Utilization = 37000/44160= 83.78%

c. Ironing:

Labor content = 0.25 min/pair, Total labor = 12

Capacity = 12 x 8 x60/0.25 = 23040 pairs

Actual production = 37000 pairs

d. Quality Control and Packaging:

Actual production= 37000 pairs

No of workers = 107

Labor minutes available = 107 x 8 x 60 = 51360 min

Cycle time = 51360/37000 = 1.38 min

Daily production = 37000 pairs

 Total MLT = 7 + 4.5 x 6 = 34 days

WIP = 34 x 37000 = 1258000 pairs

Cellular Layout:

They are converting post-knitting processes into cellular layout.

a. Close the toe:

7 workers, Labor content = 1 min/pair

Capacity = 7 x 480 / 1 = 3360 pairs

b. Quality control and packaging:

8 workers, labor content = 1.25 min/ pair

Capacity = 8 x 480/ 1.25 = 3072 pairs

c. Ironing machine:

Capacity of ironing machine is increased to requirement.

Bottleneck = 3072 pairs/ team = 6144 pairs/cell

No of cells = (92 + 24 + 120)/36 = 6

Total capacity = 6144 x 6 = 36864 pairs

Calculations for post knitting processes:

Previous layout Cellular layout

1 MLT 4.5 x 6= 27 days 1 day (expecting)
2 Capacity 37000 pairs 36864 pairs
3 Production 37000 pairs 37000 pairs
4 WIP 37000 x 27 =999000 pairs 37000 pairs