Counting work in progress in a garment workshop

In a garment workshop a shirt passes through several stages from cutting to packing, and at each stage the pieces wait in a different place and a different form. Cut but unsewn pieces sit in bundles, sewn but unfinished ones in baskets at the line, those awaiting pressing at the pressing table. The record often knows only the two ends: fabric issued from the warehouse and finished goods received into it. The work in progress in between looks as if it has dropped out of the record on count day. This article shows how to make it visible by counting it stage by stage.

Define the stages first

Write down the stages of your workshop; each stage will be a line in the count. A typical layout might be:

1. cut, waiting to be sewn;
2. in sewing (on the line);
3. sewn, waiting for pressing and quality control;
4. in repair or returned from quality control;
5. finished, waiting to be packed.

The stage definition is not argued about on count day; it is written in advance and each stage has a physical place: the baskets at the head of the line are "in sewing", the rack next to the pressing table is "waiting for pressing". A piece whose place you do not know is a piece whose stage you do not know either.

The bundle tag carries everything

A cutting bundle must show: cutting order or sales order number, model, size, colour, bundle number, number of pieces in the bundle and stage. As the bundle changes stage, a date and signature or a coloured mark is added to the tag. If pieces are taken out of a bundle for repair or quality reasons, the current quantity is written on the tag.

Sizes are separate lines: the S, M and L bundles of one order are not added into one figure. The arithmetic is simple, bundles times pieces per bundle, but with an out-of-date tag it is wrong too.

How the count runs

1. The count is set at the end of the shift or when the line slows down, so bundles are counted while they stand still.
2. The team goes stage by stage, reads the tags and writes bundle number, size and quantity on the count sheet.
3. At each stage the quantity on the tag is checked by opening and counting a few bundles.
4. Untagged or mixed bundles go on a separate line.
5. Stage totals are combined by cutting order and compared with the cutting record.

Warn the line supervisor in advance so that bundles do not move during the count; a moving bundle can be counted twice or not at all.

Example: tracing 2,000 pieces

In an illustrative cutting order, 2,000 shirts were cut. On count day the pieces are spread like this:

• finished and packed: 800;
• finished, waiting to be packed: 300;
• in sewing: 14 bundles × 25 = 350;
• cut, waiting to be sewn: 20 bundles × 25 = 500;
• in repair: 30.

The total is 800 + 300 + 350 + 500 + 30 = 1,980. Against the cutting record of 2,000, 20 pieces are missing, which is 1 per cent. The waste report holds 12 pieces set aside for cutting defects; the remaining 8 pieces (0.4 per cent) are unexplained and are looked for. With the causes beside it the argument shrinks: 12 pieces are waste, 8 are to be asked about.

A table written stage by stage is useful the next day too: it shows how many pieces wait at each stage, and where the bottleneck is.

The value of work in progress changes with the stage; how much cost is loaded at which stage depends on your company's accounting policy and your accountant. This article deals only with quantity, but if the quantity is wrong the value cannot be right either.

Common mistakes

• Taking pieces out of a bundle without updating its tag.
• Counting one bundle of the same order at two stages because it moved during the day.
• Adding sizes together on a single line.
• Leaving repair and quality-reject pieces outside the record.
• Counting bundles sent to a subcontractor in the workshop count, or not counting them at all.

In short

Tied to a stage and a bundle tag, work in progress does not vanish from the record. In a factory warehouse count StockSystem counts the raw-material, semi-finished and finished-goods areas separately, and compares material waiting on the cutting table, in the workshop or at a subcontractor with the issue slips.