Bundle 312 is somewhere on the floor
The finishing supervisor has the order nearly complete except for one bundle of size 14 sleeves in navy. The ticket says it left cutting on Monday. Line 3 thinks it went to line 4 when they rebalanced. Line 4 says they never had it. Someone finds it at lunchtime under a table by the overlocker, half sewn.
Meanwhile, line 2 has a mountain of bodies waiting for collars, and nobody in the office knew until the line supervisor came up to complain.
Paper tickets travel, information does not
Bundle tickets do their job at the machine: the operator knows what the bundle is. The problem is that the ticket is the only record. The office, the planner and the other supervisors cannot see anything until someone walks the floor and counts.
- Bundles move between lines when work is rebalanced, and nobody records it.
- WIP is estimated by eye, not counted.
- Subcontracted operations, such as embroidery, take bundles off site without a clear record.
- Rework bundles loop back without being logged.
- The planner learns about a bottleneck when a line runs out of work or is buried in it.
What invisible WIP does to an order
Lost bundles hold up entire orders at finishing, because a shipment cannot be packed with a size missing. Unbalanced lines mean some operators wait while others are overloaded, which hurts output and, where pay is piece rate, causes friction. The planner makes promises to brands based on guesses about how far along an order is, and the merchandiser finds out the truth late.
There is a quieter cost as well. When nobody can see WIP, the natural response is to cut more work and push it onto the floor so no line runs dry. That buries the lines in half-finished bundles, makes lost ones more likely, and ties up fabric in pieces that will not become garments for days.
How we track bundles
- Bundle tickets are printed at cutting with a barcode or QR code, holding order, style, colour, size, bundle number and quantity.
- Each time a bundle moves (issued to a line, passed to the next section, sent to an outside embroiderer, returned for rework) it is scanned with a phone or a cheap handheld scanner.
- Line supervisors can reassign bundles between lines with a scan, so rebalancing is recorded.
- A floor view shows WIP per line and per section, with bundles that have not moved for a set time highlighted.
- An order view shows how many pieces are at each stage, so the merchandiser can answer a brand's question without walking the floor.
- Finishing can see exactly which bundles are still missing for an order and where each one was last scanned.
| Question | Answered by | With bundle scanning |
|---|---|---|
| Where is bundle 312? | Walking the lines | Last scan and location |
| Which line is overloaded? | A supervisor complaining | WIP per line on screen |
| How far along is this order? | An estimate | Pieces at each stage |
| What is at the embroiderer? | A notebook | Bundles scanned out and back |
A floor you can see from the office
The planner sees a pile forming ahead of collar setting before it stops a line, and moves an operator. The finishing supervisor gets a list of what is missing for an order rather than a hunt. Bundles sent for embroidery come back or are chased by number. And when the brand asks how much of their order is sewn, the answer is a figure, not a feeling.
Sound like your floor?
- Orders wait at finishing for a bundle that cannot be found.
- WIP is estimated rather than counted.
- Rebalancing between lines is not recorded.
- You find out about bottlenecks when a line stops.
- Merchandisers walk the floor to answer brand questions.