Modelling the changing apparel supply chain

This paper describes a research project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Twenty case-study companies operating across a range of industrial sectors participated in the project. Sectors chosen for the development of these architectures were those where the use of the traditional manufacturing resource planning (MRPII) model is not the optimum operating solution. In particular, the paper describes the process mapping and analysis approach applied to the study of a sector-based group of apparel manufacturing companies who collaborated in the research. The planning issues that confront the companies, the control solutions they employ in response to their present commercial environment as they seek to address the changing demands being made of the industry are outlined. A generic planning and control reference architecture developed from the study for the apparel sector is presented.