Fewer Equipment Changeovers for the Embroidery Process at Oxford Industries

Melissa R. Bowers () and Anurag Agarwal ()
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Melissa R. Bowers: College of Business Administration, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996
Anurag Agarwal: Transportation Center, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37932

Interfaces, 2007, vol. 37, issue 6, 526-538

Abstract: Oxford Industries, Inc., a leading US apparel manufacturer, implemented a scheduling algorithm that significantly reduced equipment changeovers in its in-house embroidery facility. The company was experiencing difficulties meeting due dates in one of its more profitable, new markets---branded custom-embroidered golfwear. The time Oxford was spending on equipment changeovers was leaving insufficient processing time to meet a surge in demand in this new market. We identified an opportunity for increased production capacity through more efficient scheduling of sequence-dependent changeovers among garments. During the period that we studied, the use of the scheduling algorithm reduced the number of changeovers by an average of 88 percent per order.

Keywords: industries; textiles/apparel; production/scheduling; applications; approximations/heuristic; planning; deterministic sequencing; multiple-machine sequencing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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