ABCD industry is pioneer in the dyeing and printing of yarn, fabric, and garments. They have a large set of customers, varying from small vendors to big firms. They provide service for all types of dyeing and printing of fabric. Once the raw material is in, it takes approximately 2-10 days to ship out the finished product.

The batch process at the unit had six different verticals: Singeing- Wt. Reduction – Scouring -Bleaching – Mercerizing - Dying/Printing. Due to the interlinking of each step, the overall process was not streamlined, and hence plant capacity was diminished. The actual processing time was 24 hrs. however, TAT was 2-10 days.

The major challenge for the company was posed by three realities in this environment:

1. Efficiency loss due to downtime; if any of the vertical goes down, the next vertical was not able to work due to the inter-dependent state of the process.

2. Priorities were revised frequently without proper planning, leading to an idle time of equipment, combined with poor record-keeping added exponential production loss.

3. Maintaining the overall quality of the product, any defect created at the prior step magnifies into a larger one in the next level, strict quality control was necessary.

This co-existence of uncertainties at both ends, coupled with the pressure to meet monthly targets, led to a stressed working environment and undesirable effects.

The critical path was identified, and effective maintenance was deployed over the course, hand in hand production plans were set up for three days in advance. Leading to increased production, less downtime, and better quality of the product. The added benefit was reduced spare consumption and increased customer satisfaction.

Predictive planning, real-time quality control (IoT), and predictive maintenance led to maximizing profit and enhanced quality.