Magnitude of ERP technical modules for spinning industry

In the Spinning Industry, from sourcing the Raw Material andtill the yarn is sold, IT plays a crucial role. Like other verticals, textilespinning Industry also has to the core processes that differentiate it fromothers and make it unique in many ways. Most of the Spinning Industry do thecomputerization or go for the ERP for Financial, Sales, Inventory Managementand General Purchase which is more of a common one with other Industriesfunction also. But the area of Technical part where the ERP have to play asignificant role is left unattended or simple computerization is done.

Why ERP Technical Modules part are important?

There is an increased emphasis on improving quality of theproduct to transcend in the cutthroat competitive global market. The functionof the Spinning mill in the Textile Industry is complex due to the followingreasons

1. More variation in Raw Material
2. More no. of Production points
3. Lack of availability of skilled Technicians and Labours
4. Susceptible to ambient Conditions etc.
5. Abrupt Market conditions and
6. Stringent Quality requirements

To overcome the above inscrutable conditions, textileSpinning Industry specific ERP Technical modules are required to perform in asystematic and scientific manner.

Technical Modules

The following Technical modules are important to do the dayto day operations, increase Productivity and Quality levels

• Production Planning
• Production Management
• Quality Management
• Maintenance & Electrical Management
• Bale Management

What should we expect from Technical ERP system?

Production Planning:

Production Planning module is of high substance to any ERPenvironment. It should have a direct link from the Sales Plan. When a Salesplan is drawn the Machinery requirement in each Departments, allocation of RingFrames according to priority and it should mark up to Raw material requirement.If the Raw Material stock is not there, the system should automatically lookfor nearest quality lot and it should inform the Raw material which is in thepurchase pipe line. It should have a seam less integration with the Rawmaterial Purchase and Sales ERP system

Production Management:

It should have an automatic data collection system with allthe Production Machineries. If manual entry of Production is in place meansthen it belongs to first generation of ERP system. Considerable day to reportslike Count wise, Machine wise production reports should be integral part of ERPsystem. Other added features like Operator wise, Shift Officer wise productionto have a control over the man power and to increase their efficiency.Important productivity factors given by Research Organizations like HOK and OHSshould be available shift or day wise for continual improvement purpose.Spinning Industry specific operations like Cone rejections, Idle spindles andIdle Drums should form a part of the Production module.

Quality Management:

The obligatory requirement for any Quality Management ERP should be automatic and instant data transfer from all latest Offline Lab Instruments. Nowadays, most of the Lab Instruments have the facility to port the data to ERP system. The system should indicate whenever there is a deviation in the Quality value as soon as the material is tested. Porting On line Quality data from Production machineries is not far away. For the Lab Quality parameters the report should be available in a user friendly way for analysis like Count wise, machine wise and Trend reports.

Other day to day Quality Assurance Department functions like Process study, Customer complaints registration & Analysis, Trials with statistical comparison provision, Quality plan and Quality Certificate to buyers should form part and parcel of Quality Management module.

Maintenance & Electrical Management:

The first step to ensure Quality is to carry out the Preventive and Routine Maintenance schedules properly and in time. To ensure the Maintenance activities are done properly and automatic generated schedule is required for any period of time so that man power planning can be done and the work also shall be carried out properly. The system should inform the deviation in the Maintenance schedule, so that the Maintenance official can act on it immediately.

Spinning Industry centric features should be available like Criteria based maintenance and Count based Maintenance. For example if a Card wire need to be changed after reaching the 800 tones of Production, the system should automatically intimate the period of change. It should not refer only the Production criteria. The system should automatically look for the Quality criteria also. Say if the Neps per gram is only 60, the system should inform the user that the activity of Card wire change can be postponed as the Quality out the Card wire is still good.

Machine History, Breakdown History, Component and Spare parts consumption History, UKG power calculation, Power study and Power transmission loss should be available in the Maintenance and Electrical Management module.

Bale Management:

The function of Bale Management is very much unique to the Spinning Industry. The module should have a function in such a way that the system should automatically generate the issues for Mix or a Count, where all the Lay down or Issues should have a consistent quality parameter both in terms of average and SD. The system should be capable of generating the Issues or Lay down as per the User requirements like:

1. Standard Distribution - The average Quality of all Parameters are same from the first issue to the final issue.
   
   
2. Normal Distribution - The Issue should contain the required average for the selected Quality parameters and it should follow the theory of normal distribution
   
   
3. Moving point distribution - If the user prefers to have a very narrow working range for the selected Quality parameter, the system should generate the issue and according to the availability the shift in the parameter should happen gradually till all the bales are exhausted in the Lot. For example if the User would like to have the Micronaire working range of 4.2 to 4.6. After exhausting the bales in 4.6 Micronaire, the system should automatically shift to 4.1 to 4.5. After exhausting 4.5, the system should go for 4.0 to 4.4.