An intelligent system for production resources planning in Hong Kong garment industry

Resources management has remarkable impacts on production operations in terms of both productivity and efficiency. Faced the challenges in the competitive market, garment manufacturers are always striking for shorter production cycles. Effective resources management is thus essential for the survivals of garment manufacturers. Currently, there is a lack of standardized approaches for effective production resources management in the garment manufacturing industry. This may lead to inefficiency in production performance. Problems aroused include inaccurate resources planning and allocation. This paper presents an intelligent resources management system, integrating both radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and fuzzy logic, specifically for the garment industry. A case study conducted in a Hong Kong garment manufacturing company, which is considered a good representation in the sector, is addressed. Results indicate that the proposed approach outperforms the conventional approaches with better decision making in resources planning. © 2012 IEEE.