Systems and methods for manufacturing

• US 7,356,558 B2
• Filed: 08/21/2002
• Issued: 04/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HBI Branded Apparel Enterprises LLC (Hanesbrands Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: HBI Branded Apparel Enterprises LLC (Hanesbrands Incorporated)
• Inventors: Wilson, Randy, Luce, Anthony D.
• Primary Examiner(s): VU, THONG H
• Application Number:
  US10/224,877
• Publication Number:
  US 20030125972A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,057 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/26, 705/29, 705/8, 705/14, 705/7, 705/28, 709/203, 709/223, 700/115, 707/103, 340/426
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

Systems and method for the manufacture of goods, including apparel, piece goods, and other assembled items are described. Embodiments of this invention provide systems for managing the flow of component parts to an assembly site, the assembly of finished goods, and the flow of finished goods from the assembly site to distribution sites. Embodiments of this invention are particularly advantageous for use in the apparel industry, for example, in the manufacture of garments such as t-shirts.

Claims

1. An integrated manufacturing system comprising:

a web application server in communication with a computer network;

a manufacturing application installed on the web application server, wherein the manufacturing application is configured to;

receive manufacturing-related data from a plurality of supplier facilities, each having at least one client processor, wherein the manufacturing-related data comprises at least one of inventory tracking data, personnel tracking data, production tracking data, production scheduling data, supplies tracking data, or attribution tracking data,

integrate the manufacturing-related data from the plurality of supplier facilities,

determine an inventory status based at least in part on the manufacturing-related data,

determine whether the inventory status is valid,

receive an inventory transaction comprising an inventory routing,

determine whether the inventory routing is valid based at least in part on the manufacturing-related data; and

a data store in communication with the web application server, the data store configured to store the integrated manufacturing-related data.

2. The integrated manufacturing system of claim 1, wherein the manufacturing application comprises an apparel manufacturing application.

3. The integrated manufacturing system of claim 1, wherein the manufacturing application comprises a module.

4. The integrated manufacturing system of claim 3, wherein the module comprises a module selected from the group consisting of:

an order receiving module;

an inventory tracking module;

a product shipping module;

a quality audit tracking module;

a personnel tracking module;

a production tracking module;

a payroll interface module;

an attribution tracking module;

a supplies tracking module;

an in-plant production scheduling module; and

a multi-lingual module.

5. The integrated manufacturing system of claim 1, wherein the computer network comprises at least one of a public computer network, a private computer network, and a governmental computer network.

6. The integrated manufacturing system of claim 1, wherein a first one of the at least one client processors comprises:

a data collection sewer; and

a data collection device in communication with the data collection server.

7. The integrated manufacturing system of claim 6, wherein the data collection device comprises a stationary bar code scanner.

8. The integrated manufacturing system of claim 6, wherein the data collection device comprises:

a wireless network base station; and

a portable bar code scanner in communication with the wireless network base station.

9. The integrated manufacturing system of claim 1, wherein the computer network comprises a computer network selected from the group consisting of a dial-up network, a wide area network, and the Internet.

10. The integrated manufacturing system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of supplier facilities comprises an independent supplier facility.

11. The integrated manufacturing system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of supplier facilities comprises a self-owned supplier facility.

12. The integrated manufacturing system of claim 1, wherein a first one of the at least one client processors comprises a client personal computer (PC) comprising a web browser application.

13. The integrated manufacturing system of claim 1, wherein the inventory status includes inventory data identifying a current location and a makeup of an inventory.

14. The integrated manufacturing system of claim 1, wherein the inventory status comprises one of:

in transit, on site, received, suspended, issued, issued to sewing, issued to embroidery, issued to screen printing, issued to garment washing, issued to value add, sewn, embroidered, screen printed, garment washed, value added, produced, produced and packed, manifested, shipped, or disposed.

15. The integrated manufacturing system of claim 1, wherein the manufacturing application is further configured to generate a report.

16. The integrated manufacturing system of claim 15, wherein a report comprises one of a Shipping Manifest Details Report, a Shipping Manifest Summary report, a Bill of Lading report, a Style Master report, or a Location report.

17. The integrated manufacturing system of claim 1, wherein the manufacturing application is further configured to:

record the inventory transaction, and

update the manufacturing-related data based at least in part on the inventory transaction.