What is a cut order plan and how it is made ?

A cut order plan is a logical division of an order quantity into lays (spread) of fabric such that desired number of garment pieces can be cut in the required size ratio. Cut order plan is made to minimize time and effort in cutting as well as to utilize fabric efficiently.

Cut order plan is also referred as lay plan or cut plan in apparel industry. A good cut order plan will require less time and effort for spreading and will use lesser fabric per garment

A cut order plan is made by following these steps :

Inputs required for creating a cut order plan

1. Number of garments to cut – Order quantity
2. Size wise breakup , Like S:M:L:XL = 100:200:200:100
3. Maximum Number of sizes on a marker.
4. Available Fabric information – Width , Shrinkage , Shade and quantity.

Understanding cut order planning

In cutting process of mass manufacturing of apparels, to cut the order quantity in the size ratio the fabric is laid in layers and then all layers are cut together by sticking a marker (patterns printed on paper) on top.
So to cut 6 garments in the size ratio S1:M2:L2:XL1. We will make a marker (patterns printed on paper) in the required size ratio, lay 1 ply and cut. This will easily cut 6 garments, which is what we required (see the table below)

Lay	Number Of Plies	Garments On Marker	No Of Garments Cut
1	1	XS1:S2:M2:L1	XS1:S2:M2:L1

This was easy but in real world factories will not cut just 6 garments, they will cut hundreds and even thousands, so as the order quantity will increase number of plies will increase too. What if instead of 6 garments we had to cut 12 in the same ratio. Answer is, we would simply lay 2 plies and cut instead of a single lay (refer to table below).

Lay	Number Of Plies	Garments On Marker	No of Garments Cut
1	2	XS1:S2:M2:L1	XS2:S4:M4:L2

It is very clear from the above example that number of plies will change depending on the order quantity but lay height can’t be increased beyond a certain point because the knife height is fixed, therefore we have lay maximum number of plies as the first constraint:

Constraint 1 – Maximum Number of Plies in a lay (height of the lay)

Not only lay height the length of the lay is also a constraint, which will depend on the number of garments on a marker. The maximum number of garments which can be laid on  a marker is fixed by the cutting manager after considering various parameters like quantity to cut, length of the table, type of fabric, CSV grade etc.

Constraint 2 – Maximum Number of garments on a marker (length of the lay)

These two constraints 1. that number of garments on a marker cannot exceed a certain limit and 2. the number of plies cannot exceed a certain limit calls for planning the cutting process to get the right order quantity cut for each size. This logical planning for cutting the total order quantity based on constraints is called a cut order plan or cut order planning.

To make things clearer let us make a cut order plan with constraints. Consider that we have to cut 9 garments in the ratio XS1:S2:M3:L2:XL1 where knife can only cut max of 4 plies at a time  and max no. of garments that can be put on a marker is 2.
This is how we can plan to cut the given order.

Lay No.	Number of plies	Sizes on marker	Pieces cut in the lay	Total pieces cut
Lay 1	1	1XS & 1 XL	XS1:XL1	XS1:XL1
Lay 2	2	1S & 1 L	S2:L2	XS1:S2:L2:XL1
Lay 3	3	1M	3M	XS1:S2:M3:L2:XL1

In the above example we were able to cut the required number of garments without exceeding the max number of garments on a marker and max number of plies in a lay.

How is a Cut order plan used in apparel manufacturing ?

• Cut order plan is used by the marker maker to make the marker.
• Cut order plan is used by the spreader to lay the fabric.

How is a Fabric Cut order Plan made ?

There can be hundreds of combination for a cut order plan therefore making a good plan can be quite a task.
If any specialized software is not used, cut order plan is generally made on an excel sheet where number of plies and the sizes on each lay is specified. Formulae ensures that the required number of pieces in every size keeps updating after every entered value in plies and sizes.
Excel sheet should give clear indication on how many pieces more are required for all the sizes by subtracting number of pieces planned from total pieces required. Required number of pieces will be used for planning number of plies and size ratio for the next lay
The objective is to make the required number of pieces (ie = planned pieces – ordered quantity) either to be zero or near to zero.

Please read this post to learn about how to make a fabric cut order plan which will save fabric .