Abstract
In this case study, an apparel company that has its orders manufactured by a few dozen of factories located in various countries in Asia. An order is a specific style of clothes. The apparel production is highly labor-intensive and it involves learning curve improvement, especially for the sewing operations. The longer a sewing operator works on the same operation, the higher efficiency the operator can achieve. Similarly, the larger quantity a factory produces a product type, the higher efficiency the factory can achieve. Normally, only one factory is selected for production of an order due to logistic consideration and production efficiency. In this case study, we formulate a mixed integer program to assign the orders to factories with the objective of maximizing the corporate profit. By solving the mixed integer program optimally or heuristically and using the actual planning data, we are able to increase the overall planned production quantity significantly.