Planning and Production Strategy BTS CY25

[Audio] The planning and production strategy for the upcoming Back to School season. The BTS surge production season is from sew week 51 to sew week18 next year..

[Audio] As seen from past few surge seasons, these are the key reasons for combining demand and planning in batches. Reserve capacity for service while deliver event on time Zero Air ship or additional logistic expense Zero TKS Minimize changeover to maximize IM capacity and reduce Subcon Ensure material availability for production Maximize textile capacity Reduce Inventory and prevent warehousing challenges.

[Audio] Last three BTS seasons, we planned in Batches. In year 2022, we did not have any Material Pre-positioning. However, starting from 2023 BTS season, we had only 15% material pre-positioning. This year Back to school season had more than 70% material pre-positioned styles. In 2022 and 2023 we planned at standard lead time but this year we planned batches at pre-positioned lead time. Batch planning at MPP lead time resulted in yarn shortages and difficulty to respond to print surge..

[Audio] Building on past experiences, in the upcoming BTS season we need to plan four batches and 70% of CPS capacity as part of each batch. It is important to plan each batch at standard lead time and to make that happen, we may need to reserve demand for MPP lead time weeks..

[Audio] Above is the calendar for the four batches in the upcoming BTS season. Each batch has an Event Introduction cut-off and a work order week. The capacity allocation process is meant to reserve demand for MPP weeks when we go ahead to plan a batch at standard lead time. If a growth team is on IBP, we measure available capacity at less than standard lead time for each work center. We map available capacity with IBP demand. Then we identify Critical ratio for standard lead time and start Batch planning from that critical ratio. We do allocate 70% CPS capacity by work center in each batch plan..

[Audio] For better understanding, we can pick the first batch plan as an example and see how the capacity allocation process may look like. The slide details the conditions and process to execute batch plan for both MPP styles and non-MPP styles..

[Audio] The key take aways for Winston Salem would be Demand introduction per batch. Try to introduce Kids demand evenly across Batches. Special material events must follow LLT timeline for event exposure. (note – Asia will share more details on special materials to watch out) And the key take aways for Asia would be Align material capacity and IM plant production per surge period strategy. Order higher MPP TIL for prints. (note – with HAA prints moving out of Vietnam mills, we must have an improved print constraint in H1 next year).