A linear programming model to optimize the apparel production process during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Besides the fact that the apparel industry is a major contributor to the Sri Lankan economy, it has been adversely affected by the sudden health regulations imposed by the Government to mitigate the outbreak of the Covid-19. Although the garment factories followed a well-established production process, Covid-19 pandemic forced a re-design of the production line, which is considered to be the backbone of any production plant. Due to the imposed health regulations, the factories were compelled to reduce the employee capacity by at least 50% in order to maintain the social distancing within the plants. This caused the factories to operate on a fewer number of production lines which led to reduction of productivity. As a result, the factories failed to meet the market demand and consequently lost customer satisfaction. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop a decision making tool to generate optimal production schedules adhering to the imposed health restrictions.