Capabilities / Factory design and operating models
Connect material flow, station responsibilities, quality gates and recovery procedures in a reviewable factory operating model.
Illustrative lotat Make, 3 of 4 stations
The decision lens
An equipment list describes assets. An operating model explains how material becomes accepted output.
Material enters with an identity.
Stores and quality
Hand-over: accepted material and traceable lot.
A bundle carries the product definition.
Cutting and planning
Hand-over: identified bundle and controlled specification.
Balance work around the real constraint.
Line supervision
Hand-over: completed work and unresolved exceptions.
Good output passes an explicit gate.
Quality authority
Hand-over: accepted product and release evidence.
Receive. Check the lot, specification, quantity and acceptance status. Keep quarantined material distinct from available stock so the production plan cannot consume an unresolved receipt.
Cut. Link fabric identity to the cutting instruction and bundle. Record the version used, the material consumed and the reason for waste or recutting.
Make. Review operation sequence, available skills, maintenance and work in progress. A local speed improvement is useful only if the line releases more accepted output.
Release. Apply the agreed quality and packing requirements. Separate rework, rejects and accepted garments. Keep the evidence of release with the lot and delivery record.
Illustrative arrangement, not to scale. Stations depict process categories; spacing does not express capacity, travel time or floor area. This is a schematic garment route drawn to explain responsibilities; it is not a construction drawing, equipment recommendation or representation of an existing GFT factory.
Keep the source boundary
An attractive nameplate figure cannot resolve a constraint that lives elsewhere in the process.
33.7%Garoua
48.9%CICAM 1
10.83%CICAM 2
Garoua: 33.7 percent of capacity was reported in use in the July 2023 report. The report does not say why the rest was not used.
CICAM 1: 48.9 percent of capacity was reported in use in the July 2023 report. The report does not say why the rest was not used.
CICAM 2: 10.83 percent of capacity was reported in use in the July 2023 report. The report does not say why the rest was not used.
The design implication is a question to test: what prevents the proposed system from turning available resources into accepted output? A study should examine the product mix, staffing, machine availability, utilities, quality and demand together.
The programme annex retains a July 2023 report of CICAM site utilisation, including 33.7 percent at Garoua. That historical figure describes a named third party in a reported period. It is neither a GFT operating result nor an OEE measurement, and it should not be used as a default for a new facility.
Source: Business in Cameroon, report on CICAM capacity utilisation, July 2023, as retained in the GFT programme annex (grade C, not refreshed in 2026). Reported capacity utilisation is not OEE and not a GFT operating result. The report gives one figure per site and does not say why capacity went unused. A, R and Q mark the three losses an OEE reading would separate: availability, rate and quality; the cuts are equal only to show that the report gives no split. Gap is 100 minus the reported figure, GFT arithmetic.
The design sequence
The floor drawing is a way to question the proposed process.
It should change when the product, acceptance requirement or operating constraint changes. In the sequence below, the material route, station controls and release boundary each receive their own visible state.
Map receipt, storage, conversion, inspection and dispatch. Include quarantine and rework paths. Keep a route that can be walked with operators, so the drawing reveals crossings and waiting rather than concealing them behind equipment symbols.
For each station, name the incoming condition, accountable role and outgoing evidence. Check who can resolve an exception. A hand-over is incomplete when the receiving station inherits a problem without an owner.
Test a utility interruption, missing material and a quality hold. Define how the process stops, preserves identity and resumes. Release the product only when its acceptance record reconciles with the work completed.
Warp and Signal
The next station is part of this station’s design.
Receive passes to CutHand-over: accepted material and traceable lot.
Cut passes to MakeHand-over: identified bundle and controlled specification.
Make passes to ReleaseHand-over: completed work and unresolved exceptions.
Release closes the routeHand-over: accepted product and release evidence.
State A · a faster Cut grows the queue before MakeA faster operation can still make the whole route slower if it increases waiting, handling or rework downstream. Design the flow around accepted output and the constraint that limits it. Keep the local measure, the line measure and the customer acceptance condition connected.
State B · a lost tag and a held lotThe same principle applies to information. A bundle without a reliable identity cannot support traceability later. A quality hold without a disposition routine becomes invisible stock. Build these responsibilities into the physical and digital model together, with a clear manual fallback that the team can use when the normal system is unavailable.
A reviewable scope
Factory design should leave a connected set of drawings, responsibilities and acceptance conditions. Detail increases as evidence improves.
An early arrangement is not a detailed engineering package, and a detailed package is not proof that the factory has been built or commissioned. Keep that status in every issue of the work.
Define product families, material paths, handling assumptions, buffers and supporting services. Keep safety, environmental and specialist engineering requirements visible for qualified review. State which dimensions and equipment details remain provisional.
Zone 1. Product families and the route material takes between stations.
Zone 2. Where work waits and how it is moved: stated as assumptions to test.
Zone 3. Utilities and services the route depends on, listed for specialist review.
Zone 4. Any dimension not yet confirmed carries a visible provisional flag.
Basis for review, not an engineering package. Schematic sheet preview, illustrative.
Connect shift roles, technical support, quality authority and escalation. Include skills and maintenance capability, rather than treating headcount as interchangeable capacity. Document the hand-over when responsibility changes between shifts.
Zone 1. Who runs the line each shift and who supports it technically.
Zone 2. Who can hold or release a lot, and where an exception goes next.
Zone 3. The skills and maintenance cover the process needs, not a headcount.
Zone 4. What the outgoing shift records so the next shift inherits no unowned problem.
Responsibilities named before equipment. Schematic sheet preview, illustrative.
Describe the sequence in which the operating model will be tested. Match each commitment to evidence from the previous stage. Separate installation checks, trial production, accepted output and sustained operation.
Zone 1. Checks that equipment and services are in place before trial work.
Zone 2. A bounded run that tests the operating model against its stated assumptions.
Zone 3. Output counts only when the acceptance record reconciles.
Zone 4. Whether the result holds over time, judged against the earlier evidence.
Each commitment tied to earlier evidence. Schematic sheet preview, illustrative.
Conditions that change the answer
Before adding equipment or increasing the plan, test the constraints that could invalidate the production promise. A useful readiness review follows the product through normal work and credible disruption.
0 of 3 checked. A reading aid, not an approval.1 of 3 checked. A reading aid, not an approval.2 of 3 checked. A reading aid, not an approval.3 of 3 checked. All three conditions are marked. A reading aid, not an approval.
It records a condition that can be checked again, rather than a general statement that the plant is ready.
Operation time alone does not establish staffing. Verify that the proposed team can execute the work, diagnose faults and sustain quality. Keep training and supervision on the same schedule as equipment readiness.
Observe or simulate buffers, inspection queues, rework and changeovers. A large stock of partly completed work can hide the constraint. Preserve lot and bundle identity while material waits or changes route.
A restart should not silently reset counts or release a held lot. Reconcile what entered, what was completed, what was rejected and what remains in progress before relying on a shift result.
Conceptual operating design. Specialist engineering, safety and statutory requirements need the appropriate qualified review.
Watch the Make station
Watch the queue before Make
Watch the Release gate
The next controlled step
Select the condition that still needs attention. The traveller below keeps the question beside the responsible part of the design.
Which operation limits accepted output, and what moves if it is relieved?
Review the constrained operation. Use the balancing model to examine the operation sequence and the effect of alternative assignments.
Who can run, repair and improve this station on every shift?
Review the skill and supervision plan. Connect the proposed line to the people who can operate, maintain and improve it.
Does the shift record reconcile what entered with what was accepted?
Review the shift record. Define the accepted unit, losses, ownership and reconciliation before relying on the dashboard.
Held at Make: include the constraint.Held at Cut: include the shift.Held at Release: include the record.Released with the constraint included.Released with the shift included.Released with the record included.
It is a conceptual readiness aid, rather than an approval to operate.
Tool · bay 1 · Make · Open
Explore how operation assignments affect the line constraint.
Tool · bay 2 · Make · Open
Distinguish availability, rate and quality losses using explicit denominators.
Capability · bay 3 · Cut · Open
Workforce and capability building
Carry the operating roles into supervision, technical skills and training.
Paper · bay 4 · Release · Open
Why good throughput matters more than an isolated machine metric.
Capability · bay 5 · Release · Open
Performance-management systems
Define the accepted unit, losses, ownership and reconciliation before relying on the dashboard.
Use the operating model to connect balancing, measurement and the training pipeline.
The models linked here expose assumptions that should be checked against the intended product and conditions before design decisions are made. Conceptual operating design. Specialist engineering, safety and statutory requirements need the appropriate qualified review. Source context on this page comes from the programme annex. Source-domain references have not been independently reverified here. Related paper status is determined by the available web edition, not by a promised PDF.