Looms
Available from: leave blank if the loom is free now. Untick Active to leave it out. Current width: the width (cm) the loom is set up for at the plan start; the first run on it counts as a width change when its width is different (blank = unknown, no change is counted). Max changes / month: the most width changes the planner may make on that loom in a month. 0 = never change that loom's width (it keeps its Current width, or the width of its first run if that is blank); blank = no limit. The planner never goes over it, whatever it costs: runs wait for the next month, and a run that no loom may take is left unplanned with a warning. Same set-up: e.g. 100=90 means the loom weaves 100 on its 90 set-up. When the loom is on 90, a 100 run is not a width change and needs no set-up time (so it is also allowed with a limit of 0). When the loom is on another width, e.g. 50, a 100 run is a change to 90 like any other. The loom must list 90 in its widths.
Bathrobes, collars and cutting
What a line is and how it leaves the factory come from the Sales Request: Type (النوع: Towel, Bathrobe, Collar), Delivery (طريقة التسليم: Finished, Roll, Long-sewn roll, Cut pieces) and Finish (تشطيب الحياكة). Nothing is guessed from names. After dyeing, bathrobes are cut (one queue for the factory) and then sewn in their own robe sewing queue, both in pieces per day. A collar takes no time of its own: it is cut and sewn with the bathrobes of the same order and colour code, starts cutting with them and is delivered with them. Roll: nothing after dyeing. Long-sewn roll: long sewing only. Cut pieces: cutting only (towels at the towel cutting speed; blank = no time).
Sewing finish
One row per تشطيب الحياكة value. Towel factor: sewing metres per piece = width (cm) × factor ÷ 100, sewn at the width's Sewing m/day. Bathrobe sewing pcs/day: the bathrobe sewing speed for this finish; blank = Bathrobe sewing (robes/day) above. Rolls and cut pieces have no finish.
Width changes
Changing a loom to another width takes time. A width change is when a loom's next run has a different width than its previous one (30 → 50 cm, say), counted in the month the new width starts.
Set-up time per width change: days the loom is out of weaving before the new width (1 = a whole day). The planner then charges it, so it avoids changes by itself; the set-up shows striped on the Gantt chart. 0 = changes are free.
Prefer the same width: among the looms free at the same time, take one that already has the run's width.
Wait up to N days: a run may wait up to N days for a loom that already has its width instead of changing another loom (0 = never wait).
Priority window: within each group of N consecutive orders the runs are placed grouped by width, so a loom stays on a width for a block of runs. It bends the priority a little inside the window (0 or 1 = off).
Limit per loom: in the Looms table above, the column Max changes / month sets the most width changes the planner may make on that loom in a month (0 = never change it, blank = no limit); a run that would be one too many goes to another loom or waits for the next month, and the orders it delays get a warning. A low limit can delay a lot, so combine it with the options above.
Spreading each run over fewer looms (a higher Min kg per loom on the orders) also removes many changes; on the sample plan 2,000 kg with a 3-day wait cut the changes by about 60%.
Dyeing and constants
Sewing and packing by width
Sewing = meters per day for the whole factory at this width (robes: pieces per day); all sewing is one queue, no workshops or workers. Packing = pieces/day. Width alias = run this width on the looms of another width.
What you enter
Order: number, customer, priority (1 = first), optional earliest weaving start, packing mode and minimum kg per loom. Lines: one per model + colour + size, with the same fields as columns A–AB of requests v2 plus colour, rank, type, delivery and finish. The number of looms is not entered; the planner chooses it.
How each date is worked out
Weaving days = produced pieces × picks ÷ (repeat × 380 picks/min × 60 × 23 h × yield) on one loom, divided by the number of looms used, plus extra days. Produced pieces = quantity × 2nd-grade factor. Only looms that can weave the width are used; jacquard only on M1–M16, dobby on M17–M22 first. Orders are placed in priority order into the earliest free slot.
Runs and how many looms. Lines of the same order, width and weave are woven back to back on the same looms as one run (one set-up). The planner chooses the number of looms for each run itself: it tries every number of looms that keeps each loom at or above the order's Min kg per loom and takes the one that finishes the run first. If two choices finish together it takes fewer looms (fewer set-ups). A run below the order's minimum goes on one loom and a warning is shown. Raise Min kg per loom on an order to keep its runs on fewer looms; lower it (or 0) to let it spread wider.
Warping starts 5 days before weaving and takes 1 day.
Dyeing works per colour (order + rank). It starts when the colour's last line finishes weaving plus the dye offset, and the dye house takes each colour for its processing time (8 hours to start with, longer when the colour is too big to dye in that time). Several colours run side by side as long as the dyed kg per day of the colours running together stays within 5,600 dyed kg/day plus 5% (Resources: Dye capacity, Dye capacity extra, Dye processing time per colour). Dyed kg = produced pieces × piece weight (gsm × length × width ÷ 10,000,000), without the mabboush / velvet / mazwi addition, which is lost in dyeing. Raw kg (what is woven) is the dyed kg plus 11% mabboush, 12% velvet, 8% mazwi. Extra dyeing days are added after dyeing.
After dyeing each line follows its Delivery and Type (from the Sales Request columns طريقة التسليم and النوع): Roll: nothing (not even long sewing). Long-sewn roll: long sewing over the full length. Cut pieces: cutting only. Finished towel: long sewing (10% share, when a needle is given), then towel sewing. Finished bathrobe: cutting (robes ÷ the cutting capacity per day, one queue), then robe sewing (robes ÷ the robe sewing capacity per day, its own queue, separate from towels), set under Resources → Bathrobes (700 robes/day each to begin with). Collar: no time of its own; it starts cutting with the bathrobes of its order and colour code and is delivered with them (a collar with no bathrobe of its colour is planned alone and shows a warning). Embroidery and extra sewing days still apply. Long sewing is its own queue for the factory, after dyeing. Days = length × produced pieces ÷ 100 ÷ 4,500 m/day (one needle) or 4,400 (two needles); a finished towel takes 10% of that, as in the sheet. Towel sewing waits for the colour to be dyed and the line to be long-sewn, then queues in one sewing line for the whole factory. Days = towel meters (width × the finish factor × qty ÷ 100, Resources → Sewing finish) ÷ the sewing capacity per day for the width (Resources → Sewing and packing by width, e.g. 30 cm = 7,125 m/day, 50 cm = 14,250, 70 cm = 15,375, 90 cm = 12,900) + embroidery + extra days.
After sewing: an order is done 2 days after its last sewing ends (Resources → Days from end of sewing to done; for rolls, after their long sewing), so Delivery date = end of the order's sewing + 2 days, and the packing mode is not used. When Progress by process shows every line of an order sewn (rolls: long-sewn, entered in their Sewing column), the planner notes that moment and marks the order Done by itself 2 days later. With the setting blank, packing is planned as before: batch after batch per order, starting when the order is ready by its packing mode (4 = whole order sewn), days = pieces ÷ pieces/day for the width, delivery = last packing end.
Lock dates (on each order) freezes the order's current dates and the looms it is on. Changing priorities or adding orders then plans everything else around it. Untick it to let the order move again.
All counts are calendar days, Fridays included, and every resource is free from the "Plan from" time unless you give it an "available from" date.
Entering many lines
Use Copy template to copy the column headings, paste them into Excel, fill one row per line, then copy the rows and use Paste lines. Or bring in the open orders from your requests v2 workbook with Import requests v2.
Import sales request
In Google Sheets open C&M Sales Request, then File → Download → Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) (or .csv of the Sales Request (FP) tab), and choose the file with Import sales request. Every line with a quantity that is not Canceled comes in, grouped into orders by العميل والطلب. Columns are found by their heading. النوع (type), طريقة التسليم (delivery) and تشطيب الحياكة (finish) decide what happens after dyeing; they are always taken from the sheet, and a blank or unknown value is flagged and planned as Towel / Finished / Standard. نوع الحياكة is no longer read.
Importing again updates the lines from the sheet but keeps what you set here: priority, Done, Lock dates, packing mode, colour rank and extra days. Lines with missing data (design not released, no picks, type or delivery missing) still come in and are listed as warnings on Delivery dates. Fixing the field in the line grid clears its warning.
Width changes on the looms
On the Loom plan you can drag a weaving bar to another loom or time: that line is pinned there (📌) and the planner re-flows the rest around it. With Drag moves: Whole order (the default) all bars of that order on the loom you grab (its block of colours there) move together to where you drop them and are pinned; its bars on other looms stay where they are. Choose One line to move only the bar you grab. Double-click a pinned bar to release it, or use Undo move.
Under Loom plan a table shows how many times each loom changes width per month. Under Resources → Looms set each loom's Current width, the width it is set up for at the plan start (the first run on it counts as a change if its width differs). Under Resources → Width changes you can make the planner prefer a loom that already has the run's width, and, in the Looms table, set a maximum number of width changes per month for each loom. The limit is kept by the planner and by gap filling; if it makes an order's weaving later, that order shows a warning on Delivery dates.
Progress by process
An order can be finished in one process and not in the next. Under each order, Progress by process lists its lines with the number of pieces already done in weaving, dyeing, cutting (bathrobes only), sewing and packing (same unit as Qty); the buttons above mark every line of the order finished in one process. The plan then schedules only what is left: a process with all its pieces done is taken out of the plan and the next process is planned from the plan start (finished weaving = no loom time and dyeing starts at once; finished dyeing = no dye house time and sewing starts at once, and so on), and a part-done process keeps only its remaining share of days and kg. A later process implies the earlier ones (300 pieces sewn means at least 300 are woven and dyed). A line with all its pieces packed is finished and left out; an order whose lines are all packed shows Done. Progress is kept when you import the sales sheet again, and ignored while an order has Lock dates on. Every change re-plans straight away.
Import progress
Fill the Weaving progress and/or Dyeing progress file with the total raw kg done to date (a blank cell leaves that row as it is) and choose one or both files with Import progress. Weaving rows are one per order, model and size (all colours together), dyeing rows one per order, model, item, size and colour code; text is matched ignoring case and extra spaces, and size is the line's width*length. A row's kg is shared over its matching lines by their raw kg and turned into pieces (the full raw kg is all pieces). Weaving is applied first, then dyeing (dyed also counts as woven). Up to 150% of the planned raw kg is recorded as finished; more than 150% is not applied. Progress is never lowered (the higher value is kept). Before anything changes you see a summary with every row that was not applied or needs a look (no matching line, order Done, over 100% or 150%, lower than recorded); Apply records it, and Download report saves those rows as Excel.
Done
Tick Done on an order when it is finished. It stays in the list but is left out of planning, so its looms are free for other orders. Hide done hides finished orders from the list.