The first phase of the implementation will be rolled out at Orient Rongheng’s manufacturing facility in Jining, China, before the solution is extended to the company’s operations in Bangladesh. According to Coats Digital, the integration is intended to create a more connected planning environment and improve visibility, planning accuracy and operational agility across the manufacturing network.

Headquartered in Shanghai, Orient Rongheng specializes in the development and production of women’s lingerie, swimwear, loungewear and sports underwear. The company produces more than 20 million garments annually and employs over 3,000 people across China and Bangladesh. Its customers include international brands and large retailers in Europe, North and South America, the Middle East and other markets.

Orient Rongheng has already introduced ERP and MES systems as part of its digitalization strategy. However, the expansion of its manufacturing footprint and growing coordination between facilities in different countries have increased the complexity of production planning. At the same time, the manufacturer is facing a growing share of high-mix, small-batch production as well as shorter lead times.

According to the company, these requirements have increasingly exposed the limitations of traditional manual planning processes, particularly when capacities, materials and delivery schedules have to be coordinated across several factories.

“As the complexity of orders increases and the demand for multi-factory collaboration grows, traditional systems have become unable to keep up with our pace towards digital manufacturing,” said Fendy Shen, General Manager of Orient Rongheng. He described the project as part of a broader shift “from experience-driven to data-driven processes, from local optimisation practices to global ones.”

Connecting planning across factories

Following an evaluation of several domestic and international software providers, Orient Rongheng selected FastReactPlan, Coats Digital’s production planning and scheduling solution developed specifically for the apparel industry. The system combines capacity planning, materials planning and production scheduling and provides a visual planning environment for coordinating production across different facilities.

A key element of the project is the integration of FastReactPlan with Orient Rongheng’s existing IT infrastructure rather than replacing the company’s ERP and MES systems. Planning, capacity, materials and order information can therefore be brought together while production-related data continues to flow between the different systems.

“We sought a system that truly understands the garment-making industry, rather than a generic scheduling tool – and that was the key reason we ultimately chose FastReactPlan,” Shen said.

Orient Rongheng expects the implementation to reduce the time required to prepare production plans by up to 75%. The company is also targeting an on-time delivery performance (OTDP) of more than 99%, an increase in production line utilization of up to 15% and a 50% reduction in the time spent confirming order delivery dates with individual factories.

These figures represent targets associated with the implementation rather than results already achieved.

By connecting order, materials and production planning, Orient Rongheng aims to establish a common data basis for decisions across its manufacturing network. The company expects this to become increasingly important as production is distributed between China and Bangladesh and factories have to respond more dynamically to changes in orders, capacities and material availability.

“FastReactPlan is an important step in the digitalization of our manufacturing operations,” Shen said. “With order planning, materials planning and production planning connected, our teams can now make faster decisions and deliver more accurately.”

Aruna Telikepalli, Global Commercial Director at Coats Digital, said Orient Rongheng’s digital transformation strategy reflects the changing requirements facing apparel manufacturers. “Orient Rongheng is an excellent example of a forward-thinking apparel manufacturer that recognises the need to evolve its operating model to meet the demands of today’s fast-moving global fashion industry,” she said.

Coats Digital will support the manufacturer during the implementation in China and the subsequent expansion of the planning platform to its Bangladesh operations.