Quilting is a special art in the general field of sewing in which patterns are stitched through a plurality of layers of material over a two dimensional area of the material. The multiple layers of material normally include at least three layers, one a woven primary or facing sheet having a decorative finished quality, one a usually woven backing sheet that may or may not be of a finished quality, and one or more internal layers of thick filler material, usually of randomly oriented fibers. The stitched patterns maintain the physical relationship of the layers of material to each other as well as provide ornamental qualities. Quilting is performed on the customary quilts or comforters and on the covers of mattresses, for example. In the stitching of quilts for these two applications, two different approaches are typically used. Both approaches use stitches that employ both a top and a bottom thread.
High volume products that employ quilting processes are made by bedding manufacturers and manufacturers of some other products. In the manufacture of mattresses, for example, covers that surround spring interior assemblies are formed of quilted fabrics. Such quilted mattress covers are often manufactured on high speed automated quilting machines of the multi-needle type, which employ arrays of needles above a needle plate below which are arranged corresponding arrays of cooperating stitching elements. Multi-needle quilting machines for mattress cover production are typically chain stitch machines which quilt multiple patterns simultaneously on web fed material using series of double lock chain stitches.
Multiple needle quilters of the type illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,154,130 and 5,554,589, hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein, are customarily used for the stitching of such mattress covers on multi-layered web fed material. Such multi-needle quilters use an array of cooperating chain stitch sewing elements, one of which is a needle positioned above the material and another of which is a looper below the material opposite the material from the needle. The entire arrays of both needles and loopers are mechanically linked together to form the stitches while moving in unison in two dimensions relative to the material, parallel to the plane of the material in paths that corresponds to identical patterns of a pattern array. It is common that the material is what is moved to form the patterns while the stitching element arrays remain stationary relative to the frame of the machine.
Quilt manufacturers also employ single needle quilters of the type illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,640,916 and 5,685,250, hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein. The single needle quilters are customarily used for the stitching of comforters and other preformed rectangular panels. Such single needle quilters typically use a pair of cooperating lock stitch sewing heads, one carrying a needle drive that is typically positioned above the fabric and one carrying a bobbin that is opposite the fabric from the needle, with both heads being mechanically linked to move together in two dimensions, relative to the panel, parallel to the plane of the panel. A common operation of this type of quilting apparatus includes the supporting of the panel of fabric on a longitudinally moveable shuttle with the sewing heads moveable transversely of the panel to provide two dimensional stitching capability of the pattern on the panel. With such single needle quilting machines, varied and complex patterns can be produced. Further, lock stitch machines produce patterns that are finished on both sides of the material, where chain stitched patterns have a finished appearance only on the needle side of the fabric.
In the operation and management of a quilt manufacturing facility, a number of lines of quilting machines are often present. In the bedding manufacturing industry, several multi-needle machines may be operated, including machines of different speeds and sizes. Further, machines of the same sizes may be differently set-up to make different bedding products, or may be loaded with different materials. The same facility may have on the premises single needle quilters to make specialty or more expensive products. Usually, bedding manufacturers produce products in response to special customer orders from bedding wholesalers or retailers. In any case, the efficient operation of the facility requires management of the various machine lines and the coordination and distribution of various work orders among the production equipment. The coordination of orders with promised delivery dates and with available machines, the handling of material and of products in the plant, and the scheduling of machine set-ups and maintenance all require facility management to optimize these functions and the plant efficiency and to minimize overall production cost.
In the prior art, a variety of methods are in use in factories in which quilts are produced. In even the more sophisticated prior art case, a factory might be provided with a central computer system that provides functions for customer order entry and the generation of production requirements by way of a management system. Such a plant may be provided with an automated batch mode multi-needle web-fed quilting machine such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,554,589 referred to above. In such a factory, orders are taken from customers and entered into the central computer system via a terminal. Delivery dates are determined either by customer requirements or by availability of manufacturing capacity.
In such prior art systems, a management computer might be provided which analyzes customer orders to determine what products need to be manufactured for a given day. The central computer system produces production requirement reports for various departments, including the quilting department. The production requirements report may be a printed report or might take the form of production tickets that are communicated to managers or operators.
In larger factories, a supervisor of the quilting department may review the production report and determine what products will be assigned to each machine, providing the machine operators with either a written schedule or with a group of production tickets. The operator determines how best to produce the quilted panels. In smaller factories the production report might be sent directly to the machine operators. The operators enter into the quilting machines the products from the list along with the quantities needed of each in the order that is manually chosen. Often the machine is stopped during schedule entry, awaiting material changes by the operator.
The inevitable schedule changes that occur during a typical manufacturing day may be handled manually or by producing a schedule change sheet from the central computer. Change orders are given to a supervisor or machine operator and incorporated into the schedules as the people involved see fit. Machine performance and actual production statistics are generated manually, often in the form of a handwritten report prepared by an operator. As a result, optimum operating efficiency is not achieved.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method of scheduling the operations in a quilt manufacturing facility.