Using SCRUMBAN methodology for production planning and control in luxury/fashion manufacturing companies

Operations planning and control has long been dealt with in many ways, mostly with mathematical and analytical approaches. These approaches work properly at a high level, but they have not proved suitable at the shop floor level, where, in order to cope with frequently emerging problems, what managers need is detailed information concerning the level of Work In Process (WIP) and the actual load of both equipment and resources. This issue is particularly evident in the luxury/fashion market, where, due to the continuous and rapid changes in fashions’ trends and to the need to interface with dozen of suppliers, reactivity is vital and managers are urged for planning and analysis tools that are extremely simple and easy to use. In this regard, SCRUMBAN, a recently introduced Visual Management technique, which integrates SCRUM (a widely adopted project planning technique in the software field) with Kanban, is emerging as a powerful way to control WIP, visualize loads, synchronise internal and external flows and, lastly, to motivate people. In response to a gap in the technical literature the paper focuses on this topic with the following objectives: (i) analyse the main characteristics of the SCRUMBAN technique, (ii) propose an original methodology and a structured framework for the development of this technique in the manufacturing field and (iii) provide a guideline for the application of the instrument in the luxury/fashion sector. The last point is addressed through a real case-study, developed in an Italian fashion firm, which gave outstanding preliminary results.