LAY PLANNING & TYPES OF LAY PLANS

A lay is a stack of fabric plies that have been prepared for cutting. Lay Planning is the
basis of managing cutting room labor and table space. Spreading and cutting schedules are
affected by table length, type of equipment, spread length, spreading time, and cutting time.
The cutting room manager must minimize throughput time by efficient use of equipment, table
space, and personnel. To get more efficiency and reduce production cost perfect lay plan
selection is the big challenges for cutting section. Computer software can be used to do this
plan easily. When the final lay plan is done then it print out on paper and set it top of the fabric
lay. Finally cutting process is started here.
Importance of lay planning:
1. To get a clear managing process of cutting room.
2. To reduce production cost
3. To save the fabric wastage.
4. To finish the cutting process in schedule time.
5. To achieve optimal efficiency.
6. To make the plan easy, computer software can be used.
7. Time consuming.
8. Lay plan is used to cut stripes, checks, border prints, placement prints and laces fabric
easily.
Types of lay plan in apparel manufacturing:
Half garment lay plan:
When we want to get only half of the garment pieces (for example the right side), then half
garment lay plan is used. This plan is perfect for folded or tubular fabrics and for face to
face spread fabrics.
Whole garment lay plan:
Full or whole garment lay plan is includes all of the garment pieces like left and right sides. Only
used for the open width fabrics.
Single size lay plan:
Single size lay plan includes all of the garment pieces for a single size. Restricting the lay to a
single size makes order planning and this fabric lay plan is easier. But the demerit is material
consumption are higher and it is compared with multi-size lays.
Multi-size Lays plan:
1. Sectional lay plan
2. Interlocking lay plan
3. Mixed multi-size lay plan
1. Sectional lay plan: Sectional lay is made in at least two separate rectangular sections on the
top of the fabric lay. Every section takes on all of the pieces for a single size. Adjoining sections
may be carries the same or different size of pieces.
2. Interlocking lay plan: Interlocking lay plan includes two or more sections, one after the other.
For this plan commonly use different sizes, but the sections are not properly separated. It is not
bound within rectangular areas. Marker pieces for the different sections may merge at the
borders.
3. Mixed multi-size lay plan: In this lay plan there are no limited sections. For making this lay
plan, properly use all the marker pieces for the two or more different garment sizes are
intermix. To get the best material utilization, every apparel industry uses this arrangement for
fabric cutting.
Different Types of Lay Used in Fabric Spreading:
Actually fabric lays are divided into two types. Those are mentioned in the below:
1. According to the construction,
2. According to the direction of fabric spreading.
All the above two types have discussed in the following:
1. According to the construction:
This type of fabric lay also divided in two types such as straight lay and stepped lay.
(a) Straight lay:
In case of straight lay, every ply is placed according to the marker length. It is the most common
and mostly used fabric lay in readymade garments sector.
(b) Stepped lay:
In case of stepped lay, each ply is not spread according to the full length of marker. Different
types of marker are needed for stepped lay.

2. According to the direction of fabric spreading:

This type of fabric lay is divided into three types such as from right to left, right to right and
zigzag lay. These three types have discussed in the below:
(a) From right to left:
This type of fabric lay is more wide and open. Fabric always spread here in the same direction.
(b) From right to right:
This type of fabric lay is more wide and open so that more useful. It has needed special
spreading machines to make this type of fabric lay.
(c) Zigzag lay:
In case of zigzag lay, fabric is spread without cutting from one end to the other according to the
marker length and this is a continuous process. This type of fabric lay is more used in garments
manufacturing industries. One problem is here that it creates problem in asymmetric fabric.