Example: Apparel Industry

An example of a master work order is the apparel-specific process of cutting fabric for one style. In apparel manufacturing, cutting fabrics may be called stack cutting or multiply cutting. Stack cutting consists of cutting 20–50 pieces of the same size at once. The width of the fabric is always assumed to be standard size. In fabric cutting, the sizes and styles are mixed to maximize the use of the fabric with the goal of minimizing waste.

In stack cutting of fabrics, one cutting operation can exist. If two fabrics or style item root level 0 items exist, then two master work orders are needed. From the two master work orders, ten standard work orders are created because the system creates one work order for each child style item.