In this paper, we model an apparel manufacturing system characterized by th
e co-existence of the two production lines, i.e. traditional, long lead tim
e production line and flexible, short lead time production line. Our goal i
s to find strategies which decide: (i) the fraction of the total production
capacity to be allocated to each individual line, and (ii) the production
schedules so as to maximize the overall profits. In this problem, searching
for the best solution is prohibited in view of the tremendous computing bu
dget involved. Using ordinal optimization ideas, we obtained Very encouragi
ng results-not only have we achieved a high proportion of 'good enough' des
igns but also tight profit margins compared to a pre-calculated upper bound
. There is also a saving of at least 1/2000 of the computation time.