Current scenario at apparel manufacturing shopfloor

Apparel manufacturing involves raw material (fabric) cutting, sewing, finishing and finished
goods storage. If we summarize typical issues that surface in the factories today, the list
would be something like this:
Piles of pieces waiting to be reworked.
Lot of delays due to larger lots.
No standard WIP (Work in Progress) maintained on the floor.
Stocks misplaced in stores and shopfloor.
Overproduction (goods made too early or excess of what is required).
High retrieval time experienced in raw material and finished goods stores.
High turnaround time (order placement to payment cycle is long).
Seven types of wastes seen in all departments.
Poor first time through per cent (FTT%).
Process delays due to lack of synchronization between preparatory sections.
Lack of uniform understanding of what constitutes a good product.
Capacity constraints induced by skill variability and individual variability.
Longer set-up times between product changeovers.
Challenges of multi-skilling.
Machine breakdowns/repair delay.
Anand Deshpande, Founder & CEO, Admaa Consulting, illustrates how Value Stream
Mapping, one such tool for attaining Operational Excellence, can be used to eliminate
excess inventory and build efficient systems.

Figure A: Jacket line VSM as is Map

These issues can be addressed by implementing Lean in a very systematic and coherent
manner. One basic tool that can be used and which I am afraid many garment factories fail
to implement is Value Stream Mapping (VSM). It is a very powerful tool used to identify
waste in the entire value stream, defined as a set of activities required to convert
raw materials into finished goods. A simple Material and Information Flow Analysis
Diagram traces the path of production and identifies key waste elimination opportunities.
Managing inventory across the path of production can also address the first five issues
highlighted above.
Using the Value Stream Map also helps us understand the impact of reducing inventory on
the organization. We shall discuss briefly the rationale behind every inventory-reduction
action point

Figure B: Jacket line VSM to be Map

Value Stream Mapping
The steps used in Value Stream Mapping are:
Identify the product family.
Draw the current state map.
Draw the desired state map.
Identify projects and chalk out a project plan to eliminate waste.
In this case study, we will draw a current state VSM for a typical jacket product family with
the daily customer demand of 500 pieces and shipment occurring once a week. The factory
works for 6 days in a week and one container ships 3,000 pieces. Daily working hours are 8
hours (480 minutes) excluding lunch and tea breaks.
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Before we analyse the current state Value Stream Map, we compute the Takt Time
wherein:
Takt Time = (Available time in minutes per day)/daily customer demand
= 480 mins/500 pcs = 0.96 mins = 57.6 secs
We complete the VSM by computing the overall value add time, production lead time and
also identifying waste and bottleneck operations.
The current state VSM as shown in Figure A generates some interesting insights:
The production lead time from the beginning of the store to the shipping of the container
for one lot of 500 jackets is 58 days.
The activities are categorized into Value Add (VA), Essential Non Value Add (ENVA), and
Non Value Add (NVA) activities. The Value Add Time was found as only 116.3 minutes, this
is only 0.41% of total time (58 days x 8 hours x 480 minutes).
The reason for longer lead time is due to the Work in Progress between sections, within
sections and inventory in raw material (fabric stores) and finished goods.
There is no capacity constraint as the Cycle Time is lower than the Takt Time in all
sections.
Four shipments are effected in a month.
Machine reliability is only 90% in the sewing final assembly section.
Inventory in the fabric stores is very high: one month (26 days).
In sewing and cutting, the alteration (rejection) rate is very high.
The changeover time is high in sewing: 3 hours.

Table 1: Inventory reduction within departments

The management organizes a brainstorming session to create a Future State Value Stream
Map as shown in Figure B. They take a decision to improve delivery times on an immediate
basis by rationalizing the WIP and reducing inventory across the entire path of production.
Kaizen bursts with cross-functional teams organized on themes like:
1. Improving supply chain efficiency.
2. Creating supermarkets between major departments or wherever a handoff takes place
and installs a pull system.
3. Define standard WIP between departments.
The Future State VSM as shown in Figure B throws some interesting observations:
1. Production lead time has reduced from 58 days to 31.4 days only by reducing the
inventory between and within the departments.
2. The inventory within departments has been reduced from 41 days to 26 days by
proposing strategies as summarized Table 1.
3. The inventory between departments has been reduced from 17 days to 5.4 days by
proposing strategies as summarized in Table 2.
VA Activity that brings about change in the fit, form and function of a product; for
example, in cutting VA could mean actual cutting by the cutter.
ENVA Activity that does not add any value, but is currently required by the system; for
example, in cutting ENVA is the dry haul of the cutting machine.
NVA Activity that does not add any value at all like unnecessary transportation.

Table 2: Inventory reduction between departments

The overall benefits of reducing inventory in the case study are:
Reduction of production lead time from 58 days to 31.4 days (an improvement of 46%).
Improvement in Value Add (VA) Time from 0.41% to 0.77% (an improvement of 92.5%).
Reduced NVA by reducing the stock by 26.6 days.
Faster response to problems as there is no inventory to fall back upon (like reducing
mean time to repair a machine).
Reduction in quality issues.
Better visual management as there is no confusion in locations of WIP on the floor for any
order.
Utilizing capacity only to produce orders that are to be shipped and not producing orders
that are required far into the future.
Reduced overproduction (reducing goods that are produced too early and those that are
not required).

Setting up a Supermarket between Cutting Room and Sewing Floor

Anand Deshpande, Founder & CEO, AdmaaConsulting, illustrates the concept of a Pull
System, Application of Kanban and Supermarkets between Cutting and Sewing, and Setting
up of Supermarket between Cutting Room and SewingFloor.
A common challenge faced by the apparel industry on shop floor is the production of goods
in excess of demand, and production of goods earlier than required. The lean term that we
use to describe this manifestation is Overproduction, which can be avoided by using
Kanban (Production and Withdrawal) cards in conjunction with Supermarkets. Kanban
ensures that the entire production system becomes reflexive and follows the principles of a
Pull System.
The ultimate manifestation of a delay in production is airlifting the shipment or receiving
the buyers debit note, and these often drive the operation scheduling in factories. The
scheduling accounts for several vagaries and buffers. The main factors that lead factories
to overproduce are:
Fear of labour absenteeism.
Variability and dependency that exist in the system.
Ignorance of frequent changeovers.
Absence of production feedback loop, especially from downstream operations.
Poor planning and scheduling.
Capacity imbalances in the production system.
Capacity utilization when order pipeline has dried up.
Sales forecasts are way off the mark.
Instability in the production system.
Longer set up times between product changeovers.
Shortage of skilled operators.
Machine breakdowns/repair delay.
The concepts of Kanban find relevance in these scenarios to help build Reflexive Production
Systems. Imagine Kanban to be a series of links in a cycle chain. Any force exerted at the
end of the chain is felt by the first link in the chain. Kanban ensures that a feedback
mechanism is created on the production floor and only what is required by customer is
produced.

Figure A: Pull System

Figure A is a simple illustration of a Pull System in an apparel production plant. A signal is
generated by the actual consumption at the downstream process (at Finishing). The last
process downstream received is the consumption from the customer. Therefore, the
customer exerts pull on the entire production system in this way. The Pull Signal keeps
moving up, based on the actual consumption till it reaches the upstream process (i.e.
cutting). In a Kanban System, the pull exerted by the downstream customer is manifested
visually to the supplying upstream process.
A Pull System has many advantages. While it schedules work based on information from
inside the system, it also establishes prior limit on the Work in Progress in the system and
authorizes the work to upstream processes based on Kanban Cards.
Application of Kanban System between cutting and sewing departments in an apparel
factory

Figure B: Kanban System between Cutting and Sewing

Figure B is an illustration of a Kanban System that could be created between cutting and
sewing departments. The cutting works on batch production principles whereas sewing
nowadays uses single piece flow or unit production system.
Let us understand some terms that have been used in the illustration
Supermarket: A Supermarket is an area identified in the factory that stocks goods in the
finished form (ready for shipping) or in WIP (Work in Progress) form. In a typical apparel
factory a Supermarket Area could exist between cutting and parts sewing, parts sewing &
assembly, assembly & finishing and also in the finished goods warehouse.
Supermarket ties the consuming process and the supplying process in a Pull System. The
withdrawal of the inventory from the Supermarket is authorized by a Pull Signal (e.g. a
Withdrawal Kanban Card). The inventory in the Supermarket Area is kept in trolleys or bins.
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Kanban Cards: Inventory for the items authorized by these cards is kept in the
Supermarkets. These cards are recycled through the production system continuously.
A Kanban Card typically has the following information displayed on it:
Material, part number, etc.
External and internal supplying processes.
Consuming process (could be sewing if parts are stitched in sewing or finishing if parts
are consumed in finishing).
Container Quantity (container here refers to a trolley or a bin, and the quantity refers
to the amount of stock that should be stored in the trolley or bin).
Supermarket Address (Supermarkets have a designated address like A1, H2, etc.)
Card Serial Number.
An illustration of the part (a typical component drawing).
The base Colour of the Kanban Card could be white or red. It is a choice that management
makes. These cards are attached to standard containers and are placed into a clear plastic
sleeve firmly attached to each container. Container quantity for all cut panels from cutting
could be 200 pieces. This again depends on the order quantity and cutting machine
capacity or type of cutting (manual or automatic) being practiced on the floor.
Withdrawal Kanban Card authorizes the consuming process to withdraw the inventory from
the Supermarket. Once the stock begins to be used in consuming process, the Withdrawal
Kanban Card accompanying the container is removed from it and kept in the Kanban Post.
In the same vein, the production Kanban Card that accompanies stock kept in the
Supermarket Area is kept in the Kanban Post once the stock is taken out for consumption.
Production Kanban Card authorizes the supplying process to produce the required amount,
which is stored in the Supermarket Area.
Kanban board is a visual display board: The production Kanban Cards are accumulated in

the board after removing them from empty containers (trolleys or bins) no sooner they are
withdrawn by the consuming process from the Supermarket. The accumulation of cards
continues till a predetermined number of cards are achieved as defined by the common
authorization line. In Figure B, the common authorization line is achieved after two cards
(each card bears production quantity of 100 pieces).
A robust Kanban board design is adaptable, scalable, and communicates visually and at the
minimum has the following key information:
Locations to position the Kanban Cards in either rows or columns, by product (A, B, C, or
D) as they are returned from the consuming process.
A visual indicator, known as the authorization line, of when replenishment is authorized
and necessary.
FIFO tracking to indicate which product is to be processed first in cutting and then next
one as well based on FIFO priority.
The common authorization line in Kanban board functions in the following manner (Refer
Figure B):
Product is consumed from Supermarket by the consuming process (Sewing). When the
consuming process empties a container, the card and container are removed from the
Supermarket Area. The card is then removed from the container (trolley or bin). Thereafter
the empty container is staged in close proximity to the Kanban board which could be
placed in a designated area in cutting.
The Kanban Card is placed on the Kanban board at the lowest location available for given
product (A, B, C or D). This process repeats until enough Kanban Cards representing a
specific product accumulate to reach the authorization line on the Kanban board.
Immediately upon the authorization line being reached, all the Kanban Cards for all those
part numbers are removed and individually placed in transparent sleeves attached to
empty containers (trolleys or bins). The empty containers with the attached Kanban Cards
are delivered to the supplying process (cutting). This action authorizes replenishment by
the supplying process.
Once the containers (trolleys or bins) are filled again with the completed product, the
containers with the attached card are returned to their specific Supermarket location. As
the line stock at the part sewing process is depleted, product is removed from the
Supermarket and delivered to the consuming process by a withdrawal Kanban Card. The
process repeats itself.
The Kanban System works in the following manner (Refer Fig. B):
Parts sewing operator uses parts kept next to assembly line, removes the Withdrawal
Kanban Card that accompanies the container (trolley or bin) and places it in the Kanban
post.
Operator takes the Withdrawal Kanban Card to the Supermarket to fetch items. He
picks up the 100 pieces of cut panels and deposits the Production Kanban Card that came
along with them into the Kanban Post.
The Production Kanban Card is then moved to the Kanban board.
As soon as two cards accumulate on the production board (in the case of order D), the
two production cards are issued to cutting machines authorizing production of the same.
As soon as they are produced, 200 pieces (two Kanban Cards 100 pieces per card) are
transported to the Supermarket and stored in the location (trolley or bin).
The principles of Kanban are as follows:
The downstream process (consuming process) will only consume what is needed.
The supplying process will only produce if Kanban System authorizes it to produce.
Defective products will not be sent downstream processes.
Kanban should reflect changes in demand as demands keeps fluctuating.

 The number of Kanban must reduce in time as they only are reflection of waste.
The rules are non-negotiable.
Let us consider the Case of Installing a Supermarket between Cutting and Sewing
processes. Supermarket ties the consuming and the supplying process in a Kanban Pull
System by keeping a buffer inventory authorized for replenishment by a pull signal. If we
did not have a Supermarket, a Kanban Card at supplying process would mean immediate
replenishment, which is difficult in a typical apparel-manufacturing environment because of
variability and dependency. Hence the need for Supermarkets.
In case of the above example, sewing parts assembly will withdraw cut panels from the
Supermarket, and the cutting will replenish the Supermarket when signalled to do so by the
Kanban board. The signal provided by the Kanban board can be in the form or a production
card or merely an indicator light or an indicator flap. A green flap would mean no
replenishment required, whereas a red flap would mean replenishment required
immediately.
The best choice of position of the Supermarket depends on the following factors:
The number of supplying workstations vs. the number of consuming workstations.
Travel distance.
Availability of space.
Transport mechanism currently available.
In the apparel industry it makes sense to have one Supermarket between cutting and
sewing parts, a pairing Supermarket between sewing parts and sewing assembly, a WIP
Supermarket between finishing and sewing.
Once the Supermarket and Kanban board are institutionalized, we can move on to decide
the inventory to be kept between departments in the Supermarket.
The inventory or buffer to be kept in the Supermarket largely depends on the variability
and dependency that exists between the two processes on either side of the Supermarket.
The rationale is to ensure that you neither starve nor block the bottleneck. In most cases,
sewing parts (i.e. Front, Sleeve, and Lining) is a bottleneck in the industry. The reason being
that sewing assembly, traditionally, has relatively shorter cycle times and hence more
capacity.
Keeping a days inventory in the Supermarket between cutting and sewing parts is
recommended for the following reasons:
Any breakdown in the cutting could be repaired under four hours, therefore with one day
inventory in the Supermarket, supply to the sewing parts will still be alright. If the mean
time to repair a breakdown in cutting is 1 days, then the inventory level can be kept at 2
days initially. Simultaneously the factory should start working on improving the breakdown
maintenance efficiency and then reduce the inventory to one day.
Cutting has more capacity than sewing parts as sewing section could experience
wandering bottlenecks due to skill dependency. If a skilled operator in the sewing parts is
absent, the line is slowed down because the slowest operation on the line defines the
speed of the line. The speed of the flow of product through the bottleneck also determines
the cost of the product.
Since we work on a Pull System, we observe that flow in sewing parts is often interrupted
due to variability in inputs leading to operator skill dependency and breakdowns. Therefore
mostly one day inventory is fine.
Also, by keeping less inventory in the Supermarket, the production system becomes more
responsive and agile. The moment the cutting maintenance team knows that inventory
between cutting and sewing parts is slashed, they look for addressing problems quicker
and therefore mean time to repair also reduces.
The inventory between sewing parts and sewing assembly however can be limited to1-2

hours as:
Pairing becomes more real time.
Container clearance is easier as maintaining FIFO (first-in-first-out) becomes easier with
lesser stock.
Production lines become more flexible and can accommodate any other product at short
notice.
The entire system becomes more reflexive.
Quality improves naturally as lesser stock lead to improved process efficiency.
Defects can be detected sooner and by keeping only 1-2 hours of stock can reduce
excess rework.
Some FAQs for setting up a Kanban system
Can electronic data processing or barcode scanner be used?
A. Yes it can be. It depends on how inventory is being managed on the production floor.
How to determine the number of Kanban Cards to be used?
A. To arrive at the exact number of Kanban Cards to be used, the following equation by
James Vatalaro is useful.
Number of Kanban Cards = {Average Daily Demand x (Order frequency + Lead time +
Safety time)}/Container quantity
To apply the equation, let us consider creating a Kanban System between cutting and parts
sewing (first process):
Let the Average Daily Demand be 500 pieces of jackets.
Order Frequency = 1 day (i.e. produced daily).
Lead Time = 6 hours (time it takes to refill the Supermarket, i.e. time it takes to start laying
until it is bundled and kept in the Supermarket) = 0.75 day (converting hours into days by
dividing the number by 8, i.e. 6/8 = 0.75).
Safety time = 4 hours (time that is factored in for breakdowns, quality losses, etc.) = 0.5
days.
Working time = One shift = 8 hours.
Container quantity = 250 pieces (one container in the form of trolley holds 250 pieces).
Replacing the value of all the variables in the equation we get:
Number of Kanban Cards = {500 x (1+0.75+0.5)}/250 = 4.5 cards rounded off to 5.
Thus number of Kanban Cards required is 5, which actually means that if the trolley is 250
pieces, there would be five trolleys recirculating between cutting and parts sewing. There is
no specific rule to round up or round down. In the above numerical, one could round down
to 4 cards as well. The only risk here is that safety available is reduced in practical sense.
Can containers be used instead of Kanban Cards; can they function as Kanban Card?
A. Yes, there could be a system wherein an empty container is taken to the supermarket
and a full container is picked. However the operator must know which container to pick.
How is the Authorization Line ascertained?
A. While the best estimates come with experience, to begin with a quantity equivalent to
the batch size of the upstream supplying process (in this case cutting) can be set as the
Authorization Line