Apparel Manufacturing Efficiency beyond

80 model

Efficiency grows in tandem with involvement of people in the

Organizational hierarchy!!

By Jayapal Nair Apparel manufacturing expert , consultant and

author e-mail : gjnair@yahoo.com

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It is a well-known fact that majority of the apparel manufacturing facilities in India are unable to drive efficiency and hovers
around at 40-60% level . Most of the investors/profit centre heads are unable to crack the nut , forced to settle at this level and
accept it as the norm . The situation forces them to go for new investment / new facilities to execute orders, which could have
been avoided if the efficiency of existing facilities is improved .

For the past couple of decades, every popular manufacturing systems in other industries around the globe are tailored to suit
apparel manufacturing be it in productivity improvement , WIP control, quality management , planning tools, production
monitoring tools etc and are widely accepted in Indias apparel manufacturing sector despite their premium . Even after these
investments , in real terms production efficiency has not even reached to 70% or 80 % consistently thanks to the old Pandora
box of worries such as low volume orders , unskilled labour, heavy absenteeism , demotivated workforce etc. However, there are
fully complied facilities which use the same Asian workforce and consistently hit the high level of efficiencies . Hence this
attainability warrants different management tactics in the current Indian context.

This article briefly discusses an approach towards achieving the efficiency goal .

The IE Bulletin General Myths and inbuilt cushions !!

In order to achieve higher efficiency , it is very important to have a stringent and well spelt IE bulletin without giving room for
diluting the target .When there is known cushions, never a higher target can be achieved . Generally , IE bulletins have the
following weaknesses:

a) Most of the companies IEs follow a system to allocate SMV to machine operations only and not to helper operations
such as in-line marking, trimming, turning, ironing etc considering they are low paid .

Strategy : All direct operations including helper operations must be allocated with SMV and manned accordingly ,which
should be the garment SMV. On a better note , the number of direct helpers should be limited to a maximum of 10-15 %
of direct machine operators count. The requirement of indirect workers such as supervisors, monitor, quality controller,
quality checkers are to be placed just sufficiently and the count to be frozen. The assembly line should look trim, slim
and focused. A combing operation to be performed daily to see and control if the line is using excess manpower than
budgeted!!
b) Another culprit is balancing loss while allocating operators in the bulletin . IEs tends to allocate excess operators to
round off the fractions to the next whole number . Besides, the factory feels that their workers are at say maximum 75%
efficiency only and hence the SMV will be extrapolated accordingly. Together with the balancing whole number game
the actual bulletin efficiency will be at around 65 %. After negotiating with production team the target will be get set at
60%. Say for example 1000 pcs in 8 hrs . The same figure will be considered by down the line production team as 100%
target. The line may achieve 800 pcs at their peak , which is actually just 48% efficiency ( 0.6 x 0.8 ). Further, if there
are few more days for the shipment to execute , the production tends to crawl further adding further loss in efficiency
and may land at around 40% or less.

Strategy : The management team can think of a policy here to reduce the balancing loss by encouraging
multiskilling .Please refer the below chart

Operation Operators Operators allocated Excess usage of

number required based in Normal scenario operators
on SMV

1 1.25 2 0.75

2 1.25 2 0.75

3 1.6 2 0.4

4 1.3 2 0.7

5 1.5 2 0.5

6 1.6 2 0.4

7 1.4 2 0.6
 Total number of extra operators in the above case is = 4.1. By using multi skilled operators , 1 operator can take care of
the fractional part of operators requirement in operations 1,2 and 5 (0.25+0.25+0.5) , 1 operator to balance between
operations 3 and 4 ( 0.6+0.3) and 1 operator to balance between operations 6 and 7 ( 0.6+0.4) .So the above
requirement of 14 operators can be reduced to just 10 operators !!! In an assembly line, around 10-15 % operators are
to be multiskilled who can take care of balancing operations explained above.
Else, some helper operations like in-line trimming, turning etc to be allocated to bridge the available capacity of the
machine operators, that will reduce the helper count . These balancing operators are to be clearly explained with the
target to produce per each allocated operations in every bi-hour ( bi-hour monitoring will be easy and can ensure the
workflow in the line) . It is a big danger, for example, if operators calculated is 1.3 ( at 75% efficiency bulletin ) and
allocation is 2 people then both operators will share the input to them and run at a very low efficiency . It is very
important to monitor at every stage and confirm budgeting of workers is just sufficient to the availability of work.
By following these steps, the final bulletin can be frozen and signed off at 80% which should be the target for the line to
achieve .The shipment date for production to be circulated as the date to reach goods in the factory's warehouse. Say ,2
days after sewing completion in case of non-wash styles and 4 days after sewing completion in case of wash styles
(even though there are more days for handing over the shipment). The capacity at different processes- washing,
finishing- to be allocated appropriately .
c) Incentive scheme strategies: The workers can be well motivated if a financial incentive system is implemented. The
final target can be bifurcated into different slabs and incentive to be set accordingly. A group incentive can help to
achieve team cohesion between workers , reduce ego to perform any operations in the line, reduce absenteeism
,increase a sense of responsibility which will help to achieve the highest target of the line and highest incentives for
each one of them.
It will be a proud moment for any factory if their workers request managers to feed them continuously to achieve their
incentive !!
d) Style grouping strategies : Even if there is a little deviation in stitching operations , people tend to consider it as
different styles and become emotional on those aspects !!! A good IE can group various styles considering common
factors in consultation with merchandisers and allocate name style group numbers against styles for sequencing and
other practical purposes of execution For example please refer the chart below :

Style numbers Order qty Style group Name based

on common operations

1 2000 A

2 3000 B

3 2000 A

4 4000 C

5 1500 B

6 2000 C

From the above chart , style group A (styles 1,3) will have order qty of 4000 pcs , style group B( styles 2,5) will have
4500 pcs and style group C(styles 4 and 6) will have 6000 pcs which is bigger compared to the individual order
quantity . If 80 % operations are common between individual styles , then operators who are working on those
operations will have a bigger run which supports their efficiency .
Possibility of such operational groupings to be considered by merchandising department and IEs while submitting fit
samples for approval to the customers .

Who should look at the bihourly report and formulate line balancing strategies?

Nothing else can replace the achievements due to higher efficiency in a manufacturing facility . An efficient factory can offer
better pricing to customers and attract more orders.

Line balancing is the key to achieving target . Smart balancing actions will ease the work pressure on workers who can then
perform at their normal capacity on time .It is very important to ensure uninterrupted work supply to each operation, thereby
improving the stamina and capacity of workers in line with the target requirement . For this purpose , the management team
should know good number game and how to use the variables and constraints in production line such as- multi-skilled worker,
extra machine availability with required attachments , critical operations , critical operators , defect level at operations etc. The
balancing strategies are completely different during line start-up , ascending and while cruising at the target level. Besides, it is
very important to plan the right time for next style loading considering the new line size ( bigger line to smaller or smaller line to
bigger ) while current style descends and new style ascends .

Who should look at the bihourly report effectively and take balancing actions on time !!
The hourly report of production ( bihourly is a good frequency ) at each operation including the opening WIP is the biggest tool
for this purpose .It can be manually recorded (using a helper / monitor who can manually record actual output in 10 minutes for
60 operators )or it will be readily available on real time for those factories having RFID tag and scanning system.

In an objective driven model of manufacturing , in order to quickly achieve the target without losing focus or diluting the
motivational level of workers and people in the chain of command , the most important person to look at the bihourly report is
the profit centre head (PCH) himself .The value of the time he/she invests will definitely be rewarded with higher efficiency
and increased revenue .With a little practice on reading and understanding bi-hourly report , supported with key accurate
information from assembly line the PCH can quickly design strategies , informed decisions along with the team. When it is
continuously practised and a databank is prepared with " situation vs strategies ", each person in the chain of command will be
able to propose the best , effective and known strategies . If, line start up of many lines are properly planned to stagger it will
be easier for the managing team to focus.

Essentially , garment manufacturing process is not complex compared to the manufacturing process of many other products !!!

A good approximation on value addition by each person at the hierarchy is described in the below chart .

If Bihourly Can achieve Suggested Focus point of the member

Analysed by efficiency schedule to
analyse bi-
hourly report
Profit centre Above 65% to During Startup, i)Need basing group meeting, team
head (PCH) 80% (can go ascending cohesion ii) Quick support from service
beyond on ,cruising at target departments Merchandise, maintenance,
maturity) level 80% ( 1 day) HR, Admin iii) input development and faster
line growth iv) actions based on forecast
Only by General Up to 65 % Act along with i)Daily start up meeting ii) communicate
manager PCH + cruising at progress and target to the workforce
target level(3 including incentive advantages iii)
days) to maintain Coordination with quality/technical dept for
at 80% quick actions
Only by Up to 55% Act along with i)Attend online issues and clear them soon
Production PCH+GM , ii) Quick Layout growth, engaging of
mgr/IE mgr continue always workers iii) Monitor implemented
to maintain at strategies .
80%
Only by Floor in Up to 45% Act along with i)Technical setting ii)IE tools application
charge /IE above team and iii)Implementation of proposed strategies iv)
executive continue always defect controls
to maintain at
80%
Only by Up to 35% Never leave him i)Maintain set operations
Supervisor to balance the
line

The first and foremost attitude required to drive efficiency is There is no Tomorrow !!!