MGT 314

Section - 2
Assignment – Operation Study of QA Group’s Kaniz Garments
Presented by
Group 5

Name ID

Md. Shahriar Alam 132 0720 030

Anika Binte Nasir 143 0118 630

Jasia Sajed Rahman 153 0236 630

Md. Ferdows Rahee 153 0337 030

Khandaker Muhtasim Rafi 153 0766 630

Atique Abrar 153 1137 030

Mahmud Hasan Tomal 171 1506 630

Kazi Moriom Tonima 172 1302 630

Presented for
Lecturer
Md. Mofassel Hossain
Department of Management
Acknowledgement

We have immense pleasure in expressing our deep sense of gratitude to our honourable teacher, Md.
Mofassel Hossain, under whom we got the challenging opportunity to work out on this project
“Operation Study of QA Group’s Kaniz Garments”. We think that without his useful ideas, suggestion and
motivation it was impossible for us to do, this challenging work.

We are also thankful to all the members of Kaniz Garments for their support and allowing us to visit
their factory. We would also like to give special thanks Mr. Mohammad Khairul Hasan for being our
guide at the factory and providing us with all the information
Executive Summary

For this report we have selected the company Kaniz Garment, under QA Group, to do the operation
studies on. QA started their operations on 1983. They entered the RMG sector in 1995 with Kaniz
Garments. Kaniz Garments is the 34 th member of BGMEA. They mostly export their product. For our
research we have used both primary and secondary sources for information. For primary we have visited
their factory, which is located in Tejgaon, and have spent approximately 3 hours touring their facilities.
We talked to Mohammad Khairul Hasan, who is the assistant manager in merchandising at Kaniz
Garments. For our secondary research we have used our course book and other online articles related to
the subject matter. From our research we have found that they use time series forecasting. They use
historical data, usually the last year’s data to predict the upcoming production. We have suggested that
they should use exponential smoothing method as it accounts for more data. Our capacity manager has
found they are quite efficient with an efficiency rate of 84%. They are also utilizing their space with 78%
utilization percentage. Some of their process can be improved such as Fusing. Our process selection
manager has found that Kaniz is producing products in a repetitive process. As it is a garments factory,
they produce similar products. They still do have to be flexible as not all clothes are the same. Our
quality manager has found that Kaniz garments are using extensive quality control from supply chain
they use to delivering the product to the customer. They have several checks and managers to lower
mistakes in production process. They could however improve their quality management in a few ways,
such as keeping a detailed record of their error and why they happen; also, they should be using better
benchmarks. Our inventory manage has found they are keeping a track of inventory by using work in
progress and finished good. They use barcodes to keep track. They should also use a periodical inventory
system to improve their inventory method. Our supply chain manager has found that they import their
raw materials from a list of suppliers, which is provided by their clients. It is up to them to select the
best-suited supplier for the production. They deliver the product through Chittagong port. They also
have an adequate environment friendly practice. They use chemical free fabrics and follow international
rules and regulations regarding environment. They also have various CSR activities such as providing
medical facilities and daycare center. Their biggest challenge is to change the organization culture.
Overall Kaniz Garments is one of the better RMG firms in Bangladesh.

Table of Co
INTRODUCTION 1

Overview 1

Scope of Work 1

Methodology 2

Limitations 3

OPERATIONAL ANALYSIS 3

Strategies and Competitiveness Analysis 3

Demand Forecasting 6

Strategic Capacity Planning 7

Process Selection and Facility Layouts 9

Quality Management 11

Inventory Management 13

Supply Chain Management 14

Environmental Friendliness Analysis 15

OPERATION PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT 16

CONCLUSION 17

REFERENCES 19
Introduction

Overview

“According to the World Trade Organization (WTO) data, Bangladesh remains the second largest apparel
exporter in the world.”[ CITATION Tex18 \l 1033 ].

In a country where the highest percent of GDP earnings come from the garments industry, QA Group
emerged to become a prime benefactor from the RMG (Ready-Made Garments) sector. Although QA
Group initially started their business in the trading of agricultural machinery like low-lift pumps, shallow
tube-well, seed treaters etc. It was not until 1983 when they decided upon venturing into the apparel
division. With hard-work, total quality management, superb organizational skills, creative imagination
and commitment to the buyers, the business further developed to expand two more factories namely,
Kaniz Garments Limited and Kaniz Fashions Limited in 1994 and 1998 respectively. After more than 4
decades, QA Group has now developed 8 commercial and industrial enterprises focused on multi-
disciplinary interests like Crop Protection Chemicals, Agricultural Seeds, Automotive spares, Power Tools
and accessories, Consumer Products manufacturing and marketing etc. All these strategic business units
are under the umbrella named Group QA. [CITATION QAG19 \n \l 1033 ]

The board of directors consists of a family of four members including Quazi Zaniul Abedin as the
Managing Director. Considering the rapid growth of QA, it expanded its production plant by establishing
a 9-storied building at 228/A, Tejgaon I/A, with 160,000 square feet. The factory is well equipped with
material handling system (MHS) from Mostoles, Spain. The bonded warehouse is equipped with racking
system which have been imported from Vogel sang, Germany. It has also introduced Switch Track and
Production Handling System. This Switch Track has been imported from The United Kingdom. A
renowned company of South Africa developed the design and the MHS was designed by Sri Lanka.

The efficient workforce is about 3500 employees and is capable of production over million woven
garments per year. The primary clients are H&M, C&A, TEMA, INDITEX, ASH CITY, CHARLSE VOGELE, and
recently in collaboration with M&S.[CITATION QAG191 \n \l 1033 ]

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Vision: Introduce QA group and highlight the company’s role in the supply of quality textile and apparel
products to the world market.

Mission: Ensuring Total Quality Management and to serve with the minimum of lead-time.

Scope of Work

In this project we focus on mainly two things the practical operation management also the theoretical
part. We have gathered information related to inventory management, production planning
management, operational design layout process, quality management and so on.

Methodology

Primary research:

We physically visited Kaniz garments and interviewed a senior merchandiser Mr. Mohammad Khairul
Hasan. We asked him a bunch of questions like:
1. What types of garments are produced?
2. How many quantities is produced each day?
3. How many workers work in each line?

4. Working hours on each textile?

As the company produces a number of garments product, we choose one for which we did the line
balancing. The senior merchandiser provided us with the information, which is given below.

From the given information we found out the working time of each workstations and also the bottleneck
of the garments.
We physically visited the company and saw the workers working in each line. They even showed us their
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that they follow like, health care system, education for children of

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the workers, daycare service etc. They even showed us the different safety measures they took against
natural disasters.
Secondary research:

is based on online information that was provided by the QA Group website [ CITATION QAG19 \l
1033 ]. From their website we found out a lot of different things like the overview, nature of the
business, yearly turnover, product range etc. We have also used the book for further reference on topics
mentioned in the report. Lastly, we have used website articles for clear definition of topics.

Limitations

There where number of limitations during the research they are:

1. We only visited the site once.
2. The access to information was very limited.
3. It was huge operational work so we faced difficulties to understand them all.
4. There were multiple workstations and operation floor, some of them were restricted to
outsiders because of safety and security reasons.
5. Some of the information related to their profit and competitive advantage were confidential so
it may unethical according to their business policy.
6. In garment sector they used to calculate some of their operational management forecasting by
SAM, so in that case they are not given us the actual SAM report because of their company law.

7. They used some technical terms from the industry to which we were not familiar to, we had to
look up the term later on.

Operational Analysis
Strategies and Competitiveness Analysis

Kaniz garments ltd is in the garments industry more than 40 years. Right now, they don’t serve any local
customer. All of their clients are from outside of Bangladesh Such as PBH, Wrap, BCL, H&N, GEMO, C&A,
BIGSTAR, NIKE, INDITEX, ZAARA.

As they their main customers are foreign buyers, they have ensured good service. So Kaniz garments ltd
have a quality control team for every single department. They purchase raw materials mostly from china
as well as Bangladeshi vendors. They have various kinds of products so the price range is varying from
order to order. Their working hours is from 8am to 5pm and they also keep their factory open for
fulfilling their customer demand as well as they provide their labors extra salary. They have two
separate stores house one for inventory and another for raw material. Kaniz Garments ltd maintains its
overall service quality to keep their good will in the market. All of their workers are above 18 years old
and they don’t have any child worker. They have a very good safety system all over their factory. Mid-

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level manager and directors of the Kaniz garments ltd strictly follow the rules and regulations of the
company to maintain a proper workplace environment.

Kaniz garments ltd started their journey back in 1961 and still they manage to keep their success and
good will. Its first and foremost strategy is buyer satisfaction they never compromise with their quality.
They have so many foreign buyers. So, their main strategy is they have to satisfy their customer no
matter what happen. Kaniz garment has another good strategy that is customer retention they don’t go
for new customers rather they have a solid customer base. So main reason for their success is they can
satisfy their existence customer effectively. They also maintain all the global standards such as ISO 9000,
14000 and so on. For their transportation they rent truck from third parties. As Kaniz garments has
strong relation with all its existing customers so it’s a key for them to stay ahead of their competitor.
So, in this project we mainly focus on their one product, which is shirt to measure the productivity.
Though they have other lines of production. Their operating time for this production of shirt is 10 hours.
Sometimes they have to operate extra two hours to fulfil their estimated production unit on time. Kaniz
garments has 12 different section directly related to their overall production. The names of sections are
given below:

1. Sewing section

2. Cutting section

3. sampling

4. Rolling section

5. Fusing section

6. Washing section

7. Ironing section

8. Folding section

9. Packaging & warehouse section

Kaniz garments has several floors for each of the section, Ironing, folding and packing are in the same
floor. All the section has different productivity per hour. But their final productivity is on average 124
shirts per hour.

We have evaluated the competitiveness of Kaniz garments ltd based on these following criteria:

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Identify consumer wants and need: We think that Kaniz garments successfully identify their customer
wants and need because they have a strong customer base for a long time.

Price and quality: In terms of price and quality, they maintain a very good balance between price and
quality.

Promotion: Kaniz Garments ltd basically use word of mouth and reference for their promotion. They
don’t promote their product through their website and social media site like Facebook and twitter. But
for the communication purposes they mainly use electronic mail system.
Location: In terms of location, it’s in Tejgaon industrial zone so this location helps them for better flow of
supply of raw materials.

Kaniz garments ltd mainly follow the consistency about their product quality. Their main concern is how
to maintain the overall products quality. So, their products price is high. Basically, they produce such
types of products demanded by their consumers. But only their process time is long compared to other
garments, it will take up to four weeks or even more to finish a batch production and they also have lack
of variation. If they want produce t-shirts along with their formal and casual then it will be better for
them. So, they have maintained flexibility strategy for their product to make more options available for
their customers. And we think for them product flexibility strategy helps them in the future to get more
customers.

As we mentioned before about Kaniz garments competitiveness and productivity we can easily say that
they have some shortness in terms of productivity as well as competitiveness.
They need to focus on these operation strategies:

Time – from the interview we found out that they are not serious about delivery time, they don’t feel its
importance

Flexibility –currently they manufacture garment products for some of the famous fashion brand but due
to insufficient flexibility they cannot product it in higher volume.

On the other hand, there are some productivity measures that can be upgraded to maximize the overall
productivity rate.

Labor productivity – if Kaniz wants to maximize the productivity rate then they need to focus on labor
productivity, by giving extra training, scheduling extra hours for work etc.

Machine productivity – Kaniz garments need to assemble more machine to increase productivity also
their competitors have more new machines to reach their optimum level.

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Incentive plan – Kaniz garments should take some steps for incentive plan to their workers because it
motivates workers to work more also it helps Kaniz garments to reach their goal.

So, these things can help Kaniz garments to increase their overall productivity.
Demand Forecasting

Planning is an important part of managers job. Sometimes it is difficult to plan some uncertainties.
Forecast helps a manager to reduce the uncertainties thereby enabling them to develop more
meaningful and effective planning.  A forecast is a statement about the future value of a variable such as
demand. Forecasting affects decisions and activities throughout an organization in accounting, finance,
human resources, marketing and management information system as well as operation and other parts
of an organization.

Kaniz Garments uses demand forecasting. They use the time series analysis. They forecast the demand
annually and quarterly, which is a short-term forecasting. They set a certain number to produce
garments in the next year based on last year’s demand, earnings, profits, shipments and output ability.
Mainly they focus on demand. They take the last year’s actual quantity demanded compared with the
recent actual quantity and then add the extra quantity to the next year’s forecast. If there is no extra
demand they stay with the existing quantity.

Kaniz garments also uses the seasonal base forecasting like winter and summer. They face the demand
variation due to the seasonal variation. The company monitors the last year’s demand variation in
seasons, takes the quantity and compares it with the current year’s demand variation and then adjusts
the demand. Quarterly (3 times in a year 4-month range) they are doing the forecast in every year.
Kaniz Garments also collects information from its buyers and their sales force. Then finance and
operational department consults with the CEO and make their forecasting plan.

On our observation Kaniz Garments is using the Naïve method because it has no Virtual cost and it is
easy and fast. Data analysis is non-existent and easily understandable. Naïve forecast uses a single
previous value of a time series as the basis of a forecast. The naive approach can be used with a stable
series (variations around an average), with seasonal variations, or with trend.

Kaniz Garments also uses the qualitative forecast. Before the forecast the company collects the
information from their salesforce and takes executives opinions.

One weakness of the naive method is that the forecast just traces the actual data, with a lag of one
period; it does not smooth at all. Kaniz only uses one-year demand data and one-year seasonal demand
variation data to completing the forecast for next year, which is short term.

Kaniz doesn’t give any concentration that Demand is influenced by particular events, and these should
be recorded along with the demand data. For instance, artificial bumps in demand can be caused by

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price changes, changes in the weather, or a strike at a competitor’s factory. It is vital that these factors
be related to the demand history so they may be included or removed for future conditions.

They don’t use any expert to plan the demand forecasting.

The company can use the time series methods more efficiently if they use moving average, exponential
smoothing because techniques of average use a time series to make a long-term forecast for 5, 10 or 20
years. It’s one of the most popular methods to calculating long term demand forecasting. This method
also uses for seasonal fluctuation, cyclical fluctuation, and irregular fluctuation. This method is beneficial
for Kaniz because it’s easy to use and understandable. Also, it produces accurate forecast as it accounts
for the difference between actual projections and what actually occurred in last few years rather than
one year.

Kaniz Garments can use the expert’s opinions who are specialist in the field forecasts can be done easily
and speedily. It is based on expert’s views and opinions hence estimates are nearly accurate. The
method is suitable where past records of sales are not available.

Strategic Capacity Planning

The goal of strategic capacity planning is to determine how much capacity is needed and when it is
needed, in order to manufacture greater product. In matching between the supply and the predicted
demand, Kaniz Garments Limited has set an impressing example in the garments industry. The two
measures of system effectiveness are Design Capacity and Effective Capacity. Design capacity is the
maximum rate of output capacity. Kaniz Garments’ design capacity is 160 units of product per day. The
effective capacity is 148 units per day, which is 92.5% of the design capacity after many allowances such
as prayer time, personal time and etc. The actual output is 124 units of product per day.
So,
Efficiency = (actual output/effective capacity) x 100
= (124/148) x 100
= 83.78 or 84%
Utilization = (actual output/design capacity) x 100
= (124/160) x 100
= 77.50 or 78%

Capacity Usage

 The company produces around 124 units of product per day for a single order and can keep the
product for a day in their inventory.
 Most of the raw materials for production are outsourced from third parties selected by the
buyers. The raw materials are stored on the ground floor of the building.
 At Kaniz Garments Limited, the employees work for 8 hours, and can work for additional 2 hours
as overtime.

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Machines and equipment

The capacity of the machines and equipment are higher than the actual amount it produces.

1. Single Needle Lock Stich

2. Double Needle Lock Stich
3. Over Lock
4. Bar Tack
5. Button Hole
6. Button Stich
7. Feed of the Arm
8. Snap Button
9. Snap Button Attached

Fusing Sewing cuff

Cutting Fusing collar Sewing body
body (2.22 mins)
(2.09 mins) (1.17 mins) (2.22 mins)
(3.87 mins) E
A C D
B

Button Sleeve Pocket Collar Seam

(1.49) (1.87 mins) (1.11 mins) (1.52 mins) (2.05 mins)
J I H G F

Quality
Wash Inventory Package
Control
(3.51 mins) (0.98 mins) (0.74 mins)
(0.76 mins)
K M N
L

Bottleneck Analysis

For Kaniz Garments Limited, the bottleneck is in the ‘Fusing’ task as it takes 5.04 minutes, which is the
maximum time to produce per unit. All the other tasks and activities come to a halt due to this. If the
process ‘Fusing’ could be improved, the company would be able to gain higher competitive advantage
and profitability.

Suggestions

Kaniz Garments Limited is already doing well in terms of efficiency and therefore no further steps are
required to be more efficient. Their target should to continue to withhold current efficiency which will
benefit them in the longer run.

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Also, in terms of utilization of the capacity, they have strict policies, rules and regulations. Their up-to-
date facilities help them to analyze and maintain maximum usage of human, operational and other
external factors.

Scopes for improvement

By definition, fusing means to join fabrics. The factory could use another fusing machine to divide their
load from one machine. “Hashima” is a highly reputed company in garments machineries. One of their
well-known products is HP-125FA, which has a fully automated fusing press. [ CITATION HAS19 \l
1033 ] This machine is a one-time investment, which will not require adding more workers as it is
automated. So, it is clear that it is a wise investment to increase production and resolve bottleneck.
Process Selection and Facility Layouts

Process selection: Process choice is demand driven depends on the variety and the volume the process
needs to be able to handle. Kaniz garments produce clothes so it has various types of customer. The
activities vary from customers time-to-time and product-to-product. Variety means either have same
color on different design or different design on same color with a constant demand or changing
equipment every time demand changes. Every customer has their own requirement and customization
to their orders. That is why layout is very flexible keeping up with the process. The machines are
adaptable for fabrics. Sample approval and quality issue agreement by third party is also under this
section. The process type of Kaniz is repetitive. The standardized output means only slight flexibility of
equipment is needed. Skill of workers is generally low.

Factory layout: Kaniz Garments follows product layout. They maintain it in order to achieve a smooth
and rapid flow of large volumes of goods through a system. All their tasks are divided into a series of
tasks permitting specialization of equipment and division of labor. This layout achieves a degree of labor
and equipment utilization.

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Task Symbol Time (Mins)
Cutting A 2.09
Fusion Body B 3.87
Fusion collar C 1.17
Sewing D 2.22
Seam E 2.05
Body F 2.22
Collar G 1.52
Pocket H 1.11
Sleeve I 1.87
Button J 1.49
Wash K 3.51
Quality control L 0.76
Inventory M 0.98
Package N 0.74
Total Time 26.7

Line Balancing

To know the appropriate amount of work station for Kaniz Garments, we have to know some other data
such as:
Minimum cycle time: 3.87 min per unit
Maximum cycle time: 26.7 min per unit
Optimum Cycle time: 6 min per unit
Number of work stations needed: 26.7/6
N(min) = 4.45 work stations (Minimum 5)

Work station-1 Work station-2 Work station-3 Work station-4 Work station-5

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A-2.09 C-1.17 F-2.05 I-1.87 K-3.52
B-3.87 D-2.22 G-1.52 J-1.49 L-0.76
E-2.22 H-1.11 M-0.98
N-0.74

Idle time: Idle time: Idle time: Idle time: Idle time:
0.04 0.39 1.14 2.64 0

Percentage of total idle time of the line = 14.03%

Efficiency of the line = 85.97%

Assessment of line balancing

They have a good efficiency of line; however, they can improve on two processes can be improved
which are fusion body and wash. Both of the process is machine used but they have not invested to
upgrade these machines.

Few of their workstation is also idle for long periods of time. This is not ideal as workers are waiting for
long periods of time.

Quality Management

Kaniz Garments prides itself for the quality of goods they produce. They have various checks on their
production line to ensure the customer gets the best product possible.

Their quality check starts from the raw materials they receive. Firstly, they only ship 10% of the total
quantity of the order from their suppliers. They conduct various quality checks such as fabric test, where
the type of fabric and the percentage of fabric composition is checked, if the composition matches the
order, they import the next 50% from their supplier. They conduct fabric check every time a shipment is
received. If the fabric does not match the order specifications, they tell their suppliers about the issue
and they send over the correct fabric. If all tests are passed, they import the remaining.

After fabric test the raw material is sent to the cutting and fusion floor. On the cutting floor there are
clear instruction on how to cut a specific fabric. Each worker is responsible for checking if his or her
piece has been cut correctly. Then it is sent to the sewing floor. The floor is divided into section for each
part of the sewing process. Each section a sample of the finished product hung on the front for all
workers to see. The sample has a sign sheet, which has to be signed by all quality managers. The sign on
the sheet shows that all the quality managers have checked the sample and it is up to standard. On each
floor there are quality managers and each section of the production line has a quality checker. It is their

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responsibility to check each piece of production, while quality managers check the bulk quality and also
writes report on process, which need improvement. They also put up the sample in the finishing floor.

They randomly select an item from the production line and take it to a quality checking room. There
they perform some other test such as Pulling test, Flammability test, and Performance test.

Pulling test is conducted to check if buttons rip easily when pulling force is applied. This is mainly done
to prevent children from pulling buttons from shirts. Flammability test is done to check how long the
fabric will last when it is caught on fire. They only accept fabrics, which can last at least 10 seconds. The
most important test is the performance test. Here they use a light table to check if the fabric is see-
through, or if there is any color shift in different lighting condition. They use a specific light table called
DG5 and TL83. They also conduct a black room test during the performance test. Here they test white
fabric under ultra-violet light to see any visible stains and marks caused by chemicals.

They take customer feedback and try implementing changes accordingly. They post the customer
complaints in the middle of every floor, visible for everyone to see.

Before the finished good is packed, it is washed a few times and checked for any tears or discoloring.
Then it goes through a metal detector, to see if any unwanted material, such as metal pins has mixed
with the finished good. They then pack the items in cardboard boxes. The cardboard boxes have an
expiration date, they do not use expired boxes, and this ensures the quality of the product is not
hampered during the delivery of the product.

They do incur cost when assuring the quality of the product. Cost such as appraisal cost when they test
the raw material. Prevention cost as they have quality manager for each floor and quality checker for
each section of processes.

From their procedure we can understand they follow the Total Quality Management philosophy. This
states that all employees in an organization are continually giving an effort to improve the quality of the
product, and achieve customer satisfaction [ CITATION Ste18 \l 1033 ] . In each step they are making
their employees responsible for their work. This helps ensure quality at each step before the item is
passed onto the next process. So, essentially, they follow the Quality at the Source philosophy.

We suggest that they can improve their quality management by implementing a few changes. Kaniz
Garments do not have many statistical data. If they kept a good record of all the errors in production
line with data, Kaniz Garments would have a better understanding of their errors and where they occur.
We would recommend them to use quality tools such as control charts to monitor the different variable
slowing down their process. They could also use cause and effect to search for different variables
causing a slowdown. They should also use better benchmarks; they have not updated their benchmark
in the last 5 years.

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They also should do more checks of the batch of finished goods before shipping. Current they only do a
metal detector test, but they don’t check for any other defect after the wash cycle. They can also follow
the Six Sigma program to reduce their cost. It is used to identify the causes of defects and minimize the
variability in the manufacturing process. They need to hire people who can collect these data and also
interpret the data and make meaningful analysis.

Inventory Management

An inventory is a stock or store of goods. Firms typically stock hundreds or even thousands
of items in inventory, ranging from small things such as pencils, paper clips, screws, nuts, and
bolts to large items such as machines, trucks, construction equipment, and for our case clothes. For
Kaniz group there are 2 types of inventory that they follow they are:

1. Work-in-progress (WIP): WIP is made up of all garments and their parts that are not completely
finished for example a bundle of shirts that has everything attached but has no bottom hem.
There are two cost areas that can be reduced if WIP is controlled:

a. Investment in inventory – Inventory is money invested in raw materials when we don’t

move the goods through the plant quickly, we are affected cash flow directly.
b. Ability to reduce the production cycle – By having low inventory between operations
garments usually have less time large inventory levels between operations keeps goods
waiting longer to be processed. This increases the over throughput time.

2. Finished-goods inventories (manufacturing firms)

To keep track of the inventory counting system they use, perpetual inventory system i.e. System that
keeps track of removals from inventory continuously, thus monitoring current levels of each item. Each
box is labelled with a barcode through which the company keeps the record of how many products are
moved out of the inventory. A picture of barcode from their box is given below.

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Supply Chain Management

Supply chain is a process for any company to do their works in a systematic process and in a correct
order. For that Kaniz Garments also follows supply chain management. There supply chain process is
given below:

Raw Materials

Factory

Ware house

Distribution
Channel/Agents

Customer

According to the diagram, Kaniz Garments first import their raw materials from their suppliers. Their
machineries suppliers are not fixed. Brother and Juke are there machineries suppliers. Other raw
materials such as like cotton, needles they buy these materials from Pakistan, Vietnam or any other
third party. Their suppliers for this section are always fixed. There Clients such as H&M, M&S always give
them a list of 10 to 12 suppliers, which is always nominated by the clients and Kaniz Garments company
have to choose one supplier among them. After that the client gives them a description about the style
of the product, following that Kaniz Garments company send a picture of their desire style to their

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client. After the approval of the style, both the client and the company decide it’s costing, and do all kind
of agreements. Then they bring these raw materials in their factory, where it is a must to make sure that
there is a quality team in every line. The quality team checks the system, fabric quality. Minimum 4
defects are acceptable. Then they do some tests on the products to check whether its quality, size, style,
and color are matching with the required one or not. Though there is no agreement held in quality issue.
After the approval of the final products, the products are sent to their warehouses.

They have two warehouses and one bonded warehouse. They keep the final products in their usual
warehouse and all of their confidential files of past and present agreements, order and delivery data in
the bonded warehouse. Finally, the products are sent to their distribution channel and very few times to
some agents and from them finally in the Chittagong port. And from there the products are being send
to the showrooms for selling where the customers can buy these products from different countries and
from different showrooms. The shipment time of the products are being finalized by the clients. The
shipment times are usually for 30 to 45 days. If somehow the company fails to deliver within the given
time, they send the products through a different way. If it is 1 week late then the products are sent by
sea air and if it is 2 weeks late then the products are being send by direct air.

Environmental Friendliness Analysis

Kaniz Garments under QA Group practices and follows a number of activities and policies to maintain
the environmental standards as much as they can. This is also due to the pressure from its current
renowned international buyers including Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) and Marks & Spencer (M&S).

The garments manufacturer is strictly instructed by its buyers to purchase raw materials such as fabric
from certain nominated suppliers who follow a common set of guidelines. The buyers ensure that the
garments manufacturer and its suppliers guarantee environmentally preferable products. Kaniz
Garments has to only buy the materials from the nominated suppliers to contribute to the greening of
the supply chain.

Kaniz Garments uses all recyclable packaging for all its buyers and it is also from the buyers’ side. The
buyers obligate Kaniz Garments to refrain any use of resources that will harm the environment.

The buyers also require Kaniz Garments to refrain from the utilization of any harmful chemicals in the
production process. Harmful chemicals might include Alkylphenols (used in cleaning and dyeing
processes), Azo dyes (release cancer-causing amines in clothes that come into contact with human skin)
and such. Even if minimal amounts are required, it should be acknowledged to the buyers and the
chemicals should not be kept inside the factory premises.

Any textile manufacturer, including, Kaniz Garments relies on water in most of the steps of
manufacturing. Dyes and chemicals used to manufacture clothing are all used in fabrics. Large volumes

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of water are used to dye, finish and wash clothes. The water used is not wasted but recycled in Kaniz
Garments, which is an exceptional quality for a Bangladeshi manufacturer. This is proved by their rank as
the number one Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) supplier of the renowned clothing brand H&M.

Kaniz Garments earned this position because of many other social activities such as providing free
education through their own school in Bhaluka, free medical check-up for all workers every six months
and a special welfare team for the workers. This welfare team ensures hygienic food and safe working
conditions for workers and health care section within the facilities dedicated only for the workers.
Workers are not allowed to have any food without the inspection of the welfare team, they must have
the food that is provided and checked by the team in the factory’s cafeteria. Apart from these, Kaniz
Garments have an agreement with the nearest hospital to provide free health care service to any worker
from their company. This shows that they really emphasize on the welfare of their workers.

They perform a considerable level of social responsibilities. However, there is always more an
organization can do towards the society and its welfare. Kaniz is only focusing on its clients, employees
and the environment through production process. All these are directly related to the company’s benefit
but it should also look forward to proving benefits to other parties. They need to guide their suppliers to
reduce usage of plastic in the packaging of raw materials. All garments manufacturers have their
negative environmental impacts including increasing levels of textile waste. Vibrant colours, prints and
fabric are achieved with toxic chemicals no matter how much they want to conceal the fact. They can
also donate clothes to the ones who cannot afford to wear very good clothes or donate winter clothes
to the homeless because they revealed the fact that they always produce some extra hundreds of each
product which go to waste. Instead, they can hand these out and make a contribution. They can also
help minor groups of people by making awareness campaigns and events to make betterment and
contribution to the society.

Operation Performance Improvement

Kaniz Garments do have a very well organized and efficient operation. They have been in business for so
long by improving their operation management. However, they have scope to improve in many areas,
which our team Impresario would like to suggest.

They need to improve in two key areas, which are layout and data collection.

They do have a good factory located within Dhaka city; it helps their employees. However, within the
factory they have wasted space. They have not planned the facility very efficiently. They have five floors
for operations; however, they have placed different operation processes at different floors, with no
order. For example, their inventory is on the ground floor but their first process is on the fifth floor. Time
is wasted taking the inventory to the correct floor to be processed. They also have abundance of space
near the elevator, which could be reduced to be used more efficiently. The testing labs are also small, it
might cause problem for the lab testers. They can shift around few machines to make space for the labs.

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For data collection they need a better team. Their current team is not using any statistical method or
formula to forecast the future demand. They need to hire qualified people with experience in data
collection and analysis. Getting inaccurate forecasting hampers their business. They have periods of idle
time, which is not efficient use of workers. They also lose out on getting contracts from new firms
because they do not accurate if they can produce the amount required. They need to develop a better
system of forecasting. Firstly, judgmental forecasting is a simple yet very useful qualitative technique to
gather information from buyers’ representatives. Small surveys from Kaniz Garments’ buyers such as
insights of their market, possible requirements in the future and such can be very helpful to set a
demand forecast for Kaniz. They follow a naïve method and seasonal trends but a more precise
technique to forecast seasonal changes and cyclical changes, they need to apply the technique for cycles
to find out the longer duration fluctuations and the variables that affect this cycle.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a computerized system designed to connect all parts of a business
organization as well as key portions of its supply chain to a single database for the purpose of
information sharing. ERP software provides a system to capture and make data available in real time to
decision makers and other users throughout an organization. Kaniz Garments should use ERP in their
organization like most successful and modern medium sized businesses do in order to communicate and
share information from buyers to suppliers and throughout the whole organization. They also need to
keep track of their quality management. Currently they do not try to improve any process unless there is
a complaint from their clients. This is not helpful, as they need to be more proactive and find issues
before they happen. They again need to collect and analyze statistical data to accurately track their
product quality.

The mindset of the management team also needs to change. Their current hierarchy does not want to
invest in new machineries unless the old ones are out of order. The middle management team needs to
go above and beyond to convince upper management to make changes. The communication between
upper and middle management needs to be better. The upper management has a very traditional
approach to conducting business, which will not help them in this ever-changing environment.

Conclusion

Through our research on Kaniz Garments, we can conclude a number of factors regarding their
operations management. Definitely, they do not have the best operational management system, which
we found out through our factory visit and also found out some feasible solutions that might improve
the system.

Firstly, Kaniz Garments is not making the most out of their capacity. They are operating a fixed number
of permanent employees. When they have a lower demand, the extra employees are on a paid holiday.
This is adding no value to Kaniz Garments and incurring costs even if not contributing to production. For
having a fixed number of permanent employees, when they have a higher demand, they opt for
outsourcing, which is again adding more costs to the production process. This shows lack of forecasting
and operation management skills.

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Moreover, the factory layout could be improved in a number of ways. Through our physical visit to the
factory, we have encountered that there is no organized layout of the repetitive process. A lot of space
has been wasted in the staircase area, which could have been used in production facility. They use
computer aided manufacturing for the design of clothes, reducing the amount of fabric needed for the
making of clothes and also cutting of clothes but rest of the works are all done manually. They also need
to identify the bottleneck of the production that is fusing. No line balancing is applied due to which
workers have to wait until the last workstation’s work is complete. However, Kaniz garments is much
more advanced than many other garments factories in Bangladesh. They are very actively performing
corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities towards their employees and the society and maintaining
a relatively good green supply chain, this will create value and sustainability in the long run for Kaniz
Garments a sits buyer are highly conscious about the environmental friendliness.

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KANIZ GARMENTS Group. (2019, April 5). Home: KANIZ GARMENTS Group. Retrieved from KANIZ
GARMENTS Group Website: http://www.group-Kaniz Garments.com/
Stevenson, W. J. (2018). Operations Management (12th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
HASHIMA km. (n.d.). Flat Type Fusing Press. Retrieved April 2019, from
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TextileToday. (2018, August 07). Bangladesh remains 2nd largest RMG exporter accounting 6.5 percent
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