Lean Management

Assignment 01

Aim: Study about the respective lean tools implemented in the Garment Factory and
suggest Kaizen implementation for the same

Submitted By:
 Smriti Goel (BFT/18/302)
 Sonali Sinha (BFT/18/714)

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 Lean Manufacturing

Lean often referred as Lean Manufacturing or Production which is the systematic

method to eliminate waste in any manufacturing unit. From the customer’s perspective
“value” is the process for which the client would be willing to pay for any product or
service. Lean is a tool which helps to identify and eliminate waste. By eliminating the
waste, it improves the quality while the cost and production time are reduced.

A list of such tools includes:

 Multiprocessing
 5S  Poka-yoke
handling
 Rank order
 SMED  Kaizen
clustering
 Value Stream  Single point
 Kanban
Mapping scheduling
 Mix model  Redesigning  Total Productive
processing, working cells Maintenance
 Elimination of time
 Control Charts
batching

Background

In India, the textile field has always been considered as backbone of the country as
equal to agriculture. Factors such as industry cost, production time, quality
management, elimination of non-productive works makes the company economically
safe. Focusing these points, steps have been taken to implement “LEAN
MANUFACTURING”, a Japanese strategy, which can be a solution to the problem we face
in today’s apparel industries. The concept of lean and its tools help us to identify and
rectify the problems we face in industry production methods, time utilization and
wastages. In this work, an apparel industry, study the various problems faced in that
industry, through lean tool techniques and find a solution in such a way their
productivity is not affected, time is saved by elimination of wastes.

In India due to lower skill levels and traditional manufacturing systems, the garment
industries are able to achieve 50% to 60% productivity level.

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This project is done in an apparel industry in named VIP Industries Pvt Ltd. In Salem,
Tamil Nadu, India. They are manufacturers of men formal and casual shirts.

Objective: The primary objective is to study the lean tools in a garment factory and
appropriate lean tools are to be implemented until the productivity is improved by
eliminating the waste operations.

The factory consisted of 60 high speed industrial lock stitch sewing machines to
manufacture formal woven shirts. The shirt components like collar, cuff, sleeve, front
and back are produced in separate sewing lines and the final garment is produced in
assembly line by attaching these prepared components with other components. The
customer demand is 725 shirts per shift of 8 hours. With the study on the production
data of components and main assembly line it is found that cuff line production was
around 550 pieces in a shift. It showed a shortage of 175 cuff pieces to assembly line in
every shift. The manufacturing of cuff involved 8 operations. To understand the real
bottle neck area, the operations analysis for cuff production line and current state of
value stream mapping are created and shown in Table 1and Fig 2, respectively.

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The takt time is estimated for the current data as follows:

Takt time = Available time / Customer Demand = 480 / 725 = 0.66 Min or 39.72 Sec

So, the production activity of any operation must be equal to or below 39.72 sec to
maintain smooth flow of production. The analysis of VSM data revealed three bottle
neck areas in the cuff production line which is shown in Fig 3.

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The Fig 3 clearly showed that the cycle time of the operations cuff ready, cuff top stitch
and cuff pressing are 31.11 sec (78.3%), 22.6 sec (56.8%) and 6.00 sec (15.1%)
respectively higher than the takt time.

Strategies which can be implemented so as to remove the bottlenecks.

 Strategy 1: Line Balancing

Since the operation 3 (Cuff ready) and 6 (Top Stitch Cuff) require more than 50% of the
takt time, it warranted a parallel production operation which can potentially reduce the
cycle time. In order to facilitate continuous flow, the line balancing technique was to be
used. Two sewing operations were introduced in parallel with operation 3 and 6. The
line got changed from 8 operations and 9 operators to 8 operations and 11 operators.
This strategy eliminated the bottle neck and the cycle time was brought down to takt
time.

The Fig 4 clearly shows that the bottleneck has been cleared at operations 3 and 6.

As the cycle time of ironing is few seconds above the takt time, introduction of another
extra ironing table will cause a greater pull and the cuffs may start to pile up at the iron
station. So, Kaizen was experimented and the results are shown in Table 2, Table 3 and
Figure 5, as follows.

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The timing has been reduced to 50% by KAIZEN. Now all the operations in the cuff line
are under control and a smooth flow is achieved. The improved takt time details are
shown in Fig 6.

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The future state of value stream map (Fig 7) is developed with the reduced cycle time in
the three operations. Now, the percentage of value-added activities for the future state
is improved from 0.397 to 0.431 which accounts for 8.5% overall improvement in the
process.

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 Results

Thus, an apparel industry was studied and the bottleneck areas were identified through
Value Stream Mapping (VSM). The bottleneck areas were eliminated by implementing
line balancing and parallel working section. The implementation of kaizen resulted in
reduction of cycle time by 48.7%. The value-added percentage got increased from
0.397% to 0.431% which accounts for 8.5% improvement in the processes.

Implementation of Kaizen for further improvements

By implementing kaizen, line efficiency can be further improved and Defect per
Hundred units has also reduced. Kaizen strives to empower the workers, increase
worker satisfaction, facilitates a sense of accomplishment, thereby creating a pride of
work. It not only ensures that manufacturing processes become leaner and fitter, but
eliminate waste where value is added. Through Kaizen strong small, incremental
changes are routinely applied and sustain over a long period which results in significant
improvement in efficiency, quality as well as productivity.

It calls for endless effort for improvement involving everyone in the organization.
Kaizen requires no or little investment. The principle behind is that, a very large of small
improvements are more effective in an organizational environment than a few
improvements of large value. This philosophy implies that strong small, incremental
changes are routinely applied and sustain over a long period which results in significant
improvement.

Application Process of KAIZEN method

Application process of kaizen method basically consists of:

 Definition of the improvement area

 Analysis and selection of the key problem
 Identification of the cause of improvement
 Planning the remedial Centre measures
 Implementation of the improving project
 Measuring, analysing and comparison of the results,
 Standardization.

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 Kaizen Implementation

Before implementing Kaizen, the existing data and layout were analysed. The time study
sheet for a sewing line named line 13 and SMV are listed in the following table 3.1. Here
10% allowance is considered. ISO specifies minimum 10% allowance for the entire
operator. Table 1: Time study for different workers

 Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle

Plans were made to improve operation; the problems were identified and ideas were
made to solve those problems. Some changes were implemented on small scale. By
checking through Data check sheets and graphical analysis we were confirmed that plan
and action will bring desired result. Then we act promptly to implement the changes
though process standardization. The PDCA Cycle

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  Standard operation procedure (SOP)

Implementation of Standard operation is necessary because of making it possible to

identify and eliminate variation in operator work to sustain gains achieved from past
Kaizen activities, to provide baseline for future Kaizen activities. Creating Standard
Operation:

 Conducts cycle time analysis

 Check documents each standard operation
 Display the document
 Ensures that all operators are trained

The objective of SOP is to prepare standard operation sheet for all operation and
machine. To standardize operation procedure time study is require observing the
existing method of processes. Then analysing the processes slowly and eliminate the
unnecessary movement to standardized the method of processes. A standard method of
process analysed by the line supervisor. Then the ways or methods of processing were
documented. If the operators follow those methods properly, the non-value added time
will be reduced as well as the cycle time within taken time.

 Cycle time balancing

After implementing SOP, the non-value-added activity is reduced as a result the process
becomes standardized. Before analysing the existing layout, the taken time of the line
13was calculated. Taken time is the time which is precisely matches production to
customer demand.

Taken Time= Net operating Time

Buyer Demand

Here, order quantity by buyer= 6000 pcs & day in hand is 20 days=20*8*60 minutes.

Taken Time= 20*8*60

6000

= 1.6 minute

Total cycle time limit (TTL) = Total value-added activity (VA) + Total non-value added
activity

Table 2: Cycle time balancing by kaizen.

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  Existing 5s score

5S is a process and method of creating and maintaining a safe, organized, clean and
high-performance workplace. In the following table the 5S score evaluation & scoring
criteria are that five or more than five problems are scored as zero. Similarly, four,
three, two, one and zero problem are considered as one, two, three, four and five score
respectively.

Table 3: 5s score sheet before kaizen implementation

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  Corrective action plan for existing 5s score

The existing 5S score of the sewing floor was 2.67. To increase the working
environment as well as 5S score some corrective action was taken. These corrective
actions are listed below:

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 Remove unnecessary items
 Material storage review
 Stretcher not to be blocked
 Easy access to first aid box
 Floor cleaning
 Clean machine
 5S audit
Table 4: 5S score sheet after kaizen implementation

Reducing waste

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The main objective of lean is to reduce wastes. If sewing floor defective garments are
regarded as wastes. So, if defects are reduced wastes are also reduced. It also improves
quality and efficiency of garments. There are different types of defects in sewing floors.
Some defects are given below:

 Stitch density uneven

 Down stitch
 Open stitch
 Wrinkle
 Uneven stitch
 Piping damage
 Wrong insertion of puller
 Binding damage
 Bad thread tension etc.

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  Corrective action for Defects

Table 5. Top five problems in sewing section

Efficiency calculation
Efficiency is the comparison of what is actually produced or performed with what can
be achieved. In general efficiency is the percentage of output by input. In sewing floor
the equation for efficiency is given below:
Efficiency= Total output per line per day* SMV
Total man power per line*Total
operating minute per day

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At Day 1:

Total output per line per day=350

SMV=28

Total manpower=30Total working minute per day= 10 hour

=10*60 minutes

By using equation,

Efficiency= 350* 28 = 51%

30*10*60

At Day 5(after implementing Kaizen):

Total output per line per day=360

SMV=28

Total manpower=30

Total working minute per day= 10*60 minutes

By using equation

Efficiency= 390* 28 = 61%

30*10 *60

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Here, this bar chart shows that the efficacy of the process increased day by day.

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 DHU calculation

Defects per hundred units (DHU) are the total no of defects found in all the inspected
garments in hundred units. DHU is considered as the total n of defected point of all
defect garments. DHU means that what are the defects points of per 100 defects. The
equation is given below:

DHU= Total number of defects of inspected product

Number of Inspected Products

Table 8. DHU chart of existing data

Here, this bar chart shows that the defect per hundred units reduced.

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 Results and Discussions
Kaizen implies that strong small, incremental changes are routinely applied and sustain
over a long period which results in significant improvement. At first, the plant layout,
machine tool arrangement, production flow, labour skill, work environment of the
sewing floor was taken into observation.

Table 9. Results for before kaizen implementation and after kaizen implementation with
comparative results

For the quality improvement in above categories, the basic kaizen techniques PDCA,
SOP, 5S scoring, root cause analysis was used by us.

 By applying PDCA, whole improvement process was planned sequentially, the

required corrective action was taken.
 Those actions were checked, calculated and analysed that it can be implemented
for improvement.
 By applying SOP, the process was standardized and cycle time were balanced by
reducing non-value-added activities. Thus, working environment and job safety
were improved. After implementing kaizen 5S scoring was increased by 1.16.
 The performance of output is highly dependent on working environment.
Improving the working environment by making it clean and worker friendly the
operators were self-motivated to the works. So, the output was increased day by
day.
 For high quality product defect elimination is necessary. Root cause analysis was
performed to identify top defects and corrective actions were taken.
 After implementing kaizen DHU reduced from 108 to 84. As defects were
reduced waste were reduced which helps to reduce unnecessary cost.

Hence, Kaizen improves the quality and reduce cost. If there is extra intensive for
good performance, proper training, labour motivation to work will increase. Hence
Kaizen improves productivity along with the improvement of quality and reduction
of waste.

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 References

 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/IMPACTS-OF-LEAN-TOOLS-AND-
TECHNIQUES-FOR-IMPROVING-Vijayakumar-
Robinson/2e10b43c1636d2ad15105a6d722bfceb614e565f
 https://www.ijltemas.in/DigitalLibrary/Vol.6Issue3/39-43.pdf
 https://www.academia.edu/12935444/Implementation_of_kaizen_for_continuo
us_improvement_of_productivity_in_garment_industry_in_Bangladesh
 https://textilelearner.blogspot.com/2013/04/kaizen-system-in-textile-
industry.html
 https://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/6184/kaizen-system-in-
textile-industry
 https://www.onlineclothingstudy.com/2016/02/plan-do-check-action-pdca-
method-for.html
 http://www.journalaprie.com/article_54267_7fd87a9d5bccb2e1c0afdae08e661
8b7.pdf

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