Garment Production process& Detailse

By
Faruk Ahmed , Sr Lecturer
 Course: Production Process & Apparel Engineering

Course Out Line

SL Content No. of
lecture
1 Production & productivity 1
2 Work Study, Time Study , SMV calculation 2
3 Rating Calculation & Allowance 1
Mid-Term Exam
4 Line Balancing 1
5 Layout 2
6 Method Study , Motion Economy & Ergonomics 1
7 Incentive Calculation 1
Final Exam
Reference:
1. Industrial Engineering & Operation
Management: By Martin Telsang
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 Production & Productivity

Productivity
Higher productivity brings higher margin in a business and
increment in Productivity level reduces garment manufacturing
cost. Hence factory can make more profit through productivity
improvement.

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 Production System
⚫ Production:

Production is defined as the process or procedure to transform a set of

input into output having the desired utility and quality. Production is a
value-addition process. Production system is an organized process of
conversion of raw materials into useful finished goods.

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 Production System
⚫ Production:
Transformation Process
Cutting
OUT PUT
INPUT
Sewing
Washing
Finishing

Feed back
Man
Machine
Materials
Money Goods &
Management Services
Information
Energy
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 Productivity
⚫ Production and Productivity:
The concepts of production and productivity are totally different. Production
refers to absolute output where as productivity is a relative term where in the
output is always expressed in term of inputs. Increase in production may or may
not be an indicator of increase in productivity. If the production is increased for
the same input, then there is an increase in productivity.
If viewed in quantitative terms, production is the quantity of output produced,
while productivity is the ratio of the output produced to the input used.

Productivity = Production / Resources employed

Productivity is said to be increased, when
⚫ The production increases without increase in inputs.
⚫ The production remains same with decrease in inputs.
⚫ The output increases more as compared to input.

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 Classification of productivity
⚫ Labour productivity=out put/No of labourxw.hX W.d
⚫ M/C productivity=out put/ No of m/cX W.hX W.d
⚫ Material productivity= out put/ materials input
⚫ Energy productivity= Out Put/ Energy Input

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 Benefit from productivity
⚫ Benefits from Increased Productivity:
Higher productivity results in higher volume of production and hence
increased sales, lower cost and higher profit. It is beneficial to all
concerns as stated below:

(a) Benefits to the management:

⚫ More profit.
⚫ Higher productivity ensures stability of the organization.
⚫ Higher productivity and higher volume of sales provide opportunity for
expansion of the concern and wide spread market.
⚫ It provides overall prosperity and reputation of the organization.
⚫ (b) Benefits to workers:
⚫ Higher wages.
⚫ More wages permits better standard of living of workers.
⚫ Better working conditions.
8 ⚫ Job security and satisfaction.
 Benefit From productivity
(c) Benefits to the consumers:
⚫ More productivity ensures better quality of product.
⚫ It also enables reduction in prices.
⚫ More satisfaction to consumers.
(d) Benefits to nation:
⚫ It provides greater national wealth.
⚫ It increases per capita income.
⚫ It helps expansion of international market with the help of standardizes and
good quality products.
⚫ It improves standard of living.
⚫ It helps better utilization of resources of the nation.

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 Dynamics of productivity change
Dynamics of productivity change:
⚫ Productivity improvement results in lower cost per unit by
effective utilization of all the resources and reducing
wastage. Lower cost per unit contributes to increased profit
levels so that company can reinvest the surplus in new
technology, equipment’s and machines. This will result in
further productivity increase and also there is a greater
employment generation due to new investments. The
productivity increase sets in chain reaction as shown fig:

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 Dynamics of productivity change
Improve in
productivity

More out put

Increase in wages

Increase in Demand
Reduction in for Goods & services
production cost Better M/c

Lower Price Greater Employment

More Profit More savings Higher Investment

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 Manufacturing Process(Ring Spinning carded

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 Manufacturing process Ring spinning(combed yarn)

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 Manufacturing process ( Rotor Spinning)

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 Manufacturing Process (Air jet spinning)

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 Factor Affecting productivity
10.0 Factors Affecting Productivity in a Spinning Mill
10.1 Raw material
Raw material has an important impact on yarn quality and production. Let’s see
how it affects on yarn production? There are many parameters through which
we can easily assess the properties of cotton; first one is the fiber length which
is the most important characteristic of cotton and is measured in terms of staple
length, span length and effective length. If fibers have good staple length it
results in the form of high production because less twist per inch is required to
give enough strength. Second one is the short fibers percentage; higher
percentage of short fibers will result in the form of production losses due to
more end breakage and higher twist per inch. Third one is the fiber maturity, in
case of immature fibers it results in the form of production loss because the
yarn made from these types of fibers have poor strength and also it produces
breakage in spinning department. Fourth one is the fiber strength which is the
dominating feature of fiber. When fiber strength is higher it outcomes in the
form of high production due to less twist multiplier. I think while choosing
cotton we have to keep in mind all these factors other wise it result in the form
16 of great loss
 Factor Affecting productivity
⚫ 10.2 Labour
In all industries, the importance of labour cannot be denied. But in the textile sector
specially in spinning mills labour plays a very crucial role because without their
participation nothing could be done. For example if we take the example of the ring
department in a spinning mill or you can say the production department, 400 workers are
working in one shift and with their negligence it
results in the form of production loss. In the ring department we can calculate production
in bags /day, so, with the workers carelessness it results in the form of loss of bags. In
Pakistan working in mills exists in three shifts so, the question does arise why production
is different in these three shifts if they have the same number of workers? Due to workers
inattention the rate of production is different because in Azad Textile mill they face
different types of problems every day so, to overcome these problems they have made a
reward system in the form of cash prizes. By comparing the production of these three
shifts. They decided which shift deserves for that prize. By adopting this system they can
control this problem up to some extent. From our point of view we think that the proper
way to improve productivity in textile mills is first to take those workers which are
properly skilled secondly, with the passage of time arrange training sessions for their
improvement and the most important thing is to increase their wages time after time. By
adopting these things productivity can be improved.
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 Factor Affecting productivity
⚫ 10.3 Machinery
Machinery is the back bone of every industry. In the textile industry machine
are working 24 hours so it is important that its efficiency would be excellent.
Let’s look at the comparison between the old and new machine. In Azad Textile
Mills we analyzed that, “why new machine are better than old machine?” In the
simplex department they have erected 10 frames and in which one of them is
the old one. If we compare the old machine with the new machine in production
point of view then, it is clear that new machines are better than old ones. We
got some experimental results, from the new frame with the speed of 725 rpm
the production is 45 bags/day while with the old machine with the same speed
production is 35 bags /days because many factors involved in it like sliver and
roving breakages, machine adjustments and stoppages. If we compare these
machines in energy point of view then old machine consumes more energy than
the new ones. From the above discussion it is clear that the machine matters if
we talk about productivity.
While analyzing in Ring Department, during working stoppages may occur due
to the following reasons.
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 Factor Affecting the Productivity
⚫ 10.5 Energy issue
Energy is the basic requirement of any industry but now a days in
Pakistan it’s a big issue right now that’s why the textile industry is
suffering from many problems. Now take a look and discuss what kind
of problems they are facing and how they create hurdles for
productivity? Pakistan industry is mainly running on these two
resources i.e. gas and electricity. But due to shortage of these
necessities many textile units are shutting down. Sometimes due to
sudden failures machine parts are being destructed. The second and
most important problem that arises is that the products are not being
prepared in time for delivery which causes customer and production
loss as the products are not being produced on time. For instance if one
spinning mill has a production of 300 bags/ day due to shut down of 2
hours, its production is going to decrease by 275 bag/day

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 20(twenty ways to improve productivity
⚫ 1. Conducting motion study and correcting faulty motions: There is
a saying “Even best can be improved”. So go to Gemba (sewing floor)
and look for operator’s working method and movements. Prepare a
check list for good methods and movements. At time of motion study
observe operator’s movement and compare with you checklist. If you
found wrong movements is used by operator or unnecessarily extra
movement is present in the operation cycle correct it. If needed deskill
operator. By doing this you can reduce operation cycle time and can
improve labor productivity up to 100%* in individual operations (*in
20% of the total operations as per Pareto’s 80-20 Principle

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 20(twenty ways)
2. Hourly operator capacity check: Employ work study
personnel (if you don’t have) and start checking operator
capacity hourly or bi-hourly. Compare actual operator’s
hourly production with their capacity. If production is less
then question them why? It helps in two ways – first, when
operator’s capacity is checked at regular interval they will
be under pressure. Secondly, work study personnel start
thinking on methods how cycle time can be reduced. Using
the capacity data, you can move ahead in balancing the
line.

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 Hourly capacity check
Operator Name:
Process Name:
SMV:
Target:

Date 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
hour hour hour hour hour hour hour hour hour hour

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 20(Twenty ways)
3. Conduct R&D for the garment: A non-value added (NVA) process but having
a strong Research and Development (R&D) team in the factory brings lot of
benefits. R&D can be taken as preparation stage for the bulk production. This
department does sample production and look into potentially critical operations,
plan for requirement of special equipment, advice changes in terms of
construction without changing styling. E.g. if an operation contains some raw
stitches, which doesn’t affect the final look of the garment, then that operation
can be avoided if possible to save time. They plan for skill requirement for the
operations. As a result production runs without any break or with less no. of
breaks. As it reduces the chance of break in production for unnecessary reasons,
line productivity doesn’t come down.

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 20(Twenty ways)
4. Use best possible line layout: Line layout means placing of machines and
Centre table (trolley with wheel) as per style requirement. The main purpose of
choosing a better layout is to reduce transportation time in the line as much as
possible. A stable line is not a good idea if you produce multiple products in a
same line. A straight assembly line with Centre table at left side is good for a
product that has no preparatory work and individual operation SAM is nearby
the pitch time. When a style includes lot of preparatory work (for garment
parts), it is better to make garment parts in sections and assemble them later. If
possible use overhead transportation system.

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 M/c lay out

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 20(twenty ways)
⚫ 5. Scientific work station layout: The workstation layout defines
from where an operator will pick up work (garment components) and
where she will dispose stitched garment. A scientific layout is defined
as minimum reach for picking up and dispose of components. Every
components and tools (trimmer) must be kept within operator reach.
During workstation designing, engineering must follow key principles.
Components to be worked on should be positioned as near to the needle
as possible.
Direction of the components where it positioned on the table or track
should be such way that during moving component to the needle point
does not need to turn it.

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 Scientific Work station Design

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 20(twenty ways)
6. Reduce line setting time: It have been observed that a line reaches at its pick
productivity level on day 6-7 after loading of an order. The time lost in the
initial days (learning curve) brings down the average labor productivity for
whole style. Reason - lot of time is lost during setting of the line for a new
style. This reduces overall machine productivity and line efficiency. So to
maintain line productivity level you have to work on minimizing line setting
time or throughput time. To reduce the line setting time, engineers have to
study the garment thoroughly, prepare operation bulletin with machine
requirement and machine layout plan prior to feeding cuttings to the line. Read
another article to know how to reduce line setting time. Engineers need to
coordinate with line supervisors and maintenance department with their plans
and requirements. This will help supervisors and maintenance department to be
pro-active in arranging required resources.

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 20(twenty ways)
⚫ 7. Improve line balancing: Purpose of balancing a line is to reduce operator’s
idle time or maximize operator utilization. In a balanced line work will flow
smoothly and no time will be lost in waiting for work. At time of line setting
select operators for the operation matching operator skill history and skill
required. Following this method you will select highly skilled operators for
higher work content operations. Once line is set conduct capacity study at a
regular interval. Use pitch diagram method to find bottlenecks inside the line.
You have to think how you will minimize WIP level at bottleneck operations.
Read another article on line balancing for guidelines. Once you start increasing
operator utilization through line balancing you will get extra pieces from the
same resources in defined time.
Even a well managed factory can improve productivity by 22% thorough line
balancing reported by Md. Rezaul Hasan Shumon, Kazi Ar if-Uz-Zaman, and
Azizur Rahman in a Research Study “Productivity Improvement through Line
Balancing in Apparel Industries”.

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 M/c lay out

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 20(Twenty ways)
⚫ 8. Use work aids, attachments, guides, correct pressure foots and folders:
These are some kinds of time saving devises that facilitate operator to perform
their work effectively with less effort. If work aids are used effectively
operation cycle time can be reduced many fold than existing cycle time. In new
and small factories where there is no experienced technical person
(maintenance, IE personnel or production manager) generally not aware about
the usage and availability of work aids. So their operators sew garment free
hand. Labor productivity is comparably higher for the factories that widely use
work aids than those who do not use work aids for the similar products. Folders
and attachments are also very helpful in producing consistent stitching quality.
On the other hand work aids, guides and fixtures reduce operator’s movement
and weight lifting. During my research study I college I had improved labor
productivity up to 18.03% using work aids in various operations.

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 Work Aid
⚫ Work aid
3
2

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 20(twenty ways)
9. Continuous feeding to the sewing line: It is not a fault of production
department if they did not get cuttings to sew. All plans and efforts towards
productivity will fail if line is not been fed continuously. “No feeding or
irregular feeding” is one of the top reasons for lower productivity in poorly
managed factory. Poor production plan, wrong selection product mix in seasons
and ineffective cutting department are the reasons that stop continuous feeding.
Once operators get the rhythm, they should be given non-stop feeding until
style changeover to keep up the productivity. If you know there is
unavailability of cutting in near future then plan accordingly and don’t call all
operators for that duration.

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 20(twenty ways)
10. Feed fault free and precise cutting to line: Stop cutting and trimming of
extra fabric from cut components by operators. If your cutter does not able to
provide precise cutting s/he should be trained. But faulty cutting don’t be fed.
When operators cut fabric he performs additional task in the operation cycle
time. If in some cases trimming is intended then that task must be included in
total work content. Otherwise you will get wrong (less) efficiency for the
operator. Secondly, cuttings with fabric defects, pattern problem are issued to
sewing line. As a result line produces defective garments. Alteration and repair
work for defective garments reduces labor productivity.

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 20 (twenty ways)
11. Training for Line supervisors: Line supervisors are shop floor managers. So
each supervisor must be trained with fundamental management skills and
communication skill. Still in most of the supervisors in Indian factories are
raised from tailors. They don’t acquire technical qualification in supervising.
But their main job is providing instruction, transferring information. For which
communication skill training is required for supervisors. Secondly, supervisor
should understand the fundamental of industrial engineering like operation
bulletin, skill matrix, workstation layout, movement, capacity study and
theoretical line balancing etc. If they understood these, they can help engineers
or work study boys to improve line performance. The above training will bring
changes in managing and controlling the lines and will improve labor
productivity.

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 20(Twenty ways)
12. Training to sewing operators: Operators are main resources in the apparel
manufacturing. They are most valuable resource to the company. So, factory
must work on developing operator skill where required. “Training is not cost
but an investment” said by many experts. Production from an operator depends
on his skill level to the task. A low skilled operator will consume higher
resources (time) and give less output. You will find quality related issues with
low skilled and untrained operators. As the skill level of the operators is
increased through training lines output will improve. Training does mean lot of
time and money. Training should be given only on specific tasks that will be
performed by the operator. Paul’s article “systematic training for apparel
industry operators – an introduction” is very helpful in this regard.

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 20(twenty ways)
⚫ 13. Setting individual operator target: Instead of giving equal target to all
operators working in a line, give individual target as per operators’ skill level
and capacity. Set an achievable target for each operator so that they would try
to reach the target. This will help improving operator’s individual efficiency.
Use tricks for increasing target step by step. Take care of the operators who are
under target. They may need skill training. Go back to point#12. Training of
sewing operators.
⚫ 14. Eliminate loss time and off-standard time: Utilize operator’s time as
much as you can. There is no better alternative than just stopping operators
sitting idle to improve operator productivity. Non productive time such as
waiting for work, machine breakdown, power failure and repair work kill your
productivity. Start eliminating non-productive time as much as possible. To
start work on this point you have to track off-standard or non-productive time
data according to different categories. Once you have the analysis and Pareto of
non-productive time you can think and plan on reducing it.

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 20(twenty ways)
⚫ 15. Real time shop floor data tracking system: For the continuous
improvement and prompt action on failure you need information from the shop
floor as fast as possible. Important information needed such as hourly
production, line balancing, WIP, tracking bundles and quality performance of
the line. If corrective action is not been taken early problem may increase as
time goes. So RFID based real time systems are helping in providing shop floor
information within second. With Leadtec system Joshep Abboud increased its
total productivity more than 40% (refer to the following case study link). This
system is quite costlier at this time. But as per published case studies ROI
(12-18 months) of this RFID based real time system is not bad.
16. Using auto trimmer sewing machine (UBT): Just think how many pieces
an operator is producing in a day? Each time an operator trims thread using a
trimmer or scissors consume time minimum 50 TMU or 2 Seconds (approx). A
rough estimate, in a day operator will lose about 20 minutes just in thread
cutting. In an operation of 0.5 SAM, operator can make 40 extra pieces. Even
machine without auto trimmer consumes more sewing thread. Those who use
heavy (half kilogram weight) scissor may start using hand trimmer.
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 20(twenty ways)
17. Installing better equipment: A low performing machine is
not acceptable where some of your good machines are idle in the same
building. Use the best of your resources. If machines or equipment don’t
perform well operator motivation goes down. Repetitive breakdown of
machines increase the loss time and bring down overall line efficiency and
labor productivity. I have seen lines where UBT machine is used in long seam
operations and comparably lower work content. On the other hand where
shorter seams are being stitched, most of the time spent in thread trimming for
taking out work from the needle, normal lock stitch sewing machine are used.
18. Inline quality inspection at regular interval: Traffic light system is the
most effective inspection tool to reduce defect generation at source. Less
number of defective seam is made less the time will be lost in repairing it.
Inline checking system will alert operators in

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 20 (Twenty ways)
18. Inline quality inspection at regular interval: Traffic light system
is the most effective inspection tool to reduce defect generation at
source. Less number of defective seam is made less the time will be
lost in repairing it. Inline checking system will alert operators in
concentrating their job. It also helps in other way. May be at the start
of the style an operator not understood the specification, an
interaction with quality inspector will make an operator clear about
the quality requirement. Poorly managed factory loses productivity
up to 10% due to repair and reject as mentioned by Dr. Bheda in his
article “Productivity in Apparel Manufacturing”.

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 20(Twenty ways)
19. Operator motivation: Operator’s will is the most crucial part in
productivity improvement. If they are motivated, they will put enough
efforts on the work. Employee motivation generally depends on various
factors like work culture, HR policies, bonus on extra effort or
achieving target. In garment manufacturing operator’s motivation come
through extra money. Operator motivation can be improve by sharing
certain percentage of profit you made from operator’s extra effort.

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 20(Twenty ways)
20. Plan for operator’s Incentive scheme: Paul Collyer, British expert
says “In British factories, in a non incentive environment factory can reach up to
80% efficiency level and if manager expect more than that they had to provide
incentive to operators as well as to the supporting team”. If we look into Asian
factories, in a non incentive environment factories find it is very difficult to reach
up to 40% efficiency. You can see the potential efficiency that can be converted
in money.
You need to understand that employees come for work in your organization for
money. Initially you may think that an incentive scheme may reduce your profit.
But in real it works in opposite direction, provided that incentive system is fair
for the workers and has been implemented intelligently. It is seen factories where
operator efficiency reaches up to 76% from 45% after implementation of
incentive scheme. An incentive scheme will give lot of other benefits in return as
a byproduct. An incentive scheme designed with multiple parameters may bring
discipline on the shop floor. As operators give extra effort to the work, efficiency
as well as productivity of the operator increases.

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 Work place design
⚫ Work place design

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 Scientific work setting & lay out
Work place design

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 Scientific work setting & lay out

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