DEPARTMENT OF FASHION TECHNOLOGY

SUBJECT: Apparel Quality Manufacturing ASSIGNMENT: Corporate Restructuring through Quality Initiatives

Submitted to: Ms. V. Priyadarshani

Submitted By: Amar Kumar Deepak Kumar Moumita Maity Subhradeep Hazra

CASE STUDY
With a combined capacity of 47 million meters and manufacturing facilities across 2 continents Europe and Asia, Raymond UCO will be in a best position to develop an optimal and flexible service to meet global requirements of large international brands. UCO is a Belgian textile group with interests in denim, flat, filament fabric and yarns. It produces and sells a diversified collection of denim for leisure wear, focusing on innovative high value added fabrics. UCO is a leading denim player in Europe specially known for color denim with a 70% share.

Overview
Today the textile industry is facing higher competition in the global market than ever before. The overall level of quality is increasing constantly. Due to steadily growing production capacities, the quality consistency must be improved. Especially in the booming countries like India, China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia, the yarn, weaving, dyeing and finishing quality is improving rapidly. International sourcing, long distances, the danger of claims due to late delivery or the deterioration of quality are gaining more and more the attention of the textile community

QUALITY SYSTEM BEFORE JOINT VENTURE

Earlier Raymond UCO Denim faced many problems that affected its production capacity. One of these problems observed in production year of 2000 was absence of workers. According to the annual report of the company, in spinning plant 247.3 hours was the idle time due to the absence of the workers from the total 7019.68 working hours for this production year. Therefore, the spinning plant lost 18.86 percent of its production time. Totally, the spinning plant lost 1311.58 hours due to different problems such as electrical interruption, machine breakdown, absence of workers, and shortage of spare parts of machines. The total loss of production in this plant is about 428768 kg of yarn for the same.

 When we look the production capacity of weaving plant for the same year, the time lost due to different problems was about 1508.36 hours (21.4 percent) from the total 7019.68 working hours. Due to the loss of this time about 2055514 meters of fabric was not produced. On the same way, the finishing plant also lost 2371.53 hours from total 7019.68 working hours, which is about 4740457 square meter of fabric. In general, the causes for lower productivity of the machines in the company are: low quality of raw materials, sudden breakdown of the machines, stoppage of machines such as carding machine due to the shortage of the spare parts, interruption of the electrical power, absence of the workers, and others.

REASONS
Quality awareness: The understanding of quality concept in the company is higher at the top of the organization and gets lesser as one goes down. The role and participation of individual employees in quality activities is lower. Most employees believe that quality is the responsibility of quality control department only. Decision making: Does not empower its employees especially low-ranking staff to participate in decision making process. Customer satisfaction The company does not regularly measure its customers needs and satisfaction. There is no also formal regular communication between the company and its customers. Causes of poor quality Less importance to Training Supplier's relationship was for short interval.

QUALITY SYSTEM AFTER JOINT VENTURE

After the joint venture, the production as well quality was increased. They follow the Quality manual of Levis and Gap. The following QMS have been implemented. Management Responsibilities: Under management responsibilities, the management commitment and leadership, quality planning, quality manual preparation and customer satisfaction was introduced.

Textile quality and Process control

Development and automation in the spinning, weaving, dyeing as well in finishing department. To ensure the manufacture of products of international quality, this unit uses state-of-the-art equipment, systems and practices. These include: Tensorapid equipment to measure Tensile and tear strengths. Uster testing to control the evenness of all yarns. Each & every bale of yarn is tested and passed through a double passage draw for effective quality blending.

Marzoli ring spinning frames and open-end spinning are equipped with auto doffing and auto bobbin transfer systems. Together with Caipo and Amsler devices, these systems produce creative denim yarns.

 Indigo and sulphur dyeing is achieved through two-slasher dye ranges. Suker Muller & Masters slasher dye ranges support Picanol & Vamatex high speed looms to produce 20 million meters per annum. The Denim Fabrics & Apparels is finished on the Cibitex range with micro processing to stabilize shrinkage & skew. The stenter finish stabilizes shrinkage & width of stretch products.

 Routine Testing and checking at every stage of the manufacturing process. Shade standards and consistency are maintained via a system of wash blankets tested from every roll of Fabrics & Apparels. The Raymond water treatment plant purifies and recycles all indigo effluent using reverse osmosis system. This enables the company to use all the water for land projects. The entire 105acre site of the Denim facility in Yavatmal has been designated with a 'greenbelt' status

Creative denims are developed with specialist finishing, fancy yarn devices and other equipment necessary to achieve worldclass products. The onsite laundry facility enables experimentation with creative finishing demonstrating the full potential of each individual Denim Fabrics & Apparels.

OUTCOMES OF THIS SYSTEM

After the implementation of this system the company production increased as well quality level also increased. The key strengths of this joint venture company are: 40 million square meters production achieved Increased width of merchandise to cater to the requirements of individual markets Diversification of the customer base for both partners Greater cost efficiency, from manufacturing facilities to economies of scale from global sourcing of cotton, yarn, dyes & chemicals, spares and consumables The company is now certified by GOTS as well with ISO/TS 16949:2009

THANK YOU