Apparel Production

Engineering
By
Faruk Ahmed , Sr
Lecturer

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Content
production & productivity
Industrial engineering & its tools & techniques
Tech pack & manufacturing process
Work study
Time study & SMV calculation
Allowance & Rating
Mid- Term Exam
Motion Economy
Ergonomics & work place design
Line balancing & m/c lay out
Process break down
incentive
Lean manufacturing
Ref: Industrial Engineering & operation management
Marks
Attendance
Quiz/ Assignment
Presentation
Mid-Term
Final

Lecture
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10%
10%
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30%
40%

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.

Production System
Production:
Production is defined as the process or procedure to
Transformation
transform a set of input
into output having the
desired
OUT
PUT
Process
INPUT
Cutting
utility and quality. Production
is a value-addition process.
Sewing
Production system Washing
is an organized process of conversion
Finishing
of raw materials into useful finished goods.

Feed back
Man
Machine
Materials
Money
Management
Information
Energy
4

Goods &
Services

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

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.
Job security and satisfaction.
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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.

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, equipments 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
Dynamic

Fig:

More out put

Reduction in
production cost

Improve in
productivity

Increase in
wages

Increase in
Demand for
Goods & services

Lower Price

More Profit
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More savings

Better M/c

Greater
Employment

Higher
Investment

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 operators working
method and movements. Prepare a check list for good methods and movements. At time of
motion study observe operators 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 Paretos 80-20 Principle

2. Hourly operator capacity check: Employ work study personnel (if you dont have) and start

checking operator capacity hourly or bi-hourly. Compare actual operators hourly production with their
capacity. If production is less then question them why? It helps in two ways first, when operators
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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20(twenty ways)
2. Hourly operator capacity check: Employ
work study personnel (if you dont have) and
start checking operator capacity hourly or bihourly. Compare actual operators hourly
production with their capacity. If production is
less then question them why? It helps in two
ways first, when operators 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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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
doesnt 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
doesnt come down.
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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Scientific work setting & lay

out
Work place design

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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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Work Aid
1
6

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Work aid

Work place design

Work place design

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2o(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

operators 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 operators 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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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 dont 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 dont 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 dont 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.
Pauls 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 operators 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 operators

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 nonproductive 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 nonproductive 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 notacceptablewhere some of your good machines are idle in
the same building. Use the best of your resources. If machines
or equipment dont 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: Operators 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
operators motivation come through extra money.
Operator motivation can be improve by sharing certain
percentage of profit you made from operators extra
effort.

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20(Twenty ways)

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20. Plan for operators 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.

How Long Does it Take ?

How long is a piece of string ?
Writing up is one of the MAJOR activities of

doing research
Organisation of ideas is the hard bit
You will find weaknesses/flaws only when
you start to write up, - state them!
Allow approx. 30% of time for writing up

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Think of the Reader

Make no unreasonable assumptions about

your audience
Examiners hate to be made to work
hard on trivia
- to understand poorly named
sections, organise ideas themselves from
your work and wade through bad grammar

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Need for Ocean of

Code/Tabulated Analyses etc. ?
Some dissertations deal with proving ideas

by means of program(s) implementation,

some on data analyses, others on
comparison
Sufficient information supplied to support
key findings/check claims.
Remember the appendices.

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Getting Published
It is a good idea to submit to a conference/

write a Working Paper/ give a seminar

At worst you will get negative feedback
You may achieve publication or useful
reviewer comments

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References
Comprehensive and in correct form
Citing and Referencing, DCU Library;

Harvard scientific format

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