Ways to Improve Productivity in Garment Production

1. Conducting motion study and correcting faulty motions:

2. Hourly operator capacity check:

3. Conduct R&D for the garment:

4. Use best possible line layout:

5. Scientific work station layout

6. Reduce line setting time:

7. Improve line balancing:

8. Use work aids, attachments, guides, correct pressure foots and folders:

9. Continuous feeding to the sewing line

10. Feed fault free and precise cutting to line:

11. Training for Line supervisors

12. Training to sewing operators:

13. Setting individual operator target:

14. Eliminate loss time and off-standard time:

15. Real time shop floor data tracking system:

16. Using auto trimmer sewing machine (UBT

17. Installing better equipment:

18. Inline quality inspection at regular interval:

19. Operator motivation

20. Plan for operators Incentive scheme:

7 Ways to Reduce WIP from Bottleneck Operations

1. Method improvement:

2. Share capacity

3. Add additional manpower or machine:

4. Improve workstation layout:

5. Better operator allocation:

6. Work for extra hours

7. Use time saving tricks:

How to reduce line setting time for assembly line?

1. Factory starts loading new style to the line once all operators get free from the previous style.

2. Frequent change in line planning.

3. All trims have not been approved or not yet sourced. Until required trims are sourced all operation cant be started.

4. Few garment components has been sent outside for printing or embroidery but did not received on time.

5. Supervisor did not fully assess the operation sequence or skill requirement for each operation.

6. Operators were not present in the initial operations or critical operations.

7. Quality issue, supervisor not able to give suitable operator for the critical operation

8. Maintenance guy do not able set machine quickly. Replacement of machine, setting guides and attachment takes longer time than it should be.

9. Planning for larger bundle size. At the first day of line setting if bigger bundle size is used then it will take huge amount of time to reach bundle at the last operator.

What is the application of Industrial Engineering in apparel industry?

Industrial Engineering concepts are used in garment manufacturing to fulfill the following purposes -

Monitoring production floor and having better control over the production floor

Improving processes and improving method of working to increase factory's overall performance and standardized garment manufacturing processes

Overall application of Industrial engineering can be explained better by describing common tasks of the IE department. Coomo tasks of an IE department are as following but not limited to these

Work measurement of sewing operations, cutting room jobs and finishing jobs

Setting standard time for sewing operations and manual operations

Style analysis and conducting research and development (R&D) of the styles

Improving method of work and design workstation

Production planning and factory capacity determination

Work aids development

Work station designing and machine layout planning

Labor cost estimation

Performance measuring of workers

Training of workers (sewing operators)

Designing incentive scheme and calculating incentive for sewing operators

Setting line production target of the sewing lines and chasing production from line supervisors and operators

Application of lean tools

Read full list ofjob profile of the industrial engineering department in a garment factory.

How Industrial Engineering Concepts are used by apparel manufacturers?

Factories those are using IE techniques mostly have a complete IE set up (department). An IE department consists of an IE managers (in-charge) and Industrial Engineers and juniors engineers. The strength of IE team widely varies based on the maturity level of the department and on the focus of application of Industrial Engineering. Without having enough team members, an IE department can not work effectively.Industrial Engineers are utilized in the following ways but not limited to those -Factories apply all or few of the above listed functions to

assist line supervisors by preparing resource requirement plan (machines and equipment and manpower), line setting and line balancing etc.

assist production managers in target planning and production planning,

help merchandiser and marketing personnel by providing labor cost and production lead time,

help HR department by providing operator performance level, and help in operator recruitment

prepare MIS reports and show management team product status on daily basis and alert management team if their attention is needed

set up standards operating procedures for new tasks, new process required for ever changing fashion products

More than the regular jobs, IEs are also responsible for thinking of continuous process improvement. Initiation of new projects and implementation of the project that has been undertaken, showing the improvement opportunity within the factory to management team. Engineers are involved in performance improvement tasks of the cutting department and finishing department.Companies those have limited manpower in IE team, only involves engineers for routine jobs like, making operation bulletin, thread consumption, preparing daily production reports etc.

Conclusion:

No doubt that Industrial engineering department is adding a lot of values to the company. Without having Industrial Engineering team one would not know how things are going on the shop floor, what corrective measures need to taken on time, effective utilization of manpower and machines.Industrial engineering concept need to incorporate at the time of plant set up instead of changing and modifying things later after factory starts making garments.