Subject: Apparel Manufacturing

Unit 4: Key Terminologies

Quadrant 1 – e-Text

Learning Objectives

The learning objectives of this unit are:

 Understand the key terminologies used in apparel manufacturing.

 Develop suitable methods of managing WIP efficiently.
 Recall ways to make a capacity study.

4.1 Key Terms

Production

Production refers to Output.

Productivity

Productivity is the ratio of output to input and is normally represented in the following way:

Productivity = Output/ Input

Input

Input refers to all resources used.in producing the Output.

Output

Output refers to goods or services produced.

Labour and Wages

Competitiveness of any location for running a garment manufacturing factory and/or exporting
unit demands various requirements, such as availability of labour, raw material, business-friendly
atmosphere, low wages, proximity to airport and sea port and the cost of energy.

As India is a vast country, the payment system is salary based, piece rate or incentive system.
Indian exporters still pay more attention to quantity than quality, though much money is lost due
to poor product quality every day.

Indian exporters mostly prefer the “Piece Rate System”.

Benefits of “Piece Rate” Employees

Piece rate employees are highly motivated. They also have no obligation about their employer.
When factories have no work, they do not have to pay operators.

There are few challenges when company hires “piece rate” employees.
Designing a fair rate is a major challenge. Most of the factories donot have a system to establish
a fair rate or standard time. Generally, ratesare decided by negotiations between the employee
and employer. Until a rate is fixed, nobody works at their normal pace and this results in the
company losing capacity.

Clock Time

The time available to an operator for doing work during the day. It does not include lunch time.

Off Standard Time

The time during which an operator is unable to do some work due to factors which are not under
his control that is, the time spent during the day during which no productive work is done.

Example:
Power failure, machine breakdown or doing repairs for someone else.

On Standard Time

The time made available to the operator for producing productive work. It can also be defined as
the difference between clock time and off standard time. Thus, Clock Time= On Standard + Off
standard Time.

Off-standard time is that time the operator spends on “un-measured” work or “measured” work
that is classified as “off-standard”.
Examples of Off Standard time are:

Time that should be reported on “Labour cost control sheet”, Waiting for work, Machine
breakdown, Unmeasured work – operation not yet allocated Single Minute Value (SMV),
Sampling
Repairs (not own), Paid average (for balancing), Under re-training, Indirect work such as
covering for supervisor.
SAM (Standard Allowed Minutes) also means time in minutes that is assigned to a specific
operation after doing time study or using PMTS (Predetermined Motion Time Systems).

SMV (Single Minute Value) means the Cost Factor (in cost / minute) that is multiplied with
SAM to get the cost of the operation.

Standard Allowed Minutes or Single Minute Value is generally calculated as:

Observed time (time study) + Rating Allowance + Personal Fatigue and Delay Allowance and
Synthetic Time.

When Standard Allowed Minutes is used as an extension to Single Minute Value that is, it is the
allocated time for a task rather than the measured time.

Standard Allowed Minutes = Single Minute Value + policy allowances.

Allowances
Allowances are added to the 100% time determined by the time study to give a Standard allowed
time. This permits the average operator to earn a satisfactory wage, provided there are no
abnormal delays and the operator applies herself to her work. Three categories are recognised as:
Machine delay, Personal and fatigue and Incentive.

Machine delay includes Thread changes, bobbin changes (on lockstitch), cleaning & oiling
machine, thread breaks caused by operator, machine & thread, needle breaks Minor adjustments
or changes in folders and attachments, the first 15 minutes of machine delay.

The machine delay factor is applied to the total cycle time. This has the effect of giving a delay
allowance on the manipulative elements within a machine cycle such as “pick up garment”. On
an average this does not present a problem since the percentage has been developed from actual
experience.

However, a job with an unusually high or low percentage of pure work in the cycle would merit
a discretionary adjustment to the factor, and the engineer is expected to be alert for this.

Personal and Fatigue

Some aspects of normal required personal time can be quantified, but fatigue itself cannot be
measured. It is also impossible to separate personal and fatigue time, because of their inter-
relation with one another. This allowance came into being through guesswork and trial based on
general use. History and experience have proven these allowances to be reasonably correct for a
great many varying situations.

Personal and fatigue allowance covers break periods, personal needs such as water and rest
rooms, minor conversations, factors for loss of pace due to getting tired.

Efficiency is a measure of how well the section/factory is run. It is a measure of both the
operator and the supervisor and incorporates elements of operator performance and utilisation
into the single measure.

Capacity Study
When we make a capacity study on an operator, we are measuring the performance she should
attain if she continues to work at the same pace and use the same method as observed during the
study. This means that at the end of the study we can say that the operator has the capacity to be
a 120 percent performer" or whatever performance level the study indicates. Capacity means the
same as capability. It means that the operator is capable of achieving the performance measured
by the study.

Rating
The rating corresponding to the average rate at which an operator will naturally work at a job,
provided they know and adhere to the specified method, and provided they are motivated to
apply themselves to their work.

British standard provides the 0-100 scale for rating. Here 0 represent no work at all and 100 a
normal rate. We rate the job on this scale after observing the operator. A slow rate may be rated
around 50 and a fast one around 125. The concept of ‘Rating’ (known in the US as ‘grading’) is
fundamental in time study. The ability to rate effectively distinguishes a qualified time study
practitioner from a novice.

Rating’ is the process used by the industrial engineer to compare the actual performance of the
operator with his/her mental concept of normal performance. In order to rate there must be a
defined level of performance to compare with, an ‘average’ level.

‘The rating’ is the numerical value used to denote the rate of working. In order to rate there
must be a defined level of performance to compare with, an ‘average’ level.

Standard Operator
A ‘Standard Operator’ is fully trained and motivated to perform a defined task (having a defined
method) and is, by definition average in terms of his or her work-pace.

Standard Performance

‘Standard Performance’ is achieved by a standard operator, as long as working conditions are

correct.

Operator Performance
Operator performance is primarily a measure of the effectiveness of the individual operator. It is
sometimes referred to as “Pay” performance as it is usually measured within an incentive
scheme.

Operator Utilisation

Operator utilisation is a measure of how well the supervisor manages to keep the operators “on-
standard”.

i.e = time “on-standard divided by time attended i.e (Clock Time) into 100.

SAM (Standard Allowed Minute)

The time taken by a 100% normal operator to do a particular operation including the personal,
fatigue and delay allowance.

SAM Produced

The standard minutes produced by an operator in a particular day. It is calculated as:

SAMs produced = Number of pieces produced * SAM for that operation

Efficiency

The work done by an operator during the time available to him in a day. It is represented as:
Efficiency = (SAM Produced/ Clock Time) * 100

Performance
A tool used to quantify the work content of an operator during the day. It is represented as:
Performance = (SAM Produced/ On Standard Time) * 100

Utilisation
A tool used to determine the time percentage during which the operator worked in a day. It is
represented as:

Utilisation = (On Standard Time/ Clock Time) * 100

SAM

[(ASCT X Rating) X (1+ MDA + P&FA)] + BHT

Clock Time

on-standard time + off-standard time

Capacity (%)

TSCT X 100

ASCT

Performance

(Output X SAM) X 100

on-standard time

Utilisation

On-standard Time X 100

Clock Time

Efficiency

(Output X SAM) X 100

Clock Time X Manpower

Line Balancing
A line is defined as a group of operators under the control of one production Supervisor.
Therefore, Line Balancing is concerned with the operations and work levels within a line. It is a
function of the Work Study office to provide Management with information to help the efficient
and productive running of the factory, and part of this information is the process known as Line
Balancing.

The method of Line Balancing will vary from factory to factory and depend on the type of
garments manufactured, but in any instance, Line Balancing concerns itself with two distinct
applications, they are “SETTING UP” a line and “RUNNING” a line.

Work in Process / Progress (WIP) is made up of all garments and their parts that are not
completely finished.

For example, a bundle of shirts that has everything attached, but has no bottom hem.

We can measure Work In Progress in Units or in units of time.

For example, if we know that an operation X takes 0.5 minutes per unit to process and we have 5
bundles of 12 units each, then we have 30 minutes of WIP for that operation i.e (5 X 12 X 0.5).

In some factories you can find some operations that have days of inventory waiting to be
processed! This is unacceptable for many reasons.

The Advantages of Controlling WIP

When WIP is controlled there are two cost areas that can be controlled:

1. Investment in Inventory

2. Ability to reduce the Production Cycle

Inventory is money invested in raw materials. When we do not move the goods through the plant
quickly we are affecting cash flow directly.
By having low inventory between operations, garments usually have less waiting time and go
through the production cycle in less time.

Large inventory levels between operations keeps goods waiting longer to be processed. This
increases the overall throughput time.

Low throughput time permits better co-ordination between sales and production. It also permits a
quicker turnaround on which improves cash flow. Low cycle times give manufacturers the ability
to handle multiple styles. Clients are looking for manufacturers that can meet production
schedules, that can handle multiple styles, and since they want to invest as little as possible in
inventory, manufacturers that can handle low inventories. Only factories that work with low WIP
will be able to sell their services.

Managing WIP
Work in progress can be managed efficiently managed in many ways.

Production Planning

This requires planning from marketing and sales to determine what will sell and what needs to be
produced and when. This provides the basis to determine how many operators and machines will
be needed.

Trims Control

Trims are buttons, zippers, labels, thread, elastics, and so on. A cut should enter the production
line only when someone has verified that all the trims needed are available. An updated
inventory of trims should be kept. A missing label could halt a 12,000 unit cut. Holding the
12,000 units in inventory is not acceptable and could lead to other problems.

Production Build-up

Careful consideration should be given to loading the production lines. If more products than can
be processed are fed into the line, you will overload the line with work which will just sit
stagnant.

Balancing

Even if you load the line based on its capacity, you might find the inventory accumulating due to
an unbalanced production. Absenteeism and turnover can greatly affect the line’s balance. A
change in style and bad cutting are two other factors that can put a line off-balance. To keep a
line balanced you need information on the inventory levels. To help regain balance in an
unbalanced situation you can use Utility operators, operator transfers and overtime.

Cut Flow Control

In order to keep control over the WIP and to keep the cycle times low, you need to have cuts go
as close as FIFO as possible. For this reason strict control must be placed on the tracking of cuts
as they flow through the production floor.

Cost per SAM

The formula used to calculate cost per Standard Allowed Minutes is Garment Standard Allowed
Minutes X Cost factor. Where the cost factor is per minute labour cost to the factory at factory
average efficiency. Or simply, instead of cost factor you can multiply Garment Standard
Allowed Minutes by average labour salary per minute (which represents cost factor calculated at
100% efficiency). Whatever method you use must be clear to everyone, (persons who see the
report) within the factory. Cost per Standard Allowed Minutes is fixed for a style.

Cost Factor

Cost factor = Labor wages per day / (shift minute * Efficiency). For example, for a factory shift
time of 480 minutes, a daily operator wages is INR 200.00. So, if the factory runs at 50%
efficiency, the cost factor for the factory will be 0.833.

4.2 Conclusion

In this unit, you have reviewed key terms, definitions and formulas used in the apparel
manufacturing industry including, Production and Productivity, Line Balancing, Work In
Progress Management, The Concepts of On Standard, Off Standard and Clock Time, Standard
Allowed Minutes / Single Minute Value, Allowances, Efficiency, Capacity Study, Lost Time,
Rating, Labour and Wages as well as Cost per minute.