Supervisory Manual QMS

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የኢትዮጵያ ጨርቃ ጨርቅ ኢንዱስትሪ ልማት ኢንስቲትዩት
Ethiopian Textile Industry Development Institute
Document Title: Issue No.: Page
Garment Supervisory 1 Page 1
ETHIOPIAN TEXTILE INDUSTRY

DEVELOPMENT
INSTITUTE
GARMENT: SUPERVISORY
TRAINING MANUAL
GARMENT INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT

DIRECTORATE
እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT THIS IS THE CORRECT ISSUE BEFORE USE
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Contents Page
List of Tables .............................................................................................................................................. vii
List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................ viii
CHAPTER 01 ............................................................................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 1
1.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1
1.2. How to use the manual in the best manner ................................................................................... 1
CHAPTER 02 ............................................................................................................................................... 3
OVERVIEW OF APPAREL MANUFACTURING PROCESS .................................................................. 3
2.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 3
2.2. Pre-production process.................................................................................................................. 5
2.2.1 Sampling ................................................................................................................................... 5
2.3. Production Process ........................................................................................................................ 8
2.3.1. Cutting................................................................................................................................... 8
2.3.2. Sewing................................................................................................................................... 9
2.3.3. Washing and dyeing ............................................................................................................ 10
2.3.4. Finishing and Packing ......................................................................................................... 10
CHAPTER 03 ............................................................................................................................................. 12
GARMENT CONSTRUCTION ................................................................................................................. 12
3.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 12
3.2. Stitches ........................................................................................................................................ 12
3.2.1. Stitch formation................................................................................................................... 12
3.2.2. Stitch Properties .................................................................................................................. 13
3.2.3. Stitch Classification ............................................................................................................ 14
3.3. Seams .......................................................................................................................................... 27
3.3.1. Super imposed seam or Plain seam ..................................................................................... 27
3.3.2. Lapped seam ....................................................................................................................... 28

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3.3.3. French seam .............................................................................................................................. 28

3.3.3. Flat and fell seam ................................................................................................................ 29
3.3.4. Bound seam ......................................................................................................................... 29
3.4. Needle and Characteristics of Needle ......................................................................................... 30
3.5. Needle types and numbering system ........................................................................................... 32
CHAPTER 04 ............................................................................................................................................. 36
MACHINES AND EQUIPMENT USED IN APPAREL PRODUCTION ................................................ 36
4.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 36
4.2. Fabric Inspection ......................................................................................................................... 36
4.2.1. Manual fabric inspection .................................................................................................... 36
4.2.2. Automatic fabric inspection ................................................................................................ 37
4.3. Equipment used in Cutting room ................................................................................................ 38
4.3.1. Spreading Machines ............................................................................................................ 38
4.3.2. Cutting machines ................................................................................................................ 41
4.3.3. Fusing machine ....................................................................................................................... 50
4.4. Sewing machines ........................................................................................................................ 53
4.5. Pressing and folding equipment .................................................................................................. 56
CHAPTER 05 ............................................................................................................................................. 58
CHAPTER 05 ............................................................................................................................................. 58
APPAREL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS ..................................................................................................... 58
5.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 58
5.2. Types of Garment Production Systems ....................................................................................... 59
5.2.1. Make-through System ............................................................................................................. 59
5.2.2. Conventional Bundle system .................................................................................................. 59
5.2.3. Progressive Bundle System ..................................................................................................... 60
5.2.4. Section Production System ..................................................................................................... 62
5.2.5. Flexi - flow System ................................................................................................................. 63
5.2.6. Straight line System ................................................................................................................ 63

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5.2.7. Synchro-flow System .............................................................................................................. 64

5.2.8. Modular manufacturing System .............................................................................................. 65
5.2.9. Unit Production System .......................................................................................................... 67
Chapter 06 ................................................................................................................................................... 69
Basic Terminology in Apparel Production ................................................................................................... 69
6.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 69
6.2. Production Terminology ............................................................................................................. 69
CHAPTER – 07 .......................................................................................................................................... 79
INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING................................................................................................................. 79
7.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 79
7.2. What an IE does .......................................................................................................................... 79
7.3. How an IE works ........................................................................................................................ 79
7.4. Work Study ................................................................................................................................. 80
7.4.1. Method Study ..................................................................................................................... 81
7.4.2. Work Measurement ............................................................................................................ 82
7.5. Motion Economy ........................................................................................................................ 82
7.6. Work Sampling ........................................................................................................................... 85
7.7. Concept of Standard times and Allowances................................................................................ 87
7.7.1. Work Content ...................................................................................................................... 87
8.1.1. Total Work content, basic work content and excess work content ......................................... 88
8.1.2. Line Balancing ........................................................................................................................ 89
Chapter 08 ................................................................................................................................................... 95
Production Planning and Control in Apparel Manufacturing ..................................................................... 95
8.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 95
8.2. Production Planning and Control ................................................................................................ 95
8.3. Production Planning & Control tools .......................................................................................... 96
8.3.1. Production planning tools ................................................................................................... 97
8.3.2. Controlling tools ................................................................................................................ 102

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8.4. Capacity Booking and planning ................................................................................................ 105

8.5. Line Loading ............................................................................................................................. 106
8.6. WIP management in the floor ................................................................................................... 106
8.7. Resource Management .............................................................................................................. 108
8.8. Personal Management ............................................................................................................... 108
8.8.1. Man power planning: ........................................................................................................ 108
8.8.2. Factors affecting manpower planning .............................................................................. 109
8.8.3. Training and development ................................................................................................ 109
8.8.4. Multi skill operator training (MSO) for garment manufacturing ...................................... 111
8.9. Inventory management .............................................................................................................. 114
8.9.1. What is Inventory .............................................................................................................. 114
8.9.2. Types of costs involved in inventory ................................................................................. 115
CHAPTER 9 ............................................................................................................................................. 117
QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN APPAREL MANUFACTURING ....................................................... 117
9.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 117
9.2. What is Quality ......................................................................................................................... 117
9.3. Objectives of Quality ................................................................................................................ 118
9.4. Rework and rejects in Apparel manufacturing.......................................................................... 118
9.4.1. Defects .............................................................................................................................. 118
9.4.2. Alteration .......................................................................................................................... 119
9.4.3. Defective Pieces ................................................................................................................ 119
9.5. Quality Controlling and Assurance in Apparel production....................................................... 121
9.5.1. Quality Control (QC) .......................................................................................................... 121
9.5.2. Quality Assurance ............................................................................................................. 123
9.6. Inspection .................................................................................................................................. 124
9.6.1. Raw material Inspection ................................................................................................... 125
9.6.2. In-process Inspection ........................................................................................................ 125
9.6.3. Final Inspection ................................................................................................................. 126

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9.7. Fabric Quality control ............................................................................................................... 126

9.8. Quality control in spreading ...................................................................................................... 129
9.9. Quality control in Cutting ......................................................................................................... 129
9.10. Quality Control in Sewing and Finishing.............................................................................. 131
9.11. Defect measurement .............................................................................................................. 131
9.12. Finishing and Packing Quality Control ................................................................................. 132
9.13. Final Inspection and Auditing ............................................................................................... 133
9.14. How to inspect a garment...................................................................................................... 133
9.15. Method of Inspection ............................................................................................................ 135
9.16. Acceptable Quality Level...................................................................................................... 136
9.17. Supervisor‟s Responsibility in Apparel Quality Management .............................................. 138
CHAPTER - 10 ............................................................................................................................................ 138
How to Improve Productivity .................................................................................................................... 138
10.1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 138
10.2. What is productivity? ............................................................................................................ 138
10.3. Factors that affect labour and machine productivity ........................................................... 139
10.4. Ways to improve labor and machine productivity ............................................................... 140
10.5. Impact of Labour Productivity Improvement ....................................................................... 142
CHAPTER - 11 ............................................................................................................................................ 143
LEAN MANUFACTURING ........................................................................................................................... 143
11.1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 143
11.2. Value Addition (VA) and Non-value Addition (NVA) ............................................................. 144
11.3. Major wastages in process .................................................................................................... 145
11.4. 5-SS Philosophy ..................................................................................................................... 148
11.5. KANBAN or Pull Philosophy................................................................................................... 149
CHAPTER - 12 ............................................................................................................................................ 151
Supervision in Garment Manufacturing.................................................................................................... 151
12.1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 151

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12.2. The supervisor's role and functions ...................................................................................... 151

12.3. Supervisor’s Profile ............................................................................................................... 157
12.4. Supervisory Skills ................................................................................................................... 160
12.5. What a supervisor should do and should not do? ................................................................ 163
12.6. Responsibilities of Supervisor in Garment Industry .............................................................. 164
12.6.1. The main duties and responsibilities of a cutting supervisor ........................................... 168
12.6.2. The main duties of sewing supervisors ............................................................................. 170
12.6.3. The main duties of a Finishing supervisor......................................................................... 171
12.7. Supervisor’s role in reducing the cost of manufacturing ...................................................... 172
12.8. Supervisors’ Preparedness for Future Requirements ........................................................... 173
CHAPTER 13 .............................................................................................................................................. 175
WORKING ENVIRONMENT IN GARMENT SET-UPS ................................................................................... 175
13.1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 175
13.2. Ergonomics............................................................................................................................ 175
13.2.1. Working environment in ready-made garment manufacturing and Ergonomics ............ 176
13.3. Occupational safety .............................................................................................................. 181
13.3.1. Occupational hazards ........................................................................................................ 182
13.4. Occupational Safety, Health and Working Environment ...................................................... 192
CHAPTER 14 .............................................................................................................................................. 194
TEAM WORK IN APPAREL MANUFACTURING ........................................................................................... 194
14.1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 194
14.2. Importance of Team work..................................................................................................... 194
14.3. Key features of Team work ................................................................................................... 195
14.4. Qualities of a Team worker ................................................................................................... 196
14.5. Quality Circles ....................................................................................................................... 198
14.5.1. What are Quality Circles?.................................................................................................. 198
14.5.2. Objective of Quality circles ............................................................................................... 198
14.5.3. Basic principles of Quality circles ...................................................................................... 199

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14.5.4. Attributes of Quality Circle ............................................................................................... 199

14.5.5. Structure of a Quality Circle .............................................................................................. 199
List of Tables
Table 1 Training time duration ..................................................................................................................... 1
Table 2 Needle numbering system .............................................................................................................. 33
Table 3 Needle size vs Fabric type ............................................................................................................. 34
Table 4 SAM of basic garments.................................................................................................................. 74
Table 5 Motion Classes ............................................................................................................................... 83
Table 6 4-point system .............................................................................................................................. 127
Table 7 -10 Point Fabric Inspection System ............................................................................................. 128
Table 8 Inspection levels and Lot size ...................................................................................................... 137
Table 9 Single Sampling Plan for Normal Inspection .............................................................................. 137
Table 10 5 – S Philosophy ........................................................................................................................ 149
Table 11 Supervisor's Skill ....................................................................................................................... 161
Table 12What a supervisor should do and should not do?........................................................................ 163
Table 13 Poor Working Environment and its Impact ............................................................................... 177
Table 14 Recommended Values for Light Reflectance ............................................................................ 185
Table 15 Recommended Values for Lux Level ........................................................................................ 185
Table 16 Recommended Values for Air Temperature .............................................................................. 187

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List of Figures
Figure 1 Garment manufacturing .................................................................................................................. 4
Figure 2 Apparel Manufacturing Process ..................................................................................................... 5
Figure 3Sewing ............................................................................................................................................. 9
Figure 4 Washing and Dyeing .................................................................................................................... 10
Figure 5 Finishing and Packing .................................................................................................................. 11
Figure 6Stitch formation by Intra-looping .................................................................................................. 12
Figure 7Stitch formations by Inter-looping ................................................................................................ 13
Figure 8Stitch formations by Inter-acing .................................................................................................... 13
Figure 9Class 100 series- Single Thread Chain Stitch ................................................................................ 14
Figure 10-101 Stitch Type One Needle Thread .......................................................................................... 15
Figure 11103 Stitch Type One Needle Thread ........................................................................................... 15
Figure 12103 Stitch Type Blind Needle One Needle Thread ..................................................................... 16
Figure 13-104 Stitch Type Saddle Stitches ................................................................................................. 16
Figure 14Stitch Class 300, Single Needle Lock Stitch ............................................................................... 17
Figure 15Stitch Class 301, Single Needle Lock Stitch ............................................................................... 18
Figure 16Stitch Class 304, Zig - Zag Stitch ................................................................................................ 18
Figure 17Stitch Class 401, Multi Thread Chain Stitch ............................................................................... 19
Figure 18Stitch Class 406, 2 Needle and 1 Looper thread .......................................................................... 20
Figure 19Stitch Class 407, 3 Needle and 1 Looper thread .......................................................................... 20
Figure 20Class 500 Series – Over Edge or Over Lock Stitch ..................................................................... 21
Figure 21Class 503 Series – 2 Thread Over Lock Stitch ............................................................................ 22
Figure 24Class 515 Series – 4 Thread Over Lock-Safety Stitch (401+503)............................................... 23
Figure 25Class 516 Series – 5 Threads over Lock-Safety Stitch (401+504) .............................................. 24
Figure 26Class 600 Series – Flat lock or Cover Stitch ............................................................................... 25
Figure 27Class 602 Series ........................................................................................................................... 25
Figure 30Super imposed seam .................................................................................................................... 27
Figure 31Lapped Seams .............................................................................................................................. 28
Figure 32French Seam ................................................................................................................................ 29
Figure 33Flat and fell seam......................................................................................................................... 29
Figure 34Bound seams ................................................................................................................................ 30
Figure 35Anatomy of sewing needle........................................................................................................... 34
Figure 36 Manual Fabric Inspection ........................................................................................................... 37

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Figure 37 Automatic fabric inspection machine ......................................................................................... 38

Figure 38Manual spreading machine .......................................................................................................... 39
Figure 39Semi- automatic spreading machine ............................................................................................ 40
Figure 40Automatic spreading machines .................................................................................................... 41
Figure 41 Straight knife .............................................................................................................................. 42
Figure 42 Round Knife .............................................................................................................................. 42
Figure 43 Band knife .................................................................................................................................. 43
Figure 44 Notch maker ............................................................................................................................... 44
Figure 45 Driller machine ........................................................................................................................... 45
Figure 46End cutter..................................................................................................................................... 45
Figure 47 Clamp ......................................................................................................................................... 46
Figure 48 Laser cutting machine................................................................................................................. 47
Figure 49 Plazma cutting machine .............................................................................................................. 48
Figure 50 Water jet cutting machine ........................................................................................................... 50
Figure 51 Flatbed fusing machine ............................................................................................................... 51
Figure 52 Continuous Fusing Machines ..................................................................................................... 52
Figure 53 High frequency fusing machine .................................................................................................. 53
Figure 54 Lock Stitch Sewing Machines .................................................................................................... 54
Figure 55 Industrial Button-hole machine ................................................................................................. 55
Figure 56 Iron pressing ............................................................................................................................... 57
Figure 57 Garment form finisher ............................................................................................................... 57
Figure 58 Production System ...................................................................................................................... 59
Figure 59 Conventional Bundle System ..................................................................................................... 60
Figure 60 Progressive Bundle System ........................................................................................................ 61
Figure 61 Section Production System ......................................................................................................... 63
Figure 62 Flexi flow System ....................................................................................................................... 63
Figure 63 Straight Line Systems ................................................................................................................. 64
Figure 64 Synchro-flow System ................................................................................................................. 65
Figure 65 Modular Manufacturing Systems ............................................................................................... 66
Figure 66 Work Study................................................................................................................................. 81
Figure 67 Work Place arrangement ............................................................................................................ 84
Figure 68 Tools of PPC............................................................................................................................... 97
Figure 69 Production Planning .................................................................................................................... 98
Figure 70 Routing ........................................................................................................................................ 99
Figure 71 Scheduling ................................................................................................................................ 100
Figure 72 Loading ..................................................................................................................................... 102
Figure 73 Dispatching ............................................................................................................................... 103

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Figure 74 Follow up .................................................................................................................................. 104

Figure 75 Inspection ................................................................................................................................. 104
Figure 76 Inspection Loop ........................................................................................................................ 125
Figure 77 Garment Zones ......................................................................................................................... 134
Figure 78 How to Inspect a Garment ........................................................................................................ 136
Figure 79 Supervisory Skills ..................................................................................................................... 160
Figure 80 Material Handling in Fabric Store ............................................................................................ 178
Figure 81 Material Handling in Cutting Department ................................................................................ 179
Figure 82 Structure of a Quality Circle ..................................................................................................... 199
Figure 83 Operating a Quality Circle ........................................................................................................ 201

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CHAPTER 01
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Introduction
The course is customized according to the specific requirements of the Ethiopian garment manufacturing
sector. The program aims to develop technically sound workforce at supervisor level. The course focuses
on development of qualities such as technical skills, leadership skills, man-power handling, effective
communication skills, quality & productivity consciousness, trouble shooting and effective floor
management. The course enables the participants in updating them with the latest garment manufacturing
practices, manufacturing systems, industrial Engineering tools, lean manufacturing techniques, quality
procedures, labour laws, HR practices and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices.
1.2. How to use the manual in the best manner

The entire manual has been divided in to 15 chapters. Each chapter focuses on a unique aspect of the
garment manufacturing technology. The successful completion of the course can make an individual a
complete supervisor which can strive to realize the goal of the factory.
The course has been scientifically designed for duration of 20 days (157 hours) and specific time has been
allocated to the each topic to be covered. The time allocation is done after a series of brain storming
sessions with experts of the field.
Table 1 Training time duration
Sr. Topic Hours Cumulative Cumulative

No. hours Day
1 Introduction
1 1 0.1
2 Overview of Apparel Manufacturing Process
8 9 1.1
3 Garment Construction
16 25 3.1

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4 Machines and Equipment used in Apparel Production

8 33 4.1
5 Apparel Production Systems
16 49 6.1
6 Basic Terminology in Apparel Manufacturing
16 65 8.1
7 Industrial Engineering
24 89 11.1
8 Production Planning & Control in Apparel

Manufacturing 8 97 12.1
9 Quality Management in Apparel Manufacturing 16 113 14.1

10 How to improve productivity? 8 121 15.1
11 Lean Manufacturing 8 129 16.1
12 Roll of supervisors in apparel industry 16 145 18.1
13 Working environment in Readymade Garment
8 153 19.1
Manufacturing
14 Team work in Apparel Manufacturing 4 157 19.6
The initial two chapters provide necessary orientation about the garment manufacturing process and role
of supervisors. These chapters discusses the garment business at macro level and talks about the roles,
responsibilities and challenges to the apparel supervisor.
In all, the author has tried to make this programme a complete package to the supervisors. The efforts
have been put on multi directional development to enable the participant more effective and efficient on
the floor.

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Wherever required at the end of the every chapter, exercises related to the shop floor issues have been
given. These exercises make the participant correlate their fundamental learning to the practical shop
floor environment.
We wish all the very best to success to the participants and hope they will enjoy the course at fullest.
CHAPTER 02
OVERVIEW OF APPAREL MANUFACTURING PROCESS

2.1. Introduction
This section of the course broadly will enable the trainee make himself familiar with terms and process
sequences in producing a garment. The trainee will gain a general understanding of tasks or activities
included in the garment manufacturing process.
Apparel manufacturing process as the name indicates, is a collection of separate but sequence of
operations which happen one after the other in order to covert the raw material in to finished product.

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Figure 1 Garment manufacturing
Apparel production, is a process where fabric is being converted into garments. The term apparel
production is used when garments are manufactured in a factory. Apparel manufacturing factories can be
divided into two categories as domestic and export. When the factory produces products for local
consumption it is considered as domestic and if it sells its products to foreign countries it is an exporting
company.
A factory produces bulk quantity of garments for a style or design at a time. Before the start production of
an order, the factory needs to go through an activity known as pre-production. Pre-production process
includes sampling, costing, production planning, sourcing of raw material and production pattern making.
Fabric cutting, printing, embroidery, sewing are the production functions. Quality checking, washing,
ironing, folding and packing are the post-production functions

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Figure 2 Apparel Manufacturing Process
These processes or operations can be categorized in to two broad categories-
a. Pre-production processes/product development

b. Production processes
2.2. Pre-production process

These are processes done before the actual or mass production of a garment. Tasks done under this sub
section will create suitable environment or situation to the forth coming production process. In short
preproduction processes are product development phases. Activities under preproduction process are
discussed below.
2.2.1 Sampling
Sampling is a process where factory develop garment samples according to buyer's specified design. This
is also known as product development stage. Samples are required at various stages to get approval from
buyer on a particular design. As per the development stages samples are named as Proto sample, Fit
sample, Size set sample, Sales man sample, production sample, Top of production (TOP) sample and
shipment sample.

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Proto Sample: These samples are proto type of new design created by designers. This is the first sample
in product development stage. Proto sample is made to communicate the design of a style or a line or to
present garment structure. In proto samples fit and fabric detailing is not been considered.
FIT Sample: Once proto sample is approved, FIT is being made with actual measurement. Modification
on the pattern is done to get desired fit of the garment. FIT is one of the most important factor to be
considered during sample development. FIT sample is being tested on live model or Dress form for to
verify garment fit and fall.
Salesman Sample: Salesman samples are made to put on display in the retail showroom. Salesman
sample (SMS) are displayed for assessing customer's feedback and according to customers response
buyers forecast demand of an particular style. Sales samples are made with actual fabric and trims and
accessories. Buyer pays for salesman samples to the developer.
Size set Sample: The purpose of the size set is to check fit of the garment in different sizes. In this stage
factory develops samples in multiple sizes. Generally, buyers ask size set sample in jump sizes, like S, L,
XXL. Buyer check size set sample and give feedback to factory if anything need to be corrected.
Pre-production Sample: All the above samples are made in sampling department. Buyer wants pre-
production sample (PP sample) to be made in actual production line, so that operators know what are they
going to make. This sample is made with actual fabric, trims and accessories and made by sewing line
tailors. PP sample must be approved by buyer or buying house merchants (technical persons) prior to
proceeding actual production.
Top of Production Sample (TOP sample): Once production is online, few pieces is taken out in the
middle of the production. Production pieces are sent to buyer as TOP sample. All buyers does not asked
for TOP sample. Purpose is to cross-check whether factory is following PP sample specification or not.
Shipment Sample: When style is being finished and packed for shipment, 2-3 finished and packed pieces
with all packing details are kept for future reference. Shipment sample is kept by factory merchants and

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buyer's merchant. The approved shipment is sent directly to warehouse and merchants at the buyer do not
get garment out of the shipment. That is why they keep shipment sample for future reference.
A. Designing and sketching - this is the pioneer process among the preproduction processes; it
requires creating a design of a specific garment to be made and sketching it accordingly. The task
needs professional personnel with knowledge of designing and sketching skill.
B. Costing- Costing of a product before order finalization is very important. It is the cumulative cost
of raw materials, direct labours and direct and indirect overheads. After developing sample or
directly receiving buyer's sample the factory needs to send the price of the garment. To decide this,
a garment factory makes cost sheet including raw material cost, total of direct labour costs of each
processes, factory overhead. This is an important task of setting a price for a specific garment item
taking into consideration the costs of production like fabric, accessories, power and labour costs.
C. Sample making - Mass production of a garment is not fruitful if made without considering the
actual need of the market or customer for which it is going to be produced. Sample making as the
name reveals, is producing a single garment to ensure whether the produced garment is as per the
requirement of the person or company which it is going to be produced for or not before mass
production of the same type. In case the sample is not approved by the customer, it can be corrected
or re-made. Since we are talking about making a sample, the person in charge of this task should
have a very good skill and experience in sewing
D. Purchasing – After the sample made is approved by the customer, mass production can now be set
into action. For this, all materials required for the production like fabric, sewing thread, other
accessories and attachments should be bought which is called purchasing. This activity is done by a
purchaser
E. Production Planning -After receiving the order factory plans for raw material requirement for the
order. Raw materials like fabrics, sewing threads, packing materials, hang tags and other
accessories. Factory plans timelines like when to start cutting, when to submit pre-production
sample, when to finish sewing and finishing, final inspection date and shipment date. In production
planning stage job responsibility for different processes is defined.
This is also known as production planning which requires listing or identifying resources in hand to
help the planner decide whether he can produce within a specific time of delivery. Items taken into

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consideration during planning are number of sewing machines available, availability of specialized
sewing machine, requirements of embroidery, availability of skilled workers, availability of fabrics
and availability of working capital.
2.3. Production Process

After all the preproduction process stages or phases are executed, production can now be started. The
production process is a sequence of operations targeting on producing garments in mass which can be fit
on to a human body. The following operations are discussed under the garment production process.
2.3.1. Cutting
This is the first operation in the process and a combination of operations. It is an operation where by raw
materials/fabrics are spread and cut to obtain cut parts. In this stage fabrics are layered on a table layer by
layer up to a certain height. Then by means of a cutting machine fabric are cut into garment shapes or
pattern and separated from the layer. Fabric layering is possible both manual spreading and automated
spreading. Cut parts are then numbered and bundled and send to sewing room. The quality of end product
(garment) is very much depends on the good cutting quality. Secondly, fabric the main raw material of the
garment represents about 70% of total garment cost. That is why cutting is an important process like
others where control the fabric saving and garment quality. There are a number of activities done in
cutting, such as-
A. Marker making - A marker is a diagram of a precise arrangement of pattern pieces. Marker

making is a process of finding the most efficient layout of pattern pieces on a fabric for a specified
style so that wastes during cutting can be minimized as much as possible. The operation can be
done manually by tracing pattern pieces onto a fabric or through computerized system by
manipulating and plotting.
B. Spreading - is the process of layering fabrics on a spreading table based on the length and width of
the marker.
C. Cutting- after the completion of the above operations the laid fabric will be separated into the
exact copy of the pattern pieces by the operation cutting. There should be a qualified person to
perform the operation so that precise cuts, clean edges and other cutting defects can be reduced.

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 Ticketing - is a process whereby each cut piece of fabric is given a unique number so that
cut pieces of different shades do not get mixed and sewn together resulting in garment
rejection.
 Bundling - cut pieces after passing through ticketing and fusing need to be bundled or tied
up together before taken to the sewing operation.
 Fusing - A process in which interlining is boded to the back of the fabric by means a
thermoplastic resin creating suitable and easy condition for the sewing operator.
 Printing and embroidery - This is an intermediate and optional operation between cutting
and sewing. Cut pieces before bundled are printed and embroidered according to the type
of the style and requirement of the customer.
2.3.2. Sewing
Garment panels are stitched together in sewing room by means of sewing machines. In sewing 2D fabric
patterns are converted in 3D forms. An operator run the machine and using sewing threads garment parts
are joined together. Various types of sewing machine are available for sewing. Machines are selected
according to the seam and stitch requirement. In industry traditionally sewing machines are laid in a raw.
Cut parts are feed at the start of the line, passed through the line and at the end of the line a complete
garment come out. Each machine is run by individual operators and an operator sews only one or two
operations of the garment. A line consist of sewing operators, helper to feed them with cut parts, thread
and other trims, quality checker and one fully or partially devoted supervisor.
Figure 3Sewing

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Sewing is a creative and interesting skill which can be defined as a process where cut parts in bundles are
sewn together obtaining the garment. It is the dominant process in garment assembly and good assembly
and performance depend on correct choices of stitches, seams, threads, needle, sewing machine and
fabrics to be sewn. As it is labour intensive, proper controlling and training of the operators is very
important for assembling of quality garment. The knowledge of sewing gives a confident feeling when it
is applied to the construction of garments. The sewing section is the one with a lot more labour than any
other section in any garment factory. The operation needs labour with a good skill of sewing. A sewing
supervisor spends most of his/her time with his sewing line operators who are all of the time reporting to
him/her. There will be an inline and end line quality controlling activities for the produced garments and
for the garments under production which is going to be discussed later in this course.
2.3.3. Washing and dyeing

Washing and dyeing is an optional process like printing and embroidery according to the nature of the
product where products are washed and dyed. This process is performed when buyer want washing or
special finishes to the garments. For light colour garment washing is carried out to remove dirt and stains
though buyer does needed washed garment for orders.
Figure 4 Washing and Dyeing
2.3.4. Finishing and Packing

After sewing of the garments, all pieces are checked by quality checker to ensure that garments are being
made as per buyer quality standard. Checking normally is done for visuals appearance and measurements.

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Spotting is required to remove stain in the pieces. Various chemicals (solvents) are used to remove
various kinds of oil stain, marks and hard stain. Finishing department in the garment industry refers to the
department where the ready sewn, trimmed and quality checked garments from the sewing lines are going
to be iron pressed, tagged, folded and packed in the cartons. During packing garments are randomly
checked by internal quality controllers to ensure that only quality goods are being packed after these
processes the garment are ready to ship or dispatch. This department mainly deals with the operations
which make the garment presentable and saleable to the customers
Figure 5 Finishing and Packing
Exercise
Trainees will be asked to explain the major process in pre production and production of
apparel manufacturing unit. And it should be discussed in detail.

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CHAPTER 03
GARMENT CONSTRUCTION
3.1. Introduction
Garment construction is the most crucial phase of apparel manufacturing. A garment is
constructed by cutting the fabric into parts according to a pattern which fits the human body then
the different parts are joined together by sewing. This is the process where cut panels takes shape
of a garment after a series of stitching activities done in a sequence or planned manner. While
sewing, a number of different kinds of trims such as sewing threads, labels, elastics, cords,
interlinings etc. are used.
3.2. Stitches
3.2.1. Stitch formation

As per British standard 3870 part-1 1991 classification & terminology of stitch types, a stitch is
“One unit of conformation results from one or more strands or loops of thread intra-looping,
inter-looping or passing into or through material.”
A. Intra-looping is the passing of a loop of thread through another loop formed by the same
thread. Figure here shows intra-looping concept.
Figure 6Stitch formation by Intra-looping
B. Inter-looping is the passing of a loop of thread through another loop formed by a

different thread. Figure here shows inter-looping concept.

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Figure 7Stitch formations by Inter-looping
C.Interlacing is a term used in relation to certain stitches, is the passing of a thread over or
around thread or loop of another thread. Figure here shows inter-lacing concept.
Figure 8Stitch formations by Inter-acing
3.2.2. Stitch Properties
Properties of stitches that relate to aesthetics and performance are size, tension and consistency.
Stitch size has three dimensions i.e. length, width and depth.
A. Stitch Length
It is specified as the number of stitches per inch (SPI) and it is an indicator of quality.
High SPI means short-stitches and low SPI means long-stitches. Generally the greater
SPI holds greater holding power and seam strength.
B. Stitch Width
Stitch width refers to the horizontal span covered in the formation of one stitch or single
line of stitching.
C. Stitch Depth
Stitch depth means the distance between upper and lower surface of the stitch. Stitch
depth should be sufficient to catch all fabric plies, yet not deep enough to show through
on the face of fabric.

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3.2.3. Stitch Classification

As per the Standard 75 A, there are 6 basic classes of stitches as mentioned below-
Class 100 – Single Thread Chain Stitch
Class 200 – Hand Stitch
Class 300 – Single Thread Lock Stitch
Class 400 – Multi Thread Chain Stitch
Class 500 – Over edge or Safety Stitch
Class 600 – Top and Bottom Cover Stitch
A. Class 100 series- Single Thread Chain Stitch
Figure 3.4 Single Thread Chain Stitches
Figure 9Class 100 series- Single Thread Chain Stitch
This is the most basic kind of stitch, where only one thread is used. This kind of stitch shows run back
tendency and poor strength hence can be ripped off easily.

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Figure 10-101 Stitch Type One Needle Thread
Figure 11103 Stitch Type One Needle Thread

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Figure 12103 Stitch Type Blind Needle One Needle Thread
Figure 13-104 Stitch Type Saddle Stitches
B. Class 200 Series- Hand Stitch

This is the series dedicated for hand stitches. This is formed by single thread passed from one side of the
material to the other in successive needle penetrations. Thread passes through the material as a single line
and the stitch is secured by the succeeding formation of thread which passing in and out of the material or

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intra-looping of the threads with themselves. This class is not popular or widely used in Industrial sewing
applications.
C. Class 300 Series- Single Needle Lock Stitch
Figure 14Stitch Class 300, Single Needle Lock Stitch
This is one of the strongest type of stitch and extensively used in apparel manufacturing. The stitch is
formed by a needle thread or threads, introduced from one side of the material,Inter-lacing with an under
thread supplied from a bobbin on the other side. Needle thread and Bobbin thread work as basic
components of such stitch formation. The lock stitch has low bulk and thin and exhibits good strength &
abrasion resistance and poor elasticity. As disadvantage there are limitationsin sewing length and there is
need to replace the bobbin with such kind of stitches.

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Figure 15Stitch Class 301, Single Needle Lock Stitch
Figure 16Stitch Class 304, Zig - Zag Stitch

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D. Class 400 Series – Multi Thread Chain Stitch

This is a kind of stitch series where a separate looperor under thread is used and this generally lies on the
underside of the material, the needle threads being brought through to balance the stitch loops of threads
are passed through the material & are secured by interlacing& interloping with loops of the succeeding
group of thread to form a stitch.
Such stitches look different on both the sides and exhibits less security and good stretchable. These kinds
of stitches are advisable for long seams. These stitches have lesser pucker tendency but consume higher
threads.
Figure 17Stitch Class 401, Multi Thread Chain Stitch

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Figure 18Stitch Class 406, 2 Needle and 1 Looper thread
Figure 19Stitch Class 407, 3 Needle and 1 Looper thread

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E. Class 500 Series – Over Edge or Over Lock Stitch

This class of stitch forms over lock or over edge stitches used for preventing the fraying of raw edges.
The stich is formed with one/more needle and/or looper threads with at least one thread passing around
the edge of the material being sewn. Loops of one group of thread are passed through the & are secured,
by Inter-looping with loops of one/more interloped groups of threads before succeeding threads loops of
the first group are again passed through the material.
Figure 20Class 500 Series – Over Edge or Over Lock Stitch
These kinds of stitches are done on the edge of the fabric ply/plies. Such stitches exhibit good stretch
ability. Generally such stitches are useful for long seams and can be done at high speed.
The key problems with such stitches are seam grinning and bulky construction. The thread consumption
for such stitches is quite high.

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Figure 21Class 503 Series – 2 Thread Over Lock Stitch

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Figure 24Class 515 Series – 4 Thread Over Lock-Safety Stitch (401+503)

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This is a combination stitch consisting of a single-needle chain stitch (401) and a 2-thread Over-edge
stitch (503) that is formed simultaneously.
Figure 25Class 516 Series – 5 Threads over Lock-Safety Stitch (401+504)
This is a combination stitch consisting of a single-needle chain stitch (401) and a 3-thread Over-edge
stitch (504) that are formed simultaneously.
F. Class 600 Series – Cover or Flat lock Stitch

This stitch class forms cover stitch or flat lock stitches. Such stitches are formed with two/more groups of
threads and have a general characteristic that two groups of thread cover both surfaces of the material. It
utilizes between two & four needle threads, generally one lopper thread & one/two cover threads. Loops
of the 3rdgroup cast on the fabric surface & are held down by the needle thread(s) interloped with loops of
the 2nd group of thread on the Underside of the material.

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Figure 26Class 600 Series – Flat lock or Cover Stitch
This series of stitches cover both the surface of the materials and flatten the seam. Such stitches are
possible for long seam lengths but thread consumption is higher and seam security is lesser.
Figure 27Class 602 Series

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Exercise
Trainees will be asked to bring different garment and expected to identify the stitch class of
different operation for that specific garment.
3.3. Seams
A seam is a method of joining two or more pieces of materials together by a row of stitching. The purpose
of most of these seams is purely functional and can be called as constructional seams. Seams should be as
flat as possible and unseen except those that are used for decorative purposes for garment design and line.
A seam is the application of a series of stitches or stitch types to one or several thickness of material.
Seams can be classified into flat seams and ridge seams. Plain seam and flat fell seam are examples of flat
seams. Ridge seams include the French seam. Seams may also be divided into conspicuous and
inconspicuous seams. Inconspicuous seams when finished will not have stitches seen on the right side of
the garment, example are plain, corded and French. Conspicuous seams are those that have stitches seen
on the right side of the garment like run and fell seam, lapped seam etc.
3.3.1. Super imposed seam or Plain seam

This is the most widely used seam which is pliable and inconspicuous.
Figure 30Super imposed seam

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It is used on all types of fabrics except on very transparent kinds and is suitable for firm fabrics that do
not ravel and will not be subjected to hard and frequent laundering. These generally start with two or
more pieces of material superimposed over each other adjoined near an edge, with one or more rows of
stitches. There are various types of seams within the SS class. A superimposed seam can be sewn with a
stitch 301 or 401 to create simple seam.
3.3.2. Lapped seam

This seam is commonly used for joining a gathered or unaltered section to a straight edge as in a yoke.
These seams are used for attaching front bands to shirts, setting pockets, side seams of quality dress
shirts, side seams or inseams of jeans. Lapped seams may be sewn with a lock stitch or chain stitch but
not an over edge stitch. Figure below shows lapped seams with raw edges exposed.The Lap Felled type,
involves only one stitching operation - a strong seam with fabric edges protected from fraying. Such
seams are commonly used for making up jeans or similar garments.
Figure 31Lapped Seams
3.3.3. French seam

This is a ridge seam and is used on transparent and light weight fabrics, especially on baby clothes and
delicate blouses. It is a neat and durable finish as the raw edges are completely enclosed. The two pieces
of materials to be joined are placed together with wrong sides facing. Work a row of stitching 1/8 inch.
Press the seam and turn the work so that the right sides are together. Crease the first row of stitching so
that it is directly on the edge. Tack and stitch along the seam line about 1/8 inch from the fold.

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Figure 32French Seam
3.3.3. Flat and fell seam

This is a flat durable seam used on men‟s sports shirts, work clothes and children‟s clothes and payjamas.
Places the pieces to be joined wrong sides facing and stitch on the seam line. The right side of the seam
will show two rows of stitching and wrong side will show only one row of stitching.
Figure 33Flat and fell seam
3.3.4. Bound seam

This seam is formed by folding a separate binding strip over one or more plies of material and seaming
the strip with one or more rows of stitches. They are frequently used as an edge finish at necklines, hems
and sleeve plackets.

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Figure 34Bound seams
Video
Video of different seam types will be shown in the class for quick understanding.
Exercise
Trainees will be asked to bring different garment and expected to identify the seam type of
different operation for that specific garment.
3.4. Needle and Characteristics of Needle

A Needle is a thin strand of wire, shaped to precision that deliver thread to the machine to create
a stitch. It is made from high carbon steel and to provide smoothness to its surface and reduce
corrosion, it can be plated by nickel, chrome or titanium coating.

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The functions of sewing needle are: to make a path in the material for sewing thread to pass
through; to create a loop that can be picked up by the hook or looper or a similar mechanism and
to pass the needle thread through the loop formed by the looper mechanism on the sewing
machine other than lockstitch.
Selection of the appropriate needle depends on the type of machine, thread size, and fabric
construction. Thread type and size are first selected and then the size of the needle is matched to
the thread. An incorrect needle may prevent stitch formation and cause thread breakage, skipped
stitches and poor uniformity of stitches.
Essential characteristic of the needle consists of the following points:

 Smoothness of the needle eyes
 Strong needle tips
 Elasticity of the needle
 Least penetration force
 Stability during sewing operations
 Withstanding high temperature
Smoothness of the needle eyes
If the needle eye is not smooth, it may result in breakage/ fraying of the thread during to and fro
motion. Therefore, eye of the needle must be smooth enough.
Strong needle tips:
Tip of the needle should be strong enough so that it can pierce even the hard article and retain its
tip for long period.

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Elasticity of needle:
Needle should be able to bend sufficiently to absorb additional resistance caused by thick/multi
layers and return to straight position immediately afterward.
Least penetration force:

The penetration force required by the sewing needle to pierce the sewn article must be least.
Needle must be made from good quality high carbon steel and should be given best heat
treatment to meet this stringent requirement.
Stability during sewing operation:

Needle should remain stable at higher speed i.e. even at speed up to 10,000 stitch per minute, in
order to give aesthetic finish and fantastic appearance to the stitched article.
Withstand high temperature:

As the needle pass through the material under sewing for the continuous longer period, due to
friction with the sewing thread, fabric to be sewn and machine parts, it will get heated and so it
has to be designed in such a way it can resist temperature up to 2600c.
3.5. Needle types and numbering system

Needle types
There are varieties of needle types produced for different end uses. Some needles are for general
purpose and some types are for special purpose.
General purpose needles are further classified in to: universal point needles, sharp/microtex needle
and ball point needles.
Universal point needle is a general purpose needle that can be used on woven fabric as well as
knitted fabric sewing. They are available in the sizes ranging from 60/8 to 120/19
Sharp/microtex needle as the name indicate it is a sharp slip needle. It is mainly used for stitch
silk, light weight and micro fibre woven fabric. Its sizes can be 60/8, 70/10, 80/12 and 90/14.

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Ball point needle these needles have slightly round point and are used for stitching of knitted
fabrics. Its size ranges from 70/10 to 100/16.
Needle numbering systems
The size of the needle refers to diameter of its shaft or blade. Needle numbering system refers to
the size of the needle. Needles are sized according to several systems developed by
needle/machine manufacturers, but the three most commonly used systems are: European system,
Japanese system and American systems.
European system: it is the metric size (Nm) system for needles of sewing machine and is
numbered from 60 to 120. It denotes the diameter of the shaft in fraction of millimetre.
E.g. diameter of the blade (D) = 0.80 mm
Nm = D x 100
Nm = 0.80 x 100 = 80
Japanese system: it is a sizing system that is numbered from 8 to 19 which is directly
correspondent to 60 to 120 of European system. Note: the lower the number the finer the needle
and the higher the number the coarser (thicker) the needle.
American system: it is the inch system that gives the diameter of the blade/shaft in fraction of an
inch. The inch size equals the blade diameter multiplied by 1000
The comparative value of European system, Japanese system and American systems of needle
sizes can be summarized in the table below.
Table 2 Needle numbering system
European system Japanese system American systems

Dia. In Metric needle Metric needle Needle Dia in inch Inch Needle
mm size(Nm) = dia in size (mm) numbering = size = dia in
mm x 100 (Nm-20)/5 inch x 100
0.06 60 60 8 - -
0.65 65 65 9 0.025 025
0.70 70 70 10 0.027 027
0.75 75 75 11 0.029 029
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0.80 80 80 12 0.032 032

0.85 85 85 13 - -
0.90 90 90 14 0.036 036
0.95 95 95 15 - -
1.00 100 100 16 0.04 04
1.10 110 110 18 - -
Table 3 Needle size vs Fabric type
Figure 35Anatomy of sewing needle

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Exercise

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CHAPTER 04
MACHINES AND EQUIPMENT USED IN APPAREL PRODUCTION

4.1. Introduction
This section of the course mainly focuses on major types of machineries and equipment that are used in a
garment industry. After finishing this section the trainee will be aware of basic machines and equipment
used in the production of a garment.
4.2. Fabric Inspection

Fabric has always remain the cynosure of problems in garment industry, it accounts forth maximum cost,
consumes maximum lead time to procure and continuously change it is texture and colour every season to
cause headache for production personnel. Fabric inspection has proven to be one of the most difficult of
all textile processes to automate as defining defects in fabric is very much subjective.
4.2.1. Manual fabric inspection

Most of the organizations depend on slanted tables with opaque glass top and light source from top and
bottom as the fabric inspection platforms. The crucial job of identifying defects still lies on operators‟
skill. Finally operators need to put sticker, analyse and segregate rolls.

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Figure 36 Manual Fabric Inspection
4.2.2. Automatic fabric inspection

Automated fabric inspection systems are based on adaptive, neural networks. The users are able to simply
scan a short length of good quality fabric to show the inspection system what to expect. This coupled with
specialized computer processors that have the computing power of several hundred Pentium chips makes
these systems viable. These machines are designed to find and catalogue defects in a wide variety of
fabrics including greige fabrics, sheeting, apparel fabrics, upholstery fabrics, industrial fabrics, tire cord,
finished fabrics, piece-dyed fabrics and denim fabrics.

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Figure 37 Automatic fabric inspection machine
Exercise:
Trainees will be asked to differentiate between manual and automatic inspection machine
4.3. Equipment used in Cutting room

A cutting room is a separate area in a clothing manufacturer where garment components are cut out. The
accuracy and efficiency of cutting room operations is critical to all subsequent operations and to final
garment quality.
4.3.1. Spreading Machines

Spreading is the process of superimposing lengths of fabric on a spreading table, cutting table, or
specially designed surface in preparation for cutting process. Number of layers of fabric dictated by the
number of garments desired and the fabric thickness
Spreading can be done by hand or machine, depending upon the fabric and cutting technology
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The objective of spreading is to place the number of plies of fabric that the production planning process
has dictated,
 to the length of the marker plan,

 in the colours required,
 correctly aligned as to length and width and,
 adequate tension (neither stretch nor slackness) in the fabric layer
A. Manual spreading machine - This is one of the most common types of machine available in garment
factories in Ethiopia. One operator at each side of the table is required for the spreading operation
aligning the plies manually. Fabric package is supported on frame and operator aligns the plies manually.
The fabric plies cut with hand shears, circular knife etc. Such machines are Ideal for small-scale
production.
Figure 38Manual spreading machine
B. Semi - automatic spreading machine – Such machines are nothing but modified versions on manual
spreading tools. Cloth unwound and spread semi-automatically using manually driven carriage. The edge
alignment is taken care by built in mechanisms. Such machines are suitable for long and broad lays and
proved to be very efficient and suitable for small businesses. Such machines offer key benefits like speed
and accuracy, repeatable spreading, reduced labour (requiring a single operator) with increased
productivity.

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Figure 39Semi- automatic spreading machine
C. Automatic spreading machine – These are the advanced solutions for spreading fabric. Unlike the
manual and semi-automatic machines there is a spreader for spreading of lays. The machine head carries
the piece of fabric from end to end of the spread, dispensing one ply at a time onto the spread consist of a
frame or carriage wheels traveling in guide rails at the edge of the table, a fabric support, and guide
collars to aid the correct unrolling of the fabric. Number of plies to be laid can be set and the spreader
repeats the laying process until it achieves the required number of plies. To enhance the automation, such
systems are equipped with microprocessor control systems which make a spreader pre-set to a selected
number of plies, emitting an audible signal when it reaches the selected number or has come to the end of
a piece of fabric. When piece is finished, the spreader returns to an auto lifter at the end of the table,
transfers the empty centre bar to the lifter which then advances the next piece to the spreader.
An advanced spreading machine may include-
 A motor to drive the carriage,

 A platform on which the operator rides,
 A ply cutting device with automatic catcher to hold the ends of the ply in place,
 A ply counter,
 An alignment shifter actuated by photo-electric edge guides,
 A turntable, for Face One Way Spreading Mode

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 And a direct drive on the fabric support, synchronized with the speed of travel, to reduce or
eliminate tension in the fabric being spread.
Figure 40Automatic spreading machines
4.3.2. Cutting machines

A. Straight knife - This cutting tool carries a straight vertical blade with a varying edge, a sharpening
devise and an electric motor. It is versatile, cheaper, portable and easy to maintain. It is suitable for
cutting curved lines.
A straight knife cutter has a vertical blade which reciprocates up and down. Since all the layers are cut at
the same place provided the knife is held vertical then all the pieces cut from a lay is identical. The
straight knife is pushed forward by the operator manually.
The straight knife machines are one of the most useful cutting machines in garments. The knife is
comparatively cheap & can be transferred from one place to another easily. Lay of higher height can be
cut very easily. It is convenient to cut the lay of 10 inches height.

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Figure 41 Straight knife
B. Round knife - As the name indicates, it has a rotating circular blade so that the leading edge cuts
downwards into the fabric. Round knife is mostly use for cutting the big parts of the garments pattern.
Round knives are best suited for cutting straight lines and gentle curves.
Figure 42 Round Knife

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These knives use rotating circular blade therefore are referred to as rotary knives. These are the smallest
blade used for cutting single plies and for cutting fabric plies to length during manual spreading. Blade
diameters vary from 6 cm to 20 cm. Depending on the size of the device it is possible to cut to a depth of
10 mm. The cutting capacity or the speed height is determined by the radius of the blade, motor size and
speed.
C. Band Knife- The band knife cutting machine contains a narrow, sharpened, endless steel band moving
vertically through the layers of fabric. The fabric layers are guided by hand against the blade. An air
cushion is provided below the fabric layer to make it easier to guide the material. This type of machine is
used to cut small parts of a garment like collars, cuff and collar bands. The blade is usually narrower than
a straight knife which assists in the cutting of tight curves
Figure 43 Band knife
Generally the plies may be stapled together to prevent slippage. Such machines are very useful while
cutting corners, tight curves and pointed incisions are cut precisely and need less/ minimum cutting
allowance.
D. Notcher –Notcher are used to produce notch with a greater accuracy and consistent depth at right
angle to the edge. Notches are cut into the edges of garment parts to enable alignment during sewing with
other garments parts. Notches also help in distinguishing front and back of the garment cut pieces. There
are different notch profiles like straight notches and „V‟ notches.

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Specialized notching equipment provides greater accuracy because a guide puts the notcher lined up with
the cut edge to give consistent depth of notch at a consistent right angle to the edge. A knife notcher is an
upright, cylindrical device which cuts the side of a block to a predetermined distance.
Figure 44 Notch maker
E. Driller - A driller is a cutting tool that is used to drill marks through all the layers of fabric for the
position of pockets and darts. Cutting drills are used to place guide marks or reference marks on the
surfaces of superposed plies. These marks instruct the sewing machine operators (or other processing
personnel) where pockets, darts, appliqué, trimming, etc. must be positioned by drilling a hole through all
the plies of the fabric. The drill mounting includes a motor, a base plate with a hole to allow the drill to
pass through, and a spirit level to ensure that the base is horizontal and hence the drill vertical. On many
fabrics the drill is used cold and the hole remains visible until the sewing operator comes to use it. On
looser weave fabrics, where the hole may close up, a hot drill is used, which will slightly scorch or fuse
the edges of the hole.

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Figure 45 Driller machine
F. End cutter - End cutter provides fast and perfectly straight end cutting with the assistance of a guide
for ultimate accuracy. It is supplied with clamping device that makes it possible to attach to most standard
cutting tables. The end cutter reduces fabric wastage and available in manually separated or automatic
configuration. An end cutter is capable of single ply cut-off and easy to lift the tracks between spreads.
Slide track allows the cutting head to move effortlessly across the track reducing operator stress. Perfectly
straight line cutting with precision is ensured by the guided track.
Figure 46End cutter
G. Die Cutting
Die cutting involves pressing of a rigid blade through the laid fabric. The die is a knife in the
shape of the pattern periphery, including notches. Free standing dies generally fall into two
categories. They can be of strip steel, manufactured by bending the strip to the shape required
and welding the joint. These cannot be sharpened and must be replaced when worn.
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Alternatively, they can be heavier gauge, forged dies which can be re-sharpened but which are
five times the price of strip steel. They provide a high standard of accuracy of cutting but,
because of the cost of the dies, they are only appropriate to situations where large quantities of
the same pattern will be cut. Die cutting also offers much faster cutting than knife cutting for the
same depth of cut. It is proportionally more economic for small parts which have a greater
periphery in relation to their area.
H. Clamp- A clamp is a device used to hold an object in a fixed position. It clips the edge of a
cut bundle square and prevents shifting of plies. Cloth clamps are manually set spring clips that
hold the edge of a cut bundle square and prevents shifting of the plies.
Figure 47 Clamp
Cloth clamps are particularly useful when cutting small parts. By holding the clamp, the cutter can keep
their fingers safely away from the cutting blade. After cutting a part away from the lay, the cloth clamp
will permit the cutter to keep the cut bundle intact to facilitate notching the inside edge of the bundle.

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Advanced cutting machine
Laser cutting
As a brand new processing method, laser cutting processing depends on its precise processing,
raster, simple operation; high degree of automation has been widely used in the leather and
textile garment industry. Compared with the traditional cutting method, laser cutting machine not
only with low price, low consume, move over laser processing doesn‟t have mechanical stress to
the work piece, so the precision and cutting speed of the cutted products‟ result are very well.
Laser cutting machine set of optical, mechanical, electrical as one, with processing of accurate,
fast, simple operation, high automation advantages, now in the textile and garment, leather and
other industries increasingly wide range of applications, and industries such as fast development.
Figure 48 Laser cutting machine

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Plasma Cutting Machine

Plazma cutting was originally developed to satisfy our demand for high quality cutting. But it
can also be used to cut textile material (ionized gas is used)
Advantage
very high speed cutting

Suitable for single ply cutting
Disadvantage:
Not suitable for cutting multi layer of fabric

Not suitable for synthetic fabric
Possibility of burning
Figure 49 Plazma cutting machine
Water jet cutting

A very high velocity, small diameter stream of water is created by applying high pressure water

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to a nozzle. The high pressure jet acts as a solid tool when it encounters the material to be cut,
tearing the fibres on impact. As the jet penetrates successive plies in a spread, the momentum
decreases and cutting ability is reduced. The jet spread out and cut is wider and rougher at the
bottom of the spread. Here the jet of water is normally caught and drained away. There is a
danger of wet edges and water spotting. The water used must be filtered de-ionised.
Water jet cutting is most effective with harder sheet materials, including leather and plastic. A
complete computer system has been developed for leather in which hides are inspected and
blemishes marked, and the hides are then scanned into the computer. A marker plan is made in
which the patterned pieces are planned into the hide, allowing for blemishes and for the varying
thicknesses that occur in leader and the hide is then automatically cut, in a single layer, by water
jet.
Advantage
Very fast cutting operation

Not require to sharp the blade
Disadvantage
Capital costs are high

Water is to be filtered and de-ionized

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Figure 50 Water jet cutting machine
Exercise:
Trainees will be asked to list different cutting machines and equipments
4.3.3. Fusing machine

Fusing is essentially a method of joining two textile surfaces by the means of thermoplastic adhesive
resins.
The fusible interlining consists of a base fabric which carries on its surface a thermoplastic adhesive resin,
usually in the form of small dots, which melts when heated to a specific temperature. On application of
heat and pressure the resin, laid onto the garment part, will flow into the fabric of the garment thus
attaching the interlining permanently.
Types of fusing machines
There are prominently three types of fusing machines that are widely used
 Flat Bed Fusing machines

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 Continuous Fusing machines

 High Frequency Fusing machines
A. Flat- bed fusing machine-
This is a static method whereby the assembly is fed or positioned onto the bottom plate and the head or
the top plate is closed over it. It consists of two horizontal metal plates. The top plate is unpadded but the
bottom one has resilient cover of silicone rubber. Heat is provided by electric elements, can be on top or
on both platens. Pressure is applied mechanically or hydraulically.
Figure 51 Flatbed fusing machine
Such machines are simple, less complex thus easy to operate. Small size and relatively low cost
allow their use by small clothing manufacturer.
B. Continuous fusing machine-This type of machine has an endless conveyer system for
transporting the assemblies successfully through the heating, pressure and cooling stages. In this
system garment is passed through a heat source simultaneously or subsequently applying
pressure.

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Figure 52 Continuous Fusing Machines
The heating mechanism of a continuous fusing machine consists of heating Plates which consist of two
heating surfaces, positioned apart, with one above the conveyor belt and one below the conveyor belt.
Both have separate temperature control profile. Heating cylinder consists of two parts, the inner cylinder,
a stationary assembly in which the heating element are mounted; the outer cylinder, which rotates around
the inner cylinder.
Pressure is applied continuously and evenly throughout the entire process by a Pressure Mechanism,
once fed into the machine but that pressure is just only sufficient to hold the fabric and fusing together
and to prevent slipping. Actual pressure is applied at the outlet point where drums put heavy pressure on
just heated fusible piece. Fusing time which is controlled by a Time Mechanism , depends on the speed
on the conveyor belt, the faster the belt runs, the shorter the time. All machines have a belt speed
controller which can be adjusted to give various dwell times in the heated zone.
C. High frequency fusing machines- These machines were not so popular but getting popularity now.
These machines offer a high level of technology solutions. It is used for multiple layers of fabric and
interlining. The alternating waves from a high frequency generator are absorbed by material, which
generate friction heat between the molecules and thus distribute resin uniformly.

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Figure 53 High frequency fusing machine
Such machine contains an electric frequency generator which generates electric frequency that is later
uniformly gets absorbed by fabric through platens. The alternating waves from a high frequency generator
are absorbed by certain types of polymer present as resin in the fusible interlining. The fusible adhesive
material heats up much faster than either the interlining base fabric or the garment fabric. This results in
bonding at the glue line without excessive heat being generated in the fabric. The time required to
generate the heat depends on the capacity of the high frequency unit and the weight of the load to be
fused.
4.4. Sewing machines

A sewing machine is a machine used to join or stitch different parts of a garment together with thread. In
general there are two types of sewing machine, domestic and industrial.
Domestic sewing machines have low speed, result in low production and are not meant to be for industry
purpose whereas Industrial sewing machines have high speed, result in high production, operated by
electrical motors and usually used in apparel manufacturing set-ups.

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Lockstitch machines
This is the most basic and most commonly used machine, used for various applications where lockstitch
is needed. Some of the basic lockstitch sewing machines are single needle and double needle, Button
hole, bar tack, and button set machines. Single needle lock stitch machine is the most important and
widely used machine in any garment factory, because more than half of the operations to complete
constructing a garment are done by this machine. Lock stitch machines with under bed trimmer (UBT) are
also getting popularity among the garment manufacturers.
Figure 54 Lock Stitch Sewing Machines
There are microprocessor controlled machines with many features such as needle positioning, back
tacking, thread wiper function and programme for specified number of stitches etc. are also
available in the market.
Double Needle Lock Stitch machine
The DNLS machine is capable of 2 parallel rows of lockstitch sewing simultaneously. Most of the DNLS
machines have needle feed systems and therefore have better seam quality than an ordinary SNLS.
Double needle machines are available in various needle gauge sets.
Over Lock machines

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Over lock machines are used for over edging or finishing of raw edges to prevent fraying of the fabric.
There are a number of types of over locking machines are available such as 3 Thread Over lock, 4 Thread
Over lock and 5 Thread Over lock machines.
Chain Stitch machines
There are chain stitches machines are also there, which are capable of seams with chain stitches. Such
machines are available in different types such as single needle chain stitch (SNCS), double needle chain
stitch (DNCS) or feed of the arm (FOA) machine and multi needle chain stitch (MNCS). KANSAI special
is one of the popular brands of MNCS machine.
Cyclic Sewing machines
These machines are the machines that complete a sewing operation in a single cycle. Examples:
buttonholing machine, button attachment machine, bar tacking machine
Industrial Button holing machines
Such machines are used widely for button holing purpose in industrial production. There are machines
available which are equipped with programmable options of having various kinds of button-hole profiles.
Figure 55 Industrial Button-hole machine

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Industrial Button sewing machines
There are two types of industrial button sewing machines as-
 Lock stitch button sewer

 Chain stitch button sewer
Where lock stitch button sewer offers untidy look to stitching on back side and greater security, the chain
stitch button sewer offers cleaner appearance at back but lesser Security.
Special Purpose machines
There are a number of different types of industrial sewing machines are available which are used for
specific applications. Some of such special purpose machines are-
A. Automatic Pattern Sewer- For profile stitching, like decorative stitch, label attach, cuff making,
collar making etc.This is used for attaching small components in a specified shape for example
attaching a Velcro or various shapes of appliqué designs.
B. Automatic Pocket Attach machines- For attaching back pocket of jeans.
C. Automatic Loop making machine- For loop making for jeans, it‟s a kind of flat lock machines.
D. Automatic Welting machine- For welt pockets making.
4.5. Pressing and folding equipment

Pressing is the application of heat, moisture, and pressure to shape, mould or crease fabrics, garments, or
garment parts into the geometric forms intended by their designers. Pressing may be done during
assembly to facilitate other operations and improve quality or as a final finishing process.
The objectives of pressing are-
 To smooth away unwanted creases and crush marks.

 To make creases where the design of the garment requires them.
 Preparing garments for further sewing
 Moulding the garment to the contour of the body
 To re-finish the fabric after manufacturing the garment.
Iron pressing
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It is a manual operation in which pressure and heat are applied with a flat contact surface. The system
consists of an iron, power line, bed buck, iron support system and steam and vacuum tube. This machine
is available almost in every garment factories.
 There are more finishing machines than the above mentioned like, body press, collar and cuff
finishing machine, form finisher and spotting machines.
Figure 56 Iron pressing
Garment form finisher
A garment finisher having a form for supporting a garment in a generally natural shape, particularly
including collar, tail and breast clamp means for holding the garment tightly dressed on the form.
Figure 57 Garment form finisher

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Form finisher is a machine that improves quality, increases production and reduces production costs. The
form is maintained using optimum air flow through the mannequin for perfect fit of garment. Steam,
steam-hot air combination and super-heated air (compressed air) may also be used for improved shape of
the garment. The equipment is equipped with adjustable shoulder/waist width and front/rear fixing
clamps.
Video:
Operation video of different machines should be presented in the class
Exercise:
Trainees will be asked to list different sewing and finishing machines
CHAPTER 05
CHAPTER 05
APPAREL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

5.1. Introduction
An apparel production system is an integration of manpower, machine and equipment, materials

(including unfinished, semi-finished to finished materials) materials handling, and processes that
governs work flow and coverts the raw material and other inputs to the finished products.

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Figure 58 Production System
5.2. Types of Garment Production Systems
5.2.1. Make-through System

This is one of the most basic kind of manufacturing system, where a single person does all the work right
from taking measurement, pattern making, cutting, stitching, finishing and packing of the garment. The
person completes the stitching at a time. Such system offers fast output but the level of productivity is
low. A highly skilled person who is multi skilled also required for this kind of manufacturing. The
products made in such fashion lack in consistency in the quality and generally these systems are not
effective for bulk production.
This type of system is effective when a very large variety of garments have to be produced in extremely
small quantities. A typical application would be in the sewing room of a boutique, which produces its
own merchandise.
5.2.2. Conventional Bundle system

Conventional bundle system is not very much used nowadays. This is one of the traditional kinds of
practice, where sewing machines are arranged in a line. The flow of work is regulated from a central store

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or table which works as issue and receiving of the work. A person (controller) issues bundle to be worked
upon to the first work station from this table and received back the completed work after stitching from
the same station. The same process is done for each operation.
Figure 59 Conventional Bundle System
5.2.3. Progressive Bundle System

This system is exactly what its name implies, a system whereby the garments are gradually assembled as
they move through successive sub-assembly and main assembly operations in bundle form. The sewing
operations are planned in a sequence manner and line layout is set. Each operator is supposed to a
particular work for which he is trained. This operation is only a part of the garment stitching. The operator
gets a bundle, finishes the task. And once the task or operation is over he ties the bundle and passes it to
the next operator. A storage facility such as rack, bin or table is provided for storing the semi-finished
work between each operation. This system is the most widely used system in the garment manufacturing.
The amount of machinery for each operation would be determined by the output required.

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Figure 60 Progressive Bundle System
The key features of progressive bundle system are-
 Higher Productivity with good resource utilization

 High Standard of work
 Consistency in output as well as quality
 Semi-Skilled work force can also be used
 Easy to develop Skill
Advantages
Labours of all levels, ie, unskilled, skilled, semi skilled labours are involved in this system where
the operations are broken into small simple operation. Hence the cost of labour is very cheap.
Here the quantity of each component is checked during the individual operation itself, so the
quality is good.
The components are moved in bundles from one operation to next operation, so there is less
chance for confusion like, lot mix-up, shade variation, size variation, etc.
Specialisation and rhythm of operation increase productivity.
As the WIP is high in this system, this is stable system. Because of the buffer, the breakdown,
absenteeism, balancing of line, change of style can be easily managed.
An effective production control system and quality control system can be implemented.
Bundle tracking is possible, so identifying and solving the problems becomes easy.

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Disadvantages
Balancing the line is difficult and this problem is solved by an efficient supervisor.
Proper maintenance of equipment and machinery is needed.
Proper planning requires for each batch and for each style, which takes a lot of time.
Improper planning causes labour turnover, poor quality, less production, etc.
Increase in WIP in each section increases the inventory cost.
Planned and proper layout should be made to make the system effective, ie, smooth flow of
material.
Variety of styles & less quantity are not effective in this system.
Shuttle operators and utility operators needed in every batch to balance the line effectively.
5.2.4. Section Production System

This system is similar to the progressive bundle system. But the difference is that, instead of one
line, work is divided into sections. Machines of similar operations are clubbed together instead of
spreading over in all lines. For example, when a man‟s formal shirt is being made in a section
layout – collars, cuffs and sleeves are in the preparatory sections and then send to the assembly
section. This system is popular to improve line balancing and utilization of human resources.
Final Assembly Section

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Figure 61 Section Production System
5.2.5. Flexi - flow System

This system is nothing but the advanced or modified version of the progressive bundle system. Where in
the progressive bundle system only one style can be run while the flexi flow system offers flexibility of
running more than one style in the same set-up. It offers flexibility in adopting the changes wherever
required.
Figure 62 Flexi flow System
5.2.6. Straight line System

With this system, the manufacturing process is broken down into several operations, which take the same
time to complete. Groups of operators are required to handle only individual garments. The garment parts
(in trays) pass from one operator to the next, until the garment has been completely made up by one group
of operators. The central distribution unit may be a fixed table, which must be wide enough for the type
and style of garment being assembled and long enough to accommodate the required number of
operations. Alternatively, the distribution unit may be a conveyor belt, when a moving conveyor belt is
used, its speed will be set to suit the cycle time.

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Figure 63 Straight Line Systems
The key features of the straight line system are-
 The manufacturing process is broken down in several operations.

 The operations take same/almost same time to complete
 One garment at one time by one operator
 The movement can be through trays on central table or a conveyor can be used
5.2.7. Synchro-flow System

In the Synchro flow system, garment parts of the same size and colour are processed separately. Different
garment parts can be processed simultaneously for assembling. For example different parts of a garment
like collars, sleeves, cuffs, pockets, etc., can be prepared in different sections and later the sub assembly
can be done in a line. Further the complete assembly can be processed together to form completed
garments.
The Synchro flow is advantageous in terms of faster through put time, lower WIP levels, easy to
supervise with effective material tracking.
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The major problems with the Synchro systems are, absenteeism can cause bottle necks and line
imbalances apart from it machine break down also may interrupt the production flow of the system.
Adding to it, Synchro systems need highly skilled operators with proper work standardizations.
Figure 64 Synchro-flow System
5.2.8. Modular manufacturing System

These systems are synonymous to team work. In the modular systems, a team of multi-skilled operators
(One operator can do two or more operations) are employed on the task. The allocation of the operators is
done on the basis of product complexity. Usually the workstations are arranged in such a way that it‟s
easy for the operator to switch over from one work station to another work station. The important feature
is that number of machines is kept higher than that of number of operator. It gives effective and higher
operator‟s utilization in the systems. The operators stand /sit at their stations and rotate to different
machines as they work, becoming familiar with multiple steps in producing the garment. They also
inspect their team's own work, catching and correcting mistakes as soon as they happen.
In „Modular production system‟, sewing operators work as a team. Neither they sew complete garment
nor do they sew only single operation. Multi skilled operators form a group and each of the team
members do multiple operations. In modular system, operators help each other to finish the garment

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quickly and team is fully responsible for quality and production. In modular, always team performance is
measured instead of individual operator performance. This system is very successful where quick
response is needed.
Figure 65 Modular Manufacturing Systems
Effective manpower utilization, high motivation and team work, faster through put, lesser WIP are the
key features of Modular Systems. Since the modules are smaller, working on lesser WIP; are capable of
handling small run orders very efficiently.
Key features of modular manufacturing system
 A classic example of Team Work

 Work is done in groups
 Multi skilled operators are used
 Number of machines are more than number of men
 Operators moves from one machine to another to do the task
 No Helpers; Material movement is done by operator himself
 Quality is maintained by the operator himself
 No Quality Assurance only periodic Quality Audits
 Lesser Through Put time

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5.2.9. Unit Production System

UPS is one form of manufacturing system which uses division of labour. UPS is defined as a sewing
practice where all cut panels of one garment are bundled together and passed through a line of operators.
The operator reaches out to the components, performs specific functions, puts the sewn piece back into
the bundle and passes it to the next operator.
The components bundle may be passed from one operator to another by means of a tray or in one
polybag, manual hanger or overhead conveyor system controlled electronically, mechanically or
manually.
Advantages
1. Bundle handling completely eliminated.

2. The time involved in the pick-up and disposal is reduced to minimum.
3. Output is automatically recorded, eliminates the operator to register the work.
4. The computerised systems automatically balance the work between stations.
5. Up to 40 styles can be produced simultaneously on one system.
Disadvantages
1. Unit production system requires high investments.

2. The payback period of the investment takes long time.
3. Proper planning is required to be effective.

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Exercise
Fill the following production system chart (Low/Moderate/High):
Operator
Production Skill
Throughput WIP Quality Production Productivity
System/Concept Required
Make through
System
Progressive Bundle
System
Unit Production
System
Modular
Production System
Section Production
System
Flexible
Manufacturing
System
Straight Production
System
Exercise:
Trainees will be asked to list different types of production system and expected to tell advantage
and disadvantage of each production system

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Chapter 06
Basic Terminology in Apparel Production

6.1. Introduction
There are a number of terms commonly used in Garment manufacturing. Understanding the real meaning
and its applications of such terms is an essential to a supervisor. These terms help the supervisor in
developing understanding a about the process and make the things measureable. This eases data analysis,
comparison, gap analysis and results in effective and efficient decision making.
Production, productivity, efficiency, performance, capacity, capacity utilization, off standard and on
standard time are some of the widely used terms in apparel manufacturing.
6.2. Production Terminology

Production
The word production is generally referred in mathematical sense such as number of goods or services
produced. This is merely a figure or quantity produced from a facility in a given time. Production is a
figure or a numeric value which is indicator of quantity produced or Output from a production facility in
given time.
Example-
The production on a given day from a factory is 2400 shirts.
Yarn production from a spinning plant in one shift is 10 tonnes.
Only output of products or services is considered while talking about production and the inputs used such
as materials, machine, manpower, space etc. are not considered. This doesn‟t give the idea about how
much resources have been used as Input to produce that output.

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Productivity
Productivity can be defined in many ways but, technically, it is relationship between output and input.
Productivity= Output/Input
Where output refers to the goods produced by an enterprise and input refers to the resources used to
produce the output. Examples of output are pieces of jackets, pieces of shirts, pieces of baby dresses and
others. Examples of inputs are: meters of fabrics, kilowatt-hours, worker-hours, machine-hours and
others.
Productivity is the ratio of output to the Inputs in a given time. This gives idea about how better we are
utilizing the resources. For example, if a production facility (A) is producing more than that of other one
(B), the production is higher for A than B, but we cannot say whose productivity is better until we know
about, number of machines used, manpower used etc.
Production Vs Productivity
The term “productivity” is often confused with the term “production”. Many people think that the greater
the production, greater the productivity. It is important to distinguish between PRODUCTION and
PRODUCTIVITY. Although production may be increased it is not necessary that productivity will
have increased. We shall show this by an example, but before doing so, it is important to clarify the
meanings of the terms “production” and “productivity”
Production is concerned with the activity of producing goods
Productivity is concerned with the efficient utilization of resources (inputs) in producing goods (outputs)
In quantitative terms, production is the quantity of outputs produced, while productivity is the ratio of
output produced to the input(s) used.
Examples: Suppose a contractor produces 4,000 pieces of jackets by employing 50 people at 8 hours per
day for 25 days. Then in this case,
Production per day= 4,000 Jackets
Productivity of labour = 4, 000 Jackets/ (50 workers x 8 hour/day x 25 day)
= 0.4 jacket/ worker-hours

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Suppose this enterprise increase its production to 4,800 jackets by hiring 10 additional workers at 8 hours/
day for 25 days. Then
If production = 4,800 Jackets, then
Productivity of labour = 4, 800 Jackets/ (60 workers x 8 hour/day x 25 day)
= 0.4 jacket/ worker-hours
Clearly, the production of jacket has gone up 20% (from 4,000 to 4,800) but the labour productivity has
not gone up at all. Thus we can see that an increase in production does not necessarily mean an increase
in productivity.
Basic productivity measurement
The two basic and commonly used approaches for the measuring productivity are as follows:
Partial productivity
Total productivity
A. Partial productivity is the ratio of output to one class of input. For example, labour productivity (the
ratio of output to labour input) is a partial measure. Similarly, material productivity (the ratio of output to
material input) and machine productivity (the ratio of output to machine input) are examples of partial
productivity. Partial productivity measures are easy to understand and use. The data needed are both easy
to obtain and easy to compute. Partial productivity is also a good diagnostic tool for pinpointing
improvement areas. However, it has some disadvantages. If used alone, it can be misleading and may lead
to costly mistake. Partial measure cannot be used to explain overall cost increases.
B. Total productivity is the ratio of total output to the sum of all input factors. Thus, a total productivity
measure reflects the joint impact of all inputs in producing the output. It is a kind of a higher level of
productivity assessment combining several or many partial productivity measures. It considers all the
quantified output and input factors. Therefore it is a more accurate representation of the real economic
picture of an enterprise. However, total productivity measure does not tell the management of a firm
which of its products or services is causing a decline or growth. Nor does it tell them which particular
inputs-workers, material, capital, energy or other expenses are being utilised inefficiently so that

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corrective action can be taken. Moreover, data for computation are relatively difficult to obtain unless
data collection systems are designed for the purpose.
Capacity
Capacity is capability to produce goods or services in a given time. Capacity of a stitching floor is
commonly done in terms of number of garments produced per shift, per hour or per month. But as
garments (such as shirts, trousers, jackets etc.) do not have standardized work content. Hence
representation of capacity in terms of the pieces or units produced in the given time is not correct.
However most of the time people communicate it in this way only.
For example factory A sewing 1200jackets per day and factory B sewing 1200 ladies blouse per day;
unless we know the work content of jacket and blouse we cannot say which factory has higher capacity.
Let us take one example to understand capacity in real sense. As there are 60 minutes in one hour, we can
say that maximum capacity of one stitching operator is 60 minutes per hour. So if a garment
manufacturing unit has 250 sewing machines and 8 hour (480 minutes) shift per day, then capacity of that
manufacturing unit would be 250X 8= 2000 Hours per day or 120,000 minutes per day. This is considered
theoretical maximum capacity, as it is assumed that operators are capable of working complete 60
minutes per hour, realistically which is impossible. There are several factors like operator efficiency,
absenteeism that influences actual capacity. If the average efficiency of operator for that factory is 80%,
then capacity would be 96000 (120,000 X80%) minutes per day. If average absenteeism for that factory is
10% then actual capacity would be 86,400 (96,000 x 90%) minutes per day. If a jeans style of 20 standard
minute values (SMV) is planned to be produced then we can expect 4320 units of jeans produced per day
provided there are no other time loss. Hence the capacity of the plant in given conditions is 4320 units of
jeans per day.
At the same time, if the factory management decides to produce shirts instead of jeans then the capacity
of the plant may change if the standard time to produce one shirt differs from the time to produce one
jean. Hence the capacity of a plant or floor should be communicated in terms of available minutes in a
given time rather that number of units produced.

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Capacity Utilization
Once it is known the production capacity, it is easy to measure how well companies are using their
capacity. Capacity-utilization rate is a measure of what percentage of capacity a business is currently
performing at. The formula for capacity utilization rate is actual output divided by the potential output.
For example, say that a business has the capacity to produce 1,600 widgets a day (as above) but is only
producing 1,400. The capacity utilization rate is 1,400 over 1,600, or 87.5 percent. The higher the
percentage, the closer the business is to performing at full capacity.
Capacity Utilization = Actual Capacity *100
Total capacity
SAM
SAM is the time value arrived at for a task based on the average rate of output which qualified
workers will naturally achieve without over exertion provided that they know and adhere to the
specified method and provided that they are motivated to apply themselves to their work.
Here SAM stands for Standard Allowed Minute.
In garment industry, specifically in production SAM is used for measuring work. In the factory
work study department (also known as Industrial Engineering department) measure and calculate
SAM is used many ways directly and indirectly. Some of those are
 Factory as well as individual operator performance is measured by means of SAM
 Labor cost and associated cost ratios are measured by SAM
 Operators payroll and incentive amount is calculated based on earned SAM
 Latest production scheduling systems like line balancing system and performance measuring
systems use SAM as one of the primary parameters.
Can anybody estimate SAM (standard allowed minute) of a garment without seeing and/or
analyzing the garment? No. It is not possible. To estimate SAM you have to analyze the garment
carefully and check different factors that affect the SAM. SAM of a product varies according to

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the work content or simply according to number of operations, length of seams, fabric types,
stitching accuracy needed, sewing technology to be used etc.
SAM of some basic garments
Table 4 SAM of basic garments
Efficiency
It is primarily a measure of the effectiveness of the manager and supervisor and as such is best applied to
sections / departments / factories and not the individual operator.
It is the state or quality of being efficient, or able to accomplish something with the least waste of time
and effort; competency in performance Efficiency signifies a level of performance that describes a
process that uses the lowest amount of inputs to create the greatest amount of outputs. Efficiency relates
to the use of all inputs in producing any given output, including personal time and energy.
An operator with higher efficiency produces more garments than an operator with lower efficiency in the
same time frame. When operators work with higher efficiency, manufacturing cost of the factory goes
down.
Secondly, factory capacity is estimated according to the operator efficiency or line efficiency. Hence,
efficiency is one of the mostly used performance measuring tools. So how do you calculate operator
efficiency in factory? To calculate operator efficiency you will be needed standard minutes (SAM) of the
garment and operations your operator is making. Use following formula and calculate operator efficiency.
This is calculated by “minutes produced”/ “minutes attended” and expressed as percentage.

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„
Efficiency= Minutes earned or produced/Minutes attended
Efficiency = (SMV earned on standard / attended time) X 100
Measurement of line efficiency is a common measurement in apparel manufacturing organizations.

Efficiency is directly related to both operator performance and the utilization of the operator.
Example,
In a stitching floor, there are100 operators working in 8 hour shift and the SMV of product being
produced is 10 minutes. If the average daily production of the style is 4000 Units/shift then the Line line
efficiency will be-
Minutes Utilized = SMV X Units / Shift = 10 X 4000 = 40,000
Minutes attended = Number of Operator X Number of Minutes per Shift = 100 X 480 = 48,000
So, Line efficiency is 40,000/48,000= 83.33%
Contracted time
It is time in contract of employment. It is measured usually hours x by number of operators to get total
hours potentially available to factory or department. Used in capacity planning and calculation of absence
as %.
Attended time
It is usually the time operator spent in factory after excluding lunch break and any other breaks if any.
Attended time = (Contracted hours – absence) = (shift hours – lunch break – tea break)
=.
For example if the operators are supposed to be in the factory for a shift of 8.5 Hours and the lunch break
is of 30 minutes. Then
Contracted hours will be 8.5 Hours and attended time will be 8.5 hours- 0.5 hours = 8.0 Hours.

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On - standard time
This is the actual time worker spent on productive work. This is calculated as the difference between
attended time and off-standard time. This should be obvious and is used in calculating operator
performance
On - standard time = (Attended time – Off-standard time)
When an operator is earning an SMV, it is considered as “On Standard”. The operators are said to be “On
Standard” when they are doing job for which they are trained and being paid or on incentive.
Off – standard time
Off standard time is that time utilized on performing tasks to which SMVs are not allocated. Key off
standard time categories are usually waiting for work, machine breakdown, repairs, unmeasured work.
If the operators come off incentive or “Off – standard” and they will have no financial incentive to work
hard. Such situation is referred as “Off standard”
Off - standard time = (Attended time – On - standard time)
Utilization
Utilization of a floor or line is a measure of “how well „the manager and supervisor control the section
and keep operators working i.e. “On standard”.
It is the time spent on productive time out of total attended time. It is the percentage of attended time
working earning Standard Minute Values (SMV).
Utilization = (On standard time / Attended time) X 100
Operator’s Performance
On a sewing floor, many a times it is observed that floor or section or line efficiency is low but individual
operator/s work very well. As the sewing is a team effort there are chances that one operator may not be

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able to perform well due to factors such as, due to other operators or bottle necks, improper line
balancing, line mismanagement , machine related problems etc. Due to such factors efficiency of line or
section may reduce but not necessary that individual operator performance will also reduce.
The operator performance is a measure of both the skills and motivation of the operator and calculated
daily.
Performance = (SMVs earned on standard / On - standard time) x 100
Throughput Time
Throughput time is a measure of the time required for a material, part or sub-assembly to pass
through a manufacturing process following the release of an order to the manufacturing floor.
Throughput time or manufacturing cycle time consists of process time, inspection time, move
time and queue time. Process time is the time period during which work is performed on the
product itself. Inspection time is the time during which the quality of the product is confirmed.
Move time is the time during which materials or works-in-process are moved from one
workstation to another. Queue time is the period of time during which the product awaits transfer
to a workstation, undergoes further inspection and subsequent manufacturing processes.
Manufacturing Lead Time
The manufacturing lead time is the time period between the placement of an order and the
shipment of the completed order to the customer. A short manufacturing lead time is a
competitive advantage; many customers want the delivery of their products as soon as possible
following the placement of the order. Manufacturing lead time consists of wait time and
throughput time.
WIP
WIP (Work in Process) is the number of garments under production at a given time. It includes
the actual processing time and time a style waits to be processed ahead of each operation.

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It includes the set at large of unfinished items for products in a production process. These items
are not yet completed but either just being fabricated or waiting in a queue for further processing
or in a buffer storage. The term is used in production and supply chain management
Exercise
1. In a T-Shirt (Std. time per T-Shirt sewing is 6 minutes) manufacturing unit, where shift is of 8 Hrs. per
day including 1 hr. for lunch break. And there were power interruption for 1hr. The number of sewing
machine operators is 20. At the end of day numbers of T-shirts produced are 1200 units.
Calculate:-
On-standard time
Off – standard time
Attended time
Contracted time
Productivity
Performance of the line
Efficiency of the line
Operator utilization
2. A XYZ company produces 500 pieces of shirt per day by employing 50 operators at 8 hours per day.
But owner of the company thinks that the produced output is not profitable. To make the business
profitable, owner decided to increase the production of the line by introducing 20 more skilled operator
for proper balancing of line. After balancing of line, 1000 pieces of shirts per day were started
producing.
Calculate
I. Old labour productivity

II. New labour productivity
III. Net increase in production

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CHAPTER – 07
INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING
7.1. Introduction
The term "industrial" in industrial engineering has now much wider scope than its name.
While the term originally applied to manufacturing, it has grown to encompass virtually all other
industries and services as well. The various topics of concern to industrial engineers include
management science, financial engineering, engineering management, supply chain
management, process engineering, operations research, system engineering, ergonomics, value
engineering and quality engineering.
7.2. What an IE does

 Determination of the most effective ways to use the basic factors of production -people,
machines, materials, information, and energy
 IE is the bridge between management goals and operational performance.
 They are more concerned with increasing productivity through the management of
people, methods of business organization, and technology.
7.3. How an IE works

 To Suggest and work on measures to make process easy and fast
 To Make the process more productive and effective
 Use of manpower in a proper way
 Skill development by training
 Recruitment
 Design & Development
 Study the existing system and techniques
 Analysis and identify the bottleneck
 Work on to solutions

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 Machine/Technology selection
 Method Improvement
 Work Improvement
 Minimize the wastage
7.4. Work Study

The generic term used for those techniques, particularly method study and work measurement,
which are used in the examination of human work.
Work study is simply the study of work. It is the analysis of work dividing it into smaller parts
followed by rearrangement of these parts to give the same effectiveness at lesser cost. It
examines both the method and duration of the work involved in a process.
A. Nature and objective of the work study
 Work study/Time and motion study is primarily concerned with discovering the best ways of
doing jobs and with establishing standards based upon such methods.
 Work study is to minimize costs either by designing work for higher productivity or by improving
productivity in existing work through improvements in current methods and by reducing
inefficient or waste of time.
B. Importance of the work study
 It is a mean of raising productivity of a factor by reorganization of the work involving little or no

capital expenditure on plant and equipment.
 It is systematic study where no factor of production is overlooked.
 It is most accurate method of determining the standards of performance on which effective
planning and control depends.
 It results in savings and efficient use of resources by increasing o/p reducing scrap.
 Results in improved safety.
 Reduction in training time.
 It is a tool, which can be, applied everywhere

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Figure 66 Work Study
7.4.1. Method Study

Method study is the systematic Recording, Critical analysis, development and
implementation/installation of new methods to perform job to reduce costs etc. with regard to
existing/proposed jobs.
The function of the method analyst is to study the way in which something is being done with a
view to develop a procedure which when adopted would increase the level of performance.
Need of the method study

1. Bottlenecks in the system resulting in long delivery time or unbalanced workflow.
2. Idle plant labour shows under - utilization of resources.
3. Poor moral of workers may affect the quality of the product. Due to this there may be
high absenteeism.
4. Inconsistent earnings also advocate for the review of production method.

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7.4.2. Work Measurement

Work measurement is a generic term for quantifying the work, which determines the amount of
time required to perform a job/task by a worker following a particular/prescribed method.
Work measurement is the application of techniques designed to establish the time for a qualified
worker to carry out a task at a defined rate of working.
Purpose of work measurement
 Separation of ineffective time from effective time.

 Reasons for ineffective time and step to reduce the same.
 Used to set the standard time and standard output levels.
 To evaluate a worker‟s performance by comparing actual output over a given period of
time with standard output level determined from work measurement.
 To determine the labour input required for any given output level.
 To estimate the available capacity for a given level of work force and equipment
availability.
 To determine the price or cost of a product
 To compare alternative methods for a job ( economic comparison)
 To establish wage incentive schemes (time standard which defines output)
7.5. Motion Economy

Ralph M. Barnes first codified these principles in the 1930's and American industry used them to
great effect during World War II. After the war, Toyota incorporated Motion Economy in its
culture and Production System.
Motion Economy is all about common sense, which is very simple to understand and implement.
 Purpose- To ensure that the job is necessary

 Place- To ensure that its being done, where it should be done
 Sequence- To ensure that it‟s right place in the sequence of the operations
 Person- TO ensure that it is being done by the right person
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 Means-By which the job is being done
A. Principles of Motion Economy
The principles are, for the most part, self- explanatory. Based on the number of moving body
part in performing a task, there are 5 motion classes defined in motion economy. Tasks should
have the lowest possible motion class.
Motion Classes
Table 5 Motion Classes
Class Pivot Point Body Members
5 Trunk Torso, upper/forearm, wrist and fingers
4 Shoulder Upper/forearm, wrist and fingers
3 Elbow Forearm, wrist and fingers
2 Wrist Hand, and fingers
1 Knuckle Fingers
There are three basic foundations of principles of motion economy as-

 Use of Human Body
 The two hands should begin end their motions at the same time.
 The two hands should not be idle at the same time except during rest
periods.
 Motions of the arms should be made in opposite and symmetrical
directions and should be made simultaneously
 Hand motions should be confined to the lowest classification with which
it is possible to perform the work satisfactorily
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 Momentum should be employed to assist the worker whenever possible,

and it should be reduced to a minimum if it must be overcome by
muscular effort.
 Smooth continuous motions of the hands are preferable to zigzag
motions or straight-line motions involving sudden and sharp changes in
direction.
 Ballistic movements/Free swinging are faster, easier, and more accurate
than restricted (fixation) or "controlled" movements.
 Rhythm assists smooth and automatic performance. Arrange the work to
permit an easy and natural rhythm.
Figure 67 Work Place arrangement
 Arrangement of The Work Place

 There should be a definite and fixed place for all tools and materials.
 Tools, materials, and controls should be located close in and directly in front of the
operator.
 Gravity feed bins and containers should be used whenever possible.
 Drop delivers should be used whenever possible.
 Materials and tools should be located to permit the best sequence of motions.

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 Provide for adequate visual perception. Good illumination is the first requirement.
 Arrange the height of the workplace and chair for alternate sitting and standing,
when possible.
 Provide a chair of the type and height to permit good posture.
 Design of Tools and Equipment
 Relieve hands of work that can be done more advantageously by a jig, fixture, or a
foot-operated device.
 Combine tools whenever possible.
 Pre-position tools and materials.
 Where each finger performs some specific movement, such as in typewriting, the
load should be distributed in accordance with the inherent capacities of the fingers
 Handles (i.e. cranks and large screwdrivers) should permit as much of the surface of
the hand to come in contact with the handle as possible, especially when
considerable force is necessary.
 For light assembly, a screwdriver handle should be smaller at the bottom.
 Levers, crossbars, and hand wheels should be located in such positions that the
operator can manipulate them with the least change in body position and with the
greatest mechanical advantage.
The objects which are going to be used frequently should be placed near to the operator to
reduce/minimize the body movements which results in to lesser fatigue levels. Items should be
lightweight and placed close together so that it can be easily positioned at the end of the motion.
7.6. Work Sampling

Work sampling use probability theory to reduce the amount of time necessary to observe events
or activities that do not occur in a systematic manner without loss of information. Observations
about work are collected at discrete time intervals, either periodic or random.

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Work sampling is a particularly useful technique whenever time study data collection is not
possible, or is cost prohibitive. Statistically, when a sufficient number of discrete samples are
observed, the overall percentage occurrence of the samples begins to approach actual percentage
of time that each activity takes.
Work Sampling is a method of finding the percentage occurrence of a certain activity by

statistical sampling and random observations. Probability has been defined as “the degree to
which an event is likely to occur”.
A. Advantages of Work Sampling
 Longer time periods can be studied,

 Does not require analyst to make continuous observations,
 Operator is not subject to continuous observation,
 Many operations & workers can be studied by a single analyst.
 Requires fewer man-hours and costs less to make a work sampling study than it does
to make a continuous time study.
 A work sampling study may be interrupted at any time without affecting the results.
 Work sampling measurements may be made with a pre-assigned degree of reliability.
Thus, the results are more meaningful to those not conversant with the methods used
in collecting the information.
 Work sampling studies are less fatiguing and less tedious to make on the part of the
observer.
B. Disadvantages of Work Sampling
 Ordinarily work sampling is not economical for studying a single operator or

machine, or for studying operators or machines located over wide areas. The
observer spends too much time walking to and from the work place or walking from
one work place to another. Also, time study, standard data, or predetermined time
data are preferred for establishing time standards for short-cycle repetitive operations.

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 Time study permits a finer breakdown of activities and delays than is possible with
work sampling. Work sampling cannot provide as much detailed information as one
can get from time study.
 The operator may change his or her work pattern upon sight of the observer. If this
occurs, the results of such a work sampling study may be of little value.
 A work sampling study made of a group obviously presents average results, and there
is no information as to the magnitude of the individual differences.
 Management and workers may not understand statistical work sampling as readily as
they do time study.
 In certain kinds of work sampling studies, no record is made of the method used by
the operator. Therefore, an entirely new study must be made when a method change
occurs in any element.
7.7. Concept of Standard times and Allowances
7.7.1. Work Content

The work content of a job or operation is defined as-
Work Content = Basic time + Relaxation allowance + any allowance for additional work
Observed Time (OT) - Time recording from direct observation of the operator
Basic Time (BT) = Observed Time (OT) X Rating of the Operator
Where rating (as per ILO definition) is the assessment of the worker‟s rate of working relative to
the observer‟s concept of the rate corresponding to the standard pace. Therefore, the rating of the
worker gives the comparison of the rate of working observed with respect to the standard level,
which is the average rate of a qualified worker, when he uses correct methods and when he is
motivated to apply himself to the work.

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Rating is always compared with the standard rating, which may be taken as 100. Then,
For example, if an operator is judged to be working slower (rating 80) and the observed time is
1.5 minute then,
Basic Time = 1.5 × 80/100 = 1.20 minutes
Standard Time (ST) = Basic Time (BT) + Allowances
Suitable allowances are added to compensate for fatigue, personal needs, and contingencies etc.
to give standard time.
8.1.1. Total Work content, basic work content and excess work content
In order to find ways of improving productivity in terms of man-hours or machine hours it is
essential to understand how the total time for a job or operation is made up.
Total Work Content = Basic Work Content + Excess Time
It can be said that the time for any job is made up of the following 2 components:
 Basic work content

 Excess Time
Where-
The basic work content is the amount of work “contained in” a job or “the basic work content is
the irreducible minimum time theoretically required to produce one unit of product.”
Excessive time may be added to the basic work content in one of the following ways:
 Time added by defects in design or specification of the product

 Time added by inefficient methods of manufacturing

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The above considerations are when there are NO interruptions. But practically many a times
there are idleness of machine and/or operator which results in ineffective time. This further
increase the time consumed to complete a given task.
There are two broad categories for ineffective time-
1. Extra time taken to do the task due to the short-comings of management

2. Extra time taken to do the task due to the reason within the control of the worker
8.1.2. Line Balancing

Line balancing is one of the very important activities of a supervisor. The success of a supervisor
is very much dependent on how he/she does the line balancing. Line balancing is an act of
allocation of manpower to the task to meet the targets based on the skill availability.
Appropriate allocation of operator to operations is the key to any balancing. Allocation also
depends on type of balance required.One approach of allocation is to find the closest match
between operator performance required and operator performance available. This type of
allocation results intrinsic balance of line. Another approach of allocation is to utilize the
operator in operations they can do best. This approach results dynamics balance of line.
Intrinsic line balancing- Allocation is done after finding the closest match between operator
performance required and operator performance available.
Dynamic line balancing- Approach of allocation is to utilize the operators in operations they
can do best. Dynamic balance results better operator utilization but comparatively is difficult to
maintain.
Let‟s understand these balancing technique following the below example-
Operator
SAM Machine
Operation Target/Hour Performance
Value Type
Required
A. Collar 1.5 SNLS 40 Pcs 100%
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Attaching
B. Cuff Attaching 1.2 SNLS 40 Pcs 80%
C. Band
1.0 SNLS 40 Pcs 66%
Hemming
Operators Skill availability
Operation Abebe Tiske Fikadu Hailu

For Operation A 70% 105% 140%
For Operation B 80% 100%
For Operation C 120% 70% 100% 70%
Do the manpower allocation as per intrinsic and dynamic line balancing.
Intrinsic Line Dynamic Line

Operation
Balancing Balancing
A. Collar Attaching Tiske Hailo
B. Cuff Attaching Abebe Fikado
C. Band Hemming Hailo Hailo+Fikado
Comparison of Intrinsic and Dynamic line balance
Intrinsic Line Dynamic Line

Parameter
Balancing Balancing
Manpower required More Less
Operators
Less More
movement
Not so
Difficult to
Heavy Absenteeism difficult to
accommodate
accommodate
Supervisor Skill Excellent
Moderate skills
required skills
WIP management Easy Difficult
Operator Utilization Moderate/less High
Material movement Less More
Warming up loss less More

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For a Garment Manufacturing Plant, one stitching line needs to be set‐up. The Daily Production
Target is 1500 Units/Line/Shift (480 min/Shift). SAM Values for different operations are given
as below‐
Sr. Quantity/
Operation Name Machine Type SAM Value
No. Garment
1 Belt loop making 6 FLAT LOCK 0.5
2 Back Pkt Hem 2 SNCS 0.3

3 Coin Pkt Hem 1 SNCS 0.16
4 Back Pkt attach 2 SNLS 0.75
5 Coin Pkt Attach 1 SNLS 0.25
6 Fly Making 1 SNLS 0.9
7 Zipper attach to fly 1 SNLS 0.3
8 Back yoke attach 2 FOA 0.5
9 Bar Tack on Fly 1 Bartack 0.3
Calculate/find out-
1. Do initial Line Balancing for 1500 Units/Shift
2. Hourly and Daily production/ operation
3. Manpower Allocation
4. Calculate Balancing Efficiency of the Line?
5. Comment on the issues with this balancing
Exercise
1. On a sewing floor an operation has 3 elements (1. Pick up and Position, 2. Stitch and 3.
Dispose). The time study was carried out with Decimal Stop watch for 10 cycles.

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If Operator rating is 95% and different allowances given are 15%.
Calculate the Observed average cycle time, basic time and standard time for the operation.
Cycle 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Pick T
and
Position R 7 28 51 73 95 20 44 68 91 14
T
Stitch
R 20 40 63 85 09 35 57 80 03 27
T
Dispose
R 22 43 66 89 12 37 60 83 06 30
2. While work measurement for a task done by an operator whose rating is 90, the data are as
follows:
Observed time = 15 minutes

Personal needs allowances = 4% of Basic time
Fatigue allowance = 2.5% of Basic time
Contingency work allowance = 2% of Basic time
Contingency delay allowance = 1% of Basic time
Calculate
1. Basic time, 2. Work content, and 3. Standard time
3. Working minutes-480 min/Shift, no. of operators-65, no. of machines-60, SAM- 15 min. What
will be the Production/Shift @ 70% efficiency?

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4. SAM/operation- 1.0 min, Bundling and Handling time- 30 sec., Bundle size- 20 Pcs., Bundling
frequency-2 times, Calculate the time taken to complete the bundle.
5. Fill in the blanks-

Target Production – 2000 Units/Shift of 480 Minutes
Expected Expected Expected No. of Machines

Operation Quantity/
Machine SAM Performance Production Production required @
Name Garment (%) /Hour /480 Min. Target
Coin Pkt
1 SNLS 0.35 100 171.42 ---------- ----------
Attach
Fly
1 SNLS 0.9 ---------- 56.66 453.33 4.41
Making
Zipper
attach to 1 SNLS 0.2 70 ---------- 1680 1.19
fly
Back yoke
2 FOA 0.4 90 135 1080 ----------
attach
6. A time study was taken of an operation which was being performed by an operator performing
at 80% efficiency. That operator took 100 min to complete the said operation. Find out the basic
time required to complete the said operation. If 15% allowance is considered on basic time,
calculate the SAM.
7. There is a company XYZ in which basic round T-Shirt (SAM Value 3.28 min.) is manufactured
having 100 machines but it has only 50 operators. Recently it has received an order of25,000
units of the same T-shirts. Calculate-
1. Daily production Output

2. End date of production
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3. Work allocation
4. Line efficiency
5. Machine Utilization
Data given-
Sr. No. Operation Machine Type SAM Value

Join right shoulder
1 O/L 0.17
with tape
2 Attach collar tape on O/L 0.27

neckline
3 Trim collar tape Manual 0.10
4 Join left shoulder with O/L 0.17

tape
5 Bartack left shoulder SNLS 0.10
seam
6 Sew side O/L 0.50
7 Blind hemming sleeve Blind Hem Machine 0.33

mouth
8 Sew under sleeve O/L 0.43
9 Sew Sleeve O/L 0.57
10 Blind hemming Blind Hem Machine 0.38

bottom
11 Folder Hanger label Folding Machine 0.07
12 Attach hanger label SNLS 0.20

on neck

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Chapter 08
Production Planning and Control in Apparel Manufacturing
8.1. Introduction
Production Planning is one of the integral parts of any manufacturing unit. The process
complexities vary in degree depending upon the number of processes involved in the production
of desired product. With the globalization the sourcing process has become complex as
international boundaries are not a deterrent in conducting the business.
Production planning has a dynamic nature and has to be changed according to the changes in
circumstances. Any deviation from the planned parameters as perceived during the initial
planning i.e. Machine breakdown, change in raw material, change in demand, change in
requirement etc will lead to the change in plan.
8.2. Production Planning and Control

Production planning and control can easily be said as heart of garment manufacturing. The success of any
activity depends on the effectiveness of the plan. Without the plan things may go haywire. At the same
time existence of plan helps in identifying the deviations. So to meet the end results, a plan works as blue
print to success.
Manufacturing in any company has at its disposal various resources. The nature and the constraints of
these resources are determined by strategic decisions. The day to day running of manufacturing rests with
Production Planning and Control (PPC). The purpose of PPC is to ensure that manufacturing run
effectively and efficiently and produces products as required by customers. Manufacturing should
organize its resources so that they are available:
A. In the appropriate quantity
B. At the appropriate time and
C. At the appropriate level of quantity

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With the increased competitiveness, the scope and challenges of the PPC have widened and PPC
department has become an integral part of any garment manufacturing organization.
A PPC department can be said as the driver of any garment manufacturing organization. The PPC is
connected to almost all the departments within the setup as well as outside such as suppliers, vendors,
logistic agencies, buyers etc. PPC works as a linkage among different departments and make sure that
right information and material availability at right point in right quantity.
It is a widely accepted fact that PPC person is the one who can foresee the problems or opportunities of
future. Due to this rare capability, a PPC can work on or suggest solutions to the problems well in
advance and prevent the organization from fire-fighting situations.
As the name suggests, PPC is not about merely planning but control also
PPC= Production Planning + CONTROL
Without control, the planning is useless or we say toothless. The control provides a vital strength to
planning which results in success of the plan. The control feature makes a planner enable to monitor,
modify, change or alter the plan if things don‟t go in the desired fashion.
8.3. Production Planning & Control tools

As the name indicates, PPC consists of two broad categories of tools as,
1. Production Planning tools and

2. Controlling tools.

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Figure 68 Tools of PPC
8.3.1. Production planning tools

A. Production planning - Production planning may be defined as the technique of foreseeing every step
in a long series of separate operations, each step to be taken at the right time and in the right place and
each operation to be performed in maximum efficiency. It helps entrepreneur to work out the quantity of
material manpower, machine and money requires for producing predetermined level of output in given
period of time.

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Figure 69 Production Planning
B. Routing -Under this, the operations, their path and sequence are established. To perform these
operations the proper class of machines and personnel required are also worked out. The main aim of
routing is to determine the best and cheapest Steps in Production planning.

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Figure 70 Routing
Routing procedure involves following different activities.
 An analysis of the article to determine what to make and what to buy

 To determine the quality and type of material
 Determining the manufacturing operations and their sequence
 A determination of lot sizes
 Determination of scrap factors
 An analysis of cost of the article
 Organization of production control forms
C. Scheduling - It means working out of time that should be required to perform each operation and also
the time necessary to perform the entire series as routed, making allowances for all factors concerned. It

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mainly concerns with time, element and priorities of a job. The pattern of scheduling differs from one job
to another which is explained as below:
 Production schedule: The main aim is to schedule that amount of work which can easily be
handled by plant and equipment without interference. It‟s not independent decision as it takes into
account following factors.
 Physical plant facilities of the type required to process the material being Scheduled
 Personnel who possess the desired skills and experience to operate the equipment and
perform the type of work involved
 Necessary materials and purchased parts
Figure 71 Scheduling
 Master Schedule: Scheduling usually starts with preparation of master schedule which is weekly
or monthly break-down of the production requirement for each product for a definite time period,
by having this as a running record of total production requirements the entrepreneur is in better
position to shift the production from one product to another as per the changed production

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requirements. This forms a base for all subsequent scheduling acclivities. A master schedule is
followed by operator schedule which fixes total time required to do a piece of work with a given
machine or which shows the time required to do each detailed operation of a given job with a
given machine or process.
 Manufacturing schedule: It is prepared on the basis of type of manufacturing process involved.
It is very useful where single or few products are manufactured repeatedly at regular intervals.
Thus it would show the required quality of each product and sequence in which the same to be
operated Scheduling of Job order manufacturing: Scheduling acquires greater importance in job
order manufacturing. This will enable the speedy execution of job at each centre point.
As far as small scale industry is concerned scheduling is of utmost importance as it brings out efficiency
in the operations and s reduces cost price. The small entrepreneur should maintain four types of schedules
to have a close scrutiny of all stages namely an enquiry schedule, a production schedule, a shop schedule
and an arrears schedule out of above four, a shop schedule is the most important most suited to the needs
of small scale industry as it enables a foreman to see at a glance.
 The total load on any section

 The operational sequence
 The stage, which any job has reached
D. Loading- The next step is the execution of the schedule plan as per the route chalked out it includes
the assignment of the work to the operators at their machines or work places. So loading determines who
will do the work as routing determines where and scheduling determines when it shall be done. Gantt
Charts are most commonly used in small industries in order to determine the existing load and also to
foresee how fast a job can be done. The usefulness of their technique lies in the fact that they compare
what has been done and what ought to have been done.

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Figure 72 Loading
Most of small scale enterprises fail due to non-adherence to delivery schedules therefore they can be
successful if they have ability to meet delivery order in time which no doubt depends upon production of
quality goods in right time. It makes all the more important for entrepreneur to judge ahead of time what
should be done, where and when thus to leave nothing to chance once the work has begun.
8.3.2. Controlling tools

As mentioned earlier, controlling is a vital part of PPC activities. Control features of PPC make the plans
successful and help in avoiding disasters. There are various act done by a planner as controlling measures
such as follow up, dispatching of goods and services etc. and inspection wherever and whenever required.
The controlling is done to monitor the progress of plan and access the need of modifications and
alterations (Corrective measures) required.
A. Dispatching -Dispatching involves issue of production orders for starting the operations. Necessary
authority and conformation is given for:

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 Movement of materials to different workstations

 Movement of tools and fixtures necessary for each operation
 Beginning of work on each operation
 Recording of time and cost involved in each operation
 Movement of work from one operation to another in accordance with the route sheet
 Inspecting or supervision of work
Figure 73 Dispatching
Dispatching is an important step as it translates production plans into production.
B. Follow up - Every production programme involves determination of the progress of work, removing
bottlenecks in the flow of work and ensuring that the productive operations are taking place in accordance
with the plans. It spots delays or deviations from the production plans. It helps to reveal detects in routing
and scheduling, misunderstanding of orders and instruction, under loading or overloading of work etc. All
problems or deviations are investigated and remedial measures are undertaken to ensure the completion of
work by the planned date.

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Figure 74 Follow up
C. Inspection: This is mainly to ensure the quality of goods. It can be required as effective agency of
production control.
Figure 75 Inspection
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Exercise:
List the tools used for planning and control.
8.4. Capacity Booking and planning

Planning as per the capacity available is very important for any garment manufacturing set-up. The
capacity booking must be done in a balanced manner to avoid the over booking and under booking. While
doing the capacity booking, a number of factors need to be considered and holistic approach should be
applied.
The key factors should be considered while capacity booking are-
1. Availability of
a. Manpower
b. Skill level
c. Machine and Equipment
d. Raw material
2. Quality standards as asked by buyer
3. Delivery dates
4. Other orders being executed at that time
5. Work load of all the departments or processes
6. Expertise of the manufacturing set up
Example -
With 1000 operators working 8 hours a day and absenteeism being 10% and efficiency equal to 80%, the
monthly capacity is as follows:
1000 operators x 480 (minutes per day) x 26 (days in month)
= 480,000 minutes per day
= 12480,000 minutes per month

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Absenteeism is 10% then potential capacity is 11232,000 minutes per month
If the efficiency is 80%, capacity is 8985600 minutes per month or 345,600 minutes per day.
8.5. Line Loading

Line loading is one of the regular activities of a planning person. The style which is going to be
manufactured needs to be feed in a sewing line for stitching. The selection of a suitable line is very crucial
for a successful execution of plan. While selecting the line for a particular style, one needs to consider
below points-
1. Status of the style being run in the line that time

2. The kind of style currently going on in the line
3. Product category
4. The WIP level in the line
5. Availability of stitching space on the floor
6. History of the line (Skill level, absenteeism level, past record, ability to deal with problems and
challenges)
7. Experience of executing same or similar style orders
8.6. WIP management in the floor

Work In Progress (WIP) is one of the important aspect of PPC .Effective management of WIP in the
factory is vital to the success of the plan. The WIP management has a significant impact on the through
put time and lead time of the order. More the WIP more the money is blocked in the process and this
affects the factory performance. At the same time maintaining a minimum WIP is also process
requirement to prevent the machine shut down due to unavailability of materials.
WIP in simple words is referred to the number of garment or parts (Fabric, Cut panels, semi-finished
garments, washed but unpacked garments, finished garments) made during production in the factory at
any one time. WIP would include fabric that has been spread, part sewn garments, through to finished
garments, which may have been packed but not booked for finished goods warehouse.
If we have to cut 10,000 pieces but sew only 6,000 pieces, then WIP in sewing will have to be increased
by 4,000 pieces on that day.

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WIP at every stage (such as Cutting, embroidery, sewing preparatory, sewing lines, dry process, washing,
and packing) should be calculated carefully, reported and monitored on a daily basis. WIP may be
measured and controlled by dividing the total WIP (Number of pieces in a section as well as in the entire
plant) in pieces by the average production target per day for the respective line, section, floor or factory.
Exercise:
Find out the values and fill in place of question mark (?), assuming that there is an uninterrupted
supply of material to the line
Finish WIP
Output Start WIP
Operation Output Cumulative Between
Operator in 2nd Between
Number in 1st Hr. O/P in 2 Hrs. Operations
Hr. Operations
after 2 Hrs.
1 A 200 ? 580
50 ?
2 B 180 360 ?
? 95
3 C 210 ? 505
10 0
4 D 220 295 ?

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Oder Planning-
A XYZ Garment manufacturing set up which has 100 sewing operators. The other data is as below-
Daily cutting capacity- 2000 Pcs/ Day (1Shift- 8.00 Hrs. Shift)
Daily Washing Capacity- 1000 Pcs/Day (Runs for 2 Shifts, each of 8.00 Hrs.)
Packing and Finishing – 1200 Pcs/Day (Runs for 2 Shifts, each of 8.00 Hrs.)
Garment SAM value – 20 min. and factory works at 65% efficiency.
Prepare a complete plan for an order of 30,000 pcs. with start and end dates for each process.
If the fabric and sewing in-house date is 01-Oct-2013, suggest the shipment dates by assuming other data
with proper logic.
8.7. Resource Management

Resource is anything which is involved for the conversion of input to output. Some of these are
raw material, man, machine, time, information etc…..For the company to be profitable these
resources should be managed in appropriate way, so that the organisation should follow the
scientific resource management principles.
8.8. Personal Management

The personnel management is concerned with the use of definite principles for organizing and
treating individuals at work and to develop them to the full as individuals and member of the
group so that they give best results to the enterprises. Men, material, machines and money are the
four important factors of production. Among these four factors human being constitute the
organisation at all levels and are regarded as only dynamic factor of production. So men power
planning, their proper selection, recruitment, their participation to the management and training
is an important aspect of personnel management.
8.8.1. Man power planning:

This is the process by which management determines how the organisation should move from its
current man power position to its desired man power position. Through planning, management

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strikes to have the right number and the right kind of people at the right places at the right time,
doing things which results in both organization and the individual maximum long run benefits.
The following are the specific objectives of manpower planning:
 To avoid sudden disruption of an enterprises production run
 To be prepared for fresh demands in terms of numbers, skills and occupation groups
 Utilizing and managing manpower according to the requirements of the organization
 Help in the process of selection and recruitment
 Helps in making the employees development program effective
 Minimization of labor costs
 To meet out changing job requirements due to technological change or growing business
operations.
8.8.2. Factors affecting manpower planning

Manpower planning is one of the most complex and complicated task in garment industry. A
number of factors have to be considered for an effective and efficient manpower planning. The
following are some important factors generally considered in this regard:-
 Working hours
 Numbers of shift
 Nature of production
 Product mix
 Performance rate
 Hours lost
8.8.3. Training and development

Training is the act of increase the knowledge and skill for doing the particular job the
development means growth of individual in all aspects. Development is a long term educational
process utilizing a systematic and organized procedure by which managerial personnel get

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conceptual; and theoretical knowledge. Training programs are directed towards maintaining and
improving current job performance, while developmental program may seek to develop skills for
future jobs.
Needs of training
Needs for systematic training program has been increased by rapid change in the business:-
 Job change
 Change in process, methods and procedures
 Rapid change in technology
 Change in volume of business
 Change in product etc.
Objectives of training and development
delivering of knowledge
Development of skill
Change of attitude
Training program
New employees have to learn new skill and since their motivation is likely to be high, they can
be acquainted relatively easily with the skill behaviour expected in their new position. On the
other hands trained experienced employees can be problematic. The training needs s of such
employees are not always easy to determine and when they can be the individual involved may
recent being asked to change their established ways of doing their jobs.
Manager can use four procedures to determine the training need of individual in their
organization or subunit:-
1. Performance appraisal

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2. analysis of job requirement

3. employees survey
4. organizational analysis
Once the organization‟s training need have been identified the supervisors must initiate the
appropriate training efforts. supervisors have to available a variety of training approaches. The
most common of these are on the job training method:-
 On-the-job
 Demonstration
 Off-the-job training
 Vestibule training
 Apprenticeship
Benefits of training
 Increased productivity
 Higher employees moral
 Reduce accident
 Reduction in spoilage waste and optimum utilization of resources
 Reduce supervision
 Increase organizational stability and flexibility
 Self development versatility and adaptability
 Reduced turn over and absenteeism
 Reduce in machine break down and maintenance
 Increase in earning of the employee
8.8.4. Multi skill operator training (MSO) for garment manufacturing

In the garment manufacturing field the multi skilled operator means, working/
operating/knowing/ expertise in more than one machine or operations. Multi skill operator
training is used to fulfill on the ones operator that absent on the work. Operators that to become
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a multi skilled operator should be an open minded to learn new technology & process and a
result oriented. It doesn‟t mean that this program is only for certain number of people. This
program is a continuous program round the year, so every one gets an opportunity for training. It
is the duty and responsibility of the line supervisor to motivate his teammates to be trained up.
He/she should know first, the importance and advantages of this program.
Multi skill operator training procedures
 MSO training should be conducted in a separate place/ layout away from the production
lines, where the required/ planned special machines are arranged. Training them with in
the existing lines are not advisable as the focus on each trainee will not be effective.
 The number of trainee should be limited, since it is the basic and deep training the trainer
may not able to control all of them if they are exceed the extent
 The time required for training is depending on the types of machine and operation that we
give the training. Whatever it is we have to give training till they understand or capture
what the training target is and we have to provide the satisfied aid material in
understandable way.
 On the request of the training coordinator, it is the maintenance department‟s

responsibility to arrange the specialized machines and other related accessories for the
training program.
The maintenance department needs to arrange one mechanic/ technician for this training on
a full time basis This is why because, when these operators starting training, they are using
imitated materials. Once they learned about the machine and corresponding operation, they
will continue their training on actual materials. So machines are required to set properly to
avoid rework and rejections of finished or semi-finished garment. Along with this he needs
to take care of the normal machine breakdowns.

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 The raw materials for the training like fabric, threads and other accessories are need to be
arranged by the management. During initial days of the training, the trainees will be
provided with cut panels of imitated fabric. The reason for this is, the operator is trained in
a machine
 which is new for him. So there will be a lot of quality problems due to which the garments
will get rejected. To avoid this we need to start the training in the substitute materials.
Once the operator is familiar with the machine and operation, the trainer will provide him/
her panels of actual material. For this, the operator trainers will coordinate with the sewing
line supervisor to feed these trainees.
 The training coordinator should monitor the training progress in the regular base. Trainees‟
hourly output need to be collected on every hour and the daily output figures need to be
complied in the reports for analysis/ reference. These reports help them for the operators‟
progress and for annual evaluation. The operator trainers will be provided with different
formats to monitor the progress like hourly production report, daily efficiency report and
quality reports. To graduate, the trainees should achieve the expected skill and knowledge
in the training.
 After the training program is completed, the trained operators will send back to their
respected lines along with a certificate of training which is certified by the training
coordinator. These MS operators should be allocated to a machine in which she got trained.
This is why because, if you place them in their earlier machine, they will forget the practice
of the new machine in which she was trained. So till they reach above 65% to 70
%efficiency, they should continue in the current trained operation/ machine. It is the line
supervisor‟s job and responsibility to monitor their progress now on wards. The training
coordinator will conduct a regular visit to the lines to ensure that those trained operators are
provided with continuous feeding to reach their speed and efficiency.

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8.9. Inventory management
8.9.1. What is Inventory

An “Inventory”, a very useful and general term, forms major proportion of total investment of
any manufacturing unit and each major function of the manufacturing unit has close eyes on the
inventory to be maintained.
An inventory is a stock of material used to facilitate production or to satisfy customers and so

Inventory can be taken as idle resource of any kind, which has potential economic value.
Production personnel like supervisors are concerned with enough inventories for smooth and
efficient running of the manufacturing processes, finance department concerns for least inventory
to make better use of available capital and at the same time prevent paying interest on capital for
the idle resources. Stores personnel sandwiched in-between, tries to find safe and mid-way
solutions in order to serve the production people by providing enough stock to prevent the
production losses due to stock-out and simultaneously agreeing on the arguments that emerges
from finance to stick to practice of least inventory. Finance personnel always try to find
opportunities to make best use of capital elsewhere for more productive purposes.
Management of inventory really helps organization to reduce the overall material cost and
ultimately the enhancement in profit. The basic concept for better material management is to
analyze the following and take appropriate decisions.
1) Items responsible for major consumption

2) Items to be carried in inventory
3) Exactly what quantity has to be ordered at a time
4) What are the appropriate inventory review methods for placing an order?
5) Making optimum use of available resources

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6) To maintain a close and critical evaluation of the inventory items that are needed to
absorb the uncertainty may be because of variations in item‟s lead time, emergency
requirement etc.
Now, how these decisions can be made? The basis and fundamental factors responsible for such
decisions have to be understood before arriving at certain fruitful conclusion.
Why inventory is required? On the one hand, inventory has to be reduced (Inventory is termed
and treated as idle resources having economic value) to the extent possible and on the other hand
it has to be compulsorily maintained. The reasons may be;
To enable products to be manufactured

To act as a buffer stock against an unpredictable high usage and lead time for
procurement.
In order to meet above basic requirements –
 How much large inventory has to be

 How often it should be replenished
Probably the demand for the items and its lead time during procurement can be seen as important
factors in determining the size of inventory. Secondly, if anything is given importance in
financial terms, it becomes easier to control it and attract everybody‟s attention.
8.9.2. Types of costs involved in inventory

Item Cost:
It is basically the purchase cost of the item (Cost per unit in Br.). It has nothing to do much with
inventory system since items are to be procured as per specified usage and specifications except
that the negotiation tactics, wherever possible, can be very helpful in reducing the purchase cost
of an item.
Ordering Cost (Set up cost or order preparation cost):

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This refers to the amount that is spent in placing one-time orders, or it is the total cost in respect
of placing an order. In placing a purchase order for a material, one has to incur expenses due to
advertizing, stationary and postage, telephone, telegram charges.
Inventory carrying (holding) cost:
It refers to the costs directly calculated from the size of inventory, time period of holding
inventory and value (in br.) of goods carried as inventory. In simple word carrying (holding)
cost is linked to capital cost tied up in inventory.
Stock-Out (Shortage) Cost:
It refers to the costs of loss of production due to non-availability of particular store item(s). The
stock-out cost is difficult to calculate. However it is to be taken care of by way of avoiding
shortages. Some of the costs that may be taken as stock-out costs include:
 Forgone profits
 Cost of purchasing items at premium
 Poor interpersonal relationship
 Good will and reputation
Exercise:
Trainees will be asked the type of cost involved in inventory

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CHAPTER 9
QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN APPAREL MANUFACTURING

9.1. Introduction
Quality is one of an important issue in garment manufacturing business. For every apparel production set-
up to get increased sales and better name amongst consumers and fellow companies it is important to
maintain a level of quality.
The importance of quality as one of the most important tool in running a business is now far from debate.
Quality has become the strong competitive weapon today and a growing number of companies have
realized improved quality as a surest way of survival and success. A manufacturer stays in business only
as long as his product quality satisfies his customers. Failure to maintain an adequate quality standard on
the sewing floor can therefore be disastrous.
Quality is a major issue concerning every garment-producing unit today. Quality has to be built into the
product and not just inspected for. Poor quality for buyer results in-
 Customer dissatisfaction
 Hampers the brand image
 Late delivery results in loss of market
Thus poor quality is to be avoided and for which ways and means must be found to reduce and eliminate
sub-standard product.
9.2. What is Quality
Garment quality may be broadly classified into two categories. One is from aesthetic point of view and
another is service ability of the product. The aesthetic value can be judged through inspection while the
service ability of the product can be determined through testing.
The common element of the business definitions is that the quality of a product or service refers to the
perception of the degree to which the product or service meets the customer's expectations. Quality has no
specific meaning unless related to a specific function and/or object. Fitness for use should be judged from
the customer‟s point of view and not from either the manufacturer‟s or seller‟s perspective.
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9.3. Objectives of Quality

To ensure the customer receives the products to an agreed specification at an acceptable price, at the right
time and place in the correct quantity. This is supported by effective and efficient customer service after
the sale. We should very clearly understand the importance of quality. Moreover remember the reason
why efforts being made for achieving the quality.
 Increased market share

 Profitable existence
 Goodwill
 Separate market identity
A person may emphasize on quality for increased market share. The demand from consumers end for high
quality product can also be the driving force.
9.4. Rework and rejects in Apparel manufacturing
Rejections may be defined as discarding or failing to accept a product that does not meeta set of
standards. This is the most important reason of increase of cost. Only because of rejections extra amount
of cutting is done. More the cutting is done lesser will be the cut to ship percentage and hence the
production cost and wastage will increase.
Rework is defined as correcting of defective, failed, or non-conforming item, during or after inspection.
Rework includes all follow on efforts such as disassembly, repair, replacement, reassembly, etc. Rework
also increases the production cost as both manpower and machinery have to be employed to alter the
defective piece which incurs extra cost.
9.4.1. Defects
Defects are all those non-conformances that are not acceptable by end customer. The parameter that
decides whether a garment is a quality garment or not is called as defect.Like imbalanced shape of the
garment, broken button or other trims, holes in fabrics, slip stitch, broken seam etc. In a defective garment
there may be more than one defect.

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9.4.2. Alteration
Alteration is defined as the rework and repair done to the garment to maintain the required quality.
Alteration may be the result of poor care taken with regard to the quality and other specification to be
taken in consideration in order to get optimum output.
Alteration results in rework which is more time consuming than actual sewing operation itself as before
alteration operators have to rip it open. Different sets of alteration or scraps work that cannot be altered
and lead to rejection of garment are also responsible for major portion of cost of alteration. So in short, if
most frequently occurring alteration as well as those alteration that lead to rejection of garment were
eliminated , it would lead to higher productivity and saving of time spent on rework .It would prevent not
only correction of alteration but reduce the cost of production as well.
There are two broad categories of alterations –
 Non-repairable alteration
 Repairable alteration
A. Non repairable alteration
The garment in which the major portion gets damaged and nothing can be done to remove such damages,
these garments are categorized as non-repairable and are kept for seconds. These alterations result into
part change which results into fabric wastage and is also time consuming alterations. Such alteration
results due to improper patterns, torn and damaged parts and also tough stain marks which could not be
removed.
B. Repairable alteration
The faults that can be solved by making the alteration come under this category. Such alterations
generally occur due to cutting problem, sewing problem or due to washing. These alterations occur
generally due to operator‟s negligence and improper inline inspection. Most frequent alterations were
runoff stitches, broken stitches, open seam, piping etc.
9.4.3. Defective Pieces

Defective pieces are those pieces, which are separated for alteration during checking may be for any
causes.

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Garment defects can be separated into 3 categories based on the sources of defects as -
A. Fabric defects
These are defects that are found in the fabric; mostly these are not caused by the sewing lines. If faulty
fabric is being used in garment making, at end garment manufacturer get a faulty or defective garment,
not a quality garment. Fabric inspection is considered one of the important processes in garment
production. During inspection, inspectors/checkers generally flag or mark defects or faulty areas.
For fabric checkers it is very important to know the common fabric faults and they must be able to
recognize defects. Fabric defects should be addressed at the point of fabric inspection, or cutting. The
latest point where fabric defects should be addressed is at assortment procedure. Fabric defects should not
appear at final garments.
B. Workmanship and handling defects

These are defects that are directly caused by production section; this would include all the cutting,
sewing section and finishing section. Approved samples must always be referenced to see what the
approved workmanship is. These defects should never be allowed to rise above a certain percentage.
Various defects can be observed on the garment during different process of garment manufacturing
stages:
Pattern defects in garment: Some parts of pattern are missing, probably because the marker did not
include the correct number of parts. Mixed parts, probably because the marker is not correctly labeled,
resulting in a marriage of wrong sized parts. Patterns not facing in correct direction on napped fabrics.
Not all patterns facing in same direction (either way) on a one-way fabric. Patterns not aligned with
respect to the fabric grain. Poor line definition (e.g. too thick chalk; indistinctly printed line, perforated
lay not powdered) leading to inaccurate cutting.
Spreading defects in garment: Not enough plies to cover quantity of garments required. These may be
due to plies misaligned, resulting in garment parts getting cut with bits missing in some plies at the edge
of the spread. Narrow fabric, causes garment parts at the edge of the lay getting cut with bits missing.
Incorrect tension of plies, i.e. fabric spread too tight or too loose.
This will result in parts not fitting in sewing, and finished garments not meeting size tolerances. Not all
plies facing in correct direction .This happens when fabric is not spread face down, face up, or face to
face as required. Unacceptable damages in the garment parts. Parts not fully included owing to splicing
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errors. Spread distorted by the attraction or repulsion of plies caused by excessive static electricity. Plies
are not spread accurately one above another for cutting. This results in mismatching checks.
Cutting defects in garment: Failure to follow the marker lines resulting in distorted garment parts. Top
and bottom plies can be a different size if the straight knife is allowed to lean, or if a round knife is used
on too high a spread.
 Notches which are misplaced, too deep, too shallow, angled, omitted, or wrong type to suit fabric.
 Drill marks, which are misplaced, wrong drill to suit fabric, omitted, not perpendicular through
the spread.
 Frayed edges, scorched or fused edges, caused by a faulty knife, not sharp enough, or rotating at
too high a speed.
 Garment part damaged by careless use of knife, perhaps overrunning cutting previous piece.
 Marker incorrectly positioned on top of spread.
 Garment parts have bits missing at edge of lay.
 If too tight or too loose then garment parts are distorted.
 Slits opened inaccurately or omitted.
Sewing defects: Like open seams, wrong stitching techniques used, same colour garment, but usage of
different colours threads on the garment, miss out of stitches in between, creasing of the garment,
erroneous thread tension and raw edges are some sewing defects that could occur so should be taken care
of.
C. Trims, accessories and embellishment defects
These defects involve colour and placement issues, as with workmanship defects. These defects include
things like labels, colour of sewing thread, screen print and embroidery designs and placements etc.
approved samples must always be referenced to for the correct placement and colour.
9.5. Quality Controlling and Assurance in Apparel production
9.5.1. Quality Control (QC)

Quality Control is defined as the operational techniques and the activities used to keep the quality of
inputs or outputs to specifications; to fulfil and verify requirements of quality.

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QC also is an instrument to ensure, at minimum practicable cost, that the requisite quality of product is
being achieved at every stage of manufacture from raw materials to boxed stock.
This may include the following activities:
 Checking the suitability of raw materials,
 Checking the manufacturing capability of the production undertaking
 Monitoring production; feeding back information; responding to that information; and so getting
defects removed at source
 Reduction of the fault rate
 Saving costs
 Maintenance of product consistency
Therefore, quality control is a system encompassing
 specifications,
 inspections,
 analysis and
 Recommendations.
All of these factors increase the possibility of developing further the business and the competitiveness of
the company, and is therefore to the benefit of the company; Quality control thus becomes a positive -
benefit.
The original function of quality control was to stop bad work leaving the factory and reaching the
customer. While modern thinking is to reduce the amount of bad work being made which save cost of
repair, rejects and speeds delivery. Now a day there is no way garment manufacturers can ignore
producing quality products. Quality comes first to most of the manufacturer supplying garments across
the countries. Quality must be controlled during processing whether it is done by the operators,
supervisors, pressman, garment packers or one employs a checker or inspector. In case quality of the
product and processes is not being controlled from beginning to end it will cause followings -
 High alteration and rejection of garments
 Requirement of extra manpower for checking of goods and repair work
 Factory may lose customers (buyers) as well as Brand Value
 Low motivated employees

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 Need to work for extra hours

 Delay in production completion
 Ultimately production cost will increase if one ignores quality control area in manufacturing stage
Therefore, the main aims of quality control are:-
 To make products/garments right first time
 To ensure that the requisite quality of product is achieved" which ensures customer satisfaction
 To ensure, at minimum practicable cost, the required quality of product is being achieved at every
stage of manufacture from raw materials to boxed stock.
9.5.2. Quality Assurance
Quality assurance is the process of verifying or determining whether products or services meet or exceed
customer expectations. It is a process-driven approach with specific steps to help define and attain goals.
This process considers design, development, production, and service. It covers all activities from design,
development, production, installation, servicing and documentation, this introduced the rule “Fit for
purpose” and “do it right first time”. It includes the regulation of the quality of raw materials, assemblies,
products and components; services related to production; and management, production, and inspection
processes.
Quality assurance also helps determine whether the steps used to provide the product is appropriate for
the time and conditions using PDCA (Plan Do Check and Act) cycle.
The four quality assurance steps within the PDCA model stand for
 Plan: Establish objectives and processes required to deliver the desired results.
 Do: Implement the process developed.
 Check: Monitor and evaluate the implemented process by testing the results against the
predetermined objectives
 Act: Apply actions necessary for improvement if the results require changes.
Quality assurance verifies that any customer offering, regardless if it is new or evolved is produced and
offered with the best possible materials, in the most comprehensive way, with the highest standards. The
goal to exceed customer expectations in a measurable and accountable process is provided by quality
assurance. People in organizations don‟t differentiate quality assurance (QA), quality control (QC).

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They are closely related, but they are different concepts.

 Quality Assurance - A set of activities designed to ensure that the development and/or
maintenance process is adequate to ensure a system will meet its objectives.
 Quality Control - A set of activities designed to evaluate a developed work product.
QA activities ensure that the process is defined and appropriate. Methodology and standards
development are examples of QA activities. A QA review would focus on the process elements of a
project such as requirements being defined at the proper level of detail.
QC activities focus on finding defects in specific deliverables and these are the defined requirements.
Testing is one example of a QC activity, but there are others such as inspections.
Generally, the difference is that QA is process oriented and QC is product oriented.
9.6. Inspection
It is the Visual Examination or review of Raw Materials such as fabric, buttons, zippers, sewing threads,
trims, etc., partially finished components of the garments and completely finished garments in relation to
some standards, specifications, or requirements, as well as measuring the garments to check if they meet
the required measurements.

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Figure 76 Inspection Loop
There are three broad categories of inspections-
9.6.1. Raw material Inspection

Raw material inspection includes
 Fabric checking-Quality
 Sewing threads-construction (count, Ply, twist, Strength, elongation, sew ability, colour,
imperfections, finish, package density, etc.
 Zippers-dimensions, colour, slider lock security, strength, etc.
 Buttons & Snap testing
 Labels, & other Accessories
9.6.2. In-process Inspection

In process means the inspection of parts before they are assembled in to a complete product. Inspecting or
checking the quality of component part as close to manufacturing as possible &there by identifying the
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source of quality problems if any as early in the manufacturing process as possible. In-process inspection
minimizes the need for later repairs & rework.
9.6.3. Final Inspection

This consists of inspecting finished goods from the customer point of view. Final inspection may occur
before or after garments are packed in poly bags & boxes. If it is done after garments are packed, then
proper size & style markings on the package can also be checked. In any case there are lot of points to
check such label, style, material, colour, accessories check, workmanship defect & size measurement, etc.
9.7. Fabric Quality control

After the fabric is received, it should be inspected to determine its acceptability from a quality view point:
otherwise extra cost in garment manufacturing may be incurred due to either the loss of the material or
time. Some garments manufacturers rely on their fabric suppliers to perform fabric inspection and mark
fabric defects. Fabric inspection prior to spreading will remove the burden of quality responsibility from
those performing the spreading and cutting functions. Fabric inspection is usually done on fabric
inspection machine. Defects in a fabric can be seen readily with these machines, as the inspector has a
very good view of the fabric and the fabric does not need to be reversed to detect defects. The defects are
located, marked and recorded on an inspection form.
Fabric Inspection systems

 4 point system
 10 point system
A. 4-point system
The 4-point system also called the American Apparel Manufacturers Association (AAMA) point grading
system for determining fabric quality, is widely used by producers of apparel fabrics and by the
department of Defence in the United states and is endorsed by the AAMA as well as the ASQC.

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Table 6 4-point system
Size of the Fabric Defect Penalty Points

(Length In Inches) allotted
Up to 3” 1
Over 3” Up to 6” 2
Over 6” Up to 9” 3
Over 9” 4
Holes and openings (largest Dimensions)
1” or Less 2
Over 1” 4
Total defect points per 100 yd2 are calculated, and normally those fabric rolls more than 40 points per 100
yd2 are considered “seconds”. Though the criteria to select or reject the fabric is generally depends on
mutually agreed terms between the supplier and vendor, and a garment manufacturer based on the price
line and type of garments produced may use more or less than 40 points per 100 yd2 as an acceptance
criterion. . The maximum number of defect points to be counted against any one linear yard is 4 points.
Overall fabric quality is assessed on the basis of the number of defects points per 100 yd2 of fabric.
There are different levels of acceptance a fabric in terms on penalty points, as below-
 For Woven: 40 points per 100 sq.yards
 For Knitted: 50 points per 100 linear yards (upto 64”-66” wide fabric)
For Wider Fabrics keep on increasing proportionally with 64” as base.
For example, there is a fabric role, width of 48’’ and the length of the role is 120 yds.
There are 2 defects which has length less than 3”, then Limit of number of defects to 3 inch 2 X 1 = 2
points
5 defects over 3 in. but less than 6 in. 5 X2 = 10 points
1 defect over 6 in. but less than 9 in. 1 X 3 = 3 points
1 defect over 9 in. 1 X 4 = 4 points
Total defect points (points scored) = 19

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Area of the fabric (Yd2) = (48 X 120)/ 36 (There are 36” in 1 Yd. length)
Therefore points /yd2 = 19/ Area of the fabric
= (19 X 36) / 48 X 120
Points per 100 Yd2= (19 X 36) X 100 / 48 X 120
= 11.9 defect points /100 yd2
Assuming, if the acceptance criteria are 40 points per 100 yd2 then this roll is acceptable.
B. 10 point system
Under this system, fabric defects are assigned point values based on the following:
Table 7 -10 Point Fabric Inspection System
Warp defects (Length in No. of penalty

Weft defects (Length in inches )
inches ) points
Over 10” but less than 36” Over half width 10 points
Over 5” but less than 10” Over 5” but less than half width 5 points
Over 1” but less than 5” Over 1” but less than 5” 3 points
1” or less 1” or less 1 point
No linear yard of the fabric is assigned more than 10 points, no matter how bad or frequent defects are.
Fabric is considered “first” quality if the numbers of defects points are less thanthe number of yards of
fabric inspected. In the case of the fabrics wider than 50 in., the fabric is considered first if the total defect
points do not exceed the number of yards of fabric inspected by 10%.
Exercise: A fabric roll 120 yards long and 46 inch wide contains following defects.
4 defects up to 3 inch length 4x1 4 points

3 defects from 3 to 6 inch 3X2 6 points
length 2X3 6 points
2 defects from 6 to 9 inch 1X4 4 points
length 1X4 4 points
1 defect over 9 inch length
1 hole over 1 inch
Total defect points 24 Points
Therefore, = (24 X 3600)/(120 X 46)
Points/ 100 sq. Yards = 15.652 points
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9.8. Quality control in spreading

Spreading is a preparatory operation for cutting and consists of laying plies of cloth one on top of the
other in a predetermined direction and relationship between the right and wrong sides of the cloth. The
composition of each spread i.e. the number of plies of each colour is obtained from the cut order plan.
Spreading quality must be measured with respect to the following factors-
 Ply alignment: length and width

 Ply tension: stretch, slack edge
 Grain alignment: bowing
 Splicing: waste and precision;
 Damage placement: economy of placement;
 Surface direction; and
 Static electricity
Quality Check points in Fabric Spreading
 Fabric spreading according to correct alignment with marker length and width
 Maintain requirements of spreading
 Matching of check and stripe
 Lay contains correct number of fabric ply
 Correct Ply direction
 To control the fabric splicing
 Tension control
9.9. Quality control in Cutting

Cutting is irreversible process in garments cutting, so it must be done carefully. Cutting affects the overall
quality of a finished garment. Cut parts inspection helps in improving the quality product for go ahead in
stitching. During cut parts inspection shade, shape and other faults are removed and on the basis of
rejected pieces report a lot is hold or go ahead for stitching, so by controlling quality at this stage is
fruitful in spite of we stitch a garment and after stitching that garment is rejected.

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When cutting the fabric manually the following points have to be considered to avoid defect in cutting -
 Ensure small parts are cut first starting from one end of the folding.
 Ensure marker position is not disturbed in the cutting process.
 Ensure shapes are accurate after cutting (this could be achieved if correct cutting mode is
followed).
 Ensure miss-cuts, Ragged cuts, Narrow goods are not resulted in cut components.
 Ensure cut-marks and notch marks are accurate.
 Shaping should be done immediately if necessary.
Cut panel Quality control
A. Numbering
Numbering plan must be given by the numbering in charge, specifying the style #, colour, Serial No., No.
Of garments cut, sizes. All the parts shall be numbered in a pre-determined sequence and at
predetermined location. Numbering stickers gum strength (Light/Medium/Heavy) has to be decided
keeping in mind the kind of fabric being cut.
B. Sorting, Bundling, Storage and transfer for Production

After the completion of the cutting process the spread is first sorted out in respect of different sizes and
the components of the pattern and then these sorted out components are handled according to the
production policy and the needs of the plant. The manner of folding or superposing the plies in the
bundles should be such that there is (a) minimum or no creasing, and (b) minimum or no disarraying of
the cut alignment. Any deviation from these two principles increases the pick-up and positioning time for
the sewing operator.
C. Panel Checking System

The checkers perform panel checking by placing the cut panels on the pattern and checking for accuracy
of notches, grain lines, nap direction, crocked cutting, measurements & tolerance. Mark the pattern on a
board (Acrylic. Card Board) along with +/- tolerance as dotted lines around the outline marked. Place the
cut panel (component) on this marked area. It becomes easier to asses if the cut panel is within or out of

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tolerance. This inspection board has to verified and approved by pattern maker before usage. Once the
fabric is cut, they shall be bundled and marked with inspection status.
9.10. Quality Control in Sewing and Finishing
Quality Control is made by Sewing Quality Controllers in sewing area and Finishing Quality Controllers
area. Both positions are performing 100% quality control over 100% quantity of garments using standard
Quality Control.
Handlings and sort the controlled garments into 1st, 2nd quality and defected garments: spot cleaning,
repairs which can be process and transformed into 1st or 2nd quality garments again. At the end of the
process results will be only 1st and 2nd quality garments.
Quality Control operation in sewing section includes-
 controlling all parts of the product using special ways of handling the products -Quality
Handlings
 identify the defects, mark defects with a sticker
 cutting all threads out of the product
 sorting the garments into: 1st quality, spot cleaning, repairs, 2nd quality
When a garment arrive at this stage, Sewing Quality Controller will perform Quality Control (controlling
all parts of the product; identify the defects; mark defects with a sticker; cutting all threads out of the
product; sorting the garments into: 1st quality, spot cleaning, repairs, 2nd quality)
9.11. Defect measurement
For the quantitative measure there is two measuring unit as Defects per hundred units and percentage
defective.
Defects per hundred units (DHU) – number of total defects in 100 checked garments. The formula for
calculating DHU is
DHU = Total no. of defects found X 100 / Total pieces checked
Defective (%) – total number of defective pieces in 100 checked garments.

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Percentage defective = Total no. of defective pieces X 100 / Total pieces checked
Exercise:
Suppose in a day one table checker checked 200 pieces. He found total 15 defective pieces
and in those 15 pieces total 60 defects were found. So, quality measure of that lot in terms
of DHU is 30 (60*100/200) and Percentage Defective is 7.5%.
9.12. Finishing and Packing Quality Control

The following points are ensured by the QA inspector while ironing is in process:
 Knit product must be iron finished at proper temp

 The system press must have Teflon shoe and must be cleaned periodically
 Areas such as collar, embroidery, printing, etc. should not be hard ironed.
 No small wrinkles, defective lustre and iron-pressed marks should be observed on the surface
 The size of the iron finished product must conform to order specification
 The garment must be allowed to be cooled for at least 1 hour before putting in poly bag.
 The ironing table top cloth must have marking for horizontal and vertical markings matching
the outline size of the garment.
Packing is also an important aspect of a given garment. The following aspects are checked by the
inspector:
 The price ticket, hangtag, bar code stickers.

 The right size of the poly bag should be used for the garment
 After the garment is inserted in the poly bag, it should not be sloppy or too tight.
 The ratio of pre-packs and qualities per carton must be checked randomly.
 The garment through the poly bag must be visually symmetric
 All carton markings must conform to the order requirement

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9.13. Final Inspection and Auditing

The purpose of the final, audit is to establish the quality level of the final pieces goods before it leaves the
factory. The QA manager has to conduct a final quality audit of the packed goods and this has to done at
two stages (as a common practice followed):
 Once 50% of the shipment is packed
 Other when 100% of the shipment is packed In case there is any quality problem at the above
stages, the packed goods have to be screened for the specific quality aspects Once corrected
the above procedure has to be repeated again.
A. Final inspection
Final inspection of garment is a vital process of quality control for measuring the quality of the product,
comparing with requirements and acting on the variations. Final inspection may occur before or after
garments are packed in poly bags & boxes. If it is done after garments are packed, then proper size &
style markings on the package can also be checked. In any case there are lots of points to check;
Labelling, style, material, colour, accessories check average workmanship defect & size measurement,
etc.
9.14. How to inspect a garment

While doing an inspection of the garment, an inspector conducts two basic activities, 1. Visual inspection
and 2, check the measurement of the garment.
For the visual inspection, garments are divided in to zones based on the criticality from the consumer‟s
point of view and on the basis of a defect in the particular zone, garment is rated.

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Figure 77 Garment Zones
Each Product has specific zones that are more important than others, and guidelines are defined
accordingly
Zones of the highest priority are those areas most likely to be viewed during face to face
conversations with someone or those areas most likely to be seen when using the product. Product
zones that are more visible to a customer are more crucial in maintaining higher levels of quality
Acceptance or Rejection of the defective product is prioritized by the area, zone, in which it occurs.
Zone -1 - Areas with extremely high visibility those are likely to be viewed from a close distance at
the time of purchase or receipt. Cosmetic flaws located in this zone would be considered Major and
would be the cause for rejection of the product.
Zone – 2- Areas which are not visibly dominant, but are visible in normal use. Cosmetic flaws in this
zone would be evaluated based upon size of the defect, colour, and intended end use of the product to
determine acceptability.
Zone - 3 - Areas normally hidden in everyday use, but could be visible on occasion. Cosmetic flaws
in this zone are more acceptable than in any other location on the garment. Flaws occurring in this
zone would be evaluated product but based upon the intended use of the garment.
Use layering technique wherever possible, i.e. placing one garment over the other of same size
&colour. This technique is an excellent tool to compare colourvariations & major size deviations.
While talking the measurements, one should always follow the technical measurement sheet/GSS
refereeing the techpack approved by the buyer. Ant there must be no confusion. If the authentic
reference is not available, the measurements should not be taken based on assumption

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9.15. Method of Inspection
Keep the garment always flat and without any stretching but without any slackness also.
Step - 1
 Inspect articles in a clockwise direction.
 All references to Right and Left are as worn and not as
viewed.
Figure 10.2 How to Inspect a Garment, Step-1
Step - 2
 Examine all seams by applying firm, consistent tension to
either side of the seam
Figure 7.3 How to Inspect a Garment, Step-2

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Step - 3
 All major defects should be marked with a sticker and
placed to one side.
Accept Reject
Figure 78 How to Inspect a Garment
9.16. Acceptable Quality Level

It is the Maximum Percentage Defective that for the purpose of Sampling Inspection can be considered
satisfactory as a Process Average. A Statistical Sampling tools helps in distinguishing b/n the acceptable
and unacceptable lots.
Basic Assumption - If a Proportionate sample is randomly drawn from a lot, the sample would represent
the quality level of the lot and based on this the acceptance decision can be made. Most General used
AQL level used in apparel manufacturing is normal Inspection Level II, QAL 2.5/4.0.

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Table 8 Inspection levels and Lot size

Lot or Special Inspection Levels General Inspection Levels
Batch size
S-1 S-2 S-3 S-4 I II III
2 to 8 A A A A A A A
9 to 15 A A A A A B C
16 to 25 A A B B B C D
26 to 50 A B B C C D E
51 to 90 B B C C C E F
91 to 150 B B C D D F G
151 to 280 B C D E E G H
281 to 500 B C D E F H J
501 to 1200 C C E F G J K
1201 to 3200 C D E G H K L
3201 to 10000 C D F G J L M
10001 to 35000 C D F H K M N
35001 to 150000 D E G J L N P
150001 to 500000 D E G J M P Q
500001 to overTable 9 Single
D Sampling
E HPlan for
K NormalNInspection
Q R
Exercise:
Trainees should bring a garment and need to identify critical zones and should also inspect
the garment

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9.17. Supervisor’s Responsibility in Apparel Quality Management

 Maintain quality discipline and there should be no compromise with the product quality
standards.
 Make sure correct trims, needles and supplies are used.
 Identification and correction of faults should be done instead of hiding the mistakes.
 Complete knowledge of garment operation sequence and specification.
 Using information collected by examiners to improve the quality of garments.
 Make sure the operators can do what is expected of them and follow up to make sure that
they do it.
 Encourage good housekeeping
 Act immediately upon hearing of machine problems
 Offer suggestions to Management regarding potential quality problems
Exercise:
Trainees will be asked to explain their role as a supervisor as far as quality is concerned
CHAPTER - 10
How to Improve Productivity

10.1. Introduction
Productivity, in simple words, is the relationship between output and input. The output in
garment factories can be pieces of finished garments. The output of sections or departments
within the garment factories could be: metres of the fabric inspected in fabric inspection section,
cut components in cutting room, number of garments ironed in the ironing section and so on. The
examples of input are: man-hours, machine hours, metres of fabric consumed or electricity
consumed.
10.2. What is productivity?

Productivity is defined as the effective and efficient utilization of all organizational resources,
including capital, labor, materials, machineries, energy, land, information and time. Productivity

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is an output generated and input provided ratio of a production system. Thus main indicator of
improving productivity is decreasing the ratio of output to input at constant or improved quality.
(Shu-Hwa 1994:26-29)
Productivity = Input
Output
Productivity implies a company's production ability. There are many different examples of
productivity measurements used in industries and organizations including single dimensional and
multidimensional measures. These measurements are both used for monitoring and development
of the daily operation as well as for long-term strategic considerations of the business.
Some of the most common productivity measurements are listed below:
Total productivity
Direct labour productivity
Indirect labour productivity
Fixed capital productivity
Working capital productivity
Value-added productivity
10.3. Factors that affect labour and machine productivity

There are different factors that affect directly or indirectly labour and machine productivity in
apparel industry. Some of the factors are:
Product Development Capability
Cutting Room Organization
Sewing Organization
Organization and Control Systems
Leadership quality

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Training and empowerment
Availability of raw material
Type of production layout and production method followed
Automation level of machine
Rework rate level
Absenteeism and turnover
Working environment
Continuous order
10.4. Ways to improve labor and machine productivity

There are many ways that improves labour and machine productivity of garment manufacturers
and it depends on how the company is committed and have the capacity to continuously monitor
those factors. Some of the factors are listed below.
Management commitment
Productivity improvement schemes require discipline and co-operation from all concerned,
permanent improvements will be maintained only with top management involvement and
support.
Training and empowerment

Without sufficient skills and knowledge your main asset, the people who work for you will not
be effective. Real, in depth productivity improvement will only be achieved by improving the
skill base in the business
Conducting motion study and correcting faulty motions
Always there is a room for improvement so go to 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.
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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 and take corrective
action.
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.
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.
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
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
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. [9]
Using auto trimmer sewing machine (UBT)

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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.
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
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. [9]
10.5. Impact of Labour Productivity Improvement

Improving labour and machine productivity will enhance the overall company performance.
Some of the benefits of improving machine labor productivity are:
Reduced Costs
Increased Output
Improved Capital Productivity
Increase overall company efficiency
Improve labour motivation
Increase revenue
Increase customer satisfaction
Exercise: Class room discussion on the factors that affect productivity and discuss on the ways
to improve labor productivity

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CHAPTER - 11
LEAN MANUFACTURING
11.1. Introduction
With the increase in international competitiveness on the global front, buyers continuously demand price
reduction, high quality and better service from manufacturers / service providers.
LEAN Philosophy can be defined as- “To identify, reduce and if possible eliminate wastes
(Mudas) from the processes.”
Lean Manufacturing is a term referred to a group of techniques and practices, which are being widely
usedacross the globe, aiming to minimize and or eliminate waste and inefficiency from the manufacturing
process. Such practices result in greater competitiveness for manufacturers through optimum utilization of
resources and achieving excellence.
Big is better is common saying but as per LEAN philosophy it‟s not always true. LEAN is all about
optimization of resources utilization and minimization of wastages wherever possible with minimum or
No expenses. The objective is to achieve more output from lesser resources.
Here the key point is work on reduction or if possible elimination of the „wastage‟; which can be of
manpower, material, time, space or any other thing. These are actually nothing but Non Value Adding
things.
For easy understanding Lean can be taken as-
 Change from OLD habits to NEW & BETTER habits

 Identify, reduce and if possible eliminate wastages
 Improve Value Adding (VA) Ratio or reduce Through put time (TPT)
 Achieve OTIFEF (On Time In Full Error Free)
 To achieve excellence or even perfection in every aspects of the enterprise by continual
identification/reduction/eliminate waste.
 SDCA/PDCA cycle
 Sustain what you improve, improve what you sustain

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 Continual Improvement-KAIZEN
11.2. Value Addition (VA) and Non-value Addition (NVA)

LEAN Philosophy can be defined as- “To identify, reduce and if possible eliminate wastes (Mudas) from
the processes”. Here the identification of waste is a primary and an obvious requirement for LEAN.
Without which one can‟t achieve the excellence due to lack of awareness about the wastages or non-value
adding (NVA) activities; hence course of action is left undecided. Capability to identify these Non value
added activities can be developed with some training and practice. While discussing value adding and
non-value adding, there has to be criteria on which things or activities can be judged, the suggested 3
point criteria for the same is as below-
 There must be a phase transformation in the product- Its true for both type of products,
tangible as well intangible; for example if in-case of software; putting a logic or applying a macro
will may change the working of software, or using a sequence of digits to get a particular result
may be considered as a phase change. In case of garments, converting the fabric in to cut panels
or attaching a label while stitching may be considered as a phase change in the product.
 The change happens due to some processing or activity should be aiming to achieve the
quality standards as required by the buyer- Like setting up the time, pressure and temperature
of heat seal machine to avoid peel off or applying bar-tacks of specified dimensions by specified
thread on particular positions as per buyer‟s requirement.
 Buyer should be ready to pay for it- For example if the manufacturer is attaching one additional
button under the front placket, it may be a good thing for the vendor or the end user, but buyer
will not accept it, as it was not asked and not considered in costing of the product. Another
example may be taken as ironing of garments, though it was not asked by the buyer, after ironing
the garment may look good but for the buyer‟s point of view, it‟s of no use. And buyer may not
pay for this. In this case this activity can‟t be considered as a Value Adding activity.
An activity or process will qualify as Value Added activity, if all three above mentioned criteria will be
fulfilled otherwise it should be considered as Non Value Adding activity. Once the Value Adding and Non

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Value adding criteria is clear, there may be a comprehensive list of Non Value adding activities involved
in the process, adding to it there may be some activities which are Non Value adding but necessary for the
product and considering the availability of the resources it can‟t be eliminated. The % share of Non Value
adding and Necessary but Non Value Adding activities may give shock to the observer and the other
concerned people.
11.3. Major wastages in process

There are 8 major categories, in which the operational wastes (Mudas) can be classified. Muda is the
word used for waste in Japanese language. The major wastage categories are –
Muda of Transportation- This type of waste is a result of any movement of material or machine or both
and doesn‟t add any value to the process. There are many example can be traced out related to the
garment manufacturing, few of them are-
 Inappropriate Plant lay out with poor utilization of space, where goods need to travel more
distance than required.
 Location of various processes not in linear sequence and material flow is disrupted.
 Wrong machine sequence allocation while setting up a line.
 No provision of moving goods by using gravity.
Muda of Motion-This is related unnecessary physical movements of the workers, supervisors or other
officials. This results in unnecessary physical stress on body and affects the working efficiency of the
person as well as wastage of productive time. This is also primarily related to the poor design of lay-out,
where the facilities are located in such a way, one has to move more. Some very common examples are-
 Closed departments/sections with invisible partitions/walls, this makes the supervisor/manager
more walking.
 The workforce is coming for work from long distances, and till they reach for work, they feel
exhausted with low energy levels. For example, if its takes 2 Hrs. in coming to the work premises; 4
Hrs. (1/6th of a day) is wasted only in this.
 Long distance between Cafeteria and the work floor may again cause waste of productive time
to the worker.

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Muda of Waiting- This is nothing but wastage of time while waiting. This is one of most common type
of wastage present in the garment manufacturing set-up and can be observed easily. Some examples of
muda of waiting are-
 Merchants waiting for approvals from buyers.
 Production people waiting for approvals on production related issues from Quality personnel.
 Operators are sitting idle without work.
 Poorly balanced lines and uneven distribution of work with bottle necks; this makes operators
wait for material from the previous operation hence he has to sit idle.
 The fabric which was cut earlier is waiting to be feed in the line, and another latest cut order is
being feed for stitching, this may happen due to wrong planning.
Waiting of production lines due to shortage of sewing trims, it may be due to wrong estimation of
material consumption.
Muda of Rework- This issue is extensively discussed in the last few years by various quality gurus and
other manufacturing experts, and nowadays taken care seriously in the garment manufacturing set ups.
Few examples of muda of rework are stated below-
 Not doing things Right first time and then wasting time, manpower, machine and other
resources in correction, while this time was supposed to be utilized for fresh activities. This may
affect the activities which are in-line for future.
 Wrong data entry and then correction.
 Mistakes in the techpack or GSS, it may cause further losses if not corrected timely as
production may happen on the basis of earlier wrongly written information.
Muda of Over Processing-This is related to the extra processing done (Knowingly or unknowingly) on
the product to improve the quality or performance of the product. There is a belief, that we should apply
fertilizer in the field quite enough to get the best crop, excess fertilizer may destroy it. Most of the times
the main reason for Muda of over processing is lack of standardization of the process, and people do hit
and trial to achieve the results. The same principle applies here also in garments, some examples related
to garment manufacturing may be taken as-
 Putting extra strokes of stitches for improved strength.
 Applying additional reinforcement in terms of bar tacks and locking or rivets.

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 Putting more chemicals than required quantity to get wash effect.

 Over rubbing/destruction while dry processing.
 While heats sealing, put the material under temperature for longer time than required.
 Apply additional support under the fabrics while doing embroidery.
 Separate Data entry of production figures at different places or departments.
 Too many report generations and unnecessary reconciliations.
Muda of Inventory- This is referred as keeping the stocks more than required at various levels of the
production. It results in many problems, sometimes too serious to handle and recover. In context of
Garments trade, there are lots of issues due to over inventory. Extra inventory results to higher capital
blockage as dead asset and additional expenditure on storage, security with possibility of higher defects.
Few examples of this waste category related to garment manufacturing can be taken as below-
 Keep fabrics and trims stock more than required, the extra quantities need space and protection
from theft, sunlight, rain etc., which are non-value adding activities and the material is left unused
may be out of demand in future, and there are chances it is sold as scrap too.
 While the store is filled with dead inventories, there are chances of space shortage for the useful
and expensive material, it caused additional expenses.
 Cutting inventory more than required- in case the pattern/ marker or fabric is wrong, it may lead
to disasters and unrecoverable losses.
 Stitching inventory (Line WIP) more than required- in case there are measurement issues or
fabric shrinkage is variable, stitching bigger quantities may cause shipment failures.
 While stitching inventories higher, if particular thread applied is wrong- it again may cause
problems, and complexities related to approvals etc.
 Packed goods in finished goods store, but unshipped.
Muda of Over Production - This is called as “Mother of all Mudas” as most of the time, it is the source
of various different type of wastages and inefficiencies. This can also be compared to traditional PUSH
mentality, over production demands for more inventories, more storage space, more chances of error due
to unnecessary pressure on workers to produce more and at the same time more proximity of rework and
in future may lead to over processing. And by doing the over production, muda of waiting also increases

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as all the processes or stages of supply chain are not balanced/prepared for the excess production, it
created bottle necks and results in waiting or idleness.
Muda of Unused Manpower-This is one another type of wastage,which has not been recognized
completely till now in the garment business particularly in Indian context.Lower productivity levels/
person are one of the few indicators of the same. Employing excess manpower than requirement is one
common scenario in Indian garments industry, this leads to increased liabilities and additional expenses to
the business.
Not allocating the adequate job responsibilities to the right people is another form of muda of unused
manpower. People should be given the work as per best of their abilities and expertise. If one skilled
operator who can do some critical operations and given a job of helper, its results in exponential loss-
1. Financial loss, as you need to pay higher for simpler work,
2. Chances of operational errors and quality issues, as if the person, who is doing the work for
which he in not trained; may commit mistakes.
3. The morale of the person may be down and he/she may feel discouraged and unmotivated, this
may be a long term loss for the organization and need to be taken care by HR department
seriously.
Exercise:
Identify and explain different wastes
11.4. 5-SS Philosophy

The 5S philosophy is a philosophy and key LEAN tool aiming to effective workplace management and
standard work procedures with an emphasis of self-discipline. 5-S is inspired from five Japanese words
that begin with S, as SEIRI, SEISO, SEITON, SEIKETSU and SEITSUKE.

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5S programs have been implemented in a number of organizations across the globe and proved to be a
way to improve work place improvement with higher production standards. The programmes have also
resulted into improving employee morale and safety.
Table 10 5 – S Philosophy
Sr. No. Name Meaning Key Considerations Aim

 Separate necessary (Red Tag
Movement) from unnecessary
1st ‘S’  Saving and
Sorting Out (Wanted Vs. Unwanted)
SEIRI Recovering
 Remove what is not required
Space
 Decide on frequency of sorting
(based on the usage)
Systematic  Arranging in order  Minimizing
2nd ‘S’ (Sequence/organise) searchTime
SEITON Arrangement
 A place for everything and every  De-cluttering the
useful thing in its place workplace
 Inspecting for
 Clearing the work place /
3rd ‘S’ Neat and Clean problems
SEISO equipment  Taking
corrective
actions, faster
 Achieving
4th‘S’ Standardization  Working methodology higher
SEIKETSU
 (Rules and regulations)  productivity and
better quality
Sustain by Self  Forming the habit  Doing it Right
5th‘S’
SHITSUKE -Discipline  Training and re-training first time and
 Be disciplined every time
11.5. KANBAN or Pull Philosophy

Kanban is one of the LEAN tools. Kanban is a Japanese word made of KAN and BAN, which means
Visual Signals. These signals may be a card/board or any visual signal is called Kanban Card. It‟s
synonymous to “PULL” system. KANBAN is a kind of planning tool which is Demand Driven and used
for Demand Scheduling. It can be said as a “Production Levelling Tool” also. KANBAN or Pull
manufacturing is a visual replenishment of goods based on actual demand. Whatever is demanded by the
next work centre is only produced.

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KANBAN was initiated in 1940‟s by Toyota Manufacturing in Japan as a part of JIT practices and got
popularity in global recession of 1970‟s, when companies tried to reduce waste and cut costs.Kanban is
one of the primary tools of a Just in Time (JIT) manufacturing system. It signals a cycle of replenishment
for production and materials. This can be considered as a “demand” for product from on step in the
manufacturing or delivery process to the next.
The key focus of Pull philosophy is
“Producing things/Services in the quantity as required and when it is required.”
 Exactly What to Produce?

 How much to Produce?
 In what sequence to Produce?
It‟s a demand driven concept, things are produced and supplied only when required, the items are
produced only what is required and supplied in quantity only what is required NOT More and NOT
Less also.
KANBAN Controls the amounts of raw material amounts and of material in Work in Process .It maintains
smooth out flow, if sized properly and able to highlight problems and disturbance in the process. It also as
sures there is always just enough material on hand to make what is needed.
Video of KANBAN

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CHAPTER - 12
Supervision in Garment Manufacturing

12.1. Introduction
The term "supervisor" means any individual having authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire,
transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees, or
responsibly to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend such action, if in
connection with the foregoing the exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature,
but requires the use of independent judgment.
In other words, supervisor is a person in the first-line management who monitors and regulates operators
in their performance of assigned or delegated tasks. Supervisors are usually authorized to recommend
and/or effect hiring, disciplining, promoting, punishing, rewarding, and other associated activities
regarding the employees in their departments.
But a shop floor supervisor is responsible for the day-to-day performance of a small group. It may be a
team, or a shift. The supervisor has experience in what the group does, but is not necessarily better at it
than everyone he/she supervises. The supervisor's job is to guide the group toward its goals, see that all
operators of the team are productive, and resolve problems as they arise.
A shop floor supervisor generally, in apparel industry, does not have the power to hire or fire employees
or to promote them. A shop floor supervisor usually recommends such action to the next level of
management. The shop floor supervisor does, however, often have the authority to change the work roles
of the members of the team, for instance deciding which individual will work at which operation.
12.2. The supervisor's role and functions

The role of a supervisor is one of the most neglected areas in garment manufacturing. The natural
progression from helper to operator to line supervisor is an accepted norm in many garment
manufacturing factories. Neither do we understand what the required capabilities in a person to be a good
line supervisor are nor do we know how to impart that skill.
The supervisory role can be divided in to 2 broad categories-

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Effective Tasks- that have a direct impact on productivity and quality

1. Quality checking
2. Hourly check of performance
3. Line balancing
4. Discussions with Line Manager
5. Praising good performing machinists
6. Disciplining poor performing machinists
7. Operator performance boosting
8. Instructing operators and giving orders
Ineffective Tasks- that have NO direct impact on quality or productivity

1. Passive observation of the section
2. Repairs
3. Moving work
Supervisors play an important role in the business environment. Their primary job is to see that
the work performed by employees is completed on time and at the highest level of quality. In
order to complete this task, they must know the production process and have an understanding of
human behaviour.
Supervisors perform a wide range of functions, all of which are closely intertwined. For
example, they must be excellent communicators. It is their job to write reports, letters, memos,
performance appraisals, and the gamut of documents that businesses need to operate.
Supervisor as Communicator
Supervisors are required to communicate with a variety of personnel in the course of their jobs.
Approaches that might improve the productivity of people in their 20s, for example, are not
generally applicable to people in their 50s. Similarly, supervisors must deal with people with a
wide range of personal styles, regardless of their ages and backgrounds. Supervisors must be able
to write and speak concisely, clearly, consistently, and courteously with senior managers,
production workers, customers, suppliers, and other people who have an interest in the
organization's activities. It is the supervisor's responsibility to start the upward communication

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process to inform middle and senior managers about production problems, adherence to
production schedules, budget variances, and other matters. Furthermore, supervisors must be
able to react to downward communications from senior managers in order to address problems as
quickly and efficiently as possible.
Supervisory reporting mechanisms most commonly involve oral and written reports needed to
protect their workers, the organization, and themselves from legal actions. For instance,
supervisors must know when and in what form to document problems with personnel, which
regulatory forms must be completed, to whom they must be submitted, and how frequently they
should be done. Supervisors must also understand laws and ethical guidelines governing
employee surveillance as they endeavour to monitor employee performance. Privacy issues play
an increasingly large role in the workplace, as practices including drug testing, videotaping of
employees, reviewing the computer files of employees, and monitoring the phone conversations
of employees become commonplace in the business world. A large part of a supervisor's time is
spent communicating. In fact, some estimates suggest that supervisors spend as much as 70
percent of their time communicating in one form or another.
Supervisor as Trainer
An effective supervisor must be a polished trainer. It is part of the supervisor's responsibility to

demonstrate to workers exactly how certain procedures are performed. Supervisors must also be
excellent learners. Workers expect their supervisors to be doers as well as teachers. Therefore,
supervisors must be able to master the tasks that workers are assigned to perform. This ability is
much more critical for first line supervisors than those in middle and senior management,
especially in industries using production processes. A thorough understanding of all jobs
involved in a given production process is essential to effective supervision, as supervisors are
ultimately responsible for deploying their workforce in the most productive and efficient manner
possible.
Supervisor as Student

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For supervisors, life is a learning process. Not only must they learn the rudiments of their
subordinates' jobs, but they must also learn basic supervisory skills. They must take courses in
management, computers, communications, and other skills that will help them in their
supervisory roles. If they do not continually update their skills, they will fail as supervisors,
which is something neither they nor their organizations can afford.
Supervisor as Goal Setter
Supervisors are responsible for setting goals for themselves and their subordinates. In addition,
they are charged with ensuring that unit and individual goals set by senior management are met.
They must sit down with their subordinates and work together to set goals and monitor progress.
This function requires full employment of the supervisor's communications skills.
Supervisors cannot simply set goals and then ignore them. First, they must set realistic goals for
themselves and their staff members. Then, they must establish communications channels through
which they and their subordinates monitor progress. This involves constant feedback between
supervisors and subordinates, without which supervisors cannot be effective.
Supervisor as Evaluator
It is the supervisor's job to evaluate workers on a regular basis. Workers appreciate feedback on
their progress. Generally, they want honest and frequent appraisals of their work and suggestions
from their supervisors on how to improve their performance.
Supervisor as Human Resources Specialist
Supervisors need to be aware of the needs of their subordinates. For example, they must know
how to motivate people, how to reward them, how and when to discipline them, and when and
how to refer them to employee assistance programs. They may have the assistance of human
resources specialists in some of these areas, but the basic responsibility is the supervisor's. Given
their daily presence among their employees, supervisors play a critical role in maintaining good
moral among the workforce. Employees who are happy and take pride in their work are more
productive, loyal, and responsive to overall corporate goals and projects.
Supervisor as Producer

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The supervisor is inextricably linked to the production of goods and services. First, supervisors
must be knowledgeable about the production process they control. They are responsible for a
large variety of simultaneous activities in the ongoing production process. For example, to a
large extent they control the production schedule. Supervisors are invariably involved in product
planning design, project staffing, employee training, simplification of work methods,
maintenance of equipment, and organization of tasks and activities while striving to keep
relations with workers as amicable as possible. While performing these tasks, supervisors must
keep the object of meeting organizational or corporate goals in the forefront.
The supervisor's tasks in the production process also include equipment and materials
management, such as establishing guidelines for layout of the work being performed and
selecting the right equipment for each job. Supervisors must schedule carefully to ensure that
time is not wasted. It is a fact of business that idle time and workers are unproductive, costly, and
a waste of capital investment. Thus, supervisors must be effective time managers and employee
motivators. They must also keep an eye on technological developments, since innovative
advancements in machinery and work performance techniques are constantly being made.
Supervisors must keep one eye on the future when performing their tasks. For example, a punch
machine in a factory may become outdated and need to be replaced. It is an axiom in the
manufacturing world that what is right for a particular job today may be outdated tomorrow.
Therefore, supervisors may not only need to recommend new equipment, but might also be
required to do economic analyses to justify the purchase of new machinery. In some cases, they
might also be asked to maintain machinery or upgrade computer software systems. At the least,
they must be effective communicators who can convince senior management of the need for
upgraded machinery and the justification for capital expenditure outlays.
Supervisor as Adviser
Supervisors must be particularly effective in an advisory role. Supervisors who can advise senior
managers, middle managers, and subordinates on topics that affect their work activities are
valuable. The problem is to restrict advice only to those areas directly related to individuals'
needs at a particular time. More often than not, the supervisor does not provide detailed advice
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on particular issues. Generally, the supervisor's role is to point employees toward qualified
professionals who can be of assistance. That in itself requires that supervisors be aware of where
the proper professionals can be found.
There is seemingly no end to the areas in which supervisors become advisers. In whatever area
the advice is provided, it must be aimed at improving individuals' performance and meeting
organizational goals. As such, supervisors are called on to advice staff members' regarding their
job performance and their personal lives as they relate to the organization's goals.
Many organizations today sponsor employee assistance programs (EAPs). These programs
provide constructive responses to employees' substance abuse, psychological, family, and other
personal problems. Through such programs, employers help employees overcome personal
problems that adversely affect their performance and interfere with the achievement of
organizational goals. Supervisors play an important role in EAP programs.
Supervisor as Idea Champion
An idea champion is an individual who generates a new idea or believes in the value of a new
idea and supports it in the face of potential obstacles. Generally, idea champions are members of
the lower supervisory levels. They typically are creative people who are willing to take risks.
Consequently, they frequently have trouble convincing senior managers that a particular idea or
system will be beneficial to the organization. Thus, idea champions must often coordinate their
activities with sponsors, who are more often than not middle level managers.
Supervisor as International Manager
The emergence of large international businesses is creating a new demand for supervisors who
can manage effectively in difficult circumstances. Contemporary supervisors are well-advised to
learn new languages and become aware of cultural differences among workers. They must learn
international trade laws and regulations and the differences in reward and punishment systems.
They have to learn how to motivate workers in different countries and differentiate between what
is ethical and legal in one country but not in another. There is no doubt that acquiring the

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knowledge and experience to supervise an international business is placing even more pressure
on managers, but it is also opening new opportunities for supervisors.
12.3. Supervisor’s Profile

The Task Master
He must know the job and should have the experience of having it done with the required speed
and accuracy. And more than this he should have an analytical input to analyses the total job
content of a task into elements. He should know how these elements are performed separately
and in a sequence. He should also know what are the precautions, limitation and way outs.
A Demonstrator
What he knows and feels essential for a subordinator to learn he should be able to demonstrate it.
An Orator
If he is not orator, how does he communicate to a group? Moreover he should also be a good
conservationist. He should have at his disposal words to express his feelings with the appropriate
shade of meanings so that he is understood as he means. Because in normal practice, “What the
one says is not as important as what it means to the listener”.
A Creative Genius
He has to induct the creativity in his subordinates. After all a subordinate is not going to be
hundred percent guided by him in the process. He has to do a lot of self-analysis and research
while on the job to make his job -
 Less time consuming

 Less energy consuming
 more accurate, safe and harmonious
A Leader
A supervisor has to lead them too. Unless he has the leadership qualities either built in him or
developed subsequently he would be unable to lead them to perform a task, which is more
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difficult, demanding tiring, and may be less paying. He should be able to attend the following
three basic leadership functions:
 Task functions
 Individual functions
 Group functions
More and more, supervisors have to stand or fall by their performance as leaders. The
responsibility for ensuring that people give of their best rests squarely with them. They are
responsible and accountable for the work of their subordinates. A supervisor's aim must be to
make full use of his or her subordinates' strengths, abilities and qualities.
Most people gain full satisfaction out of life only if their abilities are fully used.
Basically, our effectiveness as leaders depends on our ability to influence and be influenced by
the members of our team in the implementation of task. In practice this means:
 Ensuring that the required task are always done

 Building and reinforcing the team and fostering teamwork and team spirit, and
 Developing each individual member of the team
The successful leader acts in all three areas, often simultaneously. The three areas interact with
each other as it is shown in the figures bellow. If, for example, the 'task' circle were to be blacked
out, so too would be large segments of the 'team' and 'individual' circles. Putting this into words,
we are saying that lack of attention to the task causes demoralization and frustration in the team
and dissatisfaction to the individual.

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achive task
build develop
team individual
A Psychologist
It is the most desired input that a supervisor should have. He should have a complete grip on the
Industrial Psychology. He should know, understand the individuals and groups behavior in a
given situation and the factors influencing the same. He should also know about the process of
learning, habits, reflexes and dynamic of thoughts and actions.
A Motivator
He should know the art of motivating people towards given objectives and goals.
Keen Observer
Unless he is a very keen observer it would be difficult for him to observe and keep track with
progress made by a number of individual performing at different places. He should be able to
observe, analyze and memorize the individual‟s activities.
A Critic
To criticize such that one realize his mistake and endeavors to improve instead of entering into
argument or taking it ill, is an art that a supervisor should has.
A Co-coordinator
Supervision is an activity, which needs a lot of co-coordinating skill. He needs it not to co-
ordinate with or within the work force alone but also to the higher management and the
departmental supervision. For that he is required to have a reasonable, recording,

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communicating, displaying, techniques such that he can make all these forces operate in the same
wave length for a longer span of time.
12.4. Supervisory Skills

The skills requirement base to achieve excellence can be grouped as:
 Technical Skills: These are, broadly speaking, technical specifications, methods, systems
and equipment.
 Human Resource Skills: This segment would include training, hiring, motivation,
communication, absenteeism and labour retention
 Management Skills: Here line balancing, planning and organizing, co-coordinating and
controlling and quality control responsibilities are required.
 Cost Control Skills: These require a mix of work standards application, work standards
measurement, material utilization, maintenance & utility supplies and finally, labour
utilization.
Figure 79 Supervisory Skills

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Table 11 Supervisor's Skill
Skills required
Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand
the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of
alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related
documents.
Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
Management of Personnel Resources - Motivating, developing, and directing people as they
work, identifying the best people for the job.
Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions
to choose the most appropriate one.
Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to
make improvements or take corrective action.
Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they
do.
Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behaviour.

Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to
develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
Operation Monitoring - Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is
working properly.
Negotiation - Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.

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Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.

Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future
problem-solving and decision-making.
Learning Strategies - Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures
appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
Quality Control Analysis - Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to
evaluate quality or performance.
Systems Evaluation - Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions
needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
Operations Analysis - Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.

Systems Analysis - Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions,
operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
Operation and Control - Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
Problem Solving and Decision Making
Conflicts, tensions, problems with individuals or groups are inevitable in organizations. Much of
what managers and supervisors do is solve problems and make decisions. New managers and
supervisors, in particular, often solve problems and decisions by reacting to them. They are
"under the gun", stressed and very short for time. Consequently, when they encounter a new
problem or decision they must make, they react with a decision that seemed to work before. It's
easy with this approach to get stuck in a circle of solving the same problem over and over again.
Therefore, as a new manager or supervisor, get used to an organized approach to problem
solving and decision making. Not all problems can be solved and decisions made by the
following, rather rational approach. However, the following basic guidelines will get you started.
Don't be intimidated by the length of the list of guidelines. After you've practiced them a few

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times, they'll become second nature to you -- enough that you can deepen and enrich them to suit
your own needs and nature.
The followings are some guideline for solving problems:-
1) Define the Problem: Write down some sentence description of the problem, as much as
possible, be specific in your description, including what is happening, where, how, with
whom and why. (It may be helpful at this point to use a variety of research methods.)
 Verifying your understanding of the problems: - It helps a great deal to verify your problem
analysis for conferring with a peer or someone else.
 Prioritize the problems: - . If you discover that you are looking at several related problems,
then prioritize which ones you should address first.
 Understand supervisor’s role in the problem: Their role in the problem can greatly influence
how they perceive the role of others. For example, if they're very stressed out, it'll probably
look like others are, too, or, they may resort too quickly to blaming and reprimanding others.
Or, they are feeling very guilty about their role in the problem; he/she may ignore the
accountabilities of others.
2) Look at potential causes for the problem
3) Identify alternatives for approaches to resolve the problem
4) Select an approach to resolve the problem
5) Plan the implementation of the best alternative (this is your action plan)
6) Monitor implementation of the plan
7) Verify if the problem has been resolved or not
12.5. What a supervisor should do and should not do?
Table 12What a supervisor should do and should not do?
What a supervisor should do What a supervisor should not do

 Think creatively, logically and constructively  Marking dead presence in the
 Plan, organize, execute and follow up department

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 Select and place employees  Making ineffective rounds

 Teach employees  Making claims of high
 Make work assignments achievements
 Provide proper materials, equipment and supplies  Gossips and arguments
 Keen people informed
 Promises and baseless
 Control quality
commitments
 Reduce or eliminate waste
 Control costs
 Data-less criticism
 Make continued improvements  Idling in the office or in the
 Carry out company policies, contracts and procedures department
 Look after the welfare and conduct of employees  fuzzy decisions and inconclusive
 Cooperate with others instructions
 Keep adequate records  Delegating responsibility without
 Handle employees‟ problems – help them to help themselves authority
 Maintain good house keeping
 Set a good personal example for others
12.6. Responsibilities of Supervisor in Garment Industry

Supervisor plays a vital role in the performance of day to day activities of his team. His main job
is to drive his section on a right direction with the help of modern working aids and updated
scientific approach to the process.
Discipline in Shop Floor: Discipline in sewing floor is very important to create good work
culture in the company. Like starting line on time in the morning, switch off sewing machine
when there is no work or operator is not in machine. Operators may not be aware how to behave
in the factory floor. Supervisor is responsible to train such things to their operators and helpers.
For example, operators should keep floor clean, keeps accessories on defined place, and should
not talk unnecessarily with other operators during working hours.
Style Analysis: It is essential task for a supervisor to collect sample of the style that is going to
be loaded in his/her line and analyze garment construction and operation details. Supervisor
should completely understand what to be done. In case any confusion s/he should contact to
merchandiser and get clarification. Quality requirement can be discussed with quality team or
merchandiser. Though these things are discussed and clarified in PP meeting, sometimes

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everything may not be covered in that meeting. Check what all trims he/she needs to bring from
store prior to line start.
Line Setting: In line setting, supervisor does sequencing of machine, select most suitable
operators from available operators for each operation. Supervisor stands aside of the operator and
instruct to her/him how to make the operation on first pieces.
Machine Selection: What sewing machines and equipment should be used for the style and how
many machines should be allocated to a particular operation is decided by line supervisors.
Unlike industrial engineers, supervisor does not able to plan machine requirement in advance but
they do it based on actual requirement to meet the daily production target.
Line Balancing and WIP Control: Levelling of work load throughout the line is very important
to improve capacity (resource) utilization. No line should have excess work in process as
inventory.
Operator Training: Though companies set up training center for sewing operator training or
hire only experienced operators, supervisors need to train unskilled operators on the job. While a
trainee operator is allocated for an operation and the trainee operator is not confident how to do
that job or hesitating to follow an operation method, supervisor's responsibility is to guide and
instruct them correct method of doing that operation.
Meeting Target Production: Line supervisors are given daily production target based on
resources available in a line (machine and manpower). Supervisor is responsible to produce
target quantity at the end of the day. To meet the target, supervisor need to monitor operators
working pace, loading of works, lost time etc. There might be many reasons for low production.
Still supervisor need to find a way to hit the daily production target.
Stitching Quality: Stitching quality of the garment comes from the operators. Though factories
involve quality checkers in the sewing line to control stitching quality, line supervisor is
responsible for producing right quality garments. Supervisors need to maintain low percentage
defective or DHU rate of his/her line.
Responsibilities toward individual operator

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 Understand and consider the ability and characteristics of individual while assigning
the job.
 Measure the individual‟s achievement and provide training.
 In assessing operators for performance appraisal, consider the tasks for his/her future
growth.
 Make effort to create good relationship with each individual
 Up-grading the skill of operators
To succeed the planned delivery volume and quality of their product the supervisors
should upgrade the knowledge and skill of the worker under their team.
Methods to upgrade the skills of operators:-

 By training on their jobs with the updated knowledge.
 By job rotation –this makes the operators to expose to the new knowledge.
 By conducting regular meeting with the operators with regard to the innovations
happening in the modern garment manufacturing.
 By motivating them to think about some creative ideas to improve the methodology of
their own job. Never neglect an operator‟s way of thinking. Since they are working for
you 8 hours a day, they will know the difficulty of their job better than anyone.
 Brain storming sessions with regard to the finishing activities along with the operators.
 By regular monitoring of their performance and efficiency.
Responsibility toward Team

 Need to have good interpersonal relationships
 Promote suggestions and self management.
 Behave as a leader of his / her area of responsibility.
 Exchange ideas and information to get the job done as a group.
 Actively helping others when there is problem in other departments.
Promoting better relationship with Managers

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 Understand the messages from the managers, digests and convey the message to the
operators in his / her own words.
 Provide information or opinions which are generated during working to the manager
without hesitation.
 When cooperation from other departments is needed, enlists support of those managers
effectively.
Management of Work
 Should know the work in the responsible area better than anyone else.
 Need to indicate work assignment and key items for the day very clearly.
 Observe floor activities with regard to delay, mistakes or quality problems.
 Report and analyze the performance on production volume, cost and quality.
 When there are abnormalities such as machine problems or quality problems, need to
take action quickly and report to the appropriate section(s).
 Need to take initiatives in daily improvement activities.
 Need to ensure timely achievement of daily targets.
 Need to ensure proper production line balancing and proper production flow.
 Provide criteria for housekeeping and workplace organization.
Management of Material
 Make sure that there is a place for everything and everything is in its place.
 Supervise the appropriate storage, use and control of raw materials.
 Pay attention and make improvements even for supplementary supplies.
 Ensure that there is constant supply of cuttings, accessories and other materials needed
for production.
Management of Machines
 Conduct daily maintenance activities with the support of maintenance department.
 Need to make suggestions to maintenance section or management on improvement of
machine capability.
 Supervise proper handling of machines, tools and other property.
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Management of Safety
 Need to inspect equipment frequently from safety point of view.

 Inspect the method of work for machine operation and material handling, etc.
 Conduct the safety education when there are new employees in the area.
 Prepare follow through procedures for safety related incidents.
 Exhibit safety signs, procedures.
Human Resource Management
 Follow the company guidance, conduct work, and complete administrative work
smoothly.
 Control of attendance and leaves.
 Maintain overall discipline.
 Make sure that company code of conduct is respected.
12.6.1. The main duties and responsibilities of a cutting supervisor

 Analyze the previous day‟s output operation by operation in the production book.
 Check the major bottleneck area in the line on last working day.
 Make a strategy to mitigate this problem, by changing strategy if necessary, providing
some support to the operator or /and motivating that operator to reach the target.
 Calculate the WIP in the different sections. Accordingly, make the plan for cutting
output. If you have more WIP than required in some section, balance those operators in
those places where you have problem or the bottlenecks, so that you will be able to set
each section for a proper flow.
 Prepare the marker and cut plans for the day. Though both of these are prepared before
the starting of the particular style, there is a need of minor iterations on a daily basis.
This is mainly because of the shrinkage and /or width variation and the availability of
the fabric on both these criteria.
 Request for the new markers for the day‟s operations. The marker request for day‟s
initial hours should be made end of the previous day and the marker should be ready

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the before the closing of the previous day. This eliminates the delay in the availability
of the marker for today‟s operations. The same planning need to be prepared for
tomorrow without fail.
 Once the operators started coming in / when the working hour starts, make sure the
operators are occupying their respective working areas quickly and in a disciplined
way.
 Ensure, the cutting machines, cutting tables, numbering and bundling tables are cleaned
by the operators, before starting operations. The group leaders of each section should
arrange cleaning fabric pieces on their place regularly without fail. After cleaning the
machines, make sure, the operators are starting their work without wasting time.
 Check for the absentees. If there is an absenteeism, look for the substitutes for
balancing across sections, where they have excess operators or balance the available
operators by controlling WIP.
 Once the balancing exercise is completed, make the necessary arrangements for
requesting fabric from the stores for different processes by instructing concerned ones.
Again, here also, the fabric request for the early hours of today must be prepared, sent
and the fabric received by the end of the previous working day to avoid the delay in
today‟s operations.
 Check the hourly production at the end of each hour. Monitor the progress of the work
and solve the quality problems if any in every section.
 After the review of the first hour production report, conduct a production meeting in
the cutting section with the assistance supervisors and the group leaders regarding to
the strategy. Ask for their opinions as well for the current problems in their respective
sections.
 Anticipate problems and react to the problems to sort out immediately without delay. If
you delayed, the problem which is in its beginning stage may grow faster and it may go
beyond out of control.

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 Conduct a weekly meeting with your operators, discuss with them about their
difficulties in the work. Share your views with them regarding improving the
productivity.
 Appreciate those operators who are doing good job and guide those who are slow to
improve. Teach them time to time the better way of handling materials.
 To sum up, the routines of a supervisor is nothing but guiding his team on a right
direction to meet the company‟s goal through a right way.
12.6.2. The main duties of sewing supervisors

 Whenever there is a style changes collect the operation bulletin and the line layout
from the IE department
 Check and cross verify the break of operation against the sample garment
 If he need any clarification approach to the IED or the production manager
 Contact the maintenance for the machinery and attachments that require to see the line
 Take the leadership to see the line with the help of maintenance team
 Share ideas or your views with the cutting in charge for the details of the new style that
he is going to cut.
 Collect the required ready marking patterns from the pattern department
 Set the line as per the line layout
 Demonstrate each operation to each operator very patiently. If the operator is slow
learner, show him or her operation couple of times. Till he or she confirms that he or
she understand the operation properly, don‟t leave the place.
 While demonstrating the operation, teach them the way they need to handle the panels,
the quality parameters that they need to maintained, the target that they need to
achieve, the delivery schedule and the importance of that customers to us.
 Once the line is set for the new style, check the hourly output of each and every
operator for their productivity. If they are near the targets, appreciate their effort, if
they are still away from the target, analyze the reason for their slowness and find out

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the way to sort out the issue with the help of IED. Use always yours reasoning power
rather than reaching conclusion.
 Once the line is set for production, the line supervisor‟s main job is to balance the line
in the morning if there is absenteeism. This may take maximum of 30-45 minutes with
the help of other supervisors or production managers; he should be able to sort out the
operator‟s issue. After this, he will be checking the hourly output and pushing the
operator he is always from the target. Rest of the time should be focusing on the best
methodology and improving the quality in your respecting line.
12.6.3. The main duties of a Finishing supervisor

The routines of a supervisor are nothing but guiding his team on a right direction to meet the
company‟s goal through a right way.
 Analyze the previous day‟s output operation by operation in the production book.
 Check the major bottleneck area in the line on last working day.
 Make a strategy to mitigate this problem, by changing operator, providing support to
that operator or /and motivating that operator to reach the target.
 Calculate the WIP in the line. Accordingly, make the plan for the input.
 Once the operators started coming in / when the working hour starts, make sure the
operators are occupying their respective working areas quickly and in disciplined way.
 Ensure the working tables, iron tables and machines are cleaned by self, before starting
operations. The feeding helpers of each section should keep waste fabric pieces on their
place regularly without fail. After cleaning the machines, make sure, the operators are
starting their work without wasting time.
 Check for the absentees. If there is an absenteeism, look for the substitutes from other
section, where you have excess operators or balance the line with available operators
by controlling WIP.

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 Once balancing exercise is completed, instruct the feeding helper about the input qty to
load to each section, the finishing and packing materials to be collected from the stores,
etc.
 Check the hourly production at the end of each hour. Monitor the progress of the work
and solve the quality problems if any in each section.
 After the review of the first hour production report, conduct a production meeting at the
end of each section with the assistance supervisors and feeding helpers regarding to the
strategy. Ask for their opinions as well for the current problems in the section.
 Anticipate problems and react to the problems to sort out immediately without delay. If
you delayed, the problem which is in its beginning stage may grow faster and it may go
beyond out of control.
 Conduct a weekly meeting with your operators, discuss with them about their
difficulties in the work. Share your views with them regarding improving the
productivity.
 Appreciate those operators who are doing good job and guide those who are slow to
improve. Teach them time to time the better way of handling the materials.
 Records:-hourly and daily recipient and output of the department. These records not
only important for him, it is very important data for the management to make planning
for the shipments and other related activities.
12.7. Supervisor’s role in reducing the cost of manufacturing
The supervisors have great role in minimizing the cost of garment manufacturing by using the
highlight class on the cost management. There are some techniques on reducing the
manufacturing cost of garment.
 By increasing the productivity of the floor: - This can be effective by increasing the
efficiency of the individual operators. We know the salary of operators is fixed cost in most
factory including your organization but the cost per unit they produce will be varied so to

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reduce the cost of manufacturing of garment we have to increase the production of each
operators should be high as much as possible. You have to know that 20% of the
manufacturing cost of the garment is labor cost so we have to manage this cost effectively.
The responsibility of this is mainly on the supervisors.
 Managing the resource available in the floor: - this includes from small [sweeper] to the
maximum [fabric] cost incurring resources. The main resources of the garment industry are
fabric and trims that we use in the manufacturing of clothes. From the finished garment
according to the types of fabric we use 60-70% of the cost incurred for fabric. This implies
we have to take care for these resources. Things that we do in this cases are:-
 Reducing the wastage level of the garment or increase the product realization
during production.
 Be sure the qualities of the material we use are as the requirement by the buyer and
the material should be free from fault that causes the rejection.
12.8. Supervisors’ Preparedness for Future Requirements

Supervisor’s preparedness for the next day
Check for the ready material availability for next day, at every step
 Fabric to be issues for cutting,
 Cut panels ready for stitching
 Garments ready for dry/wet process
 Washed/processed garment ready for packing and finishing
 Packed garments ready to be shipped.
 Check for the manpower availability and required
 Ensure proper feeding at all the stages (respective to the department) to utilize the
capacity.
 Check for Machines required and machine/equipment available.
Preparedness for the next day for cutting department- Cut plan, Marker plan, issue of fabrics, Stock
for morning issue, reports etc.

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Preparedness for the next day for sewing department- ready stock for loading, receiving of panels
from different departments- Cutting, Embroidery, printing, quality, merchandising and PPC etc., machine
maintenance requirements, reports etc.
Preparedness for the next day for finishing and packing department- ready stock for packing,
receiving of materials different departments- Sewing, Washing, merchandising and PPC, machine
maintenance requirements, reports etc.

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CHAPTER 13
WORKING ENVIRONMENT IN GARMENT SET-UPS

13.1. Introduction
Garments industry is one of the most labour intensive industries. The nature of work in the
garments factory involves activities with repetitive work pattern. Such kind of work results in
fatigue, causing different types of health issues to the operators. Work fatigue also results in the
loss of productivity of the workers and bad reputation to the organisation.
There are a number of reports and observational studies that suggest that employees in garment
manufacturing industry often work under difficult conditions that are unacceptable in
industrialized countries.
The productivity loss and the higher production rejects result from fatigue due to longer working
hours and poor working conditions such asbad lighting and ventilation. The studies have
revealed that that the human bodyis far more productive when working under optimal conditions
and it has been found that productivity can be improved merely by improving the conditions
under which people work.
So far, occupational safety and health and ergonomics have not been given due consideration in
Apparel manufacturing. But wherever it has given importance and taken seriously, such practices
have shown excellent results.
13.2. Ergonomics
The word Ergonomics is a Greek word originated from two words Derived from two Greek
words, “Nomoi” meaning natural laws and “Ergon” meaning work, so in simple words
Ergonomics can be said as natural ways of doing the work.

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Ergonomics is a science that deals with understanding human interaction with manmade systems
and is the study of Man-Machine Interface. Ergonomics is essentially fitting the workplace to the
worker. The better the fit, the higher the level of safety and worker efficiency.
Principles to enhance the work place efficiency were used by US and European countries in the
beginning of the twentieth century. These principles gained popularity during the World War-I,
in the form of understanding the relationship between humans and their work environment. In
year 1949 the term ergonomics was coined.
Garment manufacturing is a labour intensive sector, where on an average each machine is

operated by manpower. With this much level of human involvement, the role of ergonomics
becomes very important.
Fortunately ergonomics deals with the scientific design of environment and provides solutions
which are more productive, efficient, economical and last but not the least safe to the workforce
as well as to the environment. At the same time ergonomic solutions enhance to social values
also through Human well-being, safety, health and comfort. Ergonomics is indeed an inter-
disciplinary field which helps the worker to give higher productivity due to less fatigue, safer
working environment (fewer accidents), lesser absenteeism and reduced labor turnover.
13.2.1. Working environment in ready-made garment manufacturing and Ergonomics
The workers are forced to work within the confines of the job or workstation that already exists in the
manufacturing set-ups and one needs to adjust himself to the actual working condition. Many a times the
environment doesn‟t fit to the person employed. This may require employees to work in awkward
postures, perform the same motion over and over again or lift heavy loads, etc.
It has been widely recognised that the most of the problems faced by the workforce (specially operators)
are due to the inappropriate working conditions, difficult work environment, and wrong posture for a
longer duration of time and lack of awareness of handling machine and materials. Sometimes faulty work
place arrangement is also responsible for such problems.Repetitive activity for a prolonged duration and

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continuous exposure to such environment causes serious health issues to the workforce.These work
related problems (occupational issues) often start as minor aches and pains but can develop into disabling
injuries (occupational hazards) that may affect the life badly. Ergonomics aims at preventing such injuries
by controlling the risk factors such as force, repetition, posture and vibration that can cause injuries to
develop.There is an ample opportunity for ergonomic interventions in each and every stage of garment
manufacturing process. Right from fabrics & trims stores to cutting to sewing, packing and finishing such
ergonomic interventions can make a significant difference.
Table 13 Poor Working Environment and its Impact
AREA ISSUES OBSERVATIONS

Table Height Too High or too low Postural discomfort and pain in
shoulders, neck and hands
Inadequate Light Too less or too much light or glare Problems with vision, colour
blindness and blurred vision
Excess Noise Continuous exposure to noise level Hearing problems and continuous
above 90 dB sound in ears
Excess Vibrations Handling of machines with Numbness in fingers, loss of
vibrations, exposure to vibration sensing, nervous system disorders
level above 20 Hz.
Exposure in dust work Working in environment with high Respiratory problems
environment dust levels, such as in cutting rooms
A. Fabric Stores
Fabric stores is one of the place which involves heavy works such as unloading and loading the fabric
rolls, lifting the rolls and putting it into the racks etc. Due to the nature of the work, operations are more
prone to injuries if the correct method and equipment are not applied. Manual lifting of Heavy fabric rolls
from floor, where the workers need to bend him, lift the roll and then store into the rack may cause a
substantial risk of low back injury.

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The key issues of concern
 Handling of the fabric roll to a height above head level is difficult causes stress in the shoulder
and backbone.
 The worker has to stretch hands and has to reach far off which causes excessive lumbar
extension.
Figure 80 Material Handling in Fabric Store
Suggested solutions
 Rack height should be set in such a manner that it is within the reach of the workers. If it is not
possible fork lifters should be used.
 The items which are heavy and used frequently should be stored between knee and shoulder
height, not on the ground and not also the head level.
 Heavy items such as fabric rolls or machines should not be carried manually and should be
moved in a trolley.
B. Cutting Section
In a garment manufacturing set-up, cutting is the place where fabric rolls are brought and spread for
cutting. And once cutting is done, the garment panels are stacked and dispatched to the next process.
Key issues of concern

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 At the time of fabric roll loading for spreading, the operator needs to lift the roll from floor,
which may cause stress on shoulders and back.
 The operator also needs to remove the heavy metal rod from the stand to load the fabric roll. This
may also cause strain in hands and arms.
 The operator needs to bend forward in order to reach across the width of the table to cut the fabric
and to adjust it.This may cause stress in the spine, shoulder and abdomen.
 In case of automatic spreading the operator have to bend their back to smoothen the fabric.
 While operating cutting tools such as straight knife, bend knife and numbering the vibrations can
cause pains in wrist as well as numbness in the fingers.
Figure 81 Material Handling in Cutting Department
Suggested solutions
 Handling and loading of fabric roll though hydraulic or pneumatic devices.

 Rolls may be placed in sloped platform at waist level for ease of handling and movement.
 Two operators may be deployed while spreading to avoid bending forward.
 The height of the cart with multiple selves used for stacking of panels should be equal to the
height of the cutting table.
 Clamps to hold the fabric plies should be used.
C. Sewing floor

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Sewing floor is the place where the maximum number of activities happens with involvement of
maximum number of workers. Each person is involved in on or other activities, such as loading and
moving of panels, to stitching operations involving various types of machines, passing the material to the
next work station, quality checking, recording of data, and a number of manual operations such as turning
the garments, trimming , creasing, ironing, inspectionetc.
In addition, the operators need to sit and work continuously for hours and that to following a series of
repetitive operations. Generally the operators need to stay in restrict work space with minimal movement.
This is quite uncomfortable to work for hours in such environment.
Key issues of concern-
 Repetitive motion with restricted body movements

 Handling of big panels while sewing
 Simultaneous involvement of different body part such as fingers, hands, knee, leg and ankles.
 Fixed height of stools and chair.
 No rotary movement and no proper back support.
 Improper work place arrangement.
 Poor design of equipment such as stackers, ironing tables, material handling trolleys, inspection
tables etc.
 Inadequate light arrangement, which puts excess strain to operator‟s eyes.
Suggested solutions
 Improved design of machine and equipment which are comfortable and safe.
 Chairs/stools with adjustable height and proper cushion and back support.
 Slanted inspection tables.
 Semi sitting work stations with proper support and flexibility.
 Use of work aids and attachments to handle the large panels while stitching.
 Proper light arrangement at the work stations.
 Usage of de-skilling devices for each of operations.

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D. Finishing and Packing
Finishing and packing is one another important section of garment manufacturing. Like stores, finishing
and packing section also deals with heavy duty operations such as loading and unloading of trollies full of
washed garment, lifting and arranging heavy cartons of finished garments etc. In addition activities like
ironing, pressing and folding, tagging, quality inspections are also performed in this section. Most of
these activities are done in standing posture.
Key issues of concern
 In appropriate height of the ironing table (too low or too high) where operator needs to put extra
efforts. This may cause pain in shoulders, neck and back.
 When the table is too high the worker has to use an elevated shoulder posture and when it is too
low a poor neck and back posture is the result.
 Handling of heavy weight irons may cause extra stress in hands and shoulders.
 Works are done in standing postures continuously and thus the operator gets easily tired.
 Flat tables (horizontal bed) results in excess bending of neck, and increased stress on shoulders.
 Poor work place arrangement in the finishing section which makes pick and dispose difficult.
 Inadequate lighting creates shadows and glare as well as difficulty in inspecting the garments.
Suggested solutions
 Tables should be of proper height meeting the operator‟s requirement.

 Tables with slated surface for ease of inspection.
 Improved work place with easy access to the materials being used frequently.
 Provision of body support to reduce fatigue.
 Arrangement of adequate lighting.
13.3. Occupational safety

Most of the times it is observed that work environment in the garment manufacturing units is unhealthy
and not safe to the workers. Some of the easily observed situations may include, wrong working postures,
poor tool and equipment design, improper lay-outs, congested work area, improper ventilation, dust, un-
ergonomic workstations, high noise and vibrationlevels and negligence towards usage of personal
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protective equipment, unhygienic food facilities, longer working hours, inadequate medical facilities etc.
etc. Prolonged exposure to such working conditions lead to Occupational health and safety issues were
the major constraints faced by the workers in these units.
We live in society and we all are responsible for well-being of every individual. Employers are
responsible for providing a safe and healthy workplace for their employees.An effective workplace safety
and health is one of the prime concerns.
The workplace safety and health is directly proportional to-
 Increased productivity,
 Improved employee morale,
 Reduced absenteeism and illness, and
 Reduced workers‟ compensation rates.
13.3.1. Occupational hazards

An Occupational hazard is a situation with the potential for causing injury to the person on job.Accidents
along with unsafe working practices results in occupational hazards. There are two broad categories of
hazards as-
A. Visible Hazards, due to
 Floor openings
 Uncovers machines
 Unsafe storage
 Chemical splits
 Wrong practices while tool/machine handling
 Lack/ignorance of Safety equipment
B. Invisible Hazards, due to
 Gas leakage
 Fumes generation

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 Vibrations
 Hazards due to expired chemicals
Fire prevention – Due to the nature of textile and garment sector, a number of flammable materials such
as fibres, fabrics, cartons, paper, various chemicals, and lubricants are used on a large scale. Usage of
such materials also increases the chances of fire hazards. Accordingly the organizations need to prepare to
prevent such accidents.
Prevention and protection from fire hazards may be done by taking measures like by designing buildings,
processes and storage facilities in such a way, which can limit chances of fire hazards by limiting the
possible combination of oxygen, fuel and temperature and by eliminating or reducing the sources of Heat
ignition.
Preparedness for fire emergency
 Emergency Exit Plans- Fire Evacuation Plans

 Clear and Properly marked unobstructed exits
 Use of proper type of fire Extinguishers with proper instruction
 Trained fire fighters
 Hand-on training of workers
 Time to time Fire alarms and fire drills
 Automatic Fire/Smoke detection devices
While finalizing the Layout, there must be provisions such as
 Hazard Prone section should be made/planned separate

 Should be above ground level
 Window area should not be less than 17% of the floor area
 Ceiling height should not be less than3.0 meters
 Each worker should have 10 or more cubic meters of air
 Each worker should have 2 square meters or more area as free-floor area

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Lighting- Poor lighting leads to eye strain, fatigue, headache, strain and accidents. Too much light also
causes glare, strain to the eyes of the operators. One should not put more lights at work place but the
existing lights should be cleaned properly and maintained properly.
Illumination can affect a person‟s performance and well-being. The light intensity, which is the amount of
light that falls on the work surface, must be sufficiently high whenever visual tasks have to be carried out
rapidly and with precision and ease.
Availability of adequate lighting is very important in garment manufacturing set-ups. The appropriate
lighting is required-
 To accelerate production
 To find out the correct material with-out wasting time.
 Operation effectiveness
 It reduces fatigue and strain on eyes
Improving the light distribution
 Excessive differences in brightness between objects or surfaces in the visual field are
undesirable. Large differences can result from reflections, dazzling lights and shadows,
among other things.
 The visual field can be divided into three zones: the task area, the close surroundings and the
wider surroundings. The brightness of the task area should not be three times larger or three
times smaller than that of the close surroundings. The brightness of the task area should not
differ from that of the wider surroundings by more than a factor of ten.
 When the visibility of the information is insufficient, it is more effective to improve the
legibility of the information than to increase the light intensity.
 Except for orientation tasks, the required light intensity on a work surface can be achieved by
a combination of fairly limited ambient lighting and more intense localized or task lighting.
 Available daylight should also be used for general lighting. Incoming daylight and a view to
the outside are much appreciated by most people. Using blinds can prevent large variations in
daylight intensity from direct sunlight.
 Excessive reflections can be avoided by using indirect (i.e., diffuse) lighting in ceilings.

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 Table tops, walls and such should also produce diffuse reflection of any incident light; in
other words, the reflected light should be evenly distributed in all directions.
Table 14 Recommended Values for Light Reflectance
Surface Recommended Values for

Light Reflectance
Ceiling 0.80-0.90 (LIGHT COLOR)
Walls 0.40-0.60
Table Tops 0.25-0.45
Floor 0.20-0.40 (DARK COLOR)
Recommended minimum illumination levels for garment manufacturing set-up are
Table 15 Recommended Values for Lux Level
Task Lux level Example
Casual seeing 100 Storage

Ordinary-moderate 300 Cutting/Sewing floor, offices general lighting
Working
Critical Tasks 500 Stitching-Focusing at needle point
Very Critical tasks 1000 Fabric/Garment inspections
Exceptionally critical tasks 2500-3000 Shade matching, Checking for fine designs
Noise
Sound which is beyond the acceptable level of human is termed as Noise. The presence of high noise
levels during a task can be annoying and, in time and result in impaired hearing. Annoyance, such as
interference in communication or reduction of concentration, can occur even at relatively low noise
levels. Annoyance and impaired hearing can be avoided by setting upper limits for noise levels. Noise
levels are expressed in decibels, dB (A).

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A noise level that, over an 8-hour working day, exceeds 80 dB(A) on average can damage hearing.
Assuming constant noise levels, this daily level will be reached, for example, with an 8-hour exposure to
80 dB(A), or with a 1-hour exposure to 89 dB(A)
Noise Control measures
In general three types of measure can be applied to reduce or eliminate the adverse effects of
environmental factors:
 At source (eliminate or reduce source)

 In the transmission between source and man (isolate source and/or man)
 At the individual level (reduction of exposure duration, personal protective equipment)
Noise reduction is achieved in most cases by reducing or preventing the transmission of noise between
source and receiver.
 Separate noisy work from quiet work
 Keep an adequate distance from the source of noise
 Use the ceiling to absorb noise
 Use acoustic screens
Usage of ear plugs or ear muffs- One can resort to protecting hearing by using earplugs or earmuffs if
the previous measures, which were aimed at the source or at the transmission, are not feasible. Ear
protectors must be available if the noise level is temporarily too high, for example during noisy
maintenance activities.
Vibrations
In garment manufacturing, there are a number of machines and equipment where operator is exposed to
vibrations such as straight knife and bend knife, different kind of sewing machines, embroidery machines
etc.
To access the vibrations, three variables are important, vibration level (expressed in m/s), vibration
frequency (expressed in Hz) and the exposure duration.

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Low-frequency body vibrations (<1 Hz) can produce a feeling of seasickness while body vibrations
between 1 and 100Hz, specially between 4 and 8 Hz, can lead to chest pains, difficulties in breathing, low
back pain and impaired vision.
Vibration control measures
 Large machines and motorized tools often constitute a source of vibration. Rotating
movements generally cause less vibration than reciprocating movements, a fact worth
remembering when designing or selecting machines and tools. Likewise, hydraulic and
pneumatic transmissions are superior to mechanical transmission in this respect.
 Maintain machines regularly
 Machines and handheld tools sometimes display loose fits, eccentricity or imbalance, all of
which cause vibration, noise and wear.
 Whenever measures at source are inadequate, attention should be devoted instead to reducing
the transmission of vibration. This is best done by damping the vibration where it enters the
body, for instance, by fitting floors, seats an handgrips with a damping material.
 If measures at source and in transmission are not effective, then attention must be directed at
the individual. This can be done by reducing the duration of exposure, for example by
alternating tasks which entail vibration with tasks that do not entail vibration.
Climate
Climate plays an important role in efficient working of the people. Extreme climate which is not suitable
to human body makes working difficult and people feel uneasy. Whether a climate is considered pleasant
depends also on the level of physical effort required by the work and on the type of clothing. Fortunately
such case is not with Ethiopia. And the country has pleasant climate over the year. The recommended air
temperature levels (As per ILO standards) have been given in the below table.
Table 16 Recommended Values for Air Temperature
Type of work Air temperature

(˚C)

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Seated, Thinking task 18-24

Seated, Light manual work 16-22
Standing, Light manual work 15-21
Standing, Heavy manual work 14-20
Heavy work 13-19
Chemical substances
There are a number of different kinds of chemicals used in garment manufacturing. Chemical substances
occur in the environment as liquids, gases, vapours, dusts or solids. Exposure to such chemical (liquid,
vapour or gas form) may cause serious problems such as breathing and respiratory issues, affecting
nervous system, blurred vision and even cancer. Some substances can cause discomfort or present a
health hazard if inhaled or ingested or if they come into contact with the skin or eyes.
Control of chemical substances
 There are official international limits for chemical substances in air and are intended to prevent
adverse health effects and are known as TLVs (Threshold Limit Values).The TLV is an 8-hour
weighted average concentration and should not be exceeded in any single day. One should always
aim to remain as far below the TL Vs as possible
 Avoid peak exposures to the chemicals
 Exposure to mixtures of substances should be avoided
 Packages of chemicals should be labeled appropriately
 Measures can be aimed at the source or at the exposure. Measures at source are preferable,
especially if this mean replacing the source. If this is not feasible, the source should be reduced. If
this is still inadequate, then the source must be isolated.
 Chemical substances must be extracted directly at source
 Provide an efficient exhaust system
 Pay attention to the effect on climate when designing air extraction and ventilation with
provisions of sufficient air changes.

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 Various organizational measures are possible to reduce people‟s exposure. People should spend
as little time as possible in rooms with contaminated air, and likewise, the number of people
exposed to the contaminated air should be limited. Activities where chemical substances are
released can, for example, be separated from unaffected activities by locating them in a separate
room.
 Personal protective equipment must be used, even though most users consider such equipment to
be a nuisance.
 Measures can be taken to reduce the absorption of chemical substances through the skin-
o Clean dirty clothing and gloves regularly.
o Do not use dirty cleaning cloths.
o Cleanse the skin regularly with soap and water.
o Ensure rapid treatment of skin lesions.
Labour laws
The Government of Federal Republic of Ethiopia has well defined labour laws (Labour Proclaimation
No. 377/2010, Federal NegaritGazeta of Federal Republic of Ethiopia,issued by Ministry ofLabour and
Social Affairs) which are applicable to the every industry in Ethiopia. The labour laws (Work rules)
govern working hours, rest period, payment of wages and the methods of measuring work done,
maintenance of safety and the prevention of accidents etc. The supervisors are supposed to be aware of
such rules for effective execution of their job on floor. Brief of Ethiopian labour laws is given in next
pages.
Working time for labours
To result an optimum performance, the human circadian rhythm (8 hour work, 8 hour free time, and 8
hour sleep) should be considered as normal. A sufficient number and length of breaks should be given.
A. Maximum Daily or weekly Hours of Work-
Normal hours of work shall not exceed eight hours (8) a day or forty eight (48) hours a week.
B. Arrangement of Weekly hours of work-

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Hours of work shall spread equally over the working days of a week, provided, however, where the
nature of the work so requires hours of work in anyone of the working days may be shortened and the
differences be distributed over the remaining days of the week without extending the daily limits of
eight hours by more than two hours.
C. Over time- Work done in excess of the normal daily hours of work fixed as per the law. And a worker
may not be compelled to work over-time.
D. Over time limit- Overtime work of an individual worker due to an urgent work shall not exceed 2
hours in a day or 20 hour in a month or 100 hour in a year.
14.4.2 Minimum wages
"Wages" means the regular payment to which the worker is entitled in return for the performance of the
work that he performs under a contract of employment.
A. Conditions of Payments for Idle Time
A worker shall be entitled to his wage if he was ready to work but, because of interruptions in supply of
tools and raw materials or for reasons not attributable to him was not able to work.
B. Over time payment
In addition to his normal wage, a worker who works over-time shall be entitled at least to the following
payments-
 In the case of work done between six o'clock in the morning (6 a.m.) and ten o'clock in the
evening (10 p.m.) At the rate of one and one quarter (1 and 1/4) multiplied by the
ordinary hourly rate;
 In the case of night time work between ten o'clock in the evening (10 p.m.) and six
o'clock in the morning (6 a.m.), at the rate of one and one half (1 and 1/2) multiplied
by the ordinary hourly rate; .
 In the case of work done on weekly rest day, at the rate of two (2) multiplied by the ordinary
hourly rate;
 In the case of work done on public holiday, at the rate of two and one half (2 and 1/2) multiplied
by the ordinary hourly rate.
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Weekly Rest
A worker shall be entitled to a weekly rest period consisting of not less than twenty-four uninterrupted
hours in the course of each period of seven days.
The weekly rest period shall be calculated as to include the period from 6:00 a.m. to the next 6:00 a.m.
Where the nature of the work or the service performed by the employer is such that the weekly
rest cannot fall on a Sunday another day may be made a weekly rest as a substitute.
Leave
A. Annual Leave
A worker shall be entitled to uninterrupted annual leave with pay which shall in no case be less than-
 Fourteen (14) working days for the first one year of service;
 Fourteen (14) working days plus one working day for every additional year of service.
B. Sick Leave
Where a worker, after having completed his probation, is rendered incapable of work owing to
sickness other than resulting from employment injury, he shall be entitled to a sick leave.
C. Special Leave
The worker shall be allowed to take leave for attending family events, Union meetings (only for leaders),
to attend hearings before bodies competent to hear labour disputes.
D. Maternity Leave

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An employer shall grant leave to a pregnant woman worker without deducting her wages, for medical
examination connected with her pregnancy, provided, however, that she is obliged to present a
medical certificate of her examination.
A woman worker shall be granted a period of 30 consecutive days of leave with pay preceding the
presumed date of her confinement and a period of 60 consecutive days of leave after her confinement.
Working conditions for Young workers
"Young worker" means a person who has attained the age of 14 but is not over the age of 18 years.
It is prohibited to employ persons less than 14 years of age. It is prohibited to employ young workers
which on account of its nature or due to the condition in which it is carried out, endangers the life or
health of the young workers performing it.
For the young workers normal hoursof work shall not exceed seven hours a day.
It is prohibited to employ young workers on:
 night work between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.;

 overtime work;
 weekly rest days; or
 Public holidays.
13.4. Occupational Safety, Health and Working Environment

An employer shall take the necessary measure to safeguard adequately the health and
safety of the workers; such as-
 Comply with the occupational health and safety requirements provided for in this Proclamation;
 Take appropriate steps to ensure that workers are properly instructed and notified
concerning the hazards of their respective occupations and the precautions necessary to avoid
accident and injury to health; ensure that directives are given and also assign safety officer;
establish an occupational, safety and health committee.
 Provide workers with protective equipment, clothing and other materials and instruct them of its
use;
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 Register employment accident and occupational diseases and notify the labour inspection of
same;
 Arrange, according to the nature of the work, at his own expenses for the medical examination of
newly employed workers and for those workers engaged in hazardous work, as may be necessary.
 Ensure that the work place and premises do not cause danger to the health and safety of the
workers;
 Take appropriate pre-executions to insure that all the processes of work shall not be a source or
cause of physical, chemical, biological, ergonomical and psychological hazards to the health and
safety of the workers; and
 Implement the directives issued by the appropriate authority in accordance with the law.
OSHA regulations
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is an international body working under U.S.
Department of Labour for developing Occupational Safety and Health regulations, its implementation and
monitoring.
These guidelines are actually from Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 which get amended time
to time based on the requirements.
OSHA‟s role is to promote the safety and health of working American* men and women by
 setting and enforcing standards;

 providing training,
 outreach and education,
 establishing partnerships and
 Encouraging continual improvement in workplace safety and health.
* The Standards are initially developed for Americans but are accepted and followed across the globe
The key activities of OSHA are-

 Formalization of the structure of safety services
 Categorization of Occupational hazards
 Employee and Employer‟s awareness

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 Education and Training on safety and health matters

 Implementation of safety and health measures
 Post implementation checks and audits
CHAPTER 14
TEAM WORK IN APPAREL MANUFACTURING

14.1. Introduction
Team work is very much important to achieve the task and meeting the mission objectives. It becomes
even more important and vital when there are a number of people involved in the activity. There are
scenarios where the task cannot be accomplished by single individual and there is involvement of many
people. Garment manufacturing presents a number of such situations at the all processes, whether it is
product development, merchandising, planning, sewing or final packing and shipment. In garment
manufacturing, there is no single task which can be done without involvement of others.
Even with the increased level of technology and machines with full of automation, the importance of team
work has not reduced in fact it has become even more crucial to the success.Working together as a team,
the group of people is able to be productive, meet safety and quality, while minimizing absenteeism and
turnover. The work becomes fulfilling as we learn new operations, and from each other.
The studies reveal that, those who work in the most complex manufacturing environments have the most
to gain from the use of problem-solving teams. And garment manufacturing sets the ideal standard and
environment for team work.
14.2. Importance of Team work

So far team work has not been given due importance and in garment manufacturing the major focus is
always on productivity, efficiency, quality and last but not the least quantity of the product. Many of the
times, the role of team work left unnoticed or unrecognized though team spirit works as back bone to the
success irrespective of how big or small is the task.

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Generally organizations focus on improving the working conditions and environment of the plant. To do
this a huge investment is done in terms of time, efforts and money but the importance of human resource
if not given priority.
The importance of team work can be summarized in below key points-
 Enhances efficient and effective workplace.

 Its helps in maximize their job performance of individuals, and
 Encourages an inviting and productive atmosphere for new team members.
14.3. Key features of Team work
Collaboration
Collaboration or working together is one of the most basic features. Teamwork makes the tasks done
which cannot be done by one person alone. By sharing knowledge and experience the team members help
developing an effective and quality product. For an effective collaboration the team must be able to
communicate and share thoughts and idea, and there also needs to be a feeling of respect in place for each
team member's contribution.
Conflict Resolution
After a team has started working together there can be conflict, according to the online Reference for
Business. Some people feel their ideas and thoughts are not being given due attention and others may feel
that their suggestion and ideas should always be part of the solution. At the same time here could also
leadership issues or conflict which may hamper the team spirit and may affect the team performance.
Conflict resolution helps in providing scope for everyone's contributions, developing the ability to listen
to all ideas and creating a method of common understanding used to develop a solution the team can
agreed upon.
Roles and Responsibilities
Understanding the roles and responsibilities by the team members is one another key feature of a team. In
addition to this every individual member of the team should have passion to execute the task assigned to
him in the best possible manner. A task is completed more effectively and efficiently when the
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responsibilities are assigned equally among the team members without any biasing. The task should be
assigned to the people based on the level of expertise and role of individual in the team.
Differing Points of View
Differing point of views can be considered as one of the strengths of teamwork. This feature has the rare
ability is to develop practically viable and pragmatic solutions to a problem. This feature makes the
solution fool proof and more effective as this is cross checked by different point of views due to
difference in opinion. This enhances the acceptability of the solution. This provides an opportunity to
thing and visualizes the situation from different frames, and can create a solution developed collectively.
14.4. Qualities of a Team worker

Demonstrates reliability
A reliable team member should get the work done and completes his work hard and meet
deadlines and commitments. He can be expected to deliver good performance all the time, not
just one or some of the time.
Active participation
Active participation in team is one of the key traits for a good member. Such people do a lot of
preparation and homework before they come for team and acts accordingly. Such people keep themselves
active and don‟t waste their time in non- value added activities.
Active team members take the initiative to help make things happen, and they come forward to offer
helps. "What contribution can I make to help the team achieve success?" is the attitude of such people.
Effective Communicator
Effective and constructive communication means speaking up and expressing thoughts and ideas clearly,
directly, honestly, and with respect for others and for the work of the team. This kind of person is most
desired in any team and such a team member does not shy away from making a point but makes it in the
best way constructive, positive and creative manner.

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Respectful and supportive
This is a must quality which each and every team member should possess. One should treat the colleagues
with respect, support and with courtesy. At the same time one should also have understanding and the
support of other team members in the most respectful and professional manner.
Good team players with such attitude and qualities also have a sense of humour and know how to do what
kind of talk or use words. Such people exhibit their commitment look beyond their own work and care
about the team work. Winning as a team is one of the great motivators of employee performance.
Good listener
Good listeners are must for smooth and efficient functioning of any team. The good listeners are the
people who can absorb, understand, and consider ideas and points of view from other people without
debating and arguing every point. It is also very important for effective communication and problem
solving; team members listen first and speak later for their positive impact and contribution.
Problem-solver
There is not situation possible which is free from any kind of troubles and problems. The key reason of
team building is develop problem solving capabilities hence this quality is must for each and every team
member. People with problem solving attitude always are welcome dealing with problems and put sincere
efforts to solve the problems. Such people are problem-solvers, not problem creators. People with such
attitude get problems out in the open for discussion and then work collectively in order to work out on
solutions.
Cooperation and helping attitude
Cooperation is the act of working and acting together to meet the objectives. People with cooperation and
helping attitude come forward to offer help to solve problems and get work done, despite differences they
may have with other team members.
Flexibility
Such members are flexible enough to adopt the changes and modification whenever required. The
environment like garment manufacturing, flexibility is very much important where one needs to deal with
changing conditions and often create changes themselves. Such people don't complain or get stressed out

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because something new is being tried or some new direction is being set. Such people are free from any
kind of mental blocks and accept the changes and react accordingly.
Idea and view sharing
Such team members never hesitate in sharing their thoughts and ideas. They believe in sharing
knowledge, experience and information.
Many a times the communication within teams is done informally. This makes the working environment
comfortable and smooth. Good team players are active in this informal sharing of ideas and thoughts.
They keep other team members in the loop with information and expertise that helps get the task executed
well and avoids last minute surprises.
14.5. Quality Circles

14.5.1. What are Quality Circles?
People are the greatest and most valuable assets for an organization. The effective utilization of the
human resource is a prime responsibility of any organization. Quality circle is a tool of such utilization of
work force in an effective manner. Quality circle is "a way of capturing the creative and innovative power
that lies within the work force". The practice is widely accepted and acknowledged across the globe in
many industries. Quality Circles is a people-building philosophy, providing self-motivation and happiness
in improving environment without any compulsion or monetary benefits.Quality Circle is a small group
of 6 to 12 employees doing similar work who voluntarily meet together on a regular basis to identify
improvements in their respective work areas using proven techniques for analysing and solving work
related problems coming in the way of achieving and sustaining excellence leading to mutual upliftment
of employees as well as the organization.
14.5.2. Objective of Quality circles

 To improve productivity and quality
 To improve communications
 To enhance cooperative behaviour
 To provide an efficient operation
 To enhance morale.

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14.5.3. Basic principles of Quality circles

 Workers are recognized as the most valuable resource along with other management resources
 Development of workers as useful members of the department.
 Participation and support from all levels
 Team-work
 Constant encouragement of creativity
 The projects are related to daily work.
14.5.4. Attributes of Quality Circle

 A form of participation management.
 A human resource development technique.
 A problem solving technique.
14.5.5. Structure of a Quality Circle
QCC Steering Committee
Facilitator
Circle Leader Circle Leader
Circle member Circle member Circle member Circle member Circle member Circle member
Figure 82 Structure of a Quality Circle
A. Steering Committee- Steering committee is constituted by the people from top management and
works as a decision making body. The key responsibilities of a steering committee are-
 Develop policies and guidelines

 Establishes a regular monthly meeting time.
 Prepares objectives and plans to achieve objectives.
 Provide guidelines and directions.

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 Promulgates quality circles through-out the organization.

 Selects facilitators.
 Meets periodically with facilitators.
B. Coordinator or facilitator- He may be a Personnel or Administrative officer who co-ordinates and
supervises the work and administers the programme
The key responsibilities of a coordinator are –
 Train leaders.
 Promotes the quality circle program to employees, supervisors, middle and upper
management.
 Believes completely in quality circles as a method of developing employee potential.
 Promotes implements, operates and manages a quality circle program.
 Motivates supports and encourages people.
 Set standards and priorities.
 Optionally participates in steering committee activities.
C. Circle Leader- Circle leader is one of the key members of quality circles, which works as a focal
point of the circle. The circle leader works as a point of contact for all kind of communications related to
functioning of the circle. The key responsibilities of a circle leader are-
 Trains members with assistance from the facilitator as needed.

 Is responsible for circle activities.
 Is responsible for the operation of the circle.
 Assists with circle reporting and management presentations.
 Follows up on action teams.
 Shows interest, enthusiasm, and support of the circle.
 Prepares the agenda for circle meeting.
 Enforces policies and rules of conduct.
 Assists in analysis and problem solving.

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D. Circle Members- Circle members are one of the basic elements responsible to the formation of
Quality circles. These work as foundation to the circle and form the bottom and the most important layer
of the circle structure. The key responsibilities of circle members are-
 Attend periodic meetings.

 Adhere to circle policies and code of conduct.
 Learn and apply quality circle methods.
 Participates in problem identification, analysis and solutions.
 Encourages participation of other members and non-members.
14.5.6. Operating a Quality Circle
Figure 83 Operating a Quality Circle
Team building exercises
There are few Team building exercises that require the use of management and interpersonal skills. The
exercises are designed for implementing problem solving skills, effective communication, active

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listening, leadership and conflict management. The exercises must also be performed with safety (to
avoid falls or mistakes), quality (to meet exercise requirements) and efficiency (time constrain), similar to
the activities that we perform in our work sections.
The lessons learned by performing these exercises need to be implemented in our everyday work
activities. This will promote our growth as individuals and mature as a production unit for increased
earnings and personal satisfaction.
'Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much’
Helen Keller


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ETHIOPIAN TEXTILE INDUSTRY

GARMENT INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

3.3.3. French seam .............................................................................................................................. 28

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

5.2.7. Synchro-flow System .............................................................................................................. 64

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

8.4. Capacity Booking and planning ................................................................................................ 105

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

9.7. Fabric Quality control ............................................................................................................... 126

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

12.2. The supervisor's role and functions ...................................................................................... 151

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

14.5.4. Attributes of Quality Circle ............................................................................................... 199

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

Figure 37 Automatic fabric inspection machine ......................................................................................... 38

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

Figure 74 Follow up .................................................................................................................................. 104

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

1.2. How to use the manual in the best manner

Table 1 Training time duration

Sr. Topic Hours Cumulative Cumulative

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

4 Machines and Equipment used in Apparel Production

8 Production Planning & Control in Apparel

9 Quality Management in Apparel Manufacturing 16 113 14.1

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

OVERVIEW OF APPAREL MANUFACTURING PROCESS

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

Figure 1 Garment manufacturing

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

Figure 2 Apparel Manufacturing Process

These processes or operations can be categorized in to two broad categories-

a. Pre-production processes/product development

2.2. Pre-production process

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

2.3. Production Process

A. Marker making - A marker is a diagram of a precise arrangement of pattern pieces. Marker

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

2.3.3. Washing and dyeing

Figure 4 Washing and Dyeing

2.3.4. Finishing and Packing

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

Figure 5 Finishing and Packing

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

3.2.1. Stitch formation

Figure 6Stitch formation by Intra-looping

B. Inter-looping is the passing of a loop of thread through another loop formed by a

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

Figure 7Stitch formations by Inter-looping

Figure 8Stitch formations by Inter-acing

3.2.2. Stitch Properties

እባክዎ በዚህ ሰነድ ከመጠቀምዎ በፊት ትክክሇኛ መሆኑን ያረጋግጡ

3.2.3. Stitch Classification

A. Class 100 series- Single Thread Chain Stitch

Figure 3.4 Single Thread Chain Stitches