LECTURE

• If you observe an operator while she is stitching a garment, you will

see that the operator doesn't run the machine continuously.
• She picks up garments (or garment parts), places it on the table, aligns
pieces, put the pieces under pressure foot, stitches few centimeters of
the seam, realigns plies, and stitches the piece.
• This way she completes stitching of one operation of a garment.
• In one operation cycle time - there is material handling time and
stitching time (needle downtime).
Needle Downtime/ Needle Running Time/ Needle up & down going time

• Downtime is a crucial performance measure for sewing floors as well as sewing

factories (KPI).
• The term ‘needle downtime (NDT)’ is often used in the apparel industry to express
total time or percentage of total work time of a machine runs in sewing garment.
• The word ‘downtime’ (or 'downtime') sometimes makes confusion and many may
mean it as machine idle time and is considered as one of kind of non-productive time.
• Traditionally 'downtime' word is associated with 'anything not working'. However, in
case of sewing machine, it is just opposite 'sewing machine works when a needle is
down'.
• This is actually a needle running time.
• Needle downtime is also referred to as needle time. Needle time is the total time a
machine is run during the day, or we can say total time spent on stitching garments.
• Contrary to popular belief, needle downtime does not necessarily indicate wasted
time.
If you observe sewing operators' activities throughout the day, you will find they
• stitch garments
• sit idle when they have no work to do, or for other reasons of lost time
• speak with their co-workers
• move from one workstation an another
• take break
• go to the washroom
• they chat with quality control guy and line supervisor
• and many more uncertain things may be happening.
From their many activities you have to measure only needle downtime – i.e. when
machine needle moves up and down. You can use one of these two ways to
measure needle downtime.
Statistical data analysis (Work sampling method)
Operation cycle time analysis
Calculation of Needle Downtime
Let first find needle time for an individual workstation
• Select one workstation and an operator
• Write list of operations she is doing. Do time study for single operation first
• Do time study for all elements of the operation cycle
• Find time for machine running element (stitching) from the time study sheet
• Study at least 25 operation cycles for same operation
• Find average time for stitching element of 25 studies
• Count total pieces made by her (operation wise quantity if she is doing more
than one operation)
Total needle downtime in a day = (No of pieces made * Stitching time per piece)
Needle Downtime%= (Needle down time in minute*100)/Total working minute in
a day
- Standard Needle downtime % is 255 or up
Example: Assuming that one operator is doing collar run stitch
operation of a shirt. The calculated average machine running
time (needle downtime) is 12 seconds. She has produced 400
collars (only collar run stitch). (In this example, we are not
considering if this operator worked in operations and did repair
work in the same workstation. To know actual needle
downtime, you have to include all activities an operator did by
stitching machine.)
Therefore calculated needle downtime would be 400*12
seconds or 80 minutes in a day.

Calculate needle downtime in the percentage of total

hours worked by dividing 80 minutes by 8 hours. It is
(80*100/480) % = 18.33%
Not Productive Time (NPT)

▪ Nonproductive time refers to the time that an operator spends not

producing any garment (standard minutes such as'set up time') is
referred to as idle time.
▪ Non-productive time is measured in the garment manufacturing
industry in order to determine how much standard time is lost due to
non-productiveness
Reasons of NPT
✔ Line setting and ✔ Quality Issue
Machine setting delay for it. ✔ Capacity Issue
✔ Input not available ✔ Input Delay
✔ Machine Breakdown ✔ Trim accessories not available
✔ Cutting not available ✔ Change of Feeding Plan
✔ Power failure ✔ Technical problems
For example NPT NPT (Total Minutes)
Line Setting Start time: 8.00AM and  Line Setting 20.00
Machine Breakdown 220.00
End time: 8.10AM Cutting Not Available 40.00
Total min: 10 minute Quality Issue or Stitching 10.00
No of operators: 2 Print/EMB. Not Available 80.00
NPT = 2 x 10 = 20 min Cutting Quality Problem 20.00
Power Failure 70.00
Change of Feeding Plan 280.00
Others 20.00
Others 760.00
DIFFERENT DEPT. LOSS HOUR (NPT)

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 SOME PRACTICAL REASONS OF NPT
Machine breakdown
Machine breakdown highly impact on the production. It means
when it stops working due to internal malfunction and it required
the replacement or repair the equipment. The problem are cutter
,motor, sensor, Load sheading etc.

Quality Checking delay

In quality checking area there are two operator they checking quality
properly if they found any problem like fault , fabric shade, spot then
they give it replace area. The Product may not pass due to quality
problem. Quality Check and quickly decision making. 3-1
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 SOME PRACTICAL REASONS OF NPT
Decision making Delay
Management decision late that’s why production hamper. In cutting section
decision making delay hamper the production because they found any
problem like Lay ,cutter decision ,numbering, Bundling etc. but they cannot
solve this problem in proper time for late decision

Supervision Problem
For supervision in cutting floor the supervisor always monitor if they not
properly monitoring then for their supervision problem NPT may
produce. Problem like Lay, numbering, bundling etc.

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 SOME PRACTICAL REASONS OF NPT
Re-Work
For any fault found or anything new add into garments
and do that work again as like as if I found any hole problem
then I cut same fabric and replace their sticker that is re-work.
Should be required experience operator

Manpower Crisis/leave
In the cutting floor operator or helper may absent or maybe
they leave and NTP produce
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 SOME PRACTICAL REASONS OF NPT
Lay Delay
For any problem found and That’s may not lay in proper time. As like as I have
machine, fabric, Man Power but there are cutting problem, space problem that’s why
fabric delay

Cutting mistake
Cutting mistake means wrong bundling and wrong numbering may done and wrong
marker may use into lay ,cutter operator may mistake during cutting fabric

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 SOME PRACTICAL REASONS OF NPT
Re-cut Delay
The more rejections, the more time it will take .Basic product takes less time ( two
sleeve, front ,back),Critical product takes more time ( Back, front, Pocket,, Bottom,
Cuff etc.)

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 SOME PRACTICAL REASONS OF NPT
Fabric delay
Fabric not arrive into cutting in proper time, operator idle and NPT will produce.

Power failure
Short term or long-term loss of the power or power outrage it’s called power
failure. For the garments factory all machine will be stop. For that reason lose the
available time & increase NPT.

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 SOME PRACTICAL REASONS OF NPT
Print Delay
Cutting garments body parts may need print. If print body part not arrive in proper
time For pairing with other parts work will be stop operator will sit idle.

Approval delay
To produce a standard product then needed standard material & ensure the standard
material also need approval. If any reason this approval to be late it’s called approval
delay

Trims delay
If the supplier cannot delivery on time. Accessories are Hangtags ,price tag,
polybag ,Tissue paper , Hanger, Gum tape, Export Carton etc. 3-1
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 SOME PRACTICAL REASONS OF NPT
Color shading
During cutting color problem may found . When dyes cannot
migrate properly in the whole fabric it show different color or color
depth difference in the same fabric shade.

Print Mistake
Buyer always mention the print placement in the tack pack. If this
print placement not done properly that is print mistake. Print
mistake happen - missing word, text that’s are two small, spelling
error, position, color, shade problem.
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Reduce NPT:
1. Find out the root cause of NPT
2. Find out which are removable and non-removable
3. If removable then must take steps to remove like shortage of trims, power
failure etc.
4. If not removable then must take steps to reduce like line setting, machine
breakdown
Convert NPT to productive time
Earned Hour / Standard Allocated Hour in Garments Industry
Earned Hours = (Number of Pieces Produced × SAM (Standard Minute)/60
If an operator does more than one operation, the production of both processes is counted and multiplied by their
respective SAM. Then add them and divide by 60.

Here,
SAM of operations = 0.60
Number of piece produced = 200
So,
Earned Hours = (200 × 0.60)/60
= 2 hours
Now let's assume an employee is doing collar and cuff join operation. She has produced 150 pieces of the collar and
120 pieces of the cuff. The collar's SAM (standard minute) is 0.60, and the cuff  is 0.40. what will be the Earned
Hours for that operator?
Here,
We know that Produced Minutes = Production × Operation SAM
Produced minute for collar = 150 × 0.60 = 90 and
Produced minute for cuff = 120 × 0.40 = 48
Total Produced minute = 90+48 = 138
So Earned Hours = 138/60 = 2.3
Why calculate earned hours?
• By analyzing earned hours of each operator, you can
easily evaluate the performance of an operator.

• Secondly, if you want to calculate earned amount (in

Dollars), based on their hourly base rate, you can
calculate that by using operator's earned hours.
Convert SAM Value to Dollars
Hourly rate of an operation = SAM x  Base Rate per minute.
Factory Base Rate Calculation
This rate is the hourly salary of the employee. It is calculated from the calculating country’s minimum wase structure.
If per day wage is $20 then
1 hour wage = $20/8 = $2.50 (Assuming working hour 8 hr/day as per labor law).
1 Minute wage = $2.50/60 = $0.04
That means Factory Base Rate in Minute = $0.04

SAM conversion to Dollar

The formula to convert SAM to Dollar is:
Earning in Dollar = Total SAM x Factory Base Rate in Minute

Calculation:
We have,
Total SAM = 9 and
Factory Base Rate in Minute = $0.04,
So,
 Earning in Dollar = Total SAM x Factory Base Rate in Minute
= 9 × $0.04
= $0.36
Remember to SMV to Dollar
✔ The base rate can be different for employee to employee for varying
employee skills.
✔ The base rate can be different for operations to operations for varying
operations complexity.
✔ The Base rate per hour can be different for different employees
(based on the employee's skill level).
✔ The Base rate can be different for different operations based on the
difficulty level of the sewing operations/manual operations.
Calculate the Piece Rate of Sewing

Operation Rate = (SAM of Operation × Rate per minute)

Example for Clear Understanding.
Let us say,
Minimum wage of worker is 9,000 BDT
So per day wage = Wage in Month/30 =
So per hour wage = Wage per day/8 =
So per minute wage = Wage per hour/60 =
Now assume,
SAM of operation = 0.75
So per piece rate = SAM of the Operation x Rate per minute
Now assume,
An operator can produce 1200 piece per day. Then he/she will earn-
No of pieces per day x Rate per piece =
If the operator worked 26 day per month then he/she will earn per month = Tk per
day x 26=
Minimum wage of worker = 9,000 BDT
By piece rate earning per month =
So the operator will be more motivated to work on this rate.
Let us say,
Minimum wage of worker is 9,000 BDT
So per day wage = 9000/30 = 300 BDT
So per hour wage = 300/8 = 37.5 BDT
So per minute wage = 37.5/60 = 0.625 BDT
Now assume,
SAM of operation = 0.75
So per piece rate = 0.75 × 0.625 = 0.46875 BDT
Now assume,
An operator can produce 1200 piece per day. Then he/she will earn-
1200 × 0.46875 = 562 BDT/Day
If the operator worked 26 day per month then he/she will earn per month = 562 × 26 = 14,625
BDT
Minimum wage of worker = 9,000 BDT
By piece rate earning per month = 14,625 BDT
So the operator will be more motivated to work on this rate.
Formula for SMV Improvement Percentage

Calculation of SMV Improvement Percentage

The formula for SMV Improvement Percentage is below,
SMV improvement percentage = (Old SMV - New SMV) × 100/Old SMV

Let's say
Old SMV of a sewing operation = 0.60
After improving it, you got a new SMV = 0.50
Therefore, SMV improvement will be
= ((0.60- 0.50)/0.60)*100
= 16.67%
Calculate Production Capacity of a Factory
To calculate the capacity in pieces, the following information is needed-
1. Factory Capacity in Minutes
2. Average SMV of Products
3. Average Efficiency of Factory

Factory Capacity in minutes = Total number of Sewing machine x Working hour x 60

Factory Production Capacity (in Pieces) = (Factory Capacity in Minutes/Average

SMV of Products) × Average Efficiency of Factory

Average SMV of Products

To calculate the average SMV of the products, list all of the product category run in the factory and take SMV of each
category and make average.
Say, for example, the average SMV = 22.59
Average Efficiency of Factory
This data of average efficiency should be collected from Industrial Engineering Department. Basically, it is the historical
data from a couple of years. if this is not available, need to calculate the efficiency of the factory.
For example, if
Total number of sewing machine = 300 and
Average working hour = 10
Average SMV = 22.59
Average Efficiency= 52%

Total factory capacity (in minutes) = Nos Sewing m/c x WH x 60

Factory Production Capacity (in Pieces) per day = (Factory Capacity in

Minutes/Average SMV of Products) × Average Efficiency of Factory

If the factory runs 26 days in a month, then, 

Total Capacity= Capacity per day x Factory runs in a month
Total number of sewing machine = 300 and
Average working hour = 10
So, total factory capacity (in minutes) = (300 × 10 × 60) minutes =
180000 minutes/day
Factory Production Capacity (in Pieces) = (180000/22.59) ×
52% = 15323.32 = 15323 pcs/day

If factory run 26 days in a month, then the monthly capacity

= 15323*26 = 398398 pcs