SAM

SAM or Standard Allowed Minute is used to measure task or work content of a garment. This
term is widely used by industrial engineers and production people in the garment manufacturing
industry. For the estimation of cost of making a garment SAM value plays a very important role.
In past scientists and apparel technicians did research on how much time to be allowed to do a
job when one follows standard method during doing the job. According to the research study
minute value has been defined for each movement needed to accomplish a job. Synthetic data is
available for each movement.

Calculation of SAM through Time Study

Step 1: Select one operation for which you want to calculate SAM.

Step 2: Take one stop watch. Stand by side of the operator. Capture cycle time for that operation.
(cycle time – total time taken to do all works needed to complete one operation, i.e. time from
pick up part of first piece to next pick up of the next piece). Do time study for consecutive five
cycles. Discard if found abnormal time in any cycle. Calculate average of the 5 cycles. Time you
got from time study is called cycle time. To convert this cycle time into basic time you have to
multiply cycle time with operator performance rating. [Basic Time = Cycle Time X performance
Rating]

Step 3: Performance rating. Now you have to rate the operator at what performance level he was
doing the job seeing his movement and work speed. Suppose that operator performance rating is
80%. Suppose cycle time is 0.60 minutes. Basic time = (0.60 X 80%) = 0.48 minutes

Step 4: Formula 2

Standard allowed minutes (SAM) = (Basic minute + Bundle allowances +

machine and personal allowances). Add bundle allowances (10%) and machine and
personal allowances (20%) to basic time. Now you got Standard Minute value (SMV) or SAM.
SAM= (0.48+0.048+0.096) = 0.624 minutes.

Problem:

1. In a factory there are 4 workers. Cycle time is 20, 25, 32 & 30 min respectively to make a
garment. Say rating is 80%. Bundle allowance is 10%, personal allowance is 12% and machine
allowance is 14%. Calculate SAM.
Solution of problem1
2. In a factory there are 3 workers. Cycle time is 20, 25 & 30 min respectively to make a
garment. Say rating is 90%. Bundle allowance is 10%, personal allowance is 14% and machine
allowance is 14%. Calculate SAM.

3. In a factory there are 2 workers. Cycle time is 20 & 30 min respectively to make a garment.
Say rating is 95%. Bundle allowance is 10%, personal allowance is 12% and machine allowance
is 10%. Calculate SAM.

The formula used for calculating available capacity of the sewing line has been given below. The
available capacity of a line is presented in minutes or hours.
Formula 3

Sewing room Capacity per Day= {(No. of machine x daily work hours x 60) – absenteeism %}
x Efficiency % (unit in minutes)

Formula 4

Monthly Capacity = Daily Capacity X No. of working days in a month (26 days)

The capacity of a line depends on the average efficiency% of the line and operator absenteeism
%. First line wise capacity is calculated and then added all line's capacity to calculate available
capacity of the floor.

For example: A factory floor has 5 lines. Factory works for 8 hours day. No of total operators,
line efficiency and absenteeism percentage are as given in the following table.

Line No. of Minutes/Day Line Absenteeism Capacity

No. Operator (Daily working Efficiency % available
Hrs. X 60)
Line 1 30 480 40% 10% 5184.0
Line 2 28 480 50% 10% 6048.0
Line 3 32 480 55% 10% 7603.2
Line 4 32 480 45% 10% 6220.8
Line 5 25 480 39% 10% 4212.0
Total Sewing floor capacity per day (in minutes) 29268.0

Available capacity of the line will vary on the factors such as

i) no. of operators working in the line,
ii) Line’s existing efficiency and
iii) operator absenteeism percentage.

Exercise Math

1. In a factory there are 3 lines. Total number of operator is 60. Absenteeism % 10 for all
line. Factory runs for 10 hours. Line efficiency is 70% calculate daily and monthly
capacity.
 Solution of math 1

2. In a factory there are 5 lines. Total number of operator is 70. Absenteeism % 12 for all
line. Factory runs for 8 hours. Line efficiency is 60% calculate daily and monthly
capacity.

3. In a factory there are 6 lines. Total number of operator is 50. Absenteeism % 10 for all
line. Factory runs for 12 hours. Line efficiency is 70% calculate daily and monthly
capacity.

4. In a factory there are 3 lines. Total number of operator is 80. Absenteeism % 10 for all
line. Factory runs for 10 hours. Line efficiency is 90% calculate daily and monthly
capacity.

5. In a factory there are 3 lines. Total number of operator is 90. Absenteeism % 10 for all
line. Factory runs for 10 hours. Line efficiency is 50% calculate daily and monthly
capacity.
Capacity can be also represented in pieces. To get it divide total capacity (in minutes) by SAM of
the garment to be made in the floor. Suppose a factory produces basic full sleeve shirt of SAM
20. Shirt production capacity of the floor will be 1463 pieces per day (29268/20).

Like individual operator efficiency, efficiency of a production line or batch or section is

important for a factory. Daily line efficiency shows the line performance. To calculate efficiency
of a line for a day, you will need following data (information) from the line supervisor or line
recorder.

1. Number of operators – how many operators worked in the line in a day

2. Working hours (Regular and overtime hours) – how many hours each of the operators
worked or how many hours the line run in a day
3. Production in pieces – How many pieces are produced or total line output at the end of the
day
4. Garment SAM – What is exact standard minute of the style (garment)

Once you have above data you have to calculate following using above information -
a. Total minutes produced by the line: To get total produced minutes multiply production
pieces by SAM
b. Total minutes attended by the all operators in the line: Multiply number of operators by
daily working hours and convert total hours into total minutes (multiplying by 60).

Now, calculate line efficiency using following formula:

Formula 5

Line efficiency = Total minutes produced by the line *100 /total minutes
attended by all operators.

For example, refer following table. Data calculation formula has been given on the header row of
the table.

Total Line
line Total Minute Efficie
No. of Worki output Garm minutes produ ncy
Opera ng (producti ent attended ced (%)
tor hours on) SAM (E=A*B (F=C* (F/E*1
(A) (B) (C) (D) *60) D) 00)
48 8 160 44.25 23040 7080 30.73
48 11 240 44.25 31680 10620 33.52
34 8 300 25 16320 7500 45.96
 35 11 400 25 23100 10000 43.29
35 11 329 25 23100 8225 35.61
34 8 230 25 16320 5750 35.23
34 8 200 35 16320 7000 42.89
35 11 311 35 23100 10885 47.12
34 11 340 35 22440 11900 53.03

Problem:

1. In Akij knitwear Ltd. Total number of worker is 60. Factory runs for 8 hours. Line input is 150
pieces jacket. SAM to produce jacket is 25 min. Calculate Line efficiency.

Solution of math 1
2. In a factory total number of worker is 50. Factory runs for 10 hours. Line input is 200 pieces Polo
shirt. SAM to produce garment is 20 min. Calculate Line efficiency.
 3. In a factory total number of worker is 80. Factory runs for 8 hours. Line input is 150 T shirt.
Suppose rating of worker is 85%. Cycle time to produce T shirt for 3 worker is 10, 12 & 14 min.
Assume Personal allowance is 12%. Calculate Line efficiency.

Most simply, productivity is the ratio between output and inputs.

Within a factory, industrial engineers or factory managers and line supervisors measure the number of
garments produced by a line of sewing machine operators in a specific time frame. Generally factory
works 10 to 12 hours a day. Total production (output pieces) of a line and total labor involved in
producing those pieces is required to calculate labor productivity. See following example,

Assume that
Total production in day =1200 pieces
Total labor (operator +helpers) = 37
Working time = 600 minutes (10 hours)

Formula 6

So, Labor productivity per Shift (8, 10, 12 Hour) =Total pieces produced/ total
labor input

Another productivity measure is labor efficiency, which is a comparison of the time spent working
productively to the total time spent at work. These metrics are appropriate for analyzing and comparing
the productivity of a particular production line or factory that turns out specific apparel products.
However, comparing productivity levels across products or operating lines can be difficult because the
benchmarks
differ from one garment to another. Calculation of labor efficiency is shown below. Consider above data.

SAM (Standard allowed minutes) of the garment = 8.9

Minutes produced by each labor =(32.4 pieces X 8.9) = 288 minutes
Available minutes was 600

Formula 7

So, Labor efficiency = (Produced minutes/available minutes)* 100

1. In a textile factory production per day is 4000 pcs T- shirt. Available working hour is 8.
Total number of operator is 250. Standard allowed minute to produce the garments is 15
min. Calculate labor productivity & efficiency. 5
 Solution of math 1
2. In a textile factory production per hour is 300 pcs T- shirt. Available working hour is 10.
Total number of operator is 150. Standard allowed minute to produce the garments is 18
min. Calculate labor productivity & efficiency.

3. In a textile factory production per day is 3500 pcs T- shirt. Available working hour is 12.
Total number of operator is 130. Basic time to produce the garments is 12 min. Assume
personal allowance is 10% & bundle allowance is 10%. Calculate labor productivity &
efficiency.