How to Give IED a Friendly Face ?

Amit Anand

Amit Anand, an alumna of

IED is one of the key departments in any

NIFT (GMT) and SCDL,

garment manufacturing establishment. In my

Pune (MBA), is currently

previous article (refer StitchWorld August issue) I

working as Production

had emphasised on the various functions that

Executive with

the IED performs that lead to higher productivity,

TrendSetters International,

optimum utilisation of resources and thus

a Gurgaon-based export

growing profits for the organisation. However,

house. Among other responsibilities, Amit also

there are certain factors, which if taken care of,

looks after tracking and keeping records;

would help the IED function more effectively in a

analysing the reasons for lower productivity;

garment manufacturing set-up. In the present

making reports on batch performance, operator

article, I intend to highlight some of such factors

performance and factory efficiency.

which, might look very simple but have the

potential of affecting the effectiveness of the IED
to a great extent.

Its an undisputed fact that an IED manager needs to be technologically sound but, besides that, he
also needs to be an excellent communicator, as he would need to communicate with the line
supervisors and operators on the one side and on the other he would be reporting to the top-most
management of the company. In addition, he should also have a good sense of human psychology
and human behaviour.
The garment industry, unlike any other industry, is highly labour- oriented. No doubt, machines and
technology are a must to get higher productivity but it should not be forgotten that after all the
machines are to be run by humans. The garment industry is highly departmentalised and involves total
team-work. Therefore, the human factor becomes all the more important. Unlike a software firm, the
work force of a garment manufacturing unit belongs to a different educational and socio-educational
background and it makes it more difficult for them to put their thoughts and acts together and work as
a team. As a result, the chances of clashes are more. For example, the clash between the production
department and the quality department. IED is yet another department that is always prone to clashes
with the production team.
Among the various jobs that the IED performs, the most important is one pertaining to work
measurement. The IED measures the time taken in the performance of an operation/work, separating
the effective time from the ineffective time. Thus, work measurement helps reveal the existence and
nature of the ineffective time and is also used to set a standard time for carrying out an operation /
work. Targets are then set on the basis of the standard time needed to do an operation. Now, here lies
the main problem. Work measurement shows up the behaviour of work people and because of this it is
apt to meet with far greater resistance than any other functions of the IED, say the method study. It

must be remembered that work measurement and in particular time study, its principal technique,
have acquired a bad reputation in the past because it was directed to reducing the ineffective time
within the control of the operatives by setting performance standards for them. Actually, nobody wants
a target or standard of performance to be set for him or her as once it is set, he/she is expected to
achieve those standards. The resistance is more if the targets are to be set by any other authority or
department. Now, applying this to our garment industry set up, IED does the same for the production
team. IED sets up the targets per operator as well as per batch/line. Now, in case an operator fails to
meet his target, he is pulled up by the line supervisor and, if a line fails to meet its production target for
the day, the concerned supervisor gets quite an earful from the production manager. Thus failure to
achieve the targets shoots up a chain reaction of reprimands. So, everybody feels how better life
would have been had there been no targets to achieve; no performance levels to meet. Everybody
would have been free of any obligation of meeting standards and everybodys life would have been
more hassle-free. So, quite naturally, the IED becomes an eye sore, especially for the operators and
line supervisors, who unfortunately dont understand the importance of work measurement exercise.
They always feel that the IED knowingly sets a target that is unrealistic for them. It is the biggest
challenge before an IED manager to win their confidence and convince them that IED is not there to
harm their interest but to help them perform better.

Case Study
The primary duty of IED manager is to remove all the fears of the workers and give them a better
understanding of the entire process of target setting. So, he started approaching the operators;
encouraged them to express their doubts and made them understand the process by which the IED
used to set targets for them (of course, in the simplest and lay mans terms). He highlighted the
following points during the course of his deliberations with them:
The person on whom time study was performed was also human just like them and not a machine
and if he can perform an operation in a particular amount of time, so can they. In fact operators had
more advantage in the sense that they perform the same operation in the sewing line for a long period
of time (as we run large quantity orders) unlike the operator on whom time study was performed. Thus,
they had the opportunity of getting more and more perfection with the operation, as their learning
curve swelled with time and hence they could have not only met the target but even beaten them.
While setting targets the IED would take a minimum of 10 readings per operation, thus developing
a pool of data, so that it could arrive at an average figure and negate any chance of relying on a
maximum or minimum value.
They were informed about the type of allowances that was given to them and were convinced that
all their natural needs were taken care of while setting targets for them.
A change in their behaviour was quite palpable soon, as more and more operators were given an
insight into the whole process. The operators stopped complaining about the targets being very high or
unrealistic. They were now more open with the IED team and would share with them if they faced any
difficulty in performing an operation and getting the targets. The IED was now a foe turned friend for

them.
If an IED manager thinks his work is over with fixing targets for the production department, he is
grossly mistaken. Rather, once the targets are set, the IED should coordinate with their production
counterparts and find out whether the targets were being achieved on the production floor. It should try
to find out the operations where the targets had remained elusive for the production team. It should
also try to look into the factors responsible for it. It would serve two purposes:
It would help narrowing the wedge between the production and the IE department as the
production team would also feel that the IED is not relaxing after giving them targets to meet but also
helping them to ensure that the targets are met are on the floor. This would remove the suspicion from
their mind that the IED deliberately sets an unrealistic target for them.
Generally the production team is so busy handling core production related challenges, it doesnt
get any time to investigate deeply into the reasons for lower production. So, IED can extend a helping
hand analysing what it is that makes the targets unachievable for the workers on the floor. If any
operator is deficient, there could be a number of reasons behind it and they can be broadly
categorised as:
Problem related to men: operators efficiency didnt match with the efficiency level required by the
operation. For example, while the operation needed to be performed by an A grade operator, it was
being done by a B grade operator.
Problem related to machine: either the machine was not running properly or was getting frequent
breakdowns. It killed the operators productive time.
Problem related to material: was the cutting proper or was the line balanced and the operator was
getting the pieces from the preceding operation in adequate number?
It would help the production team to identify the bottlenecks and getting away with them. For example,
if an operator failed to achieve his target because he got faulty cuttings from the cutting section and he
was required to re-cut the pieces on the machine bed, the problem didnt lie with the operator but with
the material made available to him. So, as a solution, a helper should be provided to re-cut and justify
the pieces, so that the operator can utilise his machine time to full.
To revise the grade of operators from time to time is yet another job that the IED must perform. I have
come across cases where an operator joined a company five years back as a C grade operator and
even after all these years was still being considered as a C grade operator, though in these five years
she had perfected many new operations, had gained more control on the hand and machine
movements and was now able to perform even those operations that were being performed by any A
grade operator on the same sewing floor. But thanks to the callousness of the IED, she was still
getting a salary that was meant for a C grade operator.
It obviously makes the operator unhappy and he/she feels totally dejected. Such a de-motivated workforce can never deliver the best quality or productivity. The IED must revise the grades of operators

from time to time. Thus, there are various smaller things which if taken care of would help the IED
function more effectively. Such measures would help the IED establish cordial relations with the
production team and workers, thus minimising the chances of clashes and showdowns that hinder the
overall growth of an organisation.

Industry Reactions on How can IED be made more

effective in the garment industry?
Neeraj Verma, Vice President (Marketing & Operations), Shahi Exports For achieving
maximum productivity without minimum process time loss and perfection in the quality of the
product, the following are a must By drafting method study, operation analysis similar to GSD
(assembly line production), productivity achievement with reference to quality, time study of a
product, tools and attachment making and selecting and workers skill matrix.
Venkatesh Murthy, Technical and Zonal Manager, K. Mohan To make IED strong and
effective, I think the working culture should change in our industry. There is dearth of educated
people in the industry. The industry should hire production specialists and put them on assembly
lines and not make them sit in the office. Adaptation of the latest technology and new methods
are the need of the era. Production Managers and Supervisors are the key people and they
should be open to new ideas and technology and if they are open then automatically it percolates
down.
David, Vice President (Operations), Orientcraft Ltd. There are a number of ways that the
industrial engineering department (IED) can be made more effective in the garment industry. For
one, tools such as GSD i.e General Sewing Data help in analysing exactly how an operator
should sew to increase overall productivity. Additionally the IED should give the work study
department more ownership to the achievement of on standard efficiency. One must understand
that there is marked difference between on standard efficiency and overall efficiency. While the
former is a means to measure the operator productivity, the latter is the company's ability to
supply the operator. Applying both these means together ensures higher and better productivity.
Additionally, the IE department needs to measure themselves on the results that they bring daily,
measured against a world standard target not an internal benchmark. Giving the IE's the
power of line management, takes them away from how they are usually percieved as a service
and giving this ownership a real force of motivation.
But if Indian Manufacturers continue to utilise labour in the archaic way of contractors, no length
of IE involvment will add value.