IE Updated

Duties and Responsibilities of Industrial Engineering Department
Topics: industrial engineering By: Prasanta Sarkar

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This post is written by Madhaiyan C, a long time OCS reader. He is an Industrial Engineers and heading IE
department of a leading garment export house in Chennai. In this post he has shared the list of duties and
responsibilities he follows in his company.
A written list of job responsibilities of a department is always beneficial for managing and monitoring a
department from the top level. This also helps employees to be focused on their core responsibilities.
This is a complete list of duties and responsibilities for Industrial Engineering department in the apparel
industry. You can use this list and implement in your factory right now. You many need to modify some points
based on your organization structure and IE team strength.
In this post, job responsibilities are listed for different positions of IEs.
Madhaiyan C, IE Head
Duties and responsibilities of the Industrial Engineering Head
Following are the responsibilities of IE Head in his company.
Analyzing the CMT and Productivity details for all new development styles based on garment sketch or
samples and provide CMT to merchandising department.
After order confirmation the evaluated garment is re-analyzed for better and economical methods to
reduce the negotiated CMT in order to stay in safe margin. It means reduction of SMV by construction
simplification related to seam and method without affecting the actual appearance of sample.
Releasing style OB, Line Layout and thread consumption chart for line(s) and all factories (having
multiple factories) based on scheduled plan
Department wise Manpower requirement rationalization based on target strength ratio of 1:0.8
Co-ordination with planning department for allocation of similar styles, capacity plan, line plan and
factory monthly plan based on the history of line and factory efficiency
Co-ordination with planning department for improving the pre- production activities
Co-ordination with Factory manager for cut plan and finishing plan based on delivery priority.
Co-ordination with HR manager for training progress (fresh training and multi-skill training)
Co-ordination with HR manager to reward outstanding operators based on Skill grade, efficiency and
attendance (once in 15 days)
Factory audit to be conducted to ensure the IED OB and Layout are followed in line.
Monitoring and Auditing IE and Jr.IE activities in all the units
Factory Production Incentive report monitoring and approval
Working on new projects if any and suggesting advanced techniques in garmenting
Duties and Responsibilities of Industrial Engineer

Industrial Engineers are responsible for the following activities.
Operation Bulletin (OB) preparation to be done for three stages, Initial Proto Sample and FIT, approved
sample and actual OB for layout.
Layout preparation for every style
Every month machinery requirement plan to be prepared and arrange to in house necessary machine in
advance by coordinating with Factory Manager and Planning head
Arrange to in-house folders and attachment well in advance based on scheduled production plan
Thread consumption chart preparation and co-ordinate with merchant team for thread purchase
Skill Matrix updating once in three month
Updating the SAM Database based on method improvement
Preparing and updating sampling status based on production plan (PP/size set samples to be ready with
approval one week before the style loading date)
Preparation of factory wise incentive reports based on respective department production and efficiency
Monitoring weekly performance report of individuals and conduct meeting to improve their
performance
Duties and Responsibilities of Junior IEs (Sewing Floor)

Junior Industrial Engineers of sewing floor are responsible for the following activities.
Three days before the style starts in line, layout should be discussed with Factory Manager and
Production Manager and get their signature to implement
If any changes in the layout is done, it must be updated and change accordingly with the approval of
IED Head
Requesting machines, folders and attachment requirement well in advance based on scheduled
production plan
Conducting Method study and educate to follow the best method to operators
Conducting capacity study of individuals and fix their target after 3 days from the style starts
Follow-up study (operators who are all not achieving the Target/Capacity)
Bundle system follow-up
Bottle neck operation identify and eradicate
Fixing new tailors grade based on their performance and criteria.
Developing multi-skill operators based on their individual interest and maintaining skill matrix record.
List out low efficiency operator and monitor to improve their efficiency
Measuring line lost hours due to various reasons in sewing floor
Monitoring and Line balancing Based on Capacity and WIP in the line
Helping supervisors in line balancing during high operator absenteeism
Duties and Responsibilities of Junior IEs (Cutting and Finishing Department)

Industrial Engineers of Cutting and Finishing departments are responsible for the following activities.
Cutting Operation Bulletin preparation
Cutting capacity checking and manpower allocation depending on the style
Finishing Operation Bulletin preparation
Finishing capacity study and manpower allocation depending on style and priority of the order delivery
Training program of new trainee tailors (15 days basic - pedal control, paper and cloth exercise) to be
monitored
After successful basic training, training exam to be conducted and trainees those scores more than 50
marks out of 100 to be transferred to production line
Transferred trainee tailors are involved in production floor for a month period and monitoring their
daily production and efficiency. During this period, head counting and target are not fixed to them.
After one month, efficiency curve chart to be prepared and their average efficiency more than 35%,
those operators are transferred to line and designated as Tailor grade E (entry level)
Duties and Responsibilities of Data Entry Operator

Data entry operator is also considered as a part of the IE department. His activities includes as following.
Preparation of daily individual efficiency report
Preparation of daily line and factory efficiency report
Preparation of daily line and factory lost time report
Preparation of style costing report
Preparation of MIS Meeting report
Preparation of incentive working report
Many thanks to Madhaiyan from OCS.

If you are also an Industrial Engineer, you can also share your experience to the IE community.
What are the Reports Made by IE Department in Garment Factories?
Topics: industrial engineering, MIS By: Prasanta Sarkar

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In the last article you have read duties and responsibilities of IE department on the various job profiles written
by Madhaiyan C. Today he will share list of reports made by him and his team for the factory management. IE
reports play an important role managing a factory and planning improvement projects.
In this post reports are categories as Daily, Weekly and Month Reports. All these reports are important to track
factory performance from micro to macro levels.
Most of you might be using some of or all the following reports. If not and you are planning to setting up IE
department in your factory or if you have just established IE departments, follow this list of reports.
Daily Reports
Reports those are made on daily basis are known as Daily reports. IE department prepares following reports on
every day.
Line, Factory and group efficiency report
Line, Factory and group Lost time report
Factory wise running style Costing report
Daily factory KPI report
Line, factory and group WIP report
Individual sewing floor efficiency/Performance report includes operator and helpers
Individual cutting and finishing efficiency/Performance report includes helpers and checker
Also Read: Tips for Making Daily Production Report Quickly

Weekly Reports
Weekly reports made by IE department
Consolidated weekly production against planned
Consolidated weekly efficiency against planned
Consolidated weekly Line WIP report
Consolidated incentive amount working report
Monthly Reports
IE department prepares following reports once in month.
Efficiency reconciliation report
Lost time reconciliation report
Completed styles reconciliation report
Individual efficiency report for operator/helper/checker
Machinery requirement report
Training center progress report
Monthly MIS meet report Factory KPIs analysis
Styles thread consumption/folder and attachment requirement report
Line wise operators skill matrix report once in 3 months
Group incentive working report
Name of the reports may be sounding differently to many. Name of the report is not important but the measures
that you need to capture and prepare to understand where your factory stands.
Do you make all these reports in your factory? If you are making a report other than this list, share it with us.
Also Read: Necessary Production Reports for a Garment Factory
How to Use Performance Rating Calculating BasicTime?
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In the article Calculation of SAM using Time Study I have used operator performance rating to calculate basic
time. Many readers asked me question on basic time calculation using performance rating. I understand that
basic time calculation method has not been clearly explained in the earlier post. I thought to clarify this
question to OCS readers in this post.
Two recent questions are published here (name of the question sender is changed).
Question#1: In your article, you indicate that if an operator has an 80% rating that you multiply the cycle time
by the rating (which reduces the cycle time for the operation). Wouldn't you actually divide the cycle time by
the rating to INCREASE the cycle time for the operation before you add the other allowances? ... asked by Rick
Question#2: Actually I am confused why basic time getting lower when the performance rating is lower in
your articles where as it should be other way, which is basic time should be more when the rating resulting
lower. So instead of multiplying you need to divide the basic time from rating. Can you please explain this as I
don't understand this? ... asked by Kumar
I replied to Rick and I had a discussion with him to clarify the confusion over whether to multiply or divide the
rating% to cycle time to calculate basic time. Read the following discussion with Rick, if you have same
question.
Later, I had just sent this discussion to Kumar. He understood this completely. I hope you will also understand
once your read the following conversation.
OCS: Hi Rick, Rating factor is used to normalize the cycle time. 100% rated operator's time considered as
normal time (basic time). So, if an operator is working at 80% she is actually doing work at slower pace
compared to 100% standard operator. Thats why she is taking longer time than the 100% performer. Secondly,
normal time to do the job is less than the time taken by her (80% rate). That is why rating factor is multiplied to
the cycle time instead of dividing. I hope you understand my point.
Rick: Thank you for responding. Yes, I believe I understand what you are saying, however I still believe that
you need to divide the standard cycle time by the operator rating.
Let's take an example... If the cycle time of an operation is 10 seconds and the operator is rated as 80% then if
as you describe above he/she is working slower than the normal cycle time, so his/her overall time must be
LONGER than the normal cycle time, correct? 10 seconds divided by .80 equals 12.5 seconds (longer). If we
were to multiply the cycle time by the rating we would get a shorter cycle time (10 seconds times .80 equals 8
seconds). I'm very new to all of this so I want to be sure that I'm getting this correct. Thanks in advance for the
help.
OCS: Rick, you are not following the purpose of application of Rating. The purpose is to normalize the cycle
time or making equivalent to 100% rated operator. Here cycle time is observed time. The purpose to not
increasing or lowering cycle time.
Just ask this question - in your example at 80% operator is completing a task in 10 seconds. How much time
she would take if worked at 100%. Result must be lower than 10 seconds. That is why you need to multiply
rating to cycle time to calculate normal time.
I hope I am able to clarify this to you too.
What is Balancing Loss in Garment Production?
Prior to loading production to the line (for a new style) Industrial Engineers prepare an operation bulletin (OB)
for the style. In the operation bulletin, IE plans calculated manpower and machine requirement based on SAM
of all operations (pitch time) and production target per hour (or per day). This is known as calculated (or
theoretical) machine requirement. In the calculated machine numbers, fraction of machine number may come
but practically fraction of machine cannot be set in the sewing line.
In the operation bulletin, IE also plan actual machine requirement for each operation. See the following image.
Where possible, operations are clubbed (where similar machine type is required) for balancing available time
per machine and SAM of operations. But for all operations balancing is not possible. That is why in the OB, IE
gets variation in between two figures - calculated machines and actual machine numbers. Total variation of the
machine numbers for a style is known as balancing loss.
An example: For label attaching operation computerized single needle lock stitch machine is used. Compared
to other operations, SAM of this operations is low. As a result target production is achieved in less than given
hours. So for this machine/operator doesn't have work for full day. This machine would not be used for other
operation too. So line will loss his/her productive time.
For a particular operation (label attaching) balancing loss can be improved by increasing production target. But
to meet increased target in one operation, one may loss balancing in other operations.
See in the following sample operation bulletin of a Polo Shirt. Calculated machine number and allocated
machine numbers are respectively 26.42 and 29. Variation of machine numbers is 2.58 machines.
Therefore balancing loss for this sample style is 9.78%

How to Calculate Balancing Loss%
Calculation Procedure of balancing loss% for style setting is explained below.
Calculate machine number based on operation SAM and Production Target per day. For detailed
procedure of calculating machine requirement in the OB read this article.
(Note: in the above example absenteeism percentage is considered to find number of calculated
machines. You might exclude absenteeism in your calculation.)
Allocate machine to each operation. Only enter nearby round number for allocated machine. (The
computed machine is rounded to the nearest integer. Any value less than n.50 is rounded down to the
integer "n". Any value equal to or greater than n.50 is rounded up to the integer "n+1". For example,
calculated machine number 1.25 results in 1 and 1.70 results in 2.
For critical operation you might add machines to next round number. Where combined SAM of two
operations is below or nearby pitch time, you can consider one machine for those two operations. This
way enter allocated machine numbers
Find the difference between number of allocated machine and number of calculated machine.
Calculate balancing loss% by using following formula
Balancing Loss% = (Number of allocated machine Number of calculated machine)/Number of calculate

machines
You are done.
Application of IE Concepts in Finishing Section in Garment Factories
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Question: I am working as Asst. Officer (IE) in ABC Fashion Ltd. I just want to know the application of IE in
finishing department? I mean what we can do as IE in finishing department? It will be very helpful if you reply
me back. Thanks asked by Hasan.
You are an Industrial Engineer. You already know about industrial engineering tools and techniques used for
managing and improving production. Most IEs practice IE concepts only in sewing floor. Similar tools can be
applied in finishing section also. In the following, I have listed down few things that can be done in finishing
department without further brainstorming and skill upgrading.
Setting of Standard Time (SAM) for finishing jobs (activities)- Like sewing operations, estimate SAM for
finishing jobs. Use Time Study method or synthetic data (PMTS) for determining SAM of a task. Prepare
operation sheet for finishing section also. By setting SAM of finishing job, you can plan finishing production
accurately; you can estimate finishing cost and manpower requirement.
Study existing finishing room workstations layout - Observe if there is scope of improvement for
workstation layout. You can apply theory motion economy for re-designing workstation layout.
Suggest a better material handling method to finishing room workers - There is always some scope for
betterment.
Work on method improvement - Observe all finishing tasks. Like garment ironing, spot removing, garment
checking, thread cutting, folding and packing activities. Study the method of working different activities. If
worker dont follow same methods doing the same task, you can standardize working method for finishing
room activities by applying the theory of Method Study. Spend time on improving a method. By improving
method of executing a task, you can reduce cycle time of a task.
Maintain WIP in between two workstations capture finishing production data and calculate WIP. You can
work on leveling of workload in each process.

Train checkers and other workers increase skills of workers by training on their task.
Other things you can start like, making hourly production report, capacity study, efficiency and labor
productivity analysis for finishing department.
Start with one activity. Once you are involved in working in finishing section, you will find many ideas to
improve finishing room productivity by applying industrial engineering techniques.
Determining Garment Piece Rate Based on Standard Time - An Introduction
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On the other day I met one Head Operations in a garment factory. On that day he was only one week old to that
company. We were discussing about issues faced by small garment factories like problem in setting Piece Rate
for new styles. He was asking me about setting piece rate for sewing operators based on operation SAM. And
our discussion went on.
It was a knits factory. Garments are made by a group of operators. Progressive Bundle System (PBS) doesn't
exist there. Operators are paid in piece rate system. Piece rates are decided by past work experience of the
manager, market rate, and mutual negotiation of factory and operators. Factory is looking for a solution for this
problems caused due to piece rate system. As a new operations head, he likes to bring good systems in the
factory.
He wants to determine piece rate based on operation SAM. But he knows little about measuring garment SAM.
He was wondering if I know about such things.
Here SAM means Standard Minute. As per US Department of Labor "A piece rate fixes a wage payment on
each completed unit of work". SAM based piece rate is a method of deriving piece rate of operations based on
operation SAM and hourly operator rate. In layman language, setting piece rate (making rate of each operation)
based on standard time of sewing operation. In other words operators would be paid based on standard minutes
produced by them. SAM based costing can be used in both environments for salaried as well as piece rate
employees.
Image source Flickr

By the way I got an interesting topic for discussion. I am preparing a draft for further discussion. This explains
how to introduce SAM Based costing, its benefits, and extended benefits if factory introduces SAM based
costing for sewing operators. I am sharing an introduction here.
Benefits of SAM Based Piece Rate:
Piece Rate negotiation with sewing operators:

In piece rate environment, piece rate negotiation of operations goes on for two to three days after loading of a
style. Until the rate is fixed for each operation, operators work at lower speed than their actual capability.
Reason is to show they can't earn much money if piece rate is not set higher. As a result most of the time
factory spends excess money in operators payroll. This is the problem.
The solution for this problem is determining garment piece rate based on standard time.
Measure standard time of operations, categorize operations based on difficulty level and machine type
Set per minute rate for each category considering line efficiency factor.
If operators disagree with piece rate, explain, and show them how much time to be taken to complete
their operations. And how many pieces they can produce in a day if they work in full effort.
While finalizing piece rate, consider order quantity, style run and product difficulty level.
By this method you can set Piece Rate on the first day of production start. And can avoid initial production loss.
(Note: Factory needs to gain experience on IE things to implement this method effectively) .
Accuracy in product costing for direct labor cost part
Direct labor cost is very important part of product costing as lot of labors are involved in making a piece of
garment. When you calculate piece rate based on your past experience, you are not always sure if your
calculation is accurate. Sometimes you might give your operators excess rate, which subsequently increases
product costing. (Indirect labor costs and overhead costs are calculated based on direct labor cost). Your
estimation might also be lower than actual cost.
This will cause high product costing or low product costing. If you cost too high you might lose the order. On
the other hand if your cost is too low, you will earn less by processing the order. Secondly, you might need to
pay more to your workers than your estimation.
Solution: You need to work smartly. While making product cost sheet use accurate direct labor cost figure
derived from product SAM. Thus you will make more accurate product costing.
Cost negotiation with buyers
Now buyers ask for open costing for orders. Buyers are aware about the minimum labor wages in your region.
And they can derive direct labor cost for a product. You might not have technical team but they have to analyze
product construction and estimating standard time. In such environment, you will find difficulty adding much
margin in various cost categories.
If you know standard time of a product, factory performance (efficiency) and minimum labor wages you can
easily derive direct labor cost of a product (without having Industrial Engineer or work study team you would
not get figures for first two). In case buyer pushes you too much for reducing labor cost, you can tell them
confidently what is possible and what is not. This is not only used in preparing product price for buyers but it
helps you to understand if you are making profit from the order in advance.
Other Benefits of SAM Based Costing
There are many other benefits of introducing SAM based piece rate. When you plan to implement SAM based
costing, you are actually setting up Industrial Engineering Cell in your factory. An IE will also perform other
tasks of IE department rather than just said objective. As a result you can take advantages of IE department in
many ways. Some of those are
1. You can set standard time for products and operations
2. It would help you in planning manpower and machines in advance
3. You can measure factory performance and individual operator performance accurately, benchmark your
performance level
4. IE tools and methods can be used for productivity and quality improvement
5. Having product SAM, you can estimate production capacity, do better line planning, and production
planning
Read this post to learn more about IEs activities.
Action Plan
The next important thing one need to take action on following areas while planning to implement SAM based
piece rate setting.
Understanding Industrial Engineering concepts, and use of Standard Minute in apparel production
Hire experienced Industrial Engineer and set Industrial Engineering department and IE team.
Set Key Responsibility Areas for the IEs
Develop SOP for IE activities
Establish database for operation SAM by measuring time study method or you can consider purchasing
MTS based SAM calculating software.
Set labor cost per standard minute
The idea is not new but even factories those have established Industrial Engineering department do not practice
SAM based piece rate. If like this idea you can introduce this technique in your factory.
Application of Industrial Engineering in Garment Industry
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Many articles have been written and published on industrial engineering since the inception of this blog. What
is the new in this post?
This post is written to explain the application of Industrial Engineering (IE) concepts in garment Industry. To
many, this is important to know why one should set up an IE department in garment factory. I have taken help
of two questions to explain this topic in detail and also recommended a book at the end of this post for your
further reading on this topic. Two questions are -
1. What is the application of Industrial Engineering in apparel industry?

2. How Industrial Engineering concepts are used by apparel manufacturers?
What is the application of Industrial Engineering in apparel industry?
Industrial Engineering concepts are used in garment manufacturing to fulfill the following purposes
Monitoring production floor and having better control over the production floor
Improving processes and improving method of working to increase factory's overall performance and
standardized garment manufacturing processes
Overall application of Industrial engineering can be explained better by describing common tasks of the IE
department. Coomo tasks of an IE department are as following but not limited to these
Work measurement of sewing operations, cutting room jobs and finishing jobs
Setting standard time for sewing operations and manual operations
Style analysis and conducting research and development (R&D) of the styles
Improving method of work and design workstation
Production planning and factory capacity determination
Work aids development
Work station designing and machine layout planning
Labor cost estimation
Performance measuring of workers
Training of workers (sewing operators)
Designing incentive scheme and calculating incentive for sewing operators
Setting line production target of the sewing lines and chasing production from line supervisors and
operators
Application of lean tools
Read full list of job profile of the industrial engineering department in a garment factory.
How Industrial Engineering Concepts are used by apparel manufacturers?
Factories those are using IE techniques mostly have a complete IE set up (department). An IE department
consists of an IE managers (in-charge) and Industrial Engineers and juniors engineers. The strength of IE team
widely varies based on the maturity level of the department and on the focus of application of Industrial
Engineering. Without having enough team members, an IE department can not work effectively.
Industrial Engineers are utilized in the following ways but not limited to those Factories apply all or few of the above listed functions to
assist line supervisors by preparing resource requirement plan (machines and equipment and
manpower), line setting and line balancing etc.
assist production managers in target planning and production planning,
help merchandiser and marketing personnel by providing labor cost and production lead time,
help HR department by providing operator performance level, and help in operator recruitment
prepare MIS reports and show management team product status on daily basis and alert management
team if their attention is needed
set up standards operating procedures for new tasks, new process required for ever changing fashion
products
More than the regular jobs, IEs are also responsible for thinking of continuous process improvement. Initiation
of new projects and implementation of the project that has been undertaken, showing the improvement
opportunity within the factory to management team. Engineers are involved in performance improvement tasks
of the cutting department and finishing department.
Companies those have limited manpower in IE team, only involves engineers for routine jobs like, making
operation bulletin, thread consumption, preparing daily production reports etc.
Conclusion:
No doubt that Industrial engineering department is adding a lot of values to the company. Without having
Industrial Engineering team one would not know how things are going on the shop floor, what corrective
measures need to taken on time, effective utilization of manpower and machines.
Industrial engineering concept need to incorporate at the time of plant set up instead of changing and modifying
things later after factory starts making garments.
Applications of IE tools are also explained in other articles. Check our archive page of industrial engineering
articles. You can also refer the free eBook 'Industrial Engineering 101' on which you will get the full list of
industrial engineering topics. Details of the topics are available in this site. You can read those articles by
clicking on the topic.
To increase your knowledge on Industrial Engineering subject and production management irrespective of
industry, I recommend you to read this book. In India you can also buy this book from flipkart.
How to Increase Line Efficiency in a Piece Rate Factory?
Topics: industrial engineering, QNA By: Prasanta Sarkar
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How we can increase the efficiency in piece rate basis factory? ... asked by Shaila
Most of us believe that piece rate operators are most efficient in sewing. As machine operators are paid based
on the quantity they would produce, they will put maximum effort on their work. Hence one can expect best
efficiency of the factory having piece rate operators. But this is not always true. Forget about operators
maximum effort to produce standard hours (SAH) for a moment. And think on other factors those have direct
effect to the line efficiency.
Line efficiency depends on couple of factors than only operators efforts. Here are few of those parameters
Skill level of the operators
Line balancing
Worker motivation
So to improve the line efficiency (or individual operator efficiency) you can work on the above points
# 1. Skill Training for low performing operators
Work on training your operators. Use following method to improve operator's skill level.
1.
Measure operators individual efficiency
2. Make a list of low performing operators (i.e. operators working at less 50% efficiency).
3. Observe your operators while they are working and study their method of performing a jobs and
movements.
4. Check what are the unnecessary motions / movements you found operators are using at the time of
sewing.
5. Train them correct motions and give them time to practice.
Once you improve operators sewing skills you will see improvement in line efficiency. If you don't know how
to train sewing skills to your operators you can hire an expert.
Here I would like to share Pauls story on skill improvement for low performing experienced operators. This
story will explain you that through training you can bring lot of improvement operators earning and line
performance.
Paul Collyer was working as trainer in a garment factory, in UK. He trained a girl how to train operators and
build sewing skills. Once she was trained completely, Paul sent her to the sewing floor to find out low
performing operators and improve their sewing skills through training.
In that factory most of sewing operators were working for many years. So they were experienced to their job.
Operators were paid based on number of pieces they were producing. The factory was running piece rate
system.
As instructed by Paul, the young lady went to every operators and studied operators performance. She set a
method to train low performing operators. When she spoke to experienced operators for the training, they
ignored her. Few so called experienced operators used to tell her that they are working for 15 years and they
know better than her. They were in the age of her mother. They dont need to learn anything, at least from the
young trainer. The young lady became upset and reported back to Paul. Paul knew this would happen. He told
the young lady, dont worry, go to operators who have recently joined and improve their skills. She did the
same.
After several weeks of training, new comers started earning more than the experienced operators. Experienced
operators were not able to earn as much as newcomers were earning with their full effort. All the experienced
operators got surprised and they acknowledged the benefit of skill training.
All experienced operators who earlier ignored for skill training, met Paul and requested him to send the young
trainer to train them better skills so that they can also earn more money.
I hope now you understand the power of training. There is always scope for improvement. The same way you
can improve your line efficiency in your piece rate factory.
#2. Work equalization or balancing of the line.
To produce more pieces, operators must have feeding full time so that they can continuously run their machine.
In piece rate factory you may have unbalanced WIP. Work on improving line balancing to improve line
efficiency. Read my earlier post on line balancing - How to Balance a Traditional Sewing line?
#3. Performance Incentive
In piece rate production system it is considered that operators are self-motivated in term of their earnings. But
sometimes operators do not know their hidden skills and capability of earning more that the current earnings.
Implement performance based incentive for piece rate employees also in combination with skill training. You
can set differential piece rates for different level of individual operator efficiency. You can also linked
performance based incentive based on line efficiency instead of individual operator efficiency.
KPI Dashboard: An Effective Reporting Tool for Garment Factories
Topics: industrial engineering, MIS By: Prasanta Sarkar
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Few weeks ago, I have posted an article on important production reports for a garment factory. Today I will
show you how to make your production report short and effective.
The present reporting system is likely as following:
You prepare reports on production status of all departments. In the morning you mail those reports or give
printed copy to your managers.
And managers are supposed to review all reports. You made a detailed report thinking that your manager should
aware of production status from cutting to finishing, performance level of each department, each sewing lines
and style wise cost per piece, and details of orders those are slipping from deadline.
Ask yourself.
Do they need the detailed tables of thousand of numbers on each of 10 reports to read line by line? You know
exactly what figures managers actually looked into. Show then those figures only.
Normally managers just look into key figures. Even if they want read all reports they cant do that because it
would consume lot of time. Instead of reports they would prefer to call you and ask for reasons when they find
any issue in the report.
So, why you are wasting your time making long reports and wasting papers for printing those long reports daily
morning?
In this post, I will show you how to make your production reports effective as well as more interesting. You can
make a short report using one of the following methods -
First Method: Instead of 6 to 10 page reports prepare one page report with important data and numbers.
Second Method: Just make graphs of each analysis and status report and write down key issues that need to be
looked into urgently by higher management.
Third Method: Prepare report dashboard including all production reports. I call it KPI Dashboard. See the
sample KPI dashboard in the following image.
Instead of printing multiple reports make one dashboard and send the dashboard via e-mail. Such keyboard
displays everything that need to be communicated.
On the above dashboard I have included 6 graphs. From these graphs you can check status and factory
performance.
How I made this Dashboard
I have made one template for data entry and graphs on excel sheet. Collected data required for following
reports and entered into the template.
KPI-I: Department wise yesterdays production Target Vs Actual Production
KPI-II: Line wise machine productivity and efficiency figures of the last production day
KPI-III: Line wise production and WIP reports
KPI-IV: Style wise production of all lines
KPI-V: Quality Report (Sewing and Finishing DHU)
KPI-VI: Earned Vs Make-up% of the sewing operators
Once data entered, I get all graphs on the excel template. Graphs are then copied in a Power point slide. My
dashboard is ready.
Similar ways you can create graphs for your key reports. Take screen shot of the graphs. Prepare one power
point slide show (pps format). Or you can show graphs on the spread sheet (excel sheet) in a separate
worksheet. Spread sheet is a better option as you have all information the same location/file. When someone
needs to see reports in details can open tables for respective reports.
Write me if you have any question related the KPI dashboard.
12 Useful Formulas for Industrial Engineers (Poster)
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I love formulas for mathematical calculations. Because a formula helps me getting the result quicker and it
specifically mentions what all data I need to collect to find result of the desired thing.
In garment manufacturing, industrial engineers, production managers and planners measure factory
performance on daily basis. Performances are measured using standard formulas. I guess you are already using
such formulas for calculating performance.
Don't you think, it would be a good idea to have a poster of commonly used formulas in your work space? A
poster is very useful tool for many reasons. I have made one poster for you and sharing it with you.
Following are the common formulas those are used by garment industry professionals.
Formula#1:
Daily Line Target = (Total working minutes in a day X No. of operators in a line X Line eff%)/Garment SAM
Formula#2:
Individual operator target = (Total working minutes in a day X line efficiency %)/Operation SAM
Formula#3:
Individual operator Efficiency% = (units produced X operation SAM X 100)/Total minutes worked
While you are developing skill matrix for sewing operators, you need measure individual performance.
Secondly, if you plan to start performance based incentive scheme for individual operator, measuring individual
operator efficiency is essential.
Formula#4:
Line Efficiency% = (Line output X garment SAM X 100)/(Number of operators X minute worked in day)
Note: include helpers and worker doing manual operations in case you have included SAM of those operations.
Formula#5:
Machine Productivity: Line output / No. of machine used
Machine productivity is measured in production per machine per shift day.
Formula#6:
Labor Productivity = Line output / No. of total manpower (operators +helpers)
Formula#7:
Line WIP (work in process) = Total pieces lie on the line for a particular order line
WIP of the line of an order is equal to Total pieces loaded till date minus Total piece out till date.
Formula#8:
Standard Time = (Observed time X observed rating) + Allowances
Allowances Relaxation allowance, contingency allowance
Formula#9:
Machine utilization% = (Actual Machine running Time X 100) / Time available
Formula#10:
Cost per minute = Total cost incurred in labor / Total available working minute in a day X no. of labors
Formula#11:
Production Cost pet unit = Total cost incurred in production in a day/ no. of garment produced in a day
Formula#12:
Man to Machine ratio = Total manpower of the factory / Total no. of sewing machines (utilized)
Poster: 12 useful performance measuring formulas (Click to enlarge the image).
Industrial Engineering Procedure
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Question
Could you please define what is the Industrial Engineering procedure? I want to know the exact answer. ...
asked by Rukshan
Answer
This one is really a tough question to answer. As I don't know if there is a defined IE procedure for the garment
industry. So, instead of defining Industrial Engineering (IE) procedure I would to explain things for better
clarification.
In garment production Industrial Engineers do a number of tasks. They use number of tools and techniques, and
methods for the tasks. I would say it is not exactly IE procedure but procedures of implementation of IE tools
and techniques.
IE Work Flow Chart

Still if you like to know about IE procedures, it can described with a work flow. Most common tasks of an IE
are presented in an order in the following.
Style analysis --> Make operation breakdown --> Thread consumption calculation--> Making line layout on
paper --> Select m/c and equipment --> arrange guides and attachment -->Planning for production target -->
Setting line when new style is loaded --> Do line balancing --> Record production data --> Make production
reports --> Report to higher management (P.S. This is just an example of work flow).
Most IE tasks are aimed to make better work flow, improve utilization of resources, increasing factory
performance, and reducing production cost. As IE department get matured in a factory, it includes more tools to
help production team to increase the factory performance.
Work flow chart of IE department is shown in the following chart. (Click to enlarge image)
How to Prepare Monthly Efficiency Report of a Sewing Line?

Topics: industrial engineering, MIS, QNA By: Prasanta Sarkar
37119
Monthly efficiency figure is one of the basic and very important information to the management of the
company. Efficiency figure shows how a line, a floor or a plant is performing compared to other lines and
factory standards. Line efficiency level affects to the labor cost of the garment. So each line supervisors are
given monthly efficiency target to meet the target labor cost. Factory planning and factory capacity are also
measured based on line efficiency.
In this article, I have explained how monthly efficiency report of a sewing line is prepared. And how to
calculate monthly efficiency report of a sewing floor.
To know monthly efficiency calculation method, read follow steps.
Step 1: Efficiency calculation formula
There is a standard formula to calculate efficiency of a line. The efficiency calculation method has been
explained in another article, How to calculate efficiency of a production line? Please refer that article in case
you need to know details. Otherwise just follow following formula.
Efficiency is a ratio of total minute produced by line and total minutes available to the line. Efficiency is
measured in percentage form.
Line efficiency% = (Total Standard minutes produced by a line / Total minutes available to the line) X 100
Step 2: Prepare Monthly efficiency calculation table on spread sheet (Excel Sheet)
To track monthly production data and manpower details create one table on excl sheet as following that
includes information
No. of operators (include helpers if manual SAM is added to your Operation Bulletin) working in the
line
Total working hours per day
Total garment produced by the line at the end of the day and
Standard Minutes (SAM) of the style that is produced by that line
Also add columns for date and styles for reference.

Add three more columns on right side of the table and add formula into the cells of those columns as following
Total minutes available ( No. of operators X working hours per day X 60)
Total standard minutes produced (Line output X Garment SAM)
Efficiency% (Total standard minutes /Total available minutes) * 100
Add 31 rows in the table after table header. Add dates from 1st to 31st on the first (date) column.
Image-1: Monthly efficiency report (Blank sheet)
Add one more column for monthly totals.
Now your monthly efficiency calculation sheet is ready. See image-1: Blank efficiency report sheet.
Step 3: Data Capturing
At the end of each day fill this sheet date wise with actual information of manpower, working hours, production
in pieces and garment SAM.
When month ends, you will have a sheet filled with 31 days data. Exclude or keep blank for holidays and
weekly off days. See image 2.
Step 4: Monthly efficiency of a line

In the row of monthly totals, you have whole months data of total minute produced and total minutes available
to the line. On the efficiency column you will have monthly line efficiency.
In the above example:

Total minutes available : 751800
Total standard minutes produced : 202953
So, Monthly Efficiency this line is= 27 %
How to calculate Floor Efficiency?
Now if you have multiple lines in a floor and you to calculate average efficiency of the floor then use following
steps.
Step 5: Calculate total minutes available to the floor
Create same sheet for each line as shown in image-1.
Fill data line wise. Sum line wise monthly available minutes to calculate total available minutes for a
floor.
Step 6: Calculate total standard minutes produced by the floor

Sum up all lines line wise standard minutes produced to calculate total standard minutes for the floor.
Step 7: Calculate floor efficiency
Finally use efficiency calculation formula to calculate sewing floor efficiency.
For example: You have four lines in one floor and line wise efficiency are as following.
Table: Floor efficiency

I hope you understand above method.
Drop your comments in the below comments box if you have any question in your mind.
8 Preferred Lean Manufacturing Tools for Garment Industry
Topics: industrial engineering, Lean, QNA By: Prasanta Sarkar
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Question: Which are the preferred lean manufacturing tools applied for Garment industry. If possible name
few companies which have improved their performance compared to earlier years. ... asked by Ramesh
Kulkarni
During my visits to garment factories I have seen posters on lean tools and lean slogans in some factories. It
means that garment factories are really started implementation of lean tools and practicing lean culture.
Factories have posters on process flow chart of lean journey. Improvement pictures of before and after
implementation of 5S and Kaizen have been displayed on departments. I have seen lot of visuals on the floor. It
ensures that something is happening in garment factories to bring good things and improve business
performance.
But your question is what lean tools are preferred and applied for garment manufacturing?
In one factory, I found a poster where all lean tools were listed those were implemented in that factory. All
implementation are done under guidance of external lean experts. Factory has benefited a lot after
implementation lean manufacturing. These are the preferred lean tools that have been implemented by experts.
So you can start with these tools in your manufacturing facilities.
I have listed down 8 preferred lean manufacturing tools which are mostly applied by garment industry with
brief explanation .
#1. 5S:
5S is about sorting of things in your workplace and inventory stores. Keep workplace and floors clean and
arrange things in right order for easy access.
#2. Visual displays:
Use visual displays as much as possible to communicate with people working in the factory. Display necessary
information for quick access. Production board at the end of the line, Mocks of sewing operations at each work
stations, quality inspection procedure on the quality checking tables, displaying right and wrong product,
displaying exit sign and labeling every items are few example for visual displays factories can easily adopt.
#3. Standardization of work process:
One core objective of lean manufacturing is elimination of manufacturing wastes and non-value added tasks
from the internal processes and systems. For this factory has to set standardized working method. When one
follows standard working procedures, there is minimum chance of making errors.
#4. Quick Changeover:
Quick changeover, one of the lean manufacturing tools, is used in reducing waste in garment making process.
While setting a line with new styles, line losses lot of time which is known as set-up loss. Quick changeover or
SMED method provides efficient way to set lines for new style in less time.
#5. Error proofing:
Error proofing aka Poka-Yoke is any mechanism in a lean manufacturing process that helps an equipment
operator to avoid mistakes. It helps in designing a process in such way that there would not be minimum
chance of producing defective product. Its purpose is to eliminate product defects by preventing, correcting, or
drawing attention to human errors as they occur. Even error proofing technique can be used in information
generation, reporting system.
#6. Kanban:
Kanban is a workflow system. Kanban tool improves visibility and limit Work in Process. Where factories use
Kanban, it helps to eliminate building excess work in process (WIP) in production lines.
#7. Problem solving:
Clothes are ever changing product. A garment manufacturers need to work with latest products, new material
and machines. When one does something first time there may be a chance of having problem. You have to short
out the problem to meet your business goal. Problem solving tools helps you and your team to find possible
solution without external experts. Ishikawas Fish bone diagram method and 5 Whys are two famous tools
widely used in problem solving.
#8. Workload balancing:
In mass production, garments are made in a line where numbers of operators involve making a single garment.
A balanced line means every operator has workload and nobody sit idle without work. This maximizes operator
utilization. And as a result you get maximum output from a line. It is not only sewing line, workload balance is
required everywhere in the company like department to department, process to process workload balance.
Who had implemented lean manufacturing tools?

To know the names of Indian companies those have implemented lean manufacturing in recent years read
Lean manufacturing in the Indian Apparel Industry. I am not sure if those listed factories have been benefited
from lean implementation or not.
Why do you need to see for examples who had improved their performance after implementation of lean tools
(one or more)? If a factory implements lean tools successfully, it is obvious that there are measurable and
visible performance improvement. Otherwise, if there is no improvement, factory not implemented any of the
lean tools at all; they are just trying to implement the same.
Would like to read lean manufacturing case study in garment industry (Mens shirt)? Download
Implementation of Lean Manufacturing Tools in Garment Manufacturing Process Focusing Sewing
Section of Mens Shirt prepared by Naresh Paneru.
To download this document share this post by clicking one of following social network buttons.
Necessary Production Reports for a Garment Factory
Topics: Apparel Production, industrial engineering By: Prasanta Sarkar
53151
In a garment factory, production managers day starts with production reports. Production manager enters to
factory floor with questions such as
How many garments are made last production day by each line? Compare actual production with
production target given to the floor in-charge and line supervisors.
What were the issues for low productions? Why too much quality issues?
Who is responsible for not achieving yesterdays target?
Production managers get answers of their question in reports with data.

In this industry, line supervisors are very smart to tell you numbers to show good line performance and hide
their shortfall. So, instead of discussion and verbal reports most of the managers believe on written and printed
reports.
To know factorys day to day performance very well what all production and production related reports must be
made and reported to higher management? Each factory has their own set of policies and system to run their
factory. So, list of production reports may vary company to company.
There are few common reports; those are widely used and are very important to know your business well. In
this article, I have listed down such reports and explained the purpose of those reports. All reports are related to
production. Few reports are information based and others are analysis and performance based.
See also: MIS Formats used in Garment Manufacturing
#1. Operator Attendance Report:
This report explains how many sewing operators; helpers are present today in each line. From this report
managers quickly assess, what would be todays production target. Which lines have shortage of operators and
where there are enough operators and from where some operators can be shifted to another line to fill all lines
and run production smoothly? Operator attendance report is an important one to floor in-charge. Yesterdays
operators clock-in and clock out report is also important to see whether all operators worked full time or not.
#2. Daily Production Report (DPR):
Daily Production Report contains yesterdays production records line wise and style wise. Production
information in term of
How many cutting has been loaded to each line yesterday and total loading done to a particular from
loading of the style?
How many pieces has been stitched yesterday and cumulative production till-date of all styles those are
currently loaded.
How many pieces have been dispatched to finishing or washing department?
Form daily production report managers can assess, whether a line is producing as per target or
production is getting delayed.
#3. Hourly Production Report:

This report carries information of todays hourly production. In this report lines output is being updated hourly
or bi-hourly. This report helps line supervisors to chase operators when line output goes down. Where
production data is recorded manually, only line output data is captured and displayed on production board. But
factories those use real time production monitoring system, operator wise /operation wise hourly production
data can be viewed. I have shown one such report for example in the following image.
#4. Efficiency and Productivity Report:
The daily production report provides actual output numbers of each line and each style. Line output is directly
proportional to number of manpower in a line. If you have two different styles (of different work content)
running in two lines, performance of those line cant be compared with output figures. The easy way to check
lines performance is measuring line efficiency and machine productivity irrespective of styles, number of
manpower and number of machine used.
#5. Manpower and Machine utilization Report:
Manpower and machines are primary resources of a company. A Manager need to look into resources to check
how company resources are get utilized? Factory should not have excess manpower on the floor. On the other
hand factory must have minimum required manpower to a factory to produce goods according to the plan. Both
the manpower and machines are cost to the company. So it is import to check this report daily basis.
This report may also include number of employees who were present in overtime work hours?
#6. Garment Inspection Report:
Inspection report comes under quality report. But garment inspection report is also one important report for
production manager and top management to monitor stitching quality of products. As all produced garments are
not acceptable if certain quality level is not maintained. It is production departments responsibility to produce
quality product. Inspection report displays line wise defects per hundred units (DHU) and percentage defective
data, total pieces send for alteration/repair.
#7. Repair and Rejection Report:
This report contains information such as style wise and color wise defective garments produced by lines.
Defect wise no. of garments is sent to repair section and number of garment received from repair section after
alteration. This information is essential because in case you have number of damaged or rejected garments, you
can cut and sew fresh garments and replace those damaged garments prior to final inspection.
#8. Cutting Production Report:
Cutting departments production status is also an important report to be looked into by production manager.
Style wise and color wise cut quantity is checked. Sewing line can be fed with cuttings only when there is
enough cutting in cutting store. Looking into cutting plan what all fabrics are going to cut today for following
days feeding?
#9. Material Inventory Report:
Once status of production, efficiency, and quality report part is over, managers looked into material availability
status. You know that materials are the one major reason for shipment delay and breaking the production
schedule. This report carries information such as fabric and trims in-house status in details with expected in
house date for balance materials. Managers chase with merchandising and sourcing department for sourcing
material on time.
How to Measure Line Performance When You Don't Know Product SMV?
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I am writing this article in replying the question asked by Rakesh (name changed), one of the OCS readers.
He wants to calculate his line efficiency. But he doesn't have all parameters those are required to calculate line
efficiency. He has information of daily production, daily shift hours and number of operators but don't have
garment SMV. He wrote:
Please help me to find the efficiency of a line from the following details.
Daily Production: 2000 pieces,
Working Hours: 10 Hours,
No of machines (Operators): 50 and
SMV - unknown
To calculate line efficiency normally we use standard formula and find the efficiency figure. The standard
formula used to calculate efficiency of a line is as following
Line Efficiency % = (Garment produced by a line* Garment SMV * 100)/ (No. of operators * working hours *
60)
But as Rakesh doesn't have SMV of the product he was making, he cant calculate the efficiency of his line
using above formula. Without having garment SMV you can't determine line efficiency.
In this situation factories, who are in similar situation can measure line performance by Machine Productivity
or labor productivity per shift, instead of efficiency. Machine productivity means how many pieces of garments
are made per machine in defined hours in a day.
By using productivity figures you can compare your performance with national and international productivity
benchmark information for specific products.
For internal use of a factory, like product costing, product to product cost comparison and labor cost
justification, productivity data is equally acceptable.
Formula used for productivity calculation
Machine productivity per day= (Daily production quantity /No. of machines)
From the above information, machine productivity of Rakeshs line is
Productivity per machine (operator) per 10 hours shift = (2000 /50) = 40 pieces
For further details of productivity calculation read our previous article How to calculate labor productivity?
Second Thought:
In case you still want to express your line performance in efficiency without having product SMV, you can use
following formula
Efficiency = (Daily Produced garments X 100 / Daily Target quantity)
This is not a scientific way for efficiency calculation but some factories, those who do not have SMV of their
products, practice this calculation method. Daily target is calculated based on past data.
Example: Suppose daily production target for 10 hours shift 3000 pieces, and actual output is 2000 piece. Then
line efficiency will be = (2000 * 100/ 3000)% = 66.66%
Please note: I dont suggest anyone to practice the second method for the calculation of line efficiency. It is
explained just for your information. Always use scientific method (Formula#1) to calculate efficiency.
Now SMV calculation is not a difficult job. You can even measure estimated SMV of your products by
following methods explained in How to calculate SAM or SMV of a garment. Once you have SMV or SAM of
your product calculate your line efficiency by using formula.
Now I want to listen your thought. Please post your comments.
Selection of Improvement Projects and Project Implementation Method
Topics: career, industrial engineering By: Prasanta Sarkar
416
Couple of months ago, when I published the article Top 9 projects topics for apparel production students, I had
received request from readers to write an article on Topics for mini projects for the IE. This article is for
those who are planning to do improvement project in their factory or departmental level by themselves.
I can suggest you many topics that can be taken as an improvement projects. But just suggesting a topic does
not make any sense. Because, every factory is unique in term of problems faced by them. What all problems
you faced need to be solved one by one. Solving a problem in a proper method is a project. You should do an
improvement project that is essential to improve your departmental performance as well as factory
performance. So I would suggest you first learn how to select a right topic for mini projects (improvement
projects) in your factory or within a department. Then go for implementation of that project with predefined
project plan.
I will show you guidelines how you can select the right topic for improvement project and implement the same.
Continuous growth is necessary to survive in todays business. Whatever department you are holding, you must
keep doing new things that help to increase your performance. Bringing improvement in departmental level is
important to keep yourself and your team motivated. Otherwise if you only perform the same task day after day
you will lose interest in your work.
Lot of things is happening around the world and in your neighbor factories. Change in management policies,
implementation of new systems, technology level, processes improvement to name a few. One way of bringing
improvement you can steal good practices from other companies and implement it to your company for
betterment.
Secondly, Instead of stealing ideas from other factories there is lot of things and opportunity areas that you can
do to improve performance of your factory and department that you head. Undergo small project with your
team. Once you learn the technique of problem finding and can design action plan it would not be difficult job
to do an improvement projects.
Implementation of a project is done in three steps
1. Listing of real problems
2. Selection of right topics
3. Project implementation
#1. Listing of Real Problems

I have named it Real Problems. List down real problems those irritate you, reduce your performance, and create
delays, affect on quality. Consider problems as opportunity areas to you.
There are two ways to find problems or areas that need to be improved.
a. If you know there are problems within your department and those problems need to be shorted out list down
all those problems. Each problem can be converted as project topics.
b. If you dont find any issue within your department related to your performance but wants to do some
improvement project ask head of the departments (HOD) of other departments. Listen what they think that you
need to improve. List down what others suggest you to improve.
#2. Selection of topic

You have detail list of problems in your hand. To select one topic out of the list
- go for poll with your team members and associated departments,
- if you have measuring tools and have data for listed problems use those data for selecting you topic or
- select a topic that you think is easy to accomplish but gives you better outcome.
Example#1: Take an example of Garment Production. If you ask me to find problems related to your factory
performance. I will look into Key Performance Areas (KPIs) of production department and analyze those KPIs
to find which KPI need to be improved first. Common KPIs of garment production factory are
Line Efficiency,
Labor Cost per minute,
Throughput time,
Non-productive time,
Productivity,
Line set-up time
DHU level
I assumed that you used to measure your factory KPIs. Collect figures for each performance indicators for last
three months. Compare figures against your target or industry benchmark. Which KPI do you think need to be
improved first? Or which one is easier to improve but might bring higher benefits to company than other KPIs?
Pick that one as project topic. Lets say average line efficiency is not as per your target (or at par industry
benchmark). You can do a project on Improving Line efficiency and your problem is Low factory efficiency
In case you dont measure factory KPI then deciding KPI of your factory / production department and
measuring each indicator itself is a big project. Do a project on this topic.
Topic: Implementation of KPIs and Analysis of Factory KPI monthly
Example#2: If you are working in quality department then you can also do many things to enhance product
quality. Most important thing is factory must have a stable quality system and everyone follow the system
religiously. If you already have a stable quality system in place then analyze major quality issues reported by
buyers inspector or internal quality managers. Pick one topic from buyer feedback and do project on
improvement.
#3. Project Implementation or Plan of Action
Project Topic: Improving Line Efficiency
Now question is how to move forward to improve line efficiency?
Project selection part is easier. Most difficult part is implementation of a project. Sit with your team or you can
do this part alone. When you focus on this project you have to find how line efficiency can be improved? What
parameters are associated with line efficiency? Read various methods that I have explained in the article 20
ways to improve productivity in garment production and pick one method that suit you and go ahead with
implementation.
Prepare Action plan once you have decided what methods you are going to do to improve line efficiency.
Do implementation as per your plan. Assign or delegate task to your subordinates and execute whether
everything is done on time and targeted output.
Measure line efficiency after improvement action has taken place to the line. Compare it with previous
efficiency level. If your improvement project helps to increase line efficiency establish it in your system and
add changes to your routine.
If your improvement project does not bring improvement in line efficiency, find another way to improving line
efficiency and implement.
What is next? I want to listen from you what improvement projects you are going to do in your department or
in your factory. You can drop me a mail if you need any guidance in implementing your project.
Sewing Operator Recruiting Test Procedure
26112
Question: How to test an operator in woven industry? I want to take test of an operator before hiring him.
What will be that test? Asked by Rizwan
Answer
Factories follow standard procedures for hiring sewing operators.
Sewing machine training
Industrial Engineering department is responsible for conducting on-the-job test of candidates to check whether
candidates are illegible or not as sewing operator. In case factory does not have IE department, line supervisors
carry out this test. Under this test sewing operators need to go through few tests and show their expertise in the
given tests to get hired.
When you are hiring an operator and want to place her directly to a line, she must be a trained operator and
worked earlier in other organization. For such trained operators you need to test her sewing skills on following
parameters
1. Efficiency level in different operations
2. Quality of the seam and stitches made by the candidate
3. What types of machines she can run?
4. What types of fabric she can handle?
These tests also help you to prepare skill matrix of those recruits.
Test Procedure
Factories normally follow below procedures in operator recruiting test.
#1. Ask candidates to make mocks of garment components for the product you make in your factory. For
example, if you are making shirt then give candidates to make Collar, Cuff, front placket or Chest pocket
making and attaching to front panel.
#2. Assess their work on the mock in terms of quality, performance level on the above parameters. If they
make mocks up to your satisfaction level you pass them for sewing skills and forward them to HR for HR
verification and recruiting formalities. If they don't meet your satisfaction level you can reject them.
#3. At time of making mocks also check how candidates handle a machine. Like,
how they do threading of machine,
needle attaching to machine,
feeding of bobbin into shuttle,
how fast they run a machine etc.
How to Calculate Helper Requirement for a Sewing Line

912
Question:
How many helpers to be placed in a line of 60 machines layout & 45 machines layout? what is the method
calculate above? ...asked by Iresha
Answer:
A helper assisting sewing operator to cut thread

It is a good question. I would say there is no formula for calculating no.of helpers. Helpers are normally hired
for a line to do manual tasks of a style, to feed cutting to a line etc. Like you calculate number of sewing
machinist (sewing machine), number of helpers for manual operations can be calculated based on SAM of
manual operations.
Following are the guidelines that will help you to decide how many helper you need to hire irrespective of line
strength.
1. Go through your operation bulletin and check how many jobs / tasks do you have that required helpers
(like marking, trimming jobs), for some manual task you may need multiple helpers.
2. Check feeding procedure: To feed cutting to line do you need any helpers? If yes, do you need one
person for each line or one person can feed cutting to multiple lines? Calculate number of helpers based
on your requirement.
3. Matching of parts: In many styles part matching is required prior to feed parts to assembly section to
eliminate shade variation and size mixing.
4. Shorting of bundle: Do you need to short bundles in the line?
5. Hand work: Do your style demand person for handwork?
6. Thread cutting: It is not a good practice but would like to mention here that three years ago I have seen
factories in Bangladesh, where helpers are hired to assist sewing machinist to cut sewing thread. Do you
have such practices in your factory?
When you required to estimate total no. of helper required in a line follow above guidelines. You will get an
approximate number of helper.
How to Calculate Efficiency of a Line that Produces Multiple Styles in a Day?
Topics: Apparel Production, industrial engineering, QNA By: Prasanta Sarkar
12
Question: When a production line runs two or more styles having different SAM how can I calculate the
efficiency of that line per day? ... asked by Alamrew Ayalneh
Not only you but many of others find problem calculating line efficiency on the day when one style is going to
end and a new style is loaded to the same line. I am not clear when you face this problem
Is multiple styles are running to the line at the same time? or
Previous style is over with some output and new style is loaded at the back of the line?
However, I am discussing this issue in details. I hope you will get the answer of your question from it. There
are two ways to find line efficiency like,
Formula#1:
Line Efficiency% = (Total line output * Garment SAM *100) / (Total operators * shift hours * 60) or
= (Total SAM of produced garments / Total worked hours*60)*100
Formula#2:
Line Efficiency% = (Sum of SAM produced by individual operators / Sum minutes attended by each operators)
* 100 or
= (Total SAM produced by the line/Total worked hours * 60)*100
Most of the factories follow formula#1 to calculate line efficiency. As because
i) It is easier to calculate,
ii) factory does not have facility to record operator wise output (SAM produced) and
iii) factory is concerned on line output not on the WIP in the lines.
I have earlier post method of line efficiency calculation using this method. Click here to read it.
Coming to your problem, I guess you use formula#1 to calculate your line efficiency.
When two or more styles are running together in a line. How to use formula#1 to calculate line efficiency? Here
is the formula = {(Total output of Style#1 * SAM of style#1) + (Total output of Style#2 * SAM of style#2)}*100 / (Total
operators * shift hours * 60)
For example: In a line 20 operators worked for 8 hours and line produces 200 pieces of style# A and 200 pieces
of style# B. SAM of style# A is 15 minutes and style# A is 20 minutes.
Line efficiency %= ((200 * 15 + 200 *20)*100)/ (20 * 8 * 60)
= (3000+ 4000)*100/9600
= (7000/9600)*100
= 72.9%
Note that though this is widely used methods for line efficiency calculation you don't get accurate efficiency of
the line. So to get accurate line efficiency figure use formula#2. You can use this formula for single style also.
To calculate line efficiency that runs more than one style you have to measure production of each
operation/operator irrespective of styles and measure actual attended minutes by each operator to the work.
Then calculate operation wise total produced SAM by multiplying operation SAM to output at each operation.
For example, an operator makes two different operations of two different styles. SAM of operation#1 is 0.50
minute and operation#2 is 1 minute and she made 400 pieces for operation#1 and 200 pieces for operation#2.
So Total SAM produced by the operator is equal to 400 minutes (400*0.5 +200 *1).
Similar way calculate SAM produced by each operators and sum up to calculate total SAM produced by the
line. Calculate sum of individual operators working hours.
Finally, calculate line efficiency% by using formula#2.
How to Do Skill Upgrading for Machine Operators?
517
Upgrading of skill to an operator can be done in various forms. It may be building skill in a different machine
one who can handle single needle machine train him to handle a over lock machine; building skill from single
operation to multiple operations, building skill from easy operation to make a difficult operations one who is
skilled in straight stitch train him to make curve stitch . Skill to be imparted to a machine operator depends on
the demand of a sewing line.
Skill upgrading also means improving performance level of low performers. Experts say, certain percentage of
sewing operators among operator pull, work at low efficiency level. They are called as low skilled operator.
Few operators are low skilled because they
Work at slower speed, run machine slowly
Dont use correct methods or movement to perform the jobs
Operators are not trained by professional trainer (trained trainer). So they dont know about good
movements and bad movements. Dont know exactly how they can do same job with less effort but
better performance by using better methods.
Operators are not comfortable or habituate with the job/task they are performing.
Not confident doing a particular job or running a particular machine and hesitate during performing a
job
Fear of making faulty (defective) work machine higher speed
When it comes for upgrading skill for machine operator, it does not mean that only low skilled operators can be
upgraded. Everyones skills can be upgraded from his/her present skill level as explained above various form of
skill upgrading.
When you are in garment manufacturing business and want continuous growth you must build operators skill
through training. It will help you to increase manpower resource utilization. In this article I will explain the
ways to upgrade operators skill in their sewing task (performance level in the task what they already
performing). Use of scientific training method is necessary for operator training. To start with upgrading
existing operators, employ a trained sewing operator trainer who can train low skilled operators. Trainer must
follow a systematic training course for the trainees. Paul Collyer has explained about good trainer and training
method used in systematic training for sewing industry operators in his articles. Read to know more about
systematic training.
1. Systematic Training of Sewing Industry Operators An Introduction
2. Implementation of Systematic Training for Sewing Industry Operators
Following steps will give you an idea how to upgrade your existing machine operators.
Step#1 Selection of Low skilled operators: Trainer needs to find low skilled operators from the floor based on
the criteria for low skilled machine operators. For example, lower individual efficiency than line average or
target efficiency.
Step#2 Observation of Movements: Trainer needs to look into / observe the movements of a low skilled / low
performer. Study each movement an operator perform when operator sew garment. Do cycle timing if required
to understand more.
Step#3 Movement analysis: After motion study analyze what operator is lacking at the time of sewing pieces,
what all things are not correct (excess movements, handling of work, machine speed, rhythm on work,
concentrate on the job or not etc).
Step#4 Training on Good Movements: Teach operator the correct of way of doing the job what he is doing at
present. It is all about movements. How to pick parts, from where parts to be picked, where to dispose, how to
dispose, using both hands, simultaneous task by two jobs, how to move/slide part under needle, correct sitting
posture etc. Teach correct movement always. Each time trainer teaches a new movement, operator must be
given time to practice. Also measure time when operators practice. It will give trainer to see how each of the
low performer are learning and improving their performance level.
Step#5 Training on Speed: Teaching of correct movements and methods are necessary but at the same time
operators need to be trained to run machine at higher speed. Operators who run machine at slow speed teach
them how to run machine higher speed without compromising quality.
Step#6 Think out of the box: It is not always the operator that restricts to reach operators efficiency at certain
level. You have to think other ways to make performance improvement in a particular operation with the same
operator. For example, guides, attachments or a fixture can help to improve performance of an operator. Related
post: 9 Ways to Increase Sewing Operator Efficiency
How to Allocate Sewing Operators for Different Styles?
Topics: Apparel Production, industrial engineering, QNA By: Prasanta Sarkar
211
Question: How to allocate operators for different style? ... asked by Fitsum.t
Normally, allocation of sewing operators is done based on skill requirement in an operation, machine type to be
used and performance required.
For example, you may have two operators who can operate same types of machines or operations but they have
different performance level (individual efficiency) on that machine. So, you have to plan according to work
content and skill requirement to allocate best suitable operators. For better understanding of skill details of
existing operators you can create operator skill matrix which will help you in easy selection of operators.
You have mentioned operator allocation for different styles. Do you mean your style have different set of
operations? If so, you will get 80% similarities in operations and machine types (As per Paretos 80/20 theory).
So dont worry for different styles. With your existing operators you can make it. Prepare operation bulletin,
identify types of machines required for each operations and calculate no. of machines to be set. As explained
above match three things for better operator allocation operation, machine type and performance required.
When an operation does not match with previous style do further analysis of operations. And select most
suitable operator. Look into seam type, fabric type, operation difficulty etc.
How to Determine Machines Requirement for a New Factory?
65153
In mass production instead of single sewing machine, different types of machines are installed. What types of
machine mix one should purchase depends on the product category he want to make in his factory. As you
know for knitted garments you need higher number of over edge and flat lock machines where for woven
products you need higher no. of lock stitch machines.
When you plan for a new factory set up for garment manufacturing you should select machines based on your
product profiles. Otherwise you will have wrong machine ratio. As a result you will fall short of some types of
machines and others will be less utilized. It is not only the selection of correct types of machines but you should
have also correct number of machines for all types of machine you purchase. If you purchase machines only
those are required initially then you can control in initial capital investment.
Here is the secret how I select machine mix for a new set factory.
1. Select Product Type - As I mentioned above, requirement of machine types will depend on product
types and product styling. So, first thing is you have to decide what are you going to make. Is it Men's
shirt, Blouse, Tee-shirt, Trouser, Salwar Kameez or Kurti? If you plan to make multiple products in your
new set up, then define how many units do you like to make per day for each products.
2. Daily Production Target: Once you finalized the product or products you wish to make, decide how
many units (pieces) would like to produce monthly or daily. OR in other way what is the average
production demand of your customer. As an example, let you plan to produce 1200 Shirts per day.
3. Estimated Line Efficiency: At the start up stage you may not be aware about the efficiency. But you
have to consider an efficiency figure at what level your line may perform 6 months ahead to calculate
machine requirement. As most of the factories run at 40% efficiency (India), use this figure for
calculations. Or if you wish to consider a higher figure you can.
4. Prepare Operation Bulletin: Next step, you need to seek help from industrial engineer to prepare
operation bulletin (OB) of the product. Engineer will analysis the product and check what all types of
operations (jobs) are needed to make the garment, selection of correct types of machines for each
operations and then calculate product SAM, no. of machines for each operations, machine requirement
per line to get production as per your target. For multiple product prepare OB for each products and
calculate machine requirement accordingly.
5. Calculate no. of lines: Divide daily total target by per line estimated production to calculate no. of
lines. For example, if you plan for 400 pieces per line per day then you need to set 3 lines to get 1200
pieces per day at defined line efficiency.
6. Make a matrix of machine mix: Once you have line wise calculated no. machines for each products
prepare a table with machine list of each products. Calculate total no. of machines for each types. Refer
to the following image for the machine mix matrix.
7. You are ready with your machine requirement for your new factory.
If you still have some queries on the above procedures then please drop a question in the following comment
box.
Why Do We Need to Measure Man to Machine Ratio in Garment Industry?

1112
Question: Why Do We Need to Measure Man to Machine Ratio in Garment Industry? ... asked by Ramesh.
OCS's Answer:
Man to machine ratio is considered one of the key performance indicators of a garment manufacturing
company. Through this ratio factory management assesses how many personnel are employed per machine.
This ratio gives a clear indication of indirect cost percentage on the direct labor cost of a company.
Man to machine ratio (MMR) analysis is done to control overhead cost. As each employee cost to a company
how minimum their salary is. Note that different factories may have different MMR based on the factory size.
Factories those measure this ratio and use to control cost have a benchmark man to machine ratio. When MMR
increases in a particular month, factory checks where manpower increases. Manpower may increase in sewing
floor such as maker man, pressman and helpers or number of staffs. Department head need to confirm if that
additional manpower is required permanently or requirement is style base. According to that new MMR is
updated.
Which Attachment to use for Making Gather and Simultaneously Attach to a Panel?
Question: Please suggest about an attachment which makes gather on a frill & simultaneously attach to a
panel. Also please suggest about the attachment for bottom hemming in over lock machine (blind stitch).
OCS's Answer:
The first attachment is possible in both knits and woven but with low and medium weight (or GSM) fabric
only. For this types of operations I used Yamato O/L with differential feed. But before going to bulk a lot of
R&D and a really good mechanic are pre-requisite. It can attain upto a certain gather ratio only. For gathering
& attach, you can refer attachment No- MF562 ( Supplier Mahaveer/Gauge).
Regarding "blind stitch" in O/L, it is rather called "Ladder hemming" mainly due to its look. There is no
attachment available in the market, one has to purchase a separate machine which uses 3 threads and specially
designed for this kind of hemming. Its readily available with Yamato and factories are making garment with
this construction in both bottom and sleeve hem. It takes some time for the operator to get trained with fabric
handling on this machine. For bottom hemming in O/L (blind stitch) - I have not come across any attachment,
as their is a machine which does blind stitch in trousers & knitted garments.
How to Calculate Production Capacity of a Factory?
Topics: Apparel Production, industrial engineering, Production Planning By: Prasanta Sarkar
2124166
In Apparel Manufacturing, Production capacity is one of the most important criteria used for vendor selection
by the buyers. It is because; the production time of an order is directly proportional to vendors production
capacity. So it is very important that marketing and planning personnel should aware about the production
capacity of their production units.
Capacity of a factory is primarily expressed in terms of total machines factory have. Secondly, how much
pieces the factory produces on daily for the specific products? In general, total numbers of machines in a
factory mostly remains same for a period. But factory may produce various types of product during the season.
According to the product (style) category, machine requirement may change and daily average production in
each style may vary. So to be specific during booking orders, planner should know exactly how much capacity
he or she needed to procure the order in a given time period.
A factorys capacity is presented in total minutes or hours or in pieces (production per day). The method used to
calculate capacity has been explained in the following. To calculate Daily production capacity (in pieces) one
needs following information.
1. Factory capacity in hours
2. Product SAM
3. Line efficiency (Average)
1. Calculation of factory capacity (in hours): Check how many machines factory has and how many hours
factory runs in a day. For example suppose,
Total number of machines = 200

Shift hours per day = 10 hours
So total factory capacity (in hours) = 200*10 hours = 2000 hours
2. Calculation of Product SAM (SAM): Make a list of product category that you manufacture and get
standard minutes (SAM) of all products you make from work study engineers. If you dont have product SAM
then calculate the SAM. Or you can use average SAM of the products. Suppose you are producing shirt and its
SAM is 25 minutes.
3. Factory Average Efficiency: This data is collected from industrial engineer. Or calculate it with historical
data. Suppose average line efficiency is 50%. Read the article - How to calculate efficiency of a production line
or batch?
Calculation of production capacity (in pieces): Once you have above information use following formula to
calculate production capacity.
Production capacity (in pieces) = (Capacity in hours*60/product SAM)*line efficiency
For Example: Suppose a factory has 8 sewing lines and each line has 25 machines. Total 200 machines and
working shift is 10 hours per day. Total factory capacity per day is 2000 hours (200 machines * 10 hours). If
factory is producing only one style (Shirt) of SAM 25 minutes and used all 200 machines daily production
capacity at 50%
= (2000*60/25)*50% Pieces
= (2000*60*50) / (25*100) Pieces
= 2400 Pieces
[Note: Production will vary according to the line efficiency and during learning curve or in the initial days
when style is loaded to the line]
Production (capacity) planning is normally done based on sewing capacity. Having knowledge of the capacity
in other processes (internal or external) is also very important. Otherwise planner may fail and will not be able
to meet the dead line. Other departments such as Cutting room capacity, Finishing room capacity, Washing
Capacity and capacity of the value added jobs.
What is Pitch Time, Pitch Diagram and how to make a Pitch Diagram?
9115
Pitch time: In industrial Engineering, Pitch time is a ratio of total SAM of garment and number of operations
to be set for the style. Or
Pitch Time = Garment SAM/No. of operations.
How to Reduce Line Setting Time in an Assembly Line?
817
Home >> Industrial Engineering
Engineers and production managers always look for a way to improve factorys labor productivity. But they
look over things that lower labor productivity. Higher line setting time is one of the most visible reasons at
present that reduces factorys overall productivity. When it takes longer time for setting a line, most of the
operators sit idle. That means operators are not utilized in producing garment and operator productivity falls
resulting high labor cost. Following piece of article will help you to reduce line time.
I have seen factories where 1.5 to 2 days is spent in line setting for woven tops. When line supervisor and
engineers are asked why they are taking that much time to set a 40 machines line, they give dozen of reasons.
Whatever reasons line supervisor have, is the root cause for the delay. Reasons may vary time to time or style to
style.
Lets discuss main points that cause longer time for line setting.
1. Factory starts loading new style to the line once all operators get free from the previous style.
2. Frequent change in line planning.
3. All trims have not been approved or not yet sourced. Until required trims are sourced all operation cant
be started.
4. Few garment components has been sent outside for printing or embroidery but did not received on time.
5. Supervisor did not fully assess the operation sequence or skill requirement for each operation.
6. Operators were not present in the initial operations or critical operations.
7. Quality issue, supervisor not able to give suitable operator for the critical operation
8. Maintenance guy do not able set machine quickly. Replacement of machine, setting guides and
attachment takes longer time than it should be.
9. Planning for larger bundle size. At the first day of line setting if bigger bundle size is used then it will
take huge amount of time to reach bundle at the last operator.
Now it becomes simple, to start working on reducing line setting time. Work on the above reasons and
eliminate them prior to starting of line setting. Once you know the reason you can resolve it. In the following
list few remedies has been explained.
1. Research and development of the style analyse the style well before putting on the line. By doing so,
you will be aware of critical operations, machine requirement, skill requirement for the operations.
2. Production file properly checked at the time of receiving from merchandising team check whether
trims are approved or not, if not sourced yet when it is expected. Plan you your line setting according
availability of goods.
3. Prepare line plan with manpower requirement for specific skill categories. Ensure that operators
selected for the operations are present during line setting.
4. All necessary attachments, needles, guides need to be arranged well in advance and tested in sampling
or Research and development centre.
5. Dedicated maintenance and quality personal to be provided during line setting.
6. Start setting a line with small size of bundles (3 to 5 pieces per bundle). Thus bundle will move fast at
the end of the line. Once WIP is build up bundle size can be increased.
7. Use machine shifting device for replacing machine quickly.
Systematic Training of Sewing Industry Operators An Introduction
Topics: apparel industry, Guest Post, industrial engineering By: Prasanta Sarkar
14213
This is a guest contribution from Paul Collyer

Introduction:
To profitably run a garment production factory an effective operator training system is essential; however many
companies either have no facility or one that is not fit for purpose to meet the demands of the modern industry.
Training can take two separate identities, the giving of skills and knowledge to new recruits and the upgrading
of the abilities of existing workers.
High labour turnover in the first few days of training is often reported but is something that can be actively
attacked and reduced. It is a symptom of poor selection, ineffective initial training or a combination of both. Pre
employment tests such as dexterity and eyesight are essential but must be allied to structured trainability
assessment. The ability to absorb, remember and act upon information is crucial if training is to be worthwhile
but unfortunately not all applicants will have these qualities. Not everyone can be trained to become a sewing
industry operator? Thirty minutes spent assessing a potential recruit will save wasted time, effort and money by
eliminating unsuitable people.
A closer look to the existing training system:
After recruitment the initial stages of training are crucial. If a new trainee is allowed to sit around and wait,
learn in an unstructured way, learn the wrong things or learn slowly then high labour turnover will occur as
those motivated to progress, (the ones you want to retain) will become frustrated and leave. Additionally those
recruits who are prepared to sit around and work slowly (the ones you do not want) will stay in a version of
reverse selection. Training times will also be extended with graduates poorly equipped for the demands of the
production lines. If a factory has an initial training programme of more than one week duration then it is
probably training in an incorrect manner creating problems in the production area and costing considerable
sums of money. (The salary of a trainee is almost irrelevant in the training process. The real cost is the loss of
output and therefore recovery of overheads due to extended stays in the training area).
The effective operator training format:
To achieve a throughput of recruits in a short time that are able to perform to required standards of output and
quality requires a dedicated and specialised facility that follows a systematic training policy. Such a facility will
be cost effective as it supplies valuable workers to the line and will dramatically reduce training times and
enable recruits to work to sensible performances.
Training should be conducted by specialised, suitably trained instructors that work in both the initial training
area and in lines as required. All training will be conducted on fabric pieces and will from the first activity
expect trainees to work to speed and quality standards. To implement such a regime the trainee/instructor ratio
must be reduced to a 3:1 to enable the required amount of time to be dedicated to each trainee. Such a ratio will
increase the flow of trained recruits as they are typically sent through in one week with minimal losses against
the often used 1:20 that leads to losses and six to eight week training periods.
After one week recruits will typically go to the lines but they must not at this point be abandoned by training
staff. Additional trainers should, working on a 1:10 ratio support the new workers until they can achieve the
prescribed performance targets (75-80%). Supervisors do not have the time and expertise to work with new
workers. These trainers may not, dependent upon the flow of new workers be fully occupied. This is when they
can work on the most cost effective phase of systematic training regimes, the improvement of low performing
existing operators.
A low performing operator can be defined as one who is not achieving the required standards of performance
i.e. quality and/or quantity. Every factory has low performing operators that cause bottlenecks, missed
deliveries and quality problems. These workers are not considered to be idle or inadequate but that they have
problems for which they need help and support .A suitably trained instructor working within a systematic
training facility will be able to problem solve and work with the low performer to increase their abilities. Such
an instructor will repay their salary many times over if correctly deployed.
Conclusion:
A systematic training programme is an essential part of the management structure of a garment production
factory. Without such a facility the manager will not be able to fully meet his objectives. Many managers
recognise by utilising data from labour cost control systems that they have a training or skill problem in the
lines but do not have the assets to do anything about it. Trained instructors give him that ability to positively
address problems as part of a performance improvement initiative.
Implementation of Systematic Training for Sewing Industry Operators
Topics: Guest Post By: Prasanta Sarkar
617
by Paul Collyer
The first stage in implementing a systematic approach to operator training in a garment factory is to gain the
commitment and agreement of management at all levels. Whereas this may appear obvious the principles and
activities utilised in a systematic approach will usually differ greatly from existing practices and will require a
complete abandoning of long held beliefs and habits. If you miss my previous article Systematic Training of
Sewing Industry Operators An Introduction I suggest you go through it first.
Why to implement systematic training?
Training is an investment and like any other business expenditure should only be used when a need is shown
and results can be measured.
Many clothing manufacturing companies will have problems with:
long training times
high labour turnover
high reworks and rejects
low operator performance & line inefficiency
low operator morale
Style change.
A systemic approach to management incorporating systematic operator training will, if correctly implemented
make a significant impact on all the above causing measurable improvements.
It should be understood that a systematic operator training facility will not specialise on new recruit training but
will actively work with existing low performing operators in the lines. (A low performing operator is defined
as one who is not reaching the target standards of Quality, Quantity and Time).
How to go about it?
Once the decision has been made and senior management support agreed then it is necessary for production
management to accept new concepts;
It is the function of the training department to provide a service to production and it should therefore be
fully integrated into the production process and not considered as a nuisance to be administered by HR.
The old practices in many companies of one trainer sitting in a large training school with twenty plus
trainees have to be abandoned.
Results of training are entirely dependent upon the interaction of the trainer with the trainee. If the
trainer is not allowed to work with a very limited number of trainees (1:3) then training times will be
extended and results diluted. This approach does not limit trainee throughput numbers as the intensive
training dramatically reduces time in the training area (typically 4-5 days) before release to the lines and
has a positive impact on recruit losses.
Trainees need ongoing support when on the lines until they have reached targets and cannot be left to
the care of supervisors who often do not have the time, ability or inclination to help them.
The use of felt or paper exercises to train sewing operators, still common throughout the Indian
subcontinent is a relic of the past and should be discontinued.
Recruits are trained in skills and not operations; a subtle but crucial change.
Systematic training needs to be supported by effective instructional techniques and close management
liaison with trainers. Management must appreciate the need for training, resource it adequately, and
integrate it into the production management practices of the factory.
Training will only be successful if properly trained trainers are allowed to interact with trainees and
their activities are fully supported and resourced.
Resourcing
Resources will depend upon the planned throughput of trainees. Is it intended to replace losses or increase the
workforce and over what timescale?
A single trainer will be able to process three trainees per week. Is this sufficient or will more than one initial
trainer be required? Additionally trainers will be needed to work with newly trained operators as they enter the
lines. These trainers will be able to work with a maximum of ten workers each. Dependent upon complexity of
operation and supervisory/management cooperation it may take the recruit four weeks to hit prescribed output
targets (80% performance). Therefore two inline trainers will be needed. (Any spare trainer capacity can be
usefully deployed working with low performing operators.) Additionally management may take the sensible
and cost effective approach of using additional trainers on a programme of existing operator performance
improvements. It is a simple calculation when outputs are decided to calculate the number of trainers required.
However it should be noted that the trainer if correctly deployed will recover her salary many times over on a
daily basis. (A further article on costs of training will be published at a later date).
One trainer working with three recruits will need a maximum of six machines in a training area. (Two trainers
working with six trainees may need nine machines dependent upon recruitment strategy). This requirement is
much smaller than many companies currently have in training schools. Most companies have spare machinery
in store and providing for a training facility should not incur any additional expense.
All training will be conducted using specially designed exercises on fabric pieces. Again this should not incur
additional expenditure as companies have redundant fabric in stock; even those take a lean approach.
The trainers themselves are the only asset that will require expenditure. Their salaries will be recovered many
times over by savings made by reduction in initial training times, improved output by existing operators and
most importantly the increased overhead recovery higher output creates. It is absolutely crucial that the trainers
receive specialised training to enable them to perform their roles and this is the only additional expenditure
needed in setting up a systematic operator training facility and system. A specialised training programme for
trainers has been developed over many tears and information can be accessed at paul.collyer@btinternet.com
How to calculate Machine requirement for garment to be made in an assembly line?
1725
Follow the following steps to estimate how many machines and what types of machines you need to make your
garment in an assembly line. The primary information you need to calculate number of machines are A. Daily production target it means how many pieces you want to stitch per day.
B. Number of hours in a shift How many hours you plan to work each day
C. SMV of each operation Standard minutes for each operation
D. Present efficiency of the factory (in case you dont aware about present factory efficiency, use 50%
efficiency). Efficiency is required because production will depends on how efficiently workers may do their
job.
Step 1: Operation breakdown Select a garment for which you want to calculate machine requirement.
Analysis the operations required to sew the garment and list down operations in a spread sheet in a sequence.
For example, see operation break down of a Crew neck Tee in following table.
Step 2: Identify machine type Observe what stitch class has been used in the operations and according to
those select machines against each operation.
Step 3: SMV of each operation write down SMV or standard minutes at right column of machine type.
SMV is the most important part for calculating machine requirement. You can use SAM of each operation from
your database. If you dont have database for standard minutes then calculate it. Read the article how to
calculate SAM of a garment.
Step 4: Calculate Theoretical machine requirement Set your production target for the day (8 hours shift).
Example- 400 pieces per line. Use present efficiency level of the factory. And now, calculate machine
requirement using the following formula. It is called as calculated machine number. Because formula gives you
fraction of machine but in real you cant able to use fraction of machine.
= (Target quantity in pieces* individual operation SMV)/(8 hrs*60 minutes*desired efficiency)
= (A*C)/(B*60*D)
Step 5: Physical machine requirement Now simply round off the machine number. Or you can club
operations those use similar machine class. To do operation "Serge margin" half machine is required and the
operation "sew side seam with label" required 1.4 machines. So can use first 4TOL machine to do the second
job. Hence you can reduce the machine number and increase machine utilization.
Example: Operation bulletin for Tee Shirt (Crew Neck)
Production target/day
Shift hours = 8 hours
Plan on Efficiency
(8 hours) =400 pieces
or 480 minutes
=50%
Opr.
No.
Description
Machine
Make Neck Rib

& Runstitch
SMV
No. of
Calculated
M/c
Roundoff
Machine
No.
SNLS
0.55
0.9
Join shoulders
4TOL
0.45
0.8
Insert Neck Rib
SNLS
0.45
0.8
Serge Margin
4TOL
0.31
0.5
Top stitch on
Neck rib
3TFL
0.34
0.6
Attach Sleeve
4TOL
0.78
1.3
sew side seam

with labels
4TOL
0.84
1.4
Hem sleeves
3TFL
0.68
1.1
Bottom Hem
3TFL
0.56
0.9
4.96
8.27
Type
TOTAL
Machine requirement Summary:
Single Needle Lock Stitch (SNLS): 2 No.
Four thread Over lock machine (4TOL): 4 No.

Three thread Flat lock machine (3TFL): 3 No.
Which payment system is better for sewing operators in garment manufacturing - Piece Rate or Salary
based?
76
Home > Apparel Production
When entrepreneurs start business in garment manufacturing and garment exports, they look for a fair payment
system that would motivate their workers as well as factory can save good money out of the business. Whether
payment system is salary based, piece rate or incentive system. Researchers and experts say that all payment
systems have good things with certain challenges. After all, employers have to understand what motivates their
employee. Is it money, Job satisfaction, Position and/or recognition?
In this article I am discussing about sewing operators and get motivated by money only. When operators are
paid according to the work done (pieces) by them with an agreed rate only then they will work with maximum
effort. In other way it may be said that factory will only able to produce target quantity of garments when their
employees are fully motivated.
Prior to choosing a pay system, following factors must be considered. In the following table, comparison of the
piece rate and salaried system has been explained on eight parameters.
Parameters
Labor rate per pieces
Cost per piece depends
on
Operator focused on
Attrition rate
Capacity
Salaried
Lower
Work content
Piece rate
Higher up to 45%
Marketplace
Quality
Lower
Fixed
Quantity
Higher
Varies with Labor
availability
Product Change
No. problems
Price negotiation
Advance Technology
Welcome
Restricted
Work study
Welcome
Restricted
Source: Presentation by Methods Apparel at OGTC conference,
2011
Now factory management has to decide how they want to run their business. What their priority is? Is it quality
or quantity? Are they wanted to run the factory with fixed or varied capacity? Do they want stable operators or
it does not matter to them?
In the context of Indian exporters, they are still quantity conscious than quality, though they are losing lot of
money due to poor product quality every day. Indian exporters mostly prefer to have Piece Rate System.
Benefits of Piece rate employees:
Piece rate employees are highly motivated.
Piece rate employees have no obligation about their employer.
When factories have no work, they do not have to pay operators.
Challenges for having piece rate employees: There are few challenges when company hires piece rate
employees.
Design a fair rate for piece rate employees is most critical.
Most of the factories dont have system to establish fair rate or standard time.
Generally rate is decided by negotiation employee and employer.
Until rate is fixed nobody work at their normal pace and company loses capacity.
Which Machines are needed to make Basic Tee Shirts?

127
Three types of machines are generally used for making Basic Tee (Crew Neck) in mass production. Machines
are Lock stitch (Single Needle), Over edge (Over lock) and Flat lock (Flat bed or Cylinder bed). Within the
machine types there are various technology levels. A same machine is shared for multiple operations when
work content is less than pitch time and machine type is same for both operations.
In the following table a machine requirement plan or layout has been shown for production of 800 Tee shirts in
8 hours shift. Machine types and machine requirement in each operation has been also given in the following
table.
Table-1:
Operations
M/c Type
No. Of Machines
Shoulder join
Over Lock
Neck rib Tuck
1N Lock Stitch
Neck Join
Over Lock
Label Make
1N Lock Stitch
Back Neck
Binding
Flat lock/1NLS
Front Neck Top
Flat lock
Back Neck Top
1N Lock Stitch
Sleeve Hem
Flat lock
Sleeve Join
Over Lock
10
Side Seam
Flat lock
11
Sleeve tuck
1N Lock Stitch
12
Body Hem
Flat lock
Seq. No.
1
Total
16
Which Machines are needed to make Basic Polo Shirts?

3016
Five types of machines are used in making basic Polo Shirt . Machines are Lock stitch (Single Needle), Over
edge (Over lock), Button holing, Button attaching and Flat lock (Flat bed). A same machine is shared for
multiple operations when work content is less than pitch time and machine type is same for both operations.
In the following table a machine requirement plan or layout has been shown for the production of 500 Polo
shirts in 8 hours shift. Machine types and machine requirement in each operation has been also given in the
following table.
Table-1:
Seq. No.
1
Operations
M/c Type
No. Of
Machines
Placket Rolling
1N Lock
Stitch
2
Placket Join
1N Lock
Stitch
Nose Tuck
1N Lock
Stitch
Shoulder Join
Over lock
Collar Join
1N Lock
Stitch
Collar Piping
Over lock
Upper Placket
Top
1N Lock
Stitch
Lower Placket
Top
1N Lock
Stitch
Back Neck Top
1N Lock
Stitch
10
Placket top
1N Lock
Stitch
11
Placket Box
1N Lock
Stitch
14
Sleeve Cuff Join
Over lock
15
Cuff Top Stitch
Flat lock
16
Sleeve Join
Over lock
1.5
17
Arm Hole Top
Flat lock
18
Side Seam
Over lock
1.5
19
Body Hem
Flat lock
20
Sleeve tuck
1N Lock
Stitch
21
Button Hole
Button Holer
Button Stitch
Button
Stitcher
22
Total
24
Standard Minutes (SAM or SMV) for Few Basic Garment Products

5254
Home > Industrial Engineering

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 the work content or simply according to
number of operations, length of seams, fabric types, stitching accuracy needed, sewing technology to be used
etc.
But still many of us inquire for approximate SAM values for basic products, like Tee Shirt, Formal shirt,
Formal trouser or jacket. An estimated SAM helps in capacity planning of the factory, calculating requirement
of machineries and even helps to estimate CM (cut and make) costing of a garment.
However, for better understanding I will suggest you first to read articles How to calculate SAM for a
garment?. SAM is a short form of standard allowed minutes. It means a normal operator can complete a task
within the allowed time (minute) when he works at 100% efficiency.
Standard minutes (SAM) of few basic products have been listed down with its SAM range according to work
content variation. In actual cases garment SAM may go outside of the limit depending the above factors. This
list will be updated time to time adding more products.
Which production system is better - A Conventional line Or A Modular line?
Topics: industrial engineering, Lean By: Prasanta Sarkar
128
As I have explained earlier in the article Garment Production Systems that each production system has
benefits over others depending on order size, product type, technology level and skill level of the operators.
When it comes lean manufacturing system in apparel making, factories start implementing modular system
whatever product they might produce. It is true that in Lean environment modular line is most effective than a
conventional line if modular line is run scientific way.
To support the above statement, I will take example of Madura Clothings shirt line. Recently in a conference
Mr. Lal, Head Manufacturing, Madura Clothing, presented a case of the Shirt line. They have both conventional
line and Modular line in a same floor. As per his presentation, in Modular line they produce 14.3% more shirts
with 23% less operators comparing to the conventional line. Secondly, the labor productivity (operator only) of
the Modular line is 48.6% higher than conventional line.
In the following table comparison has been show with other parameters.
Conventiona Modula
l Line
r Line
Total of 2
Modular
line
Improvement
s
Production/da
y
700
400
800
14.3% Higher
No. of
Operators
52
20
40
23.1% Less
Takt time
35
70
70
Higher
Throughput
time
(Theoretical)
1820
1400
1400
Less
Effective
Throughput
time
1870
700
700
Less
Labor
Productivity
13.5
20
48.6% Higher
Work aids and equipments for garment manufacturing industry

69
To facilitate worker in doing their jobs most efficiently number of readymade and customized work aids and
equipment are being used in the garment industry. Especially work aids are designed for material handling,
folding etc. In the following some of the basic work aids are listed those are used in shirt making factory in
Raw material warehouse, cutting department, sewing floor and finishing department.
Raw material warehouse:
Fabric trolley
Fabric roll fork lift
Cutting Department:
Fabric roll Stand (Movable and fixed)
Layer weight
Cloth Clamp
Bakers Trolley
Waste disposal trolley
Bins
Sewing room:
Disposal basket
Sewing machine table extension (left/right/front)
Hunch back
Single slopping table
Profile for collar and cuff run stitch
Various types of Attachments, folders, hemmers and guides
Finishing Department:
Wire mesh WIP trolley
Z-stands
Bins
Hanger stand
Hanger trolley
Carton transfer trolley
The Concept of Operator's Performance Rating
36137
Definition of Performance Rating:

Rating is a subjective comparison of any condition or activity to a benchmark, based upon our experience.
While the mechanics of time study record the time a task did take, applying a rating will determine the time a
task should take.
What is 100% performance or Normal Performance?

The concept of 100% performance is a critical element of time study and performance measures. Normal
performance is the rate of output which qualified workers will achieves without over-exertion over the working
day sifts provided they know and adhere to the specified method and provided they are motivated to apply
themselves to the work. This performance is denoted as 100% on standard rating and performance scales.
A slower is performance rate, which will produce fewer pieces per hour, is recorded as a percentage below
100%. A faster performance rate that produces more pieces per hour is recorded as greater than 100%.
Characteristic of 100% Performance or Normal operator
Fluid motions without hesitation
No false starts or duplications
Consistent, coordinated, effective rhythm
No wasted actions or work
Attention centered on the task
How to get accurate rating?

To improve accuracy in rating an operator, observer must
Has knowledge of the operation and the specified method or standard operating procedures for that task.
Concentrates on operator motions
Is alert to fumbles, hesitations, and other lost motions- these are seldom or absent in 100% performance.
Eliminates or ignores interruption or events not in the operators control.
Avoids a corrupting bias when observing fast and slow operators in succession
Knows that increasing the number of cycles observed increases accuracy
Incentive Systems for Garment Industry

9112
In manufacturing industries, an incentive is a factor (financial or non-financial) that enables or motivates a

particular course of action, or counts as a reason for preferring one choice to the alternatives. Eventually,
incentives' aim is providing value for money and contributing to organizational success. It is considered as a
driving force that produces a higher productivity with the same resources available. Incentives can be classified
according to the different ways in which they motivate agents to take a particular course of action. One
common and useful taxonomy divide incentives into three broad classes:
1. Remunerative incentives or financial incentives are said to exist where a worker can expect some form
of material reward, especially money, in exchange for acting in a particular way.
2. Moral incentives are said to exist where a particular choice is widely regarded as the right thing to do,
or as particularly admirable, or where the failure to act in a certain way is condemned as indecent. A
person acting on a moral incentive can expect a sense of self-esteem, and approval or even admiration
from his community.
3. Coercive incentives are said to exist where a person can expect that the failure to act in a particular way
will result in physical force being used against them (or their loved ones) by others.
Also Read: Case Study: An Incentive Scheme for Sewing Operators
Types of Incentive Systems:
1. Straight piece rate: In the straight piece rate system, a worker is paid
straight for the number of pieces which he produces per day. In this plan,
quality may suffer. Usually in the garment industries this incentive system is in
use but this system promotes only productivity not the quality which is a prime
objective of garment manufacturing. This incentive system is much suited with
the contract workers where management wishes to get maximum output with
the limited number of working hours.
2. Straight piece rate with a guaranteed base wage: A worker is paid straight
for certain output set by management even if worker produces less than the
target level output. If worker exceeds this target output, he is given wage in
direct proportion to the number of pieces produced by him at the straight piece
rate
3. Differential piece rate system: A system which suggest that there should be
separate rate for 70%, 100% and 120 % of target level. In this type of structure
fresher could hardly survive.
4. Halsey Plan: According to the Halsey plan for incentive
W = R.T + (P/100) (S-T).R
Where
W: wage of worker
R: wage rate,
T: actual time taken to complete job,
P: percentage of profit shared with worker
S: std. time allowed.
Output standards are based upon previous production records available. Here management also shares a
percentage of bonuses. Here the incentives are given on the basis of time saved by the workers on a fix same
wage rate. Here workers motivates for doing the work with more efficiency but after a long time workers use to
be unsatisfied and demand for more profit share through their works.
5. Rowan Plan: According to the Rowan plan for incentive
W=R.T + ((S-T)/S).R.T
Unlike Halsey Plan gives bonus on (S-T)/S, thus it can be employed even if the output standard is not very
accurate. According to the Halsey plan the workers will get more if they will do more but quality of work might
be distorted with the aim of more production. But with Rowan method if the time saving is more than 50% of
standard allowed time then bonus will be reduce. It means there are no benefits to do work with super high
efficiency because it will affect the quality level of the production.
6. Bedaux Plan: Like other plan minimum base wage is guaranteed.
B represents unit of work. 1 B stands for 1 standard work minute and it includes working time as well as time
for rest. A worker earning 60 B per hours reaches 100% of standard output or 100 % efficiency.
A bonus is paid to the worker who earns more than 60 Bs in one hour. The
bonus as in the original plan is 75% of the number of Bs above 60 in one hour.
W= R.T + (Ns- Nt/60) (75/100).R
7. Emersons Efficiency plan: Workers with efficiency =67% to 100 %, incentive given is from 0 to 20%. For
1% increase in output 1% increase in incentive.
8. Group Incentive Plan: Equal distribution of cash or shares between the team or group employees involved
in a particular work. When a production line hit the target output, and produces more pieces then they will get
paid incentive accordingly. In the group line supervisors, helpers, mechanics and even floor in-charge get share
of incentive amount. Share percentage is kept different (less) for supervisors and managers than operators and
helpers.
How to Balance a Traditional Sewing line?
24128
Home > Industrial Engineering

A sequence of operations is involved in making a garment. In bulk garment production, generally a team works
in an assembly line (Progressive Bundle system) and each operator do one operation and give it other operator
to do next operation. In this way garment reached to end of the line as a completed garment. In the assembly
line after some time of the line setting, it is found that at some places in the line, work is started to pile up and
few operators sit idle due to unavailability of work.
When this situation happens in the line it is called an imbalanced line. Normally it happens due to two main
reasons a) variation in work content (time needed to do an operation) in different operations and b) operators
performance level. To meet the production target, maintaining smooth work flow in the line is very important.
So it is very important to know basics of quick line balancing.
How to balance an imbalanced line has been explained in the following. The main job in line balancing is to
eliminate or reduce WIP (work in process) at bottleneck operations. To do that you have to know which
operations are bottleneck in the line. Through capacity study and target setting you will find existing
bottlenecks in the line.
Tools required:
Stop watch
Spread sheet or Calculator
Step 1: Capacity study: List down all operations (with operator name) as per operation sequence in a paper.
Using stop watch cycle time (time study) for each operation for five consecutive cycles. With average cycle
time calculate hourly capacity of the operators. (i.e. operation cycle time 30 seconds and total allowances is
20% then capacity is 100 pieces per hour). Draw a line graph with per hour capacity data.
Step 2: Target setting: With the above capacity data set your target output per hour from one line. Generally it
is calculated using following formula (Target per hour= Total no of operators X 60 /garment SAM). Check
current hourly operator production report. Draw a straight line with target output data on the line graph.
Step 3: Identification of bottleneck areas: Now go to the capacity study table and compare each operators
capacity with the target capacity. Each individual operator whose capacity is less than the target output is
bottleneck operation for the line. It is impossible to improve imbalanced lines output without improving output
of the bottleneck operations. A bottleneck operation is like a weak link chain.
Step 4: Eliminate bottlenecks from the line: Now to eliminate bottleneck areas use following methods which
suites best to your situation but dont jump without trying initial steps.
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
Club operations where possible. Where there is higher capacity than the target output, give that operator
another operation with less work content. Considering machine type and sewing thread colours.
Shuffle operators. Operations that have low work content use low performer there. And where work
content is higher use high performers.
Reduce cycle time using work aids and attachments. To assist the operator in handling parts during
sewing, positioning cutting and disposing finished task, work aids, guides or attachment can be used. Think of
that if possible provide operator with aids. It will reduce operation cycle time.
Improve workstation layout and improve methods. Most important area for improving output from a
particular operation is using best workstation layout and best method of work. There is always a chance that
though improving method of bottleneck operations you can do line balancing.
Add more operators at bottleneck operations. Adding one additional machine in easy task than others.
Before adding one more machine compare the cost-benefits of putting additional machine into the line. It can
be simple compared by estimating machine productivity in both cases.
Do extra work at bottleneck operations. At lunch break and Tea break when each operator of the line goes
for break, bottleneck operator can continue work to feed next to his operator. Later he can take break. At the
end of the day tell this operator to work for one hour extra to reduce the WIP.
Important things to keep in mind:
i.
Conduct Time Study hourly basis and check output of each operator. Once you have eliminated one
bottleneck, you will find a new bottleneck operation. Follow the same methodology to improve line balancing.
Incentive Scheme for Sewing Operators Part #1
6110
All you know that employees work for money. If there is a chance for earning more money through better
performance employees will jump for it. As a result employer gets more production in the same working hours.
It will work only if you design your incentive scheme scientifically and if it is fair.
I will share 3 simple ways for designing incentive scheme for sewing operators in the garment industry in 3
parts. All of these are successfully running in garment manufacturing factories. In this article the term
incentive indicates the bonus amount or extra amount of money operators earn for their better performance.
Part#1 Incentive on extra production
The name itself defines that bonus will be paid to sewing operators when operators produce more pieces than
target production. Production target is set for the line and bonus is paid to the line. This is one types of group
incentive plan where line output will decide whether operators will get incentive or not.
This is the most easy and smart way to design incentive plan for operators. Operators would be happy and
motivated as they can count extra pieces produced by them at the end of the day. Hence, they can find out their
incentive earnings easily. To keep it simple, incentive rate can be kept equal or less than the current average
labor cost per garment. Reason, whatever extra garment is produced by the line will cost you nothing but you
can save in overheads, electricity, over time payments.
Managers, who feel operators and supervisors may cheat them in individual performance based incentive
scheme, can implement this scheme. Secondly factories, who dont track details of individual operator
performance for their operators, can easily implement this scheme without any difficulty.
Read following 5 steps to design production based incentive scheme.
Step 1: Set production target (PT):
In this step you will set daily lines production target to be eligible for earning incentive. Record daily line
output from day one of loading the style. Once learning curve ends calculate average line output of following
consecutive 3 days. For example, first 7 days line output is 40, 150, 250, 290, 300,310, 305 pieces. You can
expect daily average production of 300 pieces from the line without any bonus system. Now to get more
production announced bonus for extra production than 300 pieces daily.
Target production can be defined more accurately by using line efficiency% history. Here is the formula for
calculating target quantity using line efficiency
Target production = Available minutes in a line * Efficiency% / Garment SAM
Step 2: Calculate daily average salary for the line (W):
It is considered that operators are paid fixed salary. There is two ways to calculate daily average salary for the
line.
Add up monthly salary of all operators working in the line. Now, divide total amount by number of working
days in a month to calculate average salary that is paid to the line daily.
Or you can first calculate daily wages of individual operators and sump up daily wages of those workers who
works in the line to calculate lines daily wages.
Example: In a sewing line 30 operators are working. 10 of them get 180, 10 of them get INR 200.00 and rest 10
operators get INR 220. So, daily average wages for the whole line is 6000/- (1800+2000+2200). To make the
calculation easy multiply operator number by highest operator salary. i.e. 220/- *30 = 6600/Step 3: Calculate Direct Labor cost per piece (C):
Divide daily total line wages by target production to calculate direct labor cost per piece. i.e. C=W/PT or
C=6000.00/300 = INR 20.00
Step 4: Determine incentive rate per extra pieces produced (ET):
If the line performs as per target level then line will produce average 300 piece daily and your per cost of
manufacturing will be INR 20.00. Now, if line produces more pieces than your target you per piece direct labor
cost will go down as because you are still paying INR 6000.00 to the line. You can set incentive rate two ways
1. If line produces more garment than 300 pieces line will be given bonus of INR 20.00 for each extra
garment. That is equal to the average labor cost per garment. In this case labor cost per garment will
remain same but your daily production will be increased and order can be finished in less time.
2. Secondly if you want to increase production and at the same bring down your labor cost per piece set
bonus less than average labor cost per piece. You can set it as 80% of labor cost per garment i.e. INR
16.00 for each extra piece production.
Example: If the line produces 350 pieces per day, line will earn bonus for 50 pieces (350-300). Multiply extra
pieces by incentive rate to calculate total bonus earned by the line.
If you use first method (i.e 20.00 per garment) total bonus earning of the line in a day is equal to INR 1000.00.
And if you use second method (i.e 16.00 per garment) total bonus earning of the line in a day is equal to INR
800.00.
Step 5: Distribution of incentive amount among operators:
You got total incentive earning for the line. You have to distribute to the operator in such a way that nobody get
demotivated.
Distribution of bonus can be designed in two ways
1. Distribute total amount equally to all operators. In this example 30 operators earned bonus INR
1000.00. So, each operator will get bonus equal to INR 33.33.
2. Second option instead of equal distribution, distribute bonus based on work content (SAM of the
operation) ratio. For example, if SAM of the garment is 15 minutes and SMV of two operations is 0.75
and 0.45 minutes and operations are done operator X and operator Y respectively. As per SAM ratio
operator X will earn bonus = 1000 * 0.75/15 = INR 50.00 and operator Y will earn bonus = 1000 *
0.45/15 = INR 30.00
Design of your incentive scheme is ready.
Include line supervisors, helpers and quality checker under the bonus scheme. Set line production target for
them. On reaching the target give them lump sum amount per day.
KPIs for Garment Manufacturers
16147
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are measured to assess where the factory currently stands and to find key
focus areas where management needs to look into. Top 9 KPIs have been listed and explained below that are
measured by garment manufacturers (export houses) in the apparel industry. Analysis of these KPIs is carried
out monthly.
1. Factory Efficiency%
Factory efficiency indicates how efficiently sewing lines is run in a factory. This indicator is important because
capacity planning of the factory and projected garment making cost is done based on factory efficiency. Factory
efficiency includes all lines minutes produced and total hours attended by direct labor in sewing floor. Target
factory efficiency varies based on the order quantity. For the detailed calculation of efficiency refer to how to
calculate efficiency of a production line or batch? For factory efficiency calculate total minutes produced by
all lines and total minutes attended by all lines. Factory efficiency% = (Total minutes produced X 100)/Total
minutes attended.
2. Man to Machine Ratio:
When it is factorys Man to Machine ratio (MMR), every employees of the factory is considered under
manpower. So, Man : Machine= Total manpower: Total sewing machines available in the factory (machines
those are in use). For example, if a factory has 500 sewing machines and total manpower of the factory is 1100
then man to machine ratio =1100:500 OR 2.2. This ratio varies product to product and on organization
structure.
3. Cut to ship ratio:

This is a ratio of total cut quantity and total shipped quantity of an order. This indicator is measured order wise
and monthly shipped orders. To keep buffer (for damaged, defective garments) factory cuts extra pieces than
order quantity. For example: factory received an order of 20000 pieces, cut quantity 20200 pieces (1% extra
cutting) and total shipped quantity 20000 pieces. Cut : Ship = 20200:20000 = 1.01. This indicator is measured
to control surplus quantity after shipment, reduction in extra cutting and damaged garment. Target Cut to ship
ratio is 1.
4. Order to ship ratio:
Buyer expect to receive full quantity from supplier that has been ordered. This is most important factor that
buyer uses for vendor evaluation. This indicator is calculated as = Total order quality/ Total shipped quantity.
Target of Order to Ship ratio is always 1. It is good if factory can ship higher than order quantity (only if buyer
accepts extra quantity).
5. On time Delivery:
How much shipment did not meet target shipment date is analyzed at the end of each month? Target on time
delivery of each style is to meet shipment delivery date. If not meet reasons of not meeting delivery date are
analyzed. It is calculate as = Total orders shipped on time/Total orders shipped on the month. For example, if
factory shipped 18 styles on time out of total 20 styles shipped in month then On time delivery of that month is
=18/20*100% = 90%
6. Average style changeover time:
Time gap between previous style over (last piece out from the line) and first piece output of the current style is
known as style change over time. Shorter changeover time is considered as better performance level. It varies
style to style and production systems. Time of Change over time of each style is recorded and average
changeover time of the factory is measured.
7. Right First time quality:
This indicator is represented in percentages. Total audits passed in first time out of total audit conducted by
auditors. First time right quality is measured in various stages of garment processing and analysis is done audit
wise. Higher values (percentage) of right first time quality is considered as better performance of the factory.
8. Quality to Production:
Quality level of each department is measured in DHU and Percentage defective unit. Higher the value of DHU
higher alteration time and higher cost incurred in quality.
9. Down time percentage:
Down time is one of the top most reasons for less factory efficiency. Factory analyses major down times to
control and improve machine and operator utilization. Top 5 reasons for down time (also known as nonproductive time, Off-standard time) are line setting, operation sitting idle, no feeding, machine breakdown and
no planning for line.
Garment manufacturing business more specifically garment export business is a profitable business if factory
performance is measured and management work to improve performance level step by step. Each of the above
KPI plays role on production cost, factorys reputation and profit margin.

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Duties and Responsibilities of Industrial Engineering Department

Topics: industrial engineering By: Prasanta Sarkar

Monitoring and Auditing IE and Jr.IE activities in all the units

Factory Production Incentive report monitoring and approval

Working on new projects if any and suggesting advanced techniques in garmenting

Duties and Responsibilities of Industrial Engineer

Layout preparation for every style

Skill Matrix updating once in three month

Updating the SAM Database based on method improvement

Duties and Responsibilities of Junior IEs (Sewing Floor)

Bundle system follow-up

Bottle neck operation identify and eradicate

Fixing new tailors grade based on their performance and criteria.

Measuring line lost hours due to various reasons in sewing floor

Helping supervisors in line balancing during high operator absenteeism

Duties and Responsibilities of Junior IEs (Cutting and Finishing Department)

Cutting Operation Bulletin preparation

Cutting capacity checking and manpower allocation depending on the style

Finishing Operation Bulletin preparation

Duties and Responsibilities of Data Entry Operator

Preparation of daily individual efficiency report

Preparation of daily line and factory efficiency report

Preparation of daily line and factory lost time report

Preparation of style costing report

Preparation of MIS Meeting report

Preparation of incentive working report

Many thanks to Madhaiyan from OCS.

Topics: industrial engineering, MIS By: Prasanta Sarkar

Line, Factory and group efficiency report

Line, Factory and group Lost time report

Factory wise running style Costing report

Daily factory KPI report

Line, factory and group WIP report

Individual sewing floor efficiency/Performance report includes operator and helpers

Also Read: Tips for Making Daily Production Report Quickly

Consolidated weekly production against planned

Consolidated weekly efficiency against planned

Consolidated weekly Line WIP report

Consolidated incentive amount working report

Efficiency reconciliation report

Lost time reconciliation report

Completed styles reconciliation report

Individual efficiency report for operator/helper/checker

Machinery requirement report

Training center progress report

Monthly MIS meet report Factory KPIs analysis

Styles thread consumption/folder and attachment requirement report

Line wise operators skill matrix report once in 3 months

Group incentive working report

Therefore balancing loss for this sample style is 9.78%

Calculate balancing loss% by using following formula

Balancing Loss% = (Number of allocated machine Number of calculated machine)/Number of calculate

work on leveling of workload in each process.

Image source Flickr

Piece Rate negotiation with sewing operators:

Set Key Responsibility Areas for the IEs

Develop SOP for IE activities

Set labor cost per standard minute

1. What is the application of Industrial Engineering in apparel industry?

Setting standard time for sewing operations and manual operations

Improving method of work and design workstation

Production planning and factory capacity determination

Work aids development

Work station designing and machine layout planning