The Apparel Industry seems to be smitten by Lean. Either we can say that all initiatives are converging towards Lean or Lean initiatives have broadened their scope to include all efficiency improvement techniques. It all started with elimination of waste, single piece flow in sewing floor, U-shaped face-to-face layout in sewing floor, 5S implementation in production floor, inventory reduction program by Kanban implementation, value stream mapping for value-added and non-value-added work identification and minimization of latter, modular manufacturing, etc. All of which are now initiatives within the Lean concept.
A combination of lean and six sigma is today a common practice as both the concepts complement each other. Lean reduces the time variability whereas Six Sigma aims at reducing the process variability. Lean aims to increase speed and eliminates waste, whereas Six Sigma aims at improving the quality and productivity.
Some companies have stood out from the rest in-terms of the Lean initiatives taken by them in various forms and aspects. The first is Madura Clothing, Bangalore which has implemented 5S, modular manufacturing, Kaizen and Lean-Six Sigma throughout their organizational structure. The initiatives have reduced the manpower per line from 52 to 21(60%), the process lead time from 3 to 1.5 days (50%), enhanced the number of pieces per operator from 7 to13 (85%), number of pieces per machine from 11 to 20 (81%), output per line from 350 to 425 pieces (21%) and operator efficiency from 41% to 82%. The backbone of all the substantial gains for Madura has been the removal of non-value-added activities from the manufacturing and related processes. Today, Madura has a team of 7 Black Belts and 40 Green Belts in Six-Sigma.
Another upfront company in apparel manufacturing, Silver Spark Apparels, Bangalore (A unit of Raymond), embarked on their lean journey in September 2010 and has achieved incredible results in a short span of time. The lean implementation was centred on the theme of “Waste Elimination” and followed the Toyota Production System and its tools like JIT, JIDOKA, Shigeo Shingo, etc. The Pilot lean implementation began with the cutting department, where the concepts of 5S, Cellular Layout, Product Value Streams, Stockless Production, Kanban System, Visual Management, Takt Time Planning, Value Stream Mapping, Versatility Matrix and 8D Problem Resolution were implemented, resulting in reduction in WIP by 70%, freeing up of floor space by 20%, improvement in delivery times by 40% and reduction in manpower by 10%. Lean is not a flavour of the month or the year; it has become a way of organizational life for Silver Spark, they aim to extend the benefits of Lean to other components of their supply chain like merchandising, purchase, stores, export/import and accounts.
Lean and related terminologies have been modified and developed to suit their specific needs by many apparel manufacturing facilities. Pratibha Syntex, Indore just by incorporating modular manufacturing within their manufacturing systems had increased the productivity by 65%, reduced its work force by 30% which empowered them to increase the wages by 18% for the remaining workforce while reducing cost per unit by 30%, enhanced efficiency by almost 60%, reduced the cutting waste by 6% and the WIP to 1.5 days, all within a time period of just a year.
Similarly, Paragon Apparels, Noida had reduced the cut to pack time from an average of 22 days to 7-10 days, the material in-house to dispatch time is about 15-20 days lead time, increased the operator efficiency by 8% to around 50-55% and the cut to box rejection rate to less than 1% from 3-5%, all by keeping the principle of waste elimination (MUDA) at its core. Style changeover time is one of the most crucial times in a sewing line. By following SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Dies) philosophy under lean initiatives paragon streamlined average style changeover time to 27 minutes for a six minute garment. Under this concept the current operations and methodology of working are closely observed and then separated into the internal and external activities. Finally, wherever possible the internal activities are converted into external ones.
A major ongoing Lean implementation program is happening at 10 garment manufacturing facilities in the Delhi/NCR region, subsequent to the collaboration of Charles Dagher consultancy with OGTC, two years back. Among the 10 companies, Radnik Exports, Orient Clothing, Orient Fashions, Neetee Clothing, Pee Empro Exports, Akriti Apparels, Saivana Exports, Team Krian, Matrix Clothing and Genus Apparels, lean implementation is at a very early stage in Radnik, with a lot of training still in progress. The most recent and impressive one has been the commencement of Lean implementation in Matrix Clothing, keeping in mind the fact that Lean is a phenomenon not a technology which can just be restricted/implemented to a particular department, the company has kept a holistic approach towards it and aims to cover all its manufacturing systems along with the support systems. In case of Orient Clothing, concepts of 5S and Kaizen have not only increased the efficiency per operator by 20% but have also removed every non-value adding activity from production, sampling and merchandising operations.
Nowadays, Lean-Six Sigma, a combination of both the concepts has broadened its scope in the manufacturing sector. Actually when compared, both the systems complement each other, Lean reduces the time variability whereas Six Sigma aims at reducing the process variability. Lean aims to increase speed and eliminates wastes, whereas Six Sigma aims at improving the quality and productivity. In collaboration with TBM Consultants, Gokaldas Exports, Bangalore, has reduced the WIP by half to just a single day, increased productivity by 43% to 3 pieces per operator, first pass yield to 92%, efficiency to 55% while adhering to the takt time, production to 2,00,000 pieces per unit and improved changeover time by 40% all by incorporating the principles of Kaizen, 5S and Lean-Six Sigma.
