As a concept, ‘employee engagement’ in apparel manufacturing is a relatively new practice, yet the adaptation is very fast and today many companies are not only talking about it but also projecting it as their growth driver… Without doubt, leading the way are the big corporate houses which have multiple business like Madura and Arvind that have spearheaded the initiatives in this direction setting benchmarks with new ideas to involve its workers. In a recent visit to Bangalore, Team Apparel Online met business heads of both these progressive companies and was impressed with the seriousness of intent and implementation of employee engagement initiatives… each having something unique to offer.
For a company that coined the term ‘Business Excellence’, the relevance and value of employee engagement is non-debatable. Understanding the importance of ‘people’ in the growth strategy much before others in the industry even considered it, Madura F&L is a leader in ‘employee involvement’ with many initiatives running successfully at its various manufacturing units. The Apparel Online Team during a visit to the factories of Madura Garments Exports and Madura Clothing were enthralled with the discipline of its workers, the pride reflected in the faces and the sense of team commitment that was visible in the premises.
Madura, a benchmark in employee involvement… proud faces say it all
Interestingly, Madura’s employee engagement philosophy is a three-tier framework which focuses on engaging with employees at the Individual, Team and Organization level with each level having well defined parameters. “We are among the few brand retail companies in India that also have a very strong manufacturing setup with the capability to produce 1 million pieces per month. Our manufacturing model is hinged on customer service and people engagement – that is the core reason of our success in a very competitive and fashion-driven market,” says Lal Sudhakaran, who is currently heading both the export and domestic manufacturing. Lal is particularly happy with the results of employee engagement initiatives at the factories, as despite the pressures of delivery and other global and national requirements, operators get time to indulge in activities that motivate them and also give value to the organization.
In fact, though Madura is better known for its brand business, its export division is not small. With a turnover of Rs. 170 crore, the export division houses 2,500 machines to produce 5 lakh shirts per month. In a unique practice, a pre-decided 10 minutes is assigned daily where in all the workers get up and clean their areas to background music, which ends with all the workers standing in a chain holding hands and taking pledge towards increased teamwork. No wonder the factory is spotless clean and workers feel a sense of ownership of their work area. At the factory, 5S is a way of life and regular workshops are held to keep them clued into the vision of the company which reads… ‘Customer benefit is our final aim’. “To develop active participation of workers on a daily basis, every day before lunch Level-1 teams meet for10 minutes at a pre-marked place on the side to discuss about team performance and actions to be taken to enhance the performance,” shares Manjunath V.C., Manager, Industrial Engineering, who is a Lean champion.
Since new ideas are encouraged, many interesting interventions are noticeable. One of them is a board having key chain like structures hanging on hooks in front of every line. One side of the dangle is red and the other side is green. When a worker comes in the morning, he puts the dangle on the hook with the greenside up indicating that he is present. When the Line Manager/IE department takes a round, just seeing the board he knows which worker is absent and what needs to be done to balance the line, no time is wasted in figuring out the same. When the workers leave in the evening they turn the dangle on to the red side, ready for the morning.
To encourage employees who think beyond the obvious, a unique monthly platform has been created to allow him to narrate the implemented kaizen to their co-employees and management. In the factory, small coloured flags single out where a new kaizen has been put in place. Further, Kaizen Mela, a bi-annual exhibition of the best shop floor kaizen contributed by employees, is organized to enhance their pride. Designed as a inter factory competition it gives an opportunity to share ideas.
Another interesting initiative across all factories is identifying the SWOT and the future of the unit by the operators. They also commit to action plans as a team and as an individual to achieve the same. “We are building a sense of ownership in the people and various activities help us to draw out the hidden talents of our workers which they use to improve working,” says Srinath KC, Group Manager – OEM (ABG – Operational Excellence Model initiative of Madura). One activity that has proved really successful is ‘Large Scale Interactive Process (LSIP)’ wherein teams are formed on the max mix principle (maximum mix of hierarchies and functions). The uniqueness of this event lies in having 500 diverse participants seated in round tables, with every table representing a microcosm of the entire organization and different perspectives are brought up during discussions.
Visual representation of safety needs and probable problems, suggestion boards for free expression of thought and opportunity to employees’ families to visit factory, see the facilities and benefits provided to employees, safe work environment and interact with the management team of factories adds to the sense of belonging. The crèche and medical rooms are functional and even the small kids at the crèche join in when the anthem is played, so strong is the feeling of ownership.
Some of the umbrella initiatives that are in place include Vidya Vikas, an employee focused programs, enabling them to continue their education through training methodology. Micro Financing Initiative to safeguard interest of employees from going to local money lenders for ‘Hundi’, helping them in occasions of family events, emergencies and child education. “To build the culture of meritocracy and loyalty, employees are recognized at individual and team level on 4 dimensions – productivity, innovation, excellence initiatives and continuous service,” shares Srinath.
The efforts of the team that ensures all initiatives are successfully in place, and are visible at all the factories. “Ultimately the success of any people’s initiative is gauged by the large-scale co-visioning, where everyone from the top management to a helper talk the same language… and at Madura the alignment is seamless with everyone focused on business excellence,” concludes Lal Sudhakaran, who truly believes that empowering workers is empowering the organization for bigger values.
The AQL (Arvind Quality Life) that defines operations at Arvind Ltd.
In a recent visit to the Arvind Limited Jeans Manufacturing Complex, spread out in 7 acres of land in Bangalore, Team Apparel Online was amazed at the employee empowerment efforts running parallel to production targets for a win-win situation for the management and workers alike. We spoke to the senior management team who proudly pointed out the various initiatives that make the company unique and self-sustaining.
One of the things that hits a visitor on entry to the complex that houses 600 sewing machines for jeans is the open space…, be it the office area or the sewing floor or even the washing bay, the aura is ‘large and open’, the landscape outside the four parallel running sheds, one each for fabric storage, cutting & stitching, washing and packaging, is green and peaceful. An upfront company on implementing various management tools for better productivity and system-driven production, Arvind has picked up the basic concepts of Lean, TOC and Six Sigma and given them what Team Arvind calls an ‘Arvind cultural twist’ to customize for the company’s specific needs, which is obvious in the board which reads AQL (Arvind Quality Life). “The People-First philosophy is a way of life at Arvind. We encourage our people to explore their potential and help them achieve it. The approach of management is not fault finding but solving problems, workers are not afraid to come and discuss issues and they also suggest solutions. We believe in growing our own wood (in-house leadership pipeline), creating teams for effective performance and in the power of the intellect. This is an industry where for every 1 machine the best in class will have to employ 1.7 so the success depends on how you best optimize on Human Capital. ” says Ashish Kumar, Chief Executive Officer for the Apparel Cluster.
The concept of ‘Arvind Quality Life’ implies that achieving goals in quality is not only about ‘product’ and ‘processes’ but also ‘people’ where quality is a way of life, which cannot be compromised. To keep emphasizing the message, motivational sign boards in the local language are seen all over the factory and the themes are ‘Quality Habba’ and ‘No Adjust Maadi’ both implying that quality is a way of life and there is no room for adjustments. “It is all about effective engagement at an intrinsic level with our employees, it is all about teaching the way they will learn and not the other way round,” says Anandh BK who is the COO for the Denim & Undergarments Manufacturing Cluster.
With the aim to upgrade skills, training is an ongoing process under the ‘Udaan’ program for the middle-level management and the supervisory development in-house program called ‘Unnati’ (self pride)’. With 90% of the workers being women, empowerment to stand tall in society and being decision makers is encouraged. The philosophy that guides the management is to select, train and coach people to obtain higher responsibilities; to nurture talent, and reward contributions. True to its philosophy, it runs ‘Arvind Utsav’ programs to involve employees beyond work and allow them to interact both among them and with management on a one-to-one basis for higher comfort level during work.
The Arvind Limited Apparel manufacturing units in Bangalore are not only a visual treat but a benchmark in production for Jeans | Shirts | Knitwear | Suits. With an integrated setup from cutting to finishing, sustainable washing plants with innovative finishing options to produce apparels for international labels brands like H&M, Gap Inc, Jos-A-Bank, Mexx, Buffalo, FCUK, Zara , Esprit, s.Oliver, Auchan Group, Gymboree, Benetton and Springfield to name a few. Working on the concept of ‘Farm to Fashion’ the division also houses a product development team of 40 people with a sampling of 250 machines, where collections are created based on various styles, washes and dry finishing techniques for all customers. The company creates both generic collections and brand focused collections and has its unique positioning as “Solution provider or Full service Vendor” than being a regular “Contract Manufacturer”.
The section in which the concept of ‘ownership’ is obvious even to a casual visitor is the floor housing the relatively new underwear unit, producing 3,00,000 pieces per month. This section is completely run by the operators on ‘teamwork’ system from ‘cut to pack’. Natural lighting, colourful walls painted by the operators themselves, with no supervisors, floor checkers and production managers to aid or disrupt work. Each team takes responsibility to get the pieces done on time with defined quality parameters. The teams compete with each other and try to outperform so that they are rewarded and incentivized. The most astonishing fact is that the division employs only freshers as workers, and the enthusiasm on being given authority/responsibility to deliver without intervention of seniors is reflected in the smiling faces of the young women. Indeed it is a unique and successful experiment in ‘ownership’, where the workers only seek intervention from management if they cannot solve an issue amongst themselves.
Close attention is also given to safety and health issues and every work has an ergonomically appropriate chair; cutting operators wear gloves, and ‘dry’ finishing workers use face masks. Even the washing area is clean, airy and dry with no sign of any stagnated water on the floor and it is difficult to believe that tonnes of jeans are washed non-stop through the day. Natural light or lighting arrangement through solar energy is the norm; there are no hanging wires as electric wires are placed on the base and not on the roof, also LED lights are on the high roof giving illusion of natural lighting when they are turned on in the evenings. An ETP plant ensures adherence to environment norms and the water recycled is used for various purposes including washing and gardening. The lean setup from fabric storing to packaging saves time and resources in production.
Ashish is equally proud of the other apparel verticals, Shirts headed by Tapan Rajvanshi; Knits headed by Venkatesha Babu and suit manufacturing units in and around Bangalore, which are also governed by the same principals. “Though our fabric mills are in Ahmedabad, we have for now made Bangalore our current manufacturing hub, because of its professional and garmenting reputation and we are making every effort to ensure that Arvind is considered as an employer of choice and we are proud that our retention rate is very high. This will be the underlying principle wherever we expand our apparel manufacturing footprint” concludes Ashish who has big expansion plans in the pipeline.
As a group Arvind employs more than 40,000 people as workers in the textile & garments segment and over 5,000 people as management staff. Following an HR policy, which is designed to help career enhancement, reward performances through Applause (Arvind’s in-house performance payout plan) and focuses on continuous training & skill upgrades facilitating shifting of staff inter-company and inter unit based on opportunities helps create corporate identity on common lines. No wonder ‘once an Arvind employee… always an Arvind employee’.
Bharat Tex Special Report 2026 
