Productivity:
Productivity has now become an everyday buzzword. It is crucial to the welfare of the industrial firm as well as for the economic progress of the country. High productivity refers to doing the work in a shortest time with least expenditure on inputs without sacrificing quality and with minimum wastage of resources.
Productivity is often measured using indicators such as output per labor hour, units produced per machine, or revenue generated per employee. Productivity is a quantitative relation between what we produce and what we use as resource to produce them, i.e. arithmetic ratio of amount produced (output) to the amount of resources (input).
Productivity can be expressed as:
………………………..Output
Productivity = …………………………
……………………………..Input
Productivity Improvement Techniques in Garment Industry:
Improving productivity in the garment industry requires a combination of strategic planning, efficient processes, effective management, and leveraging technology. Productivity improvements is the main goal for the production oriented personnel in the garment industry. Every garment manufacturer and factory owners should want to improve their productivity. They always try to get new idea or techniques to increase their high productivity and profit also.
Here I will represent six basic productivity improvement techniques that are widely used in the garment industry for increasing production.
- Technology based
- Employee based
- Material based
- Process based
- Product based
- Management based
1. Technology based:
a) Computer Aided Design (CAD), Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM), and Computer Integrated Manufacturing System (CIMS):
CAD refers to design of products, processes or systems with the help of computers. The impact of CAD on human productivity is significant for the advantages of CAD are:
- Speed of evaluation of alternative design
- Minimization of risk of functioning
- Error reduction
CAM is very much useful to design and control the manufacturing system. It helps to achieve the effectiveness in production system by line balancing.
- Production planning and control
- Capacity Requirements Planning (CRP), Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II) and Material Requirement Planning (MRP).
- Automated inspection
b) Robotics
c) Laser technology
d) Modern maintenance techniques
e) Energy technology
f) Flexible manufacturing system (FMS)
2. Employee based:
- Financial and non-financial incentives at individual and group level
- Employee promotion
- Job design, job enlargement, job enrichment and job rotation.
- Worker participation in decision making
- Quality circles (QC), Small Group Activities (SGA)
- Personal Development
3. Material based:
- Material Planning and Control
- Purchasing, Logistics.
- Material storage and retrieval
- Source selection and procurement of quality material
- Waste elimination
- Material recycling and reuse
4. Process based:
- Methods engineering and work simplification
- Job design, Job evaluation, Job safety
- Human factors engineering
5. Product based:
- Value analysis and value engineering
- Product diversification
- Standardization and simplification
- Reliability engineering
- Product mix and promotion
6. Management based:
- Management style
- Communication in the organization
- Work culture
- Motivation
- Promoting group activity
Conclusion:
Improving productivity in the garment industry is crucial for achieving profitability, meeting customer demands, and remaining competitive in the market. By focusing on productivity improvement, garment manufacturers can achieve higher output, minimize downtime, reduce defects, and enhance overall operational efficiency. This can lead to improved profitability, shorter lead times, and after all better customer satisfaction.
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