Operations Case Winning Solution SIOM

SIOM Fixing the Achilles Heel

Fixing the Achilles Heel

Team- ActiveY

NITIE, Mumbai

Shanu Singh, [email protected], 9702018520

Vijay Grover, [email protected], 9702018460


CASE: BANGALORE GARMENT EXPORTS LIMITED

Garment making process at BGEL is a 5 stage process as shown in figure 1. Each stage consists of set of

tasks which require different skill set and machines to carry out the operation effectively. Quality check

is currently done at the end of production phase, any produce which could not meet specification or

quality standard has to completely go through a rework.

Figure1: Process flow model at BGEL

Pareto Analysis

Inorder to a take focused approach; we have followed Pareto analysis methodology. Here we have tried

to find out those problems which results in majority of defects or capacity reduction. This is done with

the help of 2 layered analyses such that each analysis reinforces the finding of other.

Analysis 1

Reasons for high defect rate as well as for not meeting the production capacity are categorized as shown

in table 1.

•Laying

•Cutting

Stage1

•Body Stitching

Stage2•Making Slacks

•Attaching Collar to Shirt

Stage3

•Quality Check

•Rejection/Acceptance

Stage4•Packaging

Stage5

Cutting

Machine

Stitching

Machine

Stitching

Machine

Manual

Quality Check


Category Name Description Occurrence

Machine • Malfunctioning

• Stoppage

3+1

Information Communication • Defective and improper instructions given to workers, Missing instructions

• Schedule not communicated

1+1

Worker Skill • Mismatch

• Shortage

• Reassignment

1+1+1

Material • Shortage 1

Absenteeism • Work reassignment to handle

• High absenteeism

1+1

Specification • Wrong specification used

• Specifications not met

• Specification changes not properly communicated

1+2+1

Coordination • Coordination problem among production sections

• Coordination delay

2+1

Carelessness • Wrong assembly of pieces 1 Table1: Problem categorization

Distribution of problems which cropped up in the span of 10 days is done to find out the weightage for

each of the problem category and hence helping us in setting our priority for tackling those problems.

Figure2: Problem category distribution

20%

20%

10%5%

15%

5%

10%

15%

Occurance in Last 10 days

Specification

Machinery

Information Communication

carelessness

Worker Skill

Material

Absenteeism

Coordination


Clearly as shown in figure 2, specification, machine, worker skill and coordination are the major set of

problem categories since these contributes to around 70% of the problems encountered in study period

(ten days).

Analysis 2

On the preliminary analysis of the data given in case, we have identified two key performance

parameters:

• Effective production which could be delivered to client (maximization)

• Capacity wasted away (CWA) (minimization), which is calculated as:

CWA = (Daily Production Capacity – (Effective Production))

where

Effective Production = (Daily Production – Daily Rejects)

Day Production Rejects Effective Production

Capacity Wasted Away (CWA)

1 5957 298 5659 841 2 6043 423 5620 880 3 5450 600 4850 1650 4 5878 353 5525 975 5 6012 541 5471 1029 6 6123 490 5633 867 7 5878 764 5114 1386 8 5367 590 4777 1723 9 5590 839 4751 1749 10 5670 510 5160 1340

Table2: Quantitative analysis for key parameters

From the analysis given in table 2, it’s clear that CWA is highest on day 3, 8 and 9. Therefore we need to

focus more on the issues cropped up on these days, these are as follows (table3):

Day CWA Issues

3 1650 Schedule and specification changes not properly Communicated

Skill shortage


8 1723 Coordination delay

Rework due to wrong assembly of pieces.

9 1749 Wrong specification used

Malfunctioning of machines

Missing instructions

Table3: Major issues seen in period of 10 days

Again we have found similar set of factors as found in analysis 1. Therefore while designing the

strategies we need to focus on these factors on priority.


QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION (Answered on basis of factor priority found in above analysis)

1. In spite of undertaking number of quality improvement measures, why do you think BGEL failed?

In a complex, worker intensive environment at BGEL, a small loophole in process or system can lead to

big quality failure. The cause-effect relationships for the problems identified in Pareto analysis are

shown in figure 3 with the help of fishbone diagram.

Figure3: Fishbone diagram for cause-effect relationship

Inspite of taking many quality control measures, BGEL failed mainly because of lack of thoughtful and

scientific implementation of these measures. Reasons for such failures can be broadly categorized under

garment specification, workforce availability & skillset, coordination challenge, machine operations and

quality check.

(I) Quality Check

Two things identified that the company does not have are:

• In-line quality check mechanism


• Formal testing and inspection plan (TIP)

As a result, company has to largely rely on end-of-line quality control checks. In trying to control quality,

100% of product had to be checked at the end of the lines, by quality control personnel prior to packing

for shipment. The lack of in-line checking resulted in an abnormally high end of line defect rate and

many completed products had to be reworked completely, or rejected due to the late detection of the

faults. This results in low productivity as well.

(II) Garment Specifications

• Specification sheets, which are meant to improve the communication between design and

production teams and to clarify product requirements to the workers (so that costly errors could be

prevented), are not able to serve their purpose.

• Currently there are no training program for workers (short internal training or instruction session on

using and understanding specification sheet)

• Inability of workers to understand specification in some of the cases. This could be because:

§ Lack of training for newly hired worker

§ Usage of non-standard format for specification definition.

(III) Workforce Availability & Skillset

• Absenteeism has been seen as one of the regular issue. It might be because of any of the following

reason

o Ineffective or tiring working position

o Unhygienic working conditions

o Undefined leave policy

• Skill required for operation needs be developed by proper training. Improper or lack of training lead

to:

o Reduction in production speed

o Damage to machines

o Delay in communication

o High chances or miss-communication or miss-coordination


(IV) Coordination Challenge

• Management-Production: Changes in schedules are not getting communicated from management to

production level.

• Technical Design Team-Production Supervisor-worker: Changes done in specification by technical

team are not getting transferred to workers involved in the production.

• Production-quality: Quality standards required by QC team is not shared with production team,

workers do not know/understand what quality is expected from them.

(V) Machines Operations and Maintenance

• Currently there is no proper provision for production level worker training; it leads to mishandling

of machines especially by newly hired workers or reassigned workers.

• Scheduled maintenance plan at regular interval is missing.

• No provision for performance related incentives for maintenance workers.

(VI) Material Unavailability

BGEL has seen an instance of material shortage in span of last ten days. Such stoppage leads to defects

and low quality production especially in case of sewing, stitches.


2. If you are a Quality manager at BGEL, what immediate measures you will undertake to control the

problem?

Measures to be taken are based on the priority and the timeframe required by the different problem

categories found in the analysis. Under immediate measure we will take up those activities which have

higher priority and require relatively smaller time frame for implementation.

(I) Workforce Availability & Skillset

Absenteeism has been seen as one of the regular issue. No relevant action is taken to control it. Root

cause analysis for the same needs to be done since it might be because of any of the following reason

• Ineffective or tiring working position – Work method study and motion study needs to done to

improve it

• Unhygienic working condition, if there, should be cleaned immediately.

• Undefined leave policy – BGEL needs to define the strict leave policy with a proper worker back up

plan

Skill required for operation needs be developed by proper multi-aspect training:

• Knowledge about information flow between different interfaces like QC, maintenance department,

machine repairing workshop and raw material supply department

• Knowledge about production flow for items

• Knowledge about specification understanding

• Basic operation knowledge

• Machine operation knowledge

(II) Quality Check

BGEL should go for implementation of formal testing and inspection plan (TIP), it can be implemented in

multi-layered approach so that defects could be found early, thus reducing the amount of rework and

ensuring quality end product. Four layers can be as follows:


• Pre-Production Inspection: This is done before production starts. It is done to crosscheck for final

verification of Bulk fabric and trims materials, styling cutting way, manufacturing details and

workmanship of the garment or pre-production sample as per the customer requirement.

• 1st inline production inspection: This inspection is done at the start of production when first

production output of particular style of garments is inspected; to distinguish possible discrepancies

or variation and to do necessary corrections in production process or specification. This type of

inspection is done at preliminary stage of manufacturing of a style covering mainly style detail,

general appearance, workmanship, measurements, fabric quality, Trims and components, Lot color,

printing, embellishments and washing quality.

• 2nd line Production Inspection: This inspection is done during production to ensure initial

discrepancies have been corrected and rectified. This inspection is a follow-up of the 1st inline

production inspection and is generally carried out after 1st line inspection when discrepancies have

been detected at that time.

• Final Random Inspection: This inspection is carried out when the production of the total quantity of

an order or partial delivery is completed. A sample lot will be selected from the order and a

percentage of the garments will be inspected, this percentage usually being calculated on the basis

of AQL (Acceptable Quality level) sampling inspection system as specified by the buyer.

Figure4: Multi-level quality check model

Pre-Production Inspection

1st line Production Inspection

2nd line Production Inspection

Final Random Inspection


(III) Machine Operations and Maintenance

• Provision for production level worker training, it will reduce:

o Reduce mishandling of machines

o Reduce machine setup time

o Reduce overall machine breakdown time.

• Provision for extra backup machines, these machines can be bought on the basis of machine

breakdown data collected during previous years. It will help in meeting the production level in those

cases where machine is going through a serious damage and high repair time.

• Maintenance/Repair supervisors should be trained properly because all quality check for

repaired/maintained machines needs to be done by them. Strict checklist for the quality check for

repaired/maintained should be in place.

• Proper plan to carry out machine Scheduled maintenance at regular interval is required. This can be

done by preparing and displaying machine-maintenance chart in the work area so that responsible

worker and QC personnel could keep regular check.

• Incentives for maintenance workers. It is important to keep them motivated to meet the

production capacity of the machines. Incentive plan for the maintenance workers should be linked

to factor like (run time/breakdown time), such that more the breakdown, lesser the incentive.

(IV) Garment Specifications

Specification is the critical thread which connects technical design team, production team and the

quality control (QC) team. Therefore following steps need to be taken in sequential order (Figure5)

• Since all three parties are stake holders, representatives from all of them should be involved in final

stage of specification designing so that production and quality representative have complete

knowledge of final product to be produced, this can be done by technical design team giving demo

of sample product to other two teams.

• Production representatives/supervisors should give a small description of new specification to the

production worker; it should be done in small training groups so that workers could easily focus and

understand.


• Once training is done, copies of specification should be made available to all the workers

(production & inspection line) so that they could understand and refer it whenever required.

• The technical design department and the quality control department must be involved in

implementation of specification sheet at the production level. This step should be implemented in

coordination with 1st line inspection plan of the QC team. Once all the adjustments are done in

production setup and written specification (corrected), production team can take over the control.

Figure 5: Multi-level specification development, implementation and refinement model

(V) Coordination

Coordination has to be managed specially between different interfaces or departments. In BGEL,

coordination or communication issues which cropped between different departments can be managed

as follows:

• Schedule Sharing (Management-Production)

Modification and Testing

Updation in specification Updation in worker understanding

Specification implementation (1st line inspection plan)

Workers QC personnel Design department

Specification Distribution

Workers/Machines Visible Central Board

Specificaton Description

Production Supervisor Production Workers

Specification Designing

Technical Design Team Production Supervisor Quality Supervisor


Schedule should be displayed in graphical format (Gantt chart) on the white boards across the

production and planning unit. Any changes done in schedule should be reflected in all the charts with a

separate color along with a descriptor note so that it could be easily detected by supervisors and

workers

• Communication of changes done in specification (Technical Design Team-Production worker)

All the changes done by technical design team should be communicated to supervisors in a written

form with changes marked clearly. Supervisor then can call short, group meetings to discuss the

changes followed by distribution of new specifications with the marked changes.

• Knowledge about quality standards (Production-QC)

Critical quality parameters should be explicitly shared with the supervisors. These parameters

should also be made part of specification document so that everybody knows in advance.


3. What would be your long term policy/plan to completely eradicate the quality problems?

Lower priority and time intensive activities will be taken up under the long term strategy; these will

mainly include material availability, machine replacement or upgradation and development of

knowledge sharing culture.

(I) Material Availability

Raw material supply for strategic items such as cloth, button, threads etc is not ensured in current setup

since one such instance of shortage happened in period of 10 days. Successful supply chain performance

is based on a high level of trust and robust partnership strategies.

Figure 6: Model for vendor selection for supply of raw materials

Strategic Partnership aims for synergy among partners based on trust with a belief that benefits from

alliance would be more productive than an individual unit. It provides:

• Reduced conflict between partners.


• On-time delivery

• Greater consistency in parts, supplies and semi-assembled products, if any

• Effective information sharing among partners resulting in better knowledge for accurate forecasts

(II) Machine Replacement/Upgradation

Older machines should be timely upgraded or replaced. This activity should be done in phased manner

since it involves high purchase and setup cost (loss in production due to wastage of time). This activity

shall help in reducing defect and the breakdown time since new machines have low breakdown time.

(III) Knowledge Sharing Culture

Lack of knowledge leads to re-occurrence of similar issues in different parts of organization therefore

important information must be shared within and among different departments – technical, production

and quality control.

• Line supervisors should share experiences with each other and the technical department.

• Any recurring errors should be analyzed by the respective supervisors and distributed to the other

lines and departments immediately, once a problem (and its solution) is identified.

• The technical department should provide much more detailed measurements and descriptions of

the production processes, highlighting any points that are critical to quality, for line supervisors and

workers

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