Subhan Allah

INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

•The industrial engineering approach integrates people into the design and development of systems, thus requiring an understanding of the physiological, psychological, and other characteristics that govern and affect the performance of individuals and groups in working environments

SO

Industrial Engineering applied specifically to the apparel industry.
We can say that Apparel Engineering is finding the best way to do something, the time required to do it, and the way to measure results.

Some Functions of Apparel Engineer

•Quotas and Piece Rate
•Costing
•Manpower Planning
•Machine Requirements
•Production Planning
•Plant Layout
•Production Flow System
•Machines and Attachments
•Pay Systems
•Operator Performance
•Production Control System
•Plant System, Maintenance etc

TYPES OF PRODUCTION SYSTEM

There are three type of production system use in apparel industry:

·         Make through production system

·         Modular production system

·         Assembly line production system

ü  Progressive bundle system (PBS)

ü  Unit production system (UPS)

Each system requires different types of:

· Management philosophy

· Material handling arrangement

· Floor layout

· Employee training

· Companies may combine the systems or use only one depending on their need.

Make through production system:

It is the traditional method of manufacture in which an operator makes right through one garment at a time. That is one operator will do all the stages of the sewing operations of one garment and after completing it he will go for the next garment. Some advantage and disadvantage is as following:

Advantages of make through production system:

ü  Quick throughput time

ü  Easier to supervise

ü  Reduce work in progress (WIP)

Disadvantage of make through production system:

ü  Low productivity

ü  High labor cost

ü  Highly experience operator require

ü  This process is only suitable for highly fashion garment and sample making.

Assembly line system:

This type of production system is designed for a sequential organization. Each operator is assigned only for one operation. Garment component are move from operator to operator.

PBS (Progressive bundle system):

Parts of various components after being cut in the cutting room are tied with in bundles and distributed out to the sewing section. Bundle ticket is attached to cut parts. One operator is expected to perform the same operation on all the pieces in the bundle. Some advantage and disadvantage of PBS is as following:

Advantages:

ü  Cheap labor cost

ü  Increase productivity

ü  Better utilization of specialized machine

ü  Very low variation in the sewing

ü  Less chance for loot mix-up, shade variation and size variation

ü  Bundle tracking is very easy

Disadvantage:

ü  Slow process

ü  Line balancing is difficult

ü  Increase in WIP that increase inventory cost

ü  System is not adaptable for short run production and frequent style change

ü  High level of management skill is require

ü  Improper planning causes labor turnover, poor quality and less production so highly accurate planning is require

ü  Individual operators that work in a PBS are dependent to other.

UPS:

Similar to a relay race, each production operator has a task and passes that garment on to the next person. Normally there is only one garment between operations. The unit of production is single garment and not bundles. The garment components are automatically transported from work station to work station according to pre-determined sequence. The work station are so constructed that the components are presented as close as possible to the operator’s left and in order to reduce the amount of movement required to grasp and position and component to be sewn. All the components for one garment are loaded into a carrier at a work station specially designed for this purpose. The carrier itself is divided into sections, with each section having a quick – release retaining clamp which prevents the components from falling out during movement through the system. When a batch of garments has been loaded into carriers they are fed past a mechanical or electronic device which records the number of the carrier and addresses it to its first destination.

Advantages:

ü  Improve productivity

ü  Improve load time

ü  Minimizes WIP

ü  Improve productivity and quality monitor

ü  Improve ergonomics (to provide ease to working staff)

ü  Keep the factory floor clean

ü  Labor cost reduce

Disadvantage:

ü  High initial cost required

ü  Special training require

ü  Down time is potential problem.

Modular production system

A group of people who working together to accomplish individual goals effectively and efficiently while simultaneously accomplishing goals of the team or organization or a team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable

· The line layout is U -shaped with garments progressing around the line.

· Each operator is cross trained on a different portion of line (i.e. continuous operation) depending on skills and operation complexity. Ideally all the operators are cross trained on all the operations.

· Thus operators work to predominantly predetermined adjacent tasks.

· Each operator is assigned at least one operation.

· Operatives work on standing workstations & WIP is less

· The first and last operations are uniquely assigned to the first and last operator r

Method improvement

There are two different area of sewing for improving method

Ø  Big method

Ø  Little method

Big method:

The method which require initial cost to implement. The method include work aids, table alteration, m/c attachment etc

Ø  Auto machine

ü  Profile stitching

Ø  Loading device

Ø  Stacking device

Ø  Faster machine

Ø  Thread cutter

Ø  Folder

ü  Inbuilt UBT(Under bit trimmer)

Ø  Work aid

ü  Bin

ü  Shelves

ü  Trays etc

Ø  Needle positioner

Ø  Construction change in garments

Ø  Combine separate operation into one

Little method:

Little method is technique which requires no initial cost. The method include how operator handle work how he/she control machine and dispose the garment

Ø   Basic

ü  Correct table height

ü  Correct chair height

ü  Correct operator positing at machine

ü  Both feet on treadle

Ø  Principle of motion economy

Ø  Specific of sewing job

ü  Things to change

§  Operator idle during machine operation time on automatic machine

§  Operator pit pat the garment and dispose

§  Operator pick up dispose and pick up again

ü  Things to encourage

§  Operator locate parts close to the needle

§  Operator fold anything that need folding while moving the machine

Calculation of SAM

SAM or Standard Allowed Minute is used to measure task or work content of a garment. This term is widely used by industrial engineers and production people in the garment manufacturing industry. For the estimation of cost of making a garment SAM value plays a very important role. In past scientists and apparel technicians did research on how much time to be allowed to do a job when one follows standard method during doing the job. According to the research study minute value has been defined for each movement needed to accomplish a job. Synthetic data is available for each movement.

General Sewing Data (GSD) has defined set of codes for motion data for SAM calculation. There are also other methods through which one can calculate SAM of a garment without using synthetic data or GSD. In this article both methods are explained in the following.

Method #1: Calculation of SAM Using Synthetic Data

Step 1: 

Select one operation for which you want to calculate SAM.
Step 2: 

Study the motions of that operation. Stand by side of an operator (experienced one) and see the operator how he is doing it. Note all movement used by the operator in doing one complete cycle of work. See carefully again and recheck your note if all movement/motion are captured and correct. (For example motions are like - pick up parts one hand or two hand, align part on table or machine foot, realign plies, etc.)

Step 3: List down all motion sequentially

 Refer the synthetic data for TMU (Time measuring unit) values. For synthetic data you can refer GSD (without license use of GSD code prohibited but for personal use and study one can refer GSD code and TMU values) or Sewing Performance Data table (SPD). Now you got TMU value for one operation (for example say it is 400 TMU). Convert total TMU into minutes (1 TMU=0.0006 minute). This is called as Basic Time in minutes. In this example it is 0.24 minutes.
Step 4:

 Standard allowed minutes (SAM) = (Basic minute + Bundle allowances + machine and personal allowances). Assume bundle allowances (10%) and machine and personal allowances (20%) to basic time. Now you got Standard Minute value (SMV) or SAM. SAM= (0.24+0.024+0.048) = 0.31 minutes.

Method #2: Calculation of SAM through Time Study

Step 1:

 Select one operation for which you want to calculate SAM.
Step 2:

 Take one stop watch. Stand by side of the operator. Capture cycle time for that operation. (cycle time – total time taken to do all works needed to complete one operation, i.e. time from pick up part of first piece to next pick up of the next piece). Do time study for consecutive five cycles. Discard if found abnormal time in any cycle. Calculate average of the 5 cycles. Time you got from time study is called cycle time. To convert this cycle time into basic time you have to multiply cycle time with operator performance rating.

ASCT is average single cycle time and can be calculated by following formula

Step 3: Performance efficiency

Now you have to rate the operator at what performance level he was doing the job seeing his movement and work speed. Suppose that operator performance rating is 80%. Suppose ASCT is 0.60 minutes so target single cycle time TSCT = (0.60 X 80%) = 0.48 minutes

TSCT is target single cycle time and can be calculated by

TSCT= ASCT*rating or efficiency

Step 4: Standard allowed minutes

SAM = TSCT * (1 + MDA% + PF %) + BHT.

MDA is machine delay allowance

PF is personal fatigue

BHT is bundle handling time (standard)

Suppose bundle allowances (10%) and machine and personal allowances (20%) to TSCT. Now you got Standard Minute value (SMV) or SAM. SAM= 0.624 minutes.

There are two schools of thoughts

·         One say’s SAM and SMV are same

·         Other say SAM and SMV are different