Factors and Benefits of Productivity Improvement in Garment Industry

Last Updated on 03/06/2021

Concept of Production and Productivity Improvement in Garment Industry

Saiful Sabuz
Department of Textile Engineering
Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology (AUST)
Email: saifulsabuz.tex23@gmail.com

 

Introduction:
In earlier days clothing was only a basic necessity, used to cover the body and to protect from the climatic changes. Over the time people became concerned about the comfort of wearing and also the durability of the product. Nowadays garments are situational wears. Need for a garment has become endless. In a day, one needs different wears at different times. As a result, man started thinking of the modernization, engineering tools and techniques used for productivity improvement in garment industry. Because, higher productivity brings higher profit in a business. And increment in productivity level reduces apparel manufacturing cost. Hence a garment factory can make more profit through productivity improvement. So importance of productivity improvement in garment industry is undeniable.

Productivity Improvement in Garment Industry

Garment manufacturers have to focus on “cost effective production” to sustain. This is possible only when the basic resources for garment manufacturing are being utilized effectively.

Production:
Production is defined as the process or procedure to transform a set of input into output having the desired utility and quality. Production is a value-addition process. Production system is an organized process of conversion of raw materials into useful finished products.

Productivity:
Productivity may be defined as the ratio between output of wealth and input of resources of production. Output means the quantity produced and inputs are the various resources employed, e.g., land, building, machinery, materials and labor.

Productivity = Output / Input

Productivity refers to the efficiency of the production system. It is an indicator of how well the factors of production (land, capital, labor and energy) are utilized.

It may also be defined as human effort to produce more and more with less and less inputs of resources as a result of which the benefits of production may be distributed more equally among maximum number of people.

Production and Productivity:
The concept of production and productivity are totally different. Production refers to absolute output where as productivity is a relative term where in the output is always expressed in term of inputs. Increase in production may or may not be an indicator of increase in productivity. If the production is increased for the same input, then there is an increase in productivity.

If viewed in quantitative terms, production is the quantity of output produced, while productivity is the ratio of the output produced to the input used.

Productivity = Production / Resources employed

Productivity is said to be increased, when

  1. The production increases without increase in inputs.
  2. The production remains same with decrease in inputs.
  3. The output increases more as compared to input.

Benefits from Increased Productivity:
Higher productivity results in higher volume of production and hence increased sales, lower cost and higher profit. It is beneficial to all concerns as stated below:

(a) Benefits to the management:

  1. More profit.
  2. Higher productivity ensures stability of the organization.
  3. Higher productivity and higher volume of sales provide opportunity for expansion of the concern and wide spread market.
  4. It provides overall prosperity and reputation of the organization.

(b) Benefits to workers:

  1. Higher wages.
  2. More wages permits better standard of living of workers.
  3. Better working conditions.
  4. Job security and satisfaction.

(c) Benefits to the consumers:

  1. More productivity ensures better quality of product.
  2. It also enables reduction in prices.
  3. More satisfaction to consumers.

(d) Benefits to nation:

  1. It provides greater national wealth.
  2. It increases per capita income.
  3. It helps expansion of international market with the help of standardizes and good quality products.
  4. It improves standard of living.
  5. It helps better utilization of resources of the nation.

Factors Affecting Productivity:

(a) Factors affecting national productivity

  1. Human resources
  2. Technology and capital investment
  3. Government regulation

(b) Factors affecting productivity in manufacturing and services

  1. Product or system design
  2. Machinery and equipment
  3. The skill and effectiveness of the worker
  4. Production volume
  5. Economic growth

Now some points are highlighted of above these factors: 

👉Human resources

  • The general level of education.
  • Use of computers and other sophisticated equipment by employees.
  • Employees need to be motivated to be productive.
  • Technology and capital investment.
  • New technology depends on R&D
  • Every industry and services put new technology into use, they must invest in new machinery and equipment
  • Computer aided design (CAD).

👉Government regulation

  • An excessive amount of government regulation may have a detrimental effect on productivity.

👉Product or system design

  • R&G is a vital contributor to improved product design.
  • ‘Standardization’ of the product and the use of ‘group technology’ are other design factors that make possible greater productivity in the factory.
  • ‘Value analysis’ can bring out many product design changes that improve productivity.

👉Machinery and equipment

  • Once the product is designed/redesigned, then how it is made offers the next opportunity for productivity improvement. The equipment used –machines, tools, conveyors, robots, layout – all are important.
  • CNC machines
  • Computer aided manufacturing (CAM)

👉Skill and effectiveness of the workers

  • The trained and experienced worker can do the same job in a much shorter time and with far greater effectiveness than a new one.
  • Even the well-trained employees must be motivated to be productive as well.

👉Production volume
Assume that the volume of output is to be doubled, the number of direct workers would have to be doubled and a few indirect workers might also be needed. But there would probably not be a need for more engineers, research scientists, head quarters staff persons or other support personnel. So if the output is doubled, the productivity of these support people is in effect doubled.

👉Economic growth
The economic growth of a country depends on the national productivity. The national productivity will automatically increase if productivity of individual industrial and productive unit increases, we shall consider the factors that affect the productivity of an individual unit. They are as follows:

  • Land and building
  • Material
  • Machinery and equipment
  • Men (Labor)

Overall Productivity:
It is the ratio of total output to the sum of all input factors. Thus a total productivity reflects the joint impact of all the inputs in producing the output.

Overall productivity = Profit/ Capital involved

Productivity Calculation in Garment Industry:
Common formula of productivity calculations in garment industry are given below:

……………………………………………………Volume of output
Operator productivity = ———————————————————
……………………………………………Direct labour input (volume)

…..2000 shirts per shift
= —————————————-
100 operators per shift

= 20 shirts per shift

………………………………Standard minutes produced (SAM x Units produced per operator)
Operator Productivity = —————————————————————————————-
………………………………………………………………Inputs in minutes per operator

……………………………………………………………..16.59 x 20
Productive Efficiency of Operators = ———————–
………………………………………………………………….450

331.80
= ————-
….450

= 73.33%

………………………………………………………………Volume of output
Total Labour Productivity Sewing = ——————————————-
………………………………………………………………Total labour input

….2000 shirts
= ————————
130 workers

= 15.38 shirts per shift

……………………………………………………………Volume of output
Machine Productivity (sewing) = ————————————————–
……………………………………………………………..Machine input

…..2000 shirts per shift
= ——————————–
105 machines per shift

= 19.04 shirts per shift

…………………………………………………Total labour minutes consumed per shift
Total Labour Productivity = ——————————————————————
…………………………………………………….Number of units produced per shift

450 x 130
= ———————-
…..2000

= 29.25 minutes per shift

…………………………………………………………450 x 100
Sewing Operator Productivity = ———————–
…………………………………………………………..2000

= 22.5 minutes per shirt

…………………………………………………………………….2000 shirts x 6 US$
Value Productivity of 100 Operators = ————————————–
……………………………………………………………………….100 Operators

= 120 US$ per operator shift

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