One of the most famous and proven lean principles (Pareto Principle) says that most of the quality problems (80 per cent) in a business come from a small number (20 per cent) of issues. It’s imperative to find these important problems and separate them from the less important ones for business profitability. When applied on an apparel shopfloor in a correct and precise way, this principle resonates with in a big way. Today, software providers in the garment manufacturing industry are working closely with manufacturers to pinpoint and resolve the key challenges plaguing shopfloor operations.
Imagine the following case scenarios and visualise the improvement in profitability:
- Identification of 20 per cent of major defect positions in garments where around 80 per cent of defects take place
- Prioritising 20 per cent of factory’s inventory that accounts for 80 per cent of the factory’s WIP
- Identification of 20 per cent of the production processes that account for 80 per cent of finished goods
This ’20 per cent’ needs to be identified on an apparel shopfloor as quickly and accurately as possible. Advanced software and IoT technology can help apparel factories hugely here and, not to mention, this is the first thing progressive software companies are looking at today before developing/upgrading their software. If implemented correctly, these software solutions are the first-hand information source that get to know what kind of major issues a garment factory is facing that need to be digitalised to make the processes streamlined and simplified.
How critical issues on apparel shopfloor can be addressed by advanced software technology?
- Managing quality control issues
Garment factories frequently grapple with quality control challenges, which pose a serious hurdle to their operational efficiency. Within these apparel manufacturing facilities, quality managers have a multitude of responsibilities, with one of their critical tasks being the monitoring of QA/QC performance. It is no longer sufficient for quality managers to simply amass production and quality data for reporting purposes. Instead, they must look at the collection of supply chain data also that’s important to drive the decision-making processes of these managers.
By studying this data, quality managers can help select right fabric vendors, find major defects in a garment to prevent and reduce their dependency on end-line QC for quality control – all this helps avoid costly mistakes in a factory, thus improving profitability of the organisation.
However, despite the existence of data capture tools designed to streamline operations within factories, quality managers struggle to enhance their data collection framework. This has ushered in negative consequences, including higher rates of quality defects, a risk of product failure, delays in shipments due to the time required to rectify rejected products and a surge in negative customer feedback. Notably, the estimated cost attributable to poor quality can amount to as much as 15 per cent of a factory’s total sales revenue, even within a large-scale enterprise.
| There are tools available such as QIMAone, Jaza, STITCH MES which provide factories with an accurate view of what’s happening on the ground by leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as AI, voice recognition and automation. Additionally, the supply chain mapping feature enables factories to map their entire supply chain from raw materials to stores to better manage any quality and sourcing issues. |
The traditional method of conducting manual inspections and audits within garment factories is fraught with pitfalls, often resulting in critical human errors and inaccuracies in reporting. Fortunately, the advent of software solutions, equipped with computer vision and AI algorithms, has ushered in a new era of real-time defect detection. This technological innovation has led to a substantial reduction in rejection rates and production costs. Furthermore, digital dashboards have proven instrumental in ensuring that defect, rework and rejection levels remain below predefined parameters, outperforming human capabilities in this regard. Factories that have embraced digital tools have realised efficiency gains of up to 65 per cent, with further room for improvement.
These digitally-connected factories tackle challenges head-on by implementing comprehensive data collection mechanisms at each stage of the quality checking process on the factory floor. As a result, quality managers are now armed with critical insights into their Defects per Hundred Unit (DHU) rate from both before and after the integration of ‘smart’ technologies. This clarity reveals the substantial resources that were previously based on rework processes and quality compromises. In many conventional factories, the DHU rate typically hovers between 14 per cent-22 per cent, representing a significant financial drain resulting from a lack of a data-driven approach. The advancement of quality processes offers a promising avenue for quality managers to drive this DHU rate down to below 2 per cent, marking a substantial improvement in overall quality and cost efficiency.
How does the system work?
According to Nimish Dave, Founder, The Idea Smith, the garment factories are advised to make a cell and assign some qualified QCs that report the concerned person directly. Now they require to put digitisation at the in-line QC and include all 40-50 quality parameters in digital mode in tablets. A QC inspector, with the help of digital quality tool, will do inspections on all the set/fed parameters.
“Following this process means a garment will undergo all quality defect parameters. So, this gives the decision makers of the factory real time information – it can be seen on LEDs, it can be brought to them via email box or it can be sent on WhatsApp,” mentioned Nimish Dave.
Jeewan Joshi, Head of IT and Digitisation, Matrix Clothing commented, “We earlier had a disconnect between factory performance, quality monitoring software and our ERP that led to repetitions in updating production data again in ERP which we wanted to eliminate.”
He further stated, “With the integration of WFX Smart Factory, Matrix Clothing has been able to access more functionalities – such as line-wise dashboard visualisation or management/factory dashboards and tablet-based real-time data capturing – which helps the factory make smarter, more informed decisions about how the shopfloor processes are moving in real-time with the opportunity to fix quality and any production bottlenecks instantly.”
| Lack of accountability on quality is another issue that the garment industry is facing. If a factory is manufacturing millions of garments a year and it depends only on end-line QC for quality control, the factory probably isn’t going to please the buyers and build a culture where quality is given priority. How would a quality inspector know that the produced garments ascribe to accepted quality standards or not before they are fully stitched? And, if there is a defect in an item, how is it addressed at the point of cause so that quality at right first time produced and cut- to-ship ratio can be improved? This is a really difficult task if handled manually at big level and hence software solutions come to the rescue of the factories. |
- Managing inventory visibility issues
The movement of inventories inside the factories has been a plaguing issue! Traditionally, the lean factories used to follow FIFO (First In First Out) concept to utilise the inventories and make WIP easier, however the system gets bypassed when delivery times are squeezed. It even becomes more difficult if no software is integrated to watch over the process in real-time!
Silver Spark, a leading suit manufacturer in India, is sort of an exception here that has made it possible to do end-to-end tracking of the manufactured suits in a day through IoT. This system is indigenously developed and implemented by Silver Spark only. Every piece flows with a unique barcode taffeta label and a track sheet. Scanning of pieces is done at every stage to get real time WIP of each department. “Our system streamlines MTM internal portal with SAP and further with delivery portal site. This barcode system helps automate the fabrics, trims and pattern checking process as well as tracks the fabric inventory and raw material in a more synchronised manner,” commented Kaushalendra Narayan, Director of Operations at Silver Spark.
Accumulating excess inventory can tie up capital and storage space also. And, this starts from cutting room. The most efficient factories usually work over 98 per cent cut-to-ship ratio, however, anything less than that is a worrisome factor for factories and inventories are not produced as per plan. One of the leading garment manufacturing groups, EPIC Group, has recently opened its smart factory in Bangladesh which is fully digitalised and includes RFID tags for each garment that track work-in-progress (WIP) and drive efficiencies throughout the production process, while keeping a check on inventories moving on the shopfloor. The factories’ data is stored on cloud through an app where all concerned people, including its top management, can see performance of the operators, sewing lines and even the entire shopfloor in real-time.
Norlanka – a leading Sri Lanka-based garment company owned by PDS – has recently implemented a new WMS (Warehouse Management System) for its CCP (Centralised Cutting Plant) manufacturing facility that will cut nearly 8 million metres of fabric, which translates into 33 million pieces annually. As per Norlanka, WMS helps in fabric inspection and cutting modules and the data is integrated into its existing SAP ERP.
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