International Fiber and Polymer Research Symposium

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Implementation of Lean Tool in a Knit Garment Factory for Improving Productivity

Authors :

Ahsan Habib¹

1- Cukurova University

Keywords :

Lean manufacturing،Value،Waste،Value stream mapping،Apparel industry

Abstract :

The apparel industry plays an important role in the economy of Bangladesh and long production time is a major hindrance for Bangladesh in long-term competitiveness as labor costs keep increasing, which will make Bangladesh less competitive in the future compared with the competitors who benefit from relatively shorter production time due to various reason. This study endeavors to examine the applicability of value stream mapping (VSM) in the apparel industry of Bangladesh for higher production. The study applied VSM in one of the Knit Garment factories of Bangladesh to examine the existing condition of the production system where there is no application of VSM technique and to analyze the scope of VSM technique in the production process of cutting sewing and finishing sections. The main idea of the research paper is to identify various wastes that occur in the current production process find out opportunities for improvement and propose strategies for reducing waste and increasing production. The current state value stream mapping identifies the wastes happening frequently. It identifies value-adding, non-value-adding, unavoidable non-value-adding processes and different types of wastes in the production process. It is found that the non-value-adding time, over-processing, and unnecessary motions are causing higher cost and lead time. Therefore, some strategies are proposed for reducing waste and improving overall productivity. Lastly, a future state map has been proposed to the industry that will be helpful for the productivity of the current production technique as well as to minimize the non-value-adding time.