Study on setup time effect on small order quantities in apparel manufacturing

Abstract

As apparel manufacturers in today’s context, it is vital to concentrate on improving productivity by applying tools that can increase the efficiency of sub processes. It is a true fact that Sri Lankan apparel industry has a long history, but it is surprising that when comparing Sri Lanka’s ability with the regional countries/competitors in producing value added products, within a short lead time. Smaller order quantities are becoming increasingly demanding by the western world to sustain in the global apparel business. Due to product variation and small order quantities, it can be seen that there is a strong need to introduce a tool that can monitor the setup time taken to feed new styles without reducing the labour efficiency .This research tries to analyse, setup time in small quantity orders in apparel manufacturing industry through implementing single minute exchange of dies (SMED) with the selected factory. Some ofthe main importance topics of literature related to setup reduction, labour efficiency and employee related discussions are carried out in this survey. It further emphasized the paramount importance of the subject topic by collecting data from the selected manufacturing unit to study the setup time losses. Data collection of this study was through questionnaire and interviews with executives and middle management staffin the selected organization covering various departments. Setup related documentations such as style feeding charts, and other tools such as labour capacity study were used to analyse data. Collected data to cover Setup issues and related factors to understand the delays were collected from different sewing lines which produces variety of styles. Objective of the study will be concentrated to find out reasons to understand high setup time during style changes in sewing floor as well as to reduce setup time by implementing SMED techniques. Data interpretation confirmed the Setup time and its correlation between finance performances ofthe organization. Implementation ofSMED tool is after analysing the collected data proves the hypothesis of the survey confirming that the setup time impacts on financial performance ofthe organization.