Application Of Lean Manufacturing To Higher Productivity .

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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 2, February-2013ISSN 2229-5518Application of Lean Manufacturing to HigherProductivity in the Apparel Industry in Bangladesh*112Md. Mazedul Islam, Adnan Maroof Khan, Md. Monirul IslamAbstract-For any industry cost and time related to production and quality management or wastages reductions have importantimpact on overall factory economy. Internal cost spent by a company and savings made by eliminating non productive works andtime are important for management to keep the industry economically sound and safe. Emphasizing on it steps has been taken toinvestigate and apply lean manufacturing in the apparel industry. Lean Manufacturing can be considered as a business strategywhich originated and developed in Japan. It tries to identify waste and eliminate it. Thus it leads to i mprovement in productivity ofmanufacturing and service organizations and quality of products leading to a competitive advantage over others. Bangladeshiindustries, especially apparel sector have attempted to implement this, but a little research work is carried out in regarding itssuitability. Our research on applicability of lean manufacturing helped the organization to visualize the different types of wastesgenerated in the organization and future possibilities of eliminating or reducing them. The research was administered with twoleading apparel manufacturers in Bangladesh using personal interviews, secondary data and observations. The outcome of thisobservation reflected that an industry may gain higher productivity and profitability by proper application of lean manufacturing. Thefindings can be extended to similar apparel organizations in the future. A general overview over this development is given in thispaper.Keywords – Apparel industry, Costs, Lean Manufacturing, Lead time, Manufacturer, Productivity, Wastages elimination.—————————— ——————————1 IntroductionGenerallyin an industry more focus is given on profit.Though there are different issues involved in cost reductioninternally spent by an industry through finding wastages,preventing and correcting defective work would result in hugesavings [1]. The apparel industry faced considerable changes asa result of the removal of Multi Fiber Agreement in 2005 [2].Delivering high quality garments at low cost in shorter leadtimes are the major challenges faced by the apparelmanufacturers. Most of the apparel manufacturers are trying toachieve these challenges successfully. In 2008, global recessionbadly affected almost all the apparel manufacturing industriesin the world [2]. Due to that demand for the low cost garmentsare increased by the customers. Suppliers are forced to deliverlow cost garments. Because of many high cost factors inBangladesh, most of the companies faced difficulties in gettingorders and some companies were closed down. The companiesare seeking ways to minimize their cost in order to meet thecompetition by other low cost countries such as China, �—112Md. Mazedul Islam, Adnan Maroof Khan, Md. Monirul Islam1 . Lecturer, Department of Textile Engineering, DaffodilInternational University, Bangladesh.Email: mazed@daffodilvarsity.edu.bd, maroof215@gmail.com,PH: 8801717825648, 88016714383362. Associate Professor and Dean, Faculty of Textile Clothing,Fashion & Business Studies, Bangladesh University of Textiles,Email: mislammgt@gmail.comSri Lanka, and Pakistan and to survive. In order to face thisglobal challenge, most of the local apparel manufacturers haveadopted different strategies. The recent adoption is LeanManufacturing to achieve low cost, short lead times andimproved quality. Lean Manufacturing can be defined as "Asystematic approach to identify and eliminate waste throughcontinuous improvement by flowing the product at the demandof the customer” (Introduction to Lean, 2010) [4]. Leanmanufacturing helps to identify productive and nonproductive activities. Productive activities focus on any activitythat customer is willing to pay for. Non productive activitiesdescribe that the customer does not consider as adding value tohis product (for example, waiting time, over processing, overproduction, defective works and reworks, inspection time,wrong motion, improper line balancing,impropertransportation, sharing of working instruments, Therefore, astudy was carried out on application of lean manufacturing inthe sewing section of apparel industry named Opex & SinhaTextile Group[5] located at Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh, andViyellatex Group[3] located at, Gazipur, Bangladesh, to identifynon productive activities so as to eliminate them for savingtime, cost and improve productivity. By eliminating waste inthe processes, companies can achieve a shorter lead time, lowercost, highest quality and can achieve a competitive advantageover the others.IJSER 2013http://www.ijser.org

International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 2, February-2013ISSN 2229-55182 Background of the Research ProblemEnvironmental changes, intensive international competition,unpredictable consumer demand, and market trends of varietyand short product life cycles, compel the Bangladeshi textile andapparel industry to focus increasingly on the consumer as a wayto meet these challenges “We are no longer a low cost producerof garments and low productive producer. The survival ofindustry depends on moving upmarket where the country needsto cater” said by a Professor of Bangladesh University ofBangladesh Textiles. In order to cater the upmarket, the industryneeds to provide high quality garments within short lead time. Inorder to do this, one of the solutions is Lean Manufacturing.Since it is new to Bangladeshi apparel sector, there is not muchbackground knowledge of how it suits in Bangladeshi context.When implementing Lean Manufacturing, companies have to useLean tools and techniques introduced by “Toyota” motorcompany [10, 14]. These must be managed and used carefully inorder to prevent potential failures. In this research, the authortries to investigate the applicability of Lean Manufacturing inBangladeshi apparel sector.3 Problem StatementsBased on the above explanation a broader research problem canbe stated as: “How can Lean manufacturing be effectivelyapplied to improve the performance of apparel industry?”equivalent to anything he is willing to pay for the product orservice he receives. Formally value adding activities can bedefined as: activities that transform materials and informationinto products and services the customer wants. On the otherhand non-value adding activities can be defined as: activities thatconsume resources, but do not directly contribute to product orservice. This non-value adding activities are the waste in LeanManufacturing. Waste can be generated due to poor layout(distance), long setup times, incapable processes, poormaintenance practices, poor work methods, lack of training, largebatches, ineffective production planning/scheduling, lack ofworkplace organization etc. By eliminating wastes in the overallprocess, through continuous improvements the product’s leadtime can be reduced remarkably. By reducing lead timeorganization can obtain operational benefits (enhancement ,improvement in quality, reduction of space utilization and betterwork place organization) as well as administrative benefits(reduction in order processing errors, streamlining of customerservice functions so that customers are no longer placed on hold,reduction of paperwork in office areas, reduction of laborturnover).5.2 Wastes in Lean Manufacturing4 Objectives of the studyThe waste can be categorized into seven types which arecommonly referred to as the “Seven wastes” *14]. Taiichi Ohnosuggests that these account for up to 95% of all costs in non –Lean Manufacturing environments. These wastes are:In answering the research problem, the study sought toaccomplish the following research objectives.5.2.1 Overproduction – Producing more than the customerTo examine the present level of applying lean manufacturing inapparel manufacturing organization in Bangladesh. Besides, toidentify and propose potential avenues for improving presentlevel of lean manufacturing. Also to eliminating waste in theprocesses and helping the companies to achieve a shorter leadtime, lower cost, highest quality and to achieve a competitiveadvantage.5 Literature Review on Lean Manufacturing5.1 What is Lean?Lean Manufacturing can be defined as "A systematic approach toidentifying and eliminating waste through continuousimprovement of the product at the demand of the customer."Taiichi Ohno once said that “Lean Manufacturing is all aboutlooking at the time line from the moment the customer gives usan order to the point when we collect the cash. And we arereducing that time line by removing the non – value addedwastes” (Ohno, 1988)[6]. Lean always focuses on identifying andeliminating waste and fully utilizing the activities that add valueto the final product. From the customer point of view, value isdemands. There are two types of overproduction (Shingo, 1989):1. Quantitative – making more products than needed.2. Early – making products before needed.Overproduction is highly costly to a manufacturing plantbecause it obstructs the smooth flow of materials and degradesthe quality and productivity. Overproduction manufacturing isreferred to as “Just in Case” whereas Lean Manufacturing isreferred to as “Just in Time” (McBride, 2003). The correspondingLean principle is to manufacture based upon a pull system, orproducing products just as customers order them. Anythingproduced beyond customer order ties up valuable labor andmaterial resources that might otherwise be used to respond tocustomer demand. Ohno considered the fundamental waste to beoverproduction, since it leads to other wastes such asoverstaffing, storage, and transportation costs because of excessinventory.5.2.2 Waiting – Whenever goods are not being moving orbeing processed, the waste, waiting occurs. Typically more than99% of a product’s life cycle time in traditional mass productionis spent in idling. This includes waiting for material, labor,information, equipment etc. Lean requires that all resources areIJSER 2013http://www.ijser.org

International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 2, February-2013ISSN 2229-5518provided on a just-in-time (JIT) basis – not too soon, not too lateby linking processes together so that one feeds directly into thenext and can dramatically reduce waiting.by the perspective of individual firms, functions anddepartments. If the customer does not pay for an activity, it is anon- value adding activity and should be eliminated.5.2.3 Transportation or conveyance – Moving productbetween processes does not add value to the product. Excessivemovements and handlings can cause damages and can lead toreduction in quality. Materials should be delivered to its point ofuse. Lean requires the material be shipped directly from thevendor to the location in the assembly line where it will be used.This is called Point-Of-Use-Storage (POUS).5.3.2 Identify all the steps along the process chain – This meansidentifying the value stream. It can be used to identify activitieswhere value is added to the product and those do not.5.3.3 Make those processes flow – The value added productmust flow continuously from the start to finish withoutinterruptions, detours, backflows, waiting, scrap and stoppages.5.2.4 Over processing or incorrect processing – Takingunneeded steps to process the parts. Some of the more commonexamples of this are reworking, inspecting, rechecking etc. This isdue to poor layout, poor tools and poor product design, causingunnecessary motion and producing defects.5.2.5 Excess Inventory – Any type of inventory (rawmaterial or in process or finish goods) does not add value to theproduct and it should be eliminated or reduced. Excess inventoryuses valuable floor space and hides problems related to processin capabilities. Excess inventory results in longer lead times,obsolescence, damaged goods, transportation and storage costs,and delay.5.2.6 Defects – Defects can be either production defects orservice errors. Having a defect results a tremendous cost toorganizations. In most of the organizations the total cost ofdefects is often a significant percentage of total manufacturingcost.Repairing of rework, replacement production andinspection means wasteful handling time, and effort.5.2.7 Excess Motion – Any motion that employee has toperform which does not add value the product is an unnecessaryor excess motion. Unnecessary motion is caused by poorworkflow, poor layout, poor housekeeping, and inconsistent orundocumented work methods.5.3.4 Make only what is pulled by the customer – The customershould pull the product from the source as needed rather thanprocess pushing the products onto the customer.5.3.5 Strive for perfection – After implementing above steps theteam should be continuously remove wastes as they areuncovered and pursue perfection through continuousimprovement. Lean uses practically proven tools and techniquesto systematically implement these Lean principles. If these arecorrectly applied, it will bring improvements to quality, cost anddelivery of the final product. Those tools help in implementing,monitoring, and evaluating Lean efforts and its results. On theother hand if these were used without proper understanding, itcan spoil Lean efforts in one’s organization6 Materials and Methodology6.1 Basic Research ApproachAs shown in Fig. 1, a comprehensive literature review wascarried out on Lean Manufacturing. Then a well reputed apparelmanufacturing organization was selected to carry out theimplementation study. As the first step site tour was conductedin order to get a clear idea about the existing products and theoverall process of the company. Five garment styles were thensel

continuous improvement by flowing the product at the demand of the customer (Introduction to Lean, 2010) [4]. Lean manufacturing helps to identify productive and non- productive activities. Productive activities focus on any activity that customer is willing to pay for. Non productive activities describe that the customer does not consider as adding value to his product (for example, waiting .

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