Abstract
To gain the competitive advantage, it has become essential for manufacturing industry to use its resources effectively, efficiently and economically. It is required to understand that such resources are based on 5 Ms (manpower, methods, materials, money, and machinery). In this study an apparel industry was selected to create a directorial plan by using the ideologies of resource management to improve the process efficiency. For this the data related to the product layout, operation plan, and process flow was collected. Time motion study was performed for aspect analysis. Information regarding operation, number of machines and efficiency of the production line was evaluated. The proposed plan successfully increase the efficiency up to 10%. It also shows an improvement in effective utilization of manpower and money.
Resource management is an ideology that can be defined as the use of resources for a business in a manner that can avoid over-allocation of any resource (manpower, methods, materials, money and machinery). The definition that summarizes the entire concept of resource management is to find the best possible utilization of available resources of an organization in an effective, efficient and economical approach. Studies (Afiouni, 2007; Armstrong-Stassen, 2005; Laursen & Foss, 2003) have shown that many organizations face difficulties in managing their business in relation to excess inventory, shortage of raw material, cost of rework, idle working hours and many other. Still, numerous industries do not take this matter seriously until it is too late. Lack of resource management could lead to a loss in a competitive advantage especially among Asian countries where completion is very high.
Literature Review
Over the years, the apparel market has changed from customized fitted products to ready-to-wear products, resulting in a variety of product category, material and styling. However, the degree of automation for the production system of the textile industry is still limited due to products’ constantly changing styles, materials and designs (Güner & Ünal, 2008). Literature suggests that the sewing department of apparel manufacturing is most important in term of cost, labor, method and equipment (Bahadir & Kalaoglu, 2009). On the other side, it is established that for the apparel industry, operation/cycle time is the key to competitive advantage. Its reduction is strongly correlated to low variability in the process, revenue produced, scheduling (material and delivery) and low work in progress inventory (Harrell et al., 2000). Literature review (Bahadir & Kalaoglu, 2009; Boysen et al., 2007, 2008; Ramlan & Tan, 2012) reveals that line balancing is a recognized technique to allocate worker and equipment to manage an operation/cycle time in precedence of the required task. It was noted that studies based on line balancing were conducted on the assumption that (1) assembly lines has fixed cycle time, (2) the line is considered serial, no supply lines or parallel, (3) processing sequence of tasks must follow the precedence constraints and the only restrictions to assign the tasks should be of precedence, a task cannot be split into two or more workstations (4) tasks time are deterministic, and (5) all stations are equipped with machinery and operators. In one case (Hosseinpour & Hajihosseini, 2009), it was shown that simulation techniques can be used to select the best portable production system for the production of textiles. However, this practice is not used by less privileged countries because of the resources required for the portable production system. Rajput et al. (2018) used a technique of work standard to improve the productivity of the garment factory. According to the set standard of the procedure, worker performances were measured using time motion study. For each worker, times taken to complete the operations were recorded. Then the cycle time was set and line balancing was performed. No scientific knowledge was utilized but the outcomes were based on knowledge management. Jadhav et al. (2017) used the technique of time study to identify the bottleneck operation in a garment factory. It was suggested that workers should be trained by experts to increase the productivity of the garment factory. However, there was no justification presented.
In this study, an attempt is made to improve the operation time thus the efficiency of a product line using the methodologies of resource management. This study has a significant effect on the management strategies for the firm. It underlines the importance of specific knowledge for structuring new competencies for the production line and accessing mechanism for such knowledge. By establishing the foundation of workers and linking it to the concept of production management, this study provides understanding into industrial development of under-privileged nations.
Method
Apparel manufacturing is constantly under pressure as the competition becomes ferocious. The firms are aware of the concerns that arise due to increased competition, customer expectations and product variety. It seems that, to meet the competition, the only choice apparel industries are left with is to expand its resources. On the other side, by doing so the textile industry is facing problems in work allocation, waste minimization and timely production. Whichever is the case, production efficiency is compromised and results in increased cost.
In this study, this concern of a representative firm is considered and an industrial engineering strategy has been applied to produce a product in a systematic and synchronized process. Using the tools of resource management, the following strategy was plotted to put forward the directorial plan that can improve the efficiency of the firm.
Firstly, as the basic tool of the quality management process, cause and effect diagram was used to identify the main source for low efficiency. This tool was selected as it allows to see all causes simultaneously and present good visualization of the problems to the stakeholders. The five Ms (man, machine, money, material and method) were individually explored through brainstorming sessions, visual inspection, available company records, discussion with experienced personnel, and management by a walk by the researchers and group of experts including the firm’s officials. After three months of pilot study, it identified that the resources of man, machine and method are the major concern. The issues in the other two areas are either the consequences of method, machine or manpower or are beyond the control of the firm. This pilot study provides the idea of where to look for improvement.
Thereafter, the first and foremost task was to identify and devise an operational plan of the products. For this, a technique of method engineering, process mapping was used. Process mapping provides insight into a process and also process documentation. It identifies bottle-necks, repetition, delays, and therefore accountability. In short, it is a resource for process improvement which was the criteria of selection of this technique. The activities performed by workers were randomly observed and the processing time was recorded. The established method of stop watch time study proposed by Fredrick Winslow Taylor (Krenn, 2011) was utilized to standardize the timing of worker performances. The technique was selected to illustrate the trade-offs between the required time for the task and actual time by which the tasks were being performed. Following steps were developed to record the activity for the operational plan.
Define the task to be studied.
Divide the task into precise elements.
Decide how many times the task is to be measured. In this case, it was measured three times. Table 1 shows the average time.
Rerecord the elemental times.
Calculate the normal time (basic time) for each element.
Add the normal time for each element to compute the total normal time for the task.
Compute the standard time.
Operation bulletin was developed using the following parameters.
Single allowance minutes/standard time (SAM) − The actual time required to complete the job. This includes basic time and allowances (Equation 1).
b) Machine required − was calculated using Equation 2.
where total output was 440 units, and available minutes were 480 min (8 hour shift).
Efficiency is an efficient use of raw materials, available machinery and available man power. It includes both productivity and effectiveness. In the context of resource management, effective production means that the quality as required by the consumer and productivity indicates the best use of man hour. Equation 3 was used to calculate efficiency.
where Earned minutes = output × SAM and Avail minutes = work force × available minutes.
The technique of target monitoring (Brown et al., 2006) was also performed to authenticate the performance of the worker. A training and its evaluation criteria were the benchmark to improve the performance of workers. The stated methodology was developed to improve the performance of workers, reduce cost and increase efficiency.
Analysis
The insight exploration of the firm shows that the firm produces the number of products with good quality standards. However, for uncertain reasons, the efficiency of the firm remains between 50% and 55%. To analyze the issues of one of the products, cargo shorts (Figure 1) was selected for the study. The criteria for selecting cargo shorts was that it belongs to the export category and has maximum share in the company’s profit.
Cargo shorts.
Existing Plan
Time motion study of the existing situation was performed and tabulated in Table 1. There are 43 processes involved in cargo short sewing and 56 operations. Total inspection was 5. It is established that in time motion study, calculations are performed only for the process that adds value (Krenn, 2011). As in time motion studies, inspection is considered as non-value added process, and hence it was not included in calculations. Standard time required by each process is displayed in Table 1. The total standard time required to complete a cargo short was 37.89 min. On the current plan, 62 workers were engaged in cargo short sewing. Out of them, one operator was required on one single needle lockstitch machine (SNL), double needle lockstitch (DNL), over-lock machine (OL) and Kansai machine (used for attaching waistbands), and eight helpers were available on the sewing line of cargo shorts. The total number of machines to manufacture required product quantity was 54 with worker performance of 65% (as per industry’s documents). Table 1 also shows the precedence of the tasks. The efficiency of the production line was 56%.
Existing Operation Bulletin of Cargo-Shorts.
Note. Single needle lockstitch machine (SNL), Double needle lockstitch (DNL), Over-lock machine (OL) and Kansai machine, Feed off arm machine (FOA).
Proposed Plan
It was noted that there was no provision to monitor worker performance in the company. In order to identify the related concern, detailed scrutiny was conducted. For this, an exercise was conducted to examine workers’ knowledge in the following areas: (1) machine knowledge, (2) stitching method and procedure, (3) stitching type/pattern, and (4) time consumed. It was observed that, out of 62 workers, only a few were able to perfect the exercise. Moreover, it was noted that those were the skilled and experienced workers. Some of the common mistakes were that pattern details were not drafted correctly and accurately in the first attempt, machine safety was not followed (improper handling), procedure was followed but with mistakes, and operations were not finished on time with accuracy. These mistakes suggest potential repercussions and recognize that the workers lack training. Training and development is a key to improve the performance, sharpen the skills and concepts, help change the work attitude and assist in gaining clear knowledge regarding the job. In general, there are three types of employees organizations hire (De Spiegelaere et al., 2012). Type of employees depends upon the skill of workers. Workers who perform substantial operations are classified as highly skilled workers. Operations that are not complicated and do not require considerable accuracy are performed by medium skilled workers. The third type is trainee workers. Keeping the type of the worker as a focus, it was put forward that induction training should be performed with the following stratagem. Collect information regarding the skilled type for performing the jobs. Identify the level of machine knowledge workers hold and provide complete training on machines and their use. It involves educating workers on functions of each machine, stitch types that can be produced on a particular machine, and most importantly machine and personnel safety. Observe and calculate their operation cycle time. This will determine the performance efficiency of the worker. Pair highly skilled workers with medium skilled and training workers. This mentoring technique will help workers improve their skill level. This could also result in transforming lower-level workers to higher-level workers. Conduct a performance test on the concept of target monitoring of training programme (Brown et al., 2006; Nashner, 2003). Performances were assessed on rubrics. Standard criteria of the assessment were aligned with the instructional and performance goals such as machine knowledge, method and procedures and speed. Low performance scores repeat the induction training.
Result of training evaluation showed an improvement in worker performance. On an existing plan, it was 65%, while it increased to 85% after implementing target monitoring technique. Thereafter, changes were made in a manufacturing process plan of cargo shorts. These changes were made to optimize the other resources (manpower, machine, money) along with the methods that were available in a company. Followings are the changes and improvement it has brought to the cargo short manufacturing.
Table 2 shows the operation bulletin of cargo short processing after the implementation of the suggested changes. Table 3 illustrates that the number of workers was reduced to 51 from 62 and the same unit can be produced by using only 46 machines. The total standard time decreased by 3%, and efficiency increased by 10%.
Proposed Operational Bulletin for Cargo Shorts.
Note. Single needle lockstitch machine (SNL), Double needle lockstitch (DNL), Over-lock machine (OL) and Kansai machine, Feed off arm machine (FOA).
Cost Saving for Cargo Shorts.
Cost Saving
Table 3 shows the cost arrangement of worker remunerations for cargo shorts production. With the existing plan, the company disbursed $482,600 per year; with the proposed plan, it disbursed $404,400 per year. The total saving of 16% per year was achieved in the production of cargo shorts.
Research Implications
One of the common approaches to increase the profit is to have investment in business (equipment and hiring). This decision can be certainly applicable in developed countries; for underprivileged nations, a good year of trade can encourage this decision. However, the commitments and investments oblige the workers/officials to continue to produce at the same level even in a deprived year to make payments of investments and to avoid a layoff. This situation may cause stress in staff and could result in a source of demotivation. In contrast, if the resources are managed efficiently, it can provide motivation and give hopes for a sustainable career. It has been established that organization performance is enhanced to the degree a firm has motivated employees, who collectively provide a unique source of competitive advantage that is difficult to replicate for its competitors. Moreover, the efficient use of resource management practice can proliferate individual employee performance that has implications on productivity, through working smart, adopting training, and setting goals for themselves and increased product quality. This research solution provides the business with the stability and accomplishment in a better workflow. It improves the interdepartmental relations and provides top management with better features of planning and execution.
This study has provided relevant organizations with the tools that are necessary to assess the risks, organize the work, optimize the manpower/skillsets, and plan accordingly. At the time globalization influences the organizations to compete internationally for product quality, performance and cost, this research sets an example for the globe, to argue that economy can be based on sustainability, rather than on perpetual growth through mergers and acquisitions.
Conclusion
In this research, a production line of cargo shorts was analyzed to improve the efficiency of resources used. To achieve this, the concept of target monitoring and time motion study was utilized. The operation bulletin was prepared to facilitate the production planning. As a result, efficiency was increased from 56% to 66%. Changes in the operation plan have reduced the operation standard time while the number of machines used also decreased from 54 to 46. Labor requirement for the production of cargo shorts was reduced from 62 to 51. This brought monetarily saving of 16% annually. The same strategy can be applied to other production lines available within the company for greater advantage. This study provides decision alternatives and cost benefits to the manufacturers but, for more robust solutions, the study can be enhanced by the techniques of line balancing and lay-outing. Furthermore, parameters like machine maintenance, repairs, worker replacement and/or supervision can also be included for developing a creation plan for apparel manufacturing.
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
Authors record their gratitude to H. Nizam Din & Sons, for letting us to conduct this study in their firm. We also wants to extend our thanks to Mr. Mujtaba Nehal and Mr. Muhammad Kashan Iqbal for their preliminary support at the firm.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
