Category: Article 3

Article 3

The Art of Line Balancing

Sep 9, 2021 by admin 0 Comments

Why is it an Art..?

Because it needs special skill to combine the number of operators for many different processes with various cycle times. The purpose is to get a smooth workflow, so there are several steps to be done:

  1. Identify the cycle time per every single process to produce a garment
  2. Determine number of operator(s) for all processes for a smooth workflow
  3. Assign the right operator(s) for each single process

Let’s do a simple calculation as per the illustration below

If we look at the above then the number of operators should be:

We have identified the Cycle time on each process and then do the proper Line Balancing, these mean nothing if we assign the wrong operators. Supervisors/line leaders will choose the operators based on their memory, so the potential bottleneck will always happen if we do not have the skill database of our operators.

Skill-Math will help us in this area, identifying the skills of operators on each process, showing the availability of operators based on the needs at the sewing lines, and at the same time monitoring the skill-trend for further improvement.

Less bottlenecks = Higher Productivity

Article 3

Capitalized your factory team

Sep 9, 2021 by admin 0 Comments

Many of us are familiar with the word “Human Capital”

The end goal is to improve productivity by optimizing Education, Skill, Experience, Creativity, Personality, Health, and Moral Character. Let us now focus on the first 4 factors:

  1. Education: It is essential to treat our workers (operators & staff) as valuable assets, therefore we need to implement a Continuous Improvement program to improve their skills based on what they are good at (ie. talents).
  2. Skill & Experience: It is very important to identify the skill of our operators then explore what they are good at, and give more training so they can be better people. We find it very challenging to do skill mapping with manual methods because there are so many variances due to the complexity of the garment styles, and experience does not guarantee the operators can be “a multi-tasking person”.
  3. Creativity: Most of the time IE team is trapped with daily routines, making them mainly do administrative work rather than finding areas for improvement. They need to have the tool for a systematic approach to gain better improvement ie. eliminating bottlenecks, identifying multi-talented operators, creating benchmarks, and optimize manpower utilization.
Capitalized your factory team 2

Skill-Math can help you to monitor operators’ performance and create proper training programs based on your needs so they can be multi-skilled for your business. At the same time Industrial Engineering team can boost their competence to be more analytical rather than being an admin of day-to-day operations.

Article 3

Measuring CM costs during sales stage…

Sep 9, 2021 by admin 0 Comments

Can we have accuracy in production cost calculation during the sales stage?

There are many factors that build up the production cost and one of those is the effectiveness of assigning the correct operators for certain tasks.

  • First, we need to know the processing time required and then try to balance the line
  • Second, look at the result of line balance with the idle of each process
  • Third, compare the output target and our cost (direct, indirect, and factory overhead) Last but not least, execute the best option that you have

The above task takes time, especially for production managers who are already busy with daily work to meet targets. And, the next questions are:

  • Is the target realistic to achieve?
  • Does the line balance reflect the optimum result?
  • Can we have this process much earlier to help during the sales stage?

The last question is something we normally miss as we rely on sample rooms which most of the time cannot represent the real situation on the production floor. So, less accuracy in CM cost calculation.

Skill-Math will help factories to calculate CM costs during style review, this will help the Sales team to negotiate with buyers. For factories that have multi locations or subcontracts, this will help to make a decision on which site or Subcon can give better CM cost, therefore, making the business more profitable.