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Name of the Article

....TECHTALK

Every business requires a proper management to make a start, reduce cost pe

help the organization grow profitably. Management wants more output from its w
long as its quality is maintained even if they have to pay a little extra for the additio
that they add to the daily production. But unless the productivity of all employees is
in the same ratio, this excess production will only lead to holdups a
machines, causing imbalances and build up of production work. It is importan
balancing is maintained and analyzed from time to time believes Paul F. Bowes,
Project Director of Performance for Business Productivity Services Ltd., a man
consultancy firm operating in the UK and Asia supporting the apparel industry.

How to Manage Sewing Lines for

Increased Output
Pre-Balancing the Line
The process of correctly defining the specification of the garment is fundamental to
efficiency, minimize throughput time and maximize profitability. It is important that this specific
include a method breakdown showing step-by-step manufacture and include an output p
measured either by quantity, minutes, or a given cycle time. The initial line balance can be
using a required output or available time.
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Production Line Balancing

Case Study Ladies Leisurewear Manufacturer, Sri Lanka
As is common with many manufacturing companies in Sri Lanka, this company had supervisor
not well trained, and whose main focus was to chase cut work and accessories to make sure
team always had work. The balancing problems that occurred got gradually worse, until
necessary to work overtime, put extra people on the team, or move work to another team for com
The JAAF team, under my guidance, worked with a model line to improve output through bette
Once we had allocated the manual work of ensuring cut work and trims were available to
people (cutting room and stores), we worked with the team supervisor to identify problems.
Once production started, it was evident where the problem was. The visual clues were easy to
balancing problems were evident wherever a sewing operator at a machine was waiting for wor
a pile of garments was waiting to be sewn on an operation. We asked the sewers who had
stand up at their workplace so that we could immediately see what the problem was wit
operations. After relayout, we could easily see every machine and their stock of work, so we
operator who had with him more than 10 garments, waiting to inform the supervisor so that ti
could be taken.
The supervisor monitored the number of garments with the team and number of garments o
every 30 minutes, to see if the required number of garments were being fed in, processed th
taken off the line.
The supervisors were subsequently trained to do a simple cycle time measurement of a sewi
so that she could see how many garments per hour the operator could stitch. If it became cle
operator could not reach the required quantity even after being shown the better method, then
resource was required to be put on the operation to take away any handling, or manual wo
trimming. The I.E. department was also tasked with analyzing the operation to see if any wo
passed to another operation or eliminated.

Line Balancing Analysis charts

In the July issue of StitchWorld, there was an interesting article on the meaning of Measure of T
I am sure the debate still rages over some of the definitions in the article, one thing that st
something I have been saying to factories since I started as a Trainee I.E. Cycle tim
important than standard time as it gives an accurate indication of what can be achieved.
Balancing charts can be used for simple balancing or as more detailed tools for analyzing wor
and eliminating non-value added activities.
Case Study 1 Ladies Leisurewear Manufacturer, Sri Lanka
In the case discussed above, we trained the team supervisor to carry out cycle times on
operations, and to make decisions on whether to push the operator to achieve the time, add a
reduce handling, increase the number of operators, or call for I.E. help to change the method.
The I.E. team was trained to use a balancing chart to ensure all operations could be achie
required cycle time, and also for analyzing bottleneck operations.
The bar chart 1 shows variation in work content, with the red line showing the average time pe
This was created from taking the cycle times of every operation. The diagram clearly showed
operations like 4, 6, 7, 10, 18 and 23 needed additional operators for a better balance to be ach
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The bar chart 2 shows the balance achieved with additional operators added. If we notice we s
operators being appointed in bottleneck operations 4, 6, 7, 10, etc. while no action was
operations 5, 9, 11, etc. It was because the trimming was added to these operations to balan
from another operation.
The production output from the 32-operator team averaged 92 pieces per hour, even after ba
some of the above operations with additional operators; the average output was at 110 pieces p
The I.E. department with the JAAF team tackled all those operations above the red line (avera
operation), and those operations with little work content.
Operation 1 and 3 join together
Operation 10 removed trimming and added to
operation 11
Operation 14 and 15 join together
Operation 19 add an operator

Operation 8 removed trimming an

operation 9
Operation 12 and 16 join together
Operation 17 improved the handli
Operation 21 add an operator

The result of the changes (shown in the balancing bar chart 3) was decrease in number of ope
32 to 31 and an increase in output to 115 pieces per hour; an increase in productivity of 29%
output per operator. The balance was still not ideal, but was improved and could be improved
more study.

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Case Study 2 Contourline, Sri Lanka

Contourline makes sportswear products and is a great example of implementing lean
manufacturing practices. The management team, under a strong leadership, has driven major
flow and pull of work.
One of their major achievements was to set up a sewing team working to a takt time on all oper
balancing chart was used to analyse the details of each operation (bar chart 4) to ensure
operation could be achieved in less than the takt time required.
Thread breaks, bobbin changes, and other occasionally occurring elements were added to the
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and 5-10% extra time per operation was added for variations in material, speed, han
unforeseeable interruptions.
The detail of the balancing chart makes it easy to see which operations need to be checke
joined, and also where the attention needs to be applied on the pick up and alignme
machining, or check, trim and placing work aside.
The operations are performed in linear sequence, i.e. operation 4 is performed after operation 3
15 is performed after operation 14, and so on
Operation 4 was allocated the trimming from operation 3. The trimming was of thread end
the operation, not separation of the garments, for example, the thread ends left after s
waistband.
Operation 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 18, 19 an operator was added.
Operation 15 was allocated the trimming from operation 14.
Operation 21 the handling was changed to present the work for operation 22 in a way th
the handling on Operation 22.
The outcome (as shown in bar chart 5) was a sewing team where every operator completed th
less than the takt time required, and worked with a single piece flow from operator to operator.
was a predictable one piece every 27 seconds (0.45 standard minute takt time) which meant
per hour. There was no re-balancing carried out unless an operator could not achieve the takt tim
The takt time (red line in bar chart 5) is the rate of production required to meet the customer s
demand. In this case the customer order was divided by the number of production days availab
required rate of 1100 pieces per day. The takt time was calculated by dividing the working
hours x 60 minutes) by the required output.
Takt time = (9 x 60)/1100 = 0.49 minutes
Therefore every 0.49 minutes a garment needed to be produced. To give a little bit of security, th
was set at 0.45 minutes, which means the output (with 0 delay time) was 1200 pieces per da
for a loss of 100 pieces per day if any unexpected problems occurred.

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Conclusion
The initial balance and continual re-balance of lines is one of the most critical jobs for ensu
production. It is not an activity that can happen only once and then be ignored for the prod
unless you are running a one piece flow based on takt time. Every team supervisor must be
check cycle times and assess whether sewing operators are capable of achieving the time
required. Decisions can be made quickly using this simple tool.
Balancing charts can be a great tool for analyzing problems and balancing lines, but it takes so
collect the cycle times of every operator. Supervisors need to start with monitoring line input vs
to see if there is an imbalance, then look for the operations with lots of work. Cycle checking c
used to help deal with the bottleneck problems of balancing.

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