Topic
Line and operator efficiency: how it is calculated, what drives it, and ways to find lost minutes and improve it.
13 notes
5S is the workplace organisation method behind most lean programs. What each S means on a sewing floor, in cutting, stores and finishing, how to run a 5S audit, and how to stop it fading after the first month.
A bottleneck is the station that limits the output of the whole line. How to find it with WIP observation and capacity studies, the common reasons a station becomes a bottleneck, and practical ways to raise its output.
CM (cost of making) covers cutting, sewing and finishing. Learn how to build a cost per minute from factory costs, calculate CM from SMV and efficiency, and avoid the assumptions that make CM quotes lose money.
How to calculate sewing capacity in available minutes and in pieces, for a line or a whole factory, and how to use it to check whether an order fits. Includes efficiency, absenteeism, working days and a full worked example.
Line efficiency compares the minutes a sewing line earned with the minutes it had. Learn the formula, work through examples, understand what drives efficiency up and down, and avoid the reporting mistakes that make the number meaningless.
Kaizen means continuous improvement through small, practical changes. How to run kaizen in a garment factory: finding problems, the PDCA cycle, kaizen events, suggestion systems, and examples from sewing, cutting and finishing.
Line balancing spreads the operations of a garment across operators and machines so work flows at the target rate without piles of WIP or idle people. A practical step-by-step method with a worked example, balancing efficiency and common mistakes.
When a sewing line runs well below its planned efficiency, the cause is usually in a few places: the SMV, the balance, lost time, quality or people. A structured way to check each one and fix the biggest losses first.
Motion study looks at the hand and body movements in an operation to remove waste. Practical principles for sewing workstations, how to analyse an operation from video, and examples of improvements that shorten handling time.
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) splits losses into availability, performance and quality. How to calculate it for sewing, cutting and knitting machines, a worked example, and why OEE and line efficiency tell you different things.
A skill matrix records which operators can do which operations and how well. How to build one for a sewing line, how to grade skills with real efficiency data, and how to use it for balancing, absenteeism and training.
How to set an hourly and daily production target from SMV, manpower, working minutes and planned efficiency. Worked examples for new and running styles, learning curve targets and why a target at 100% efficiency is not a real target.
SMV is the standard time to complete a task at a normal pace, including allowances. Learn what it includes, how it is set, how it drives targets, efficiency, capacity and CM cost, and where it goes wrong.