Garment Manufacturing Process Lecture handouts Wollo University, KIoT

CHAPTER TWO

CAPACITY STUDY AND MACHINE LOADING

1. Introduction

The apparel and textile industry is a fascinating example of manufacturing and the supply
chain. This sector is under constant pressure, competition is fierce, and there are always rival
firms waiting to challenge. Competition will increase still more in 2005 when countries with
export quota restrictions to Europe and the USA are freed from those constraints.
In the heyday of garment production in this country in the 1960s, 70s and early 80s,
manufacturers named their price based on their costs plus profit. They offered ranges of
garments to the retailer or wholesaler. After the latter had made their selection, they placed a
firm order for a substantial quantity and expected one large delivery a few months later.
This scenario has completely changed. The retailers now drive the garment supply chain:
• They know exactly what they want in terms of actual merchandise
• They dictate price according to consumer pressure and expectations (designers must
work to price points -costing is done on a price minus basis, squeezing the
manufacturer’s margins)
• They decide when they want it and in what quantities - not all at once but as per a
predetermined delivery schedule, that could last over weeks, and change at any time!
The retailer wants to remain as flexible as possible, responding to consumer demand as
accurately and as quickly as possible. They use technology (such as EPOS – Electronic Point
of Sale) to gather this information and seek suppliers who can respond to their needs. It is the
same in many other sectors such as the food chain for example.
The main problems in clothing manufacture include:
• Strong traditions, for instance in the culture of organizations, job design, work
organization, and the way operators are paid; it is the same for their suppliers
• Unresponsive and inflexible production systems
• Fabric/cloth purchasing difficulties: due to the nature of the process this takes at least
two weeks to produce and often much longer.

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Garment Manufacturing Process Lecture handouts Wollo University, KIoT

Many companies, such as the Spanish group Inditex (who own the Zara retail chain), reduced
this problem by restricting the base fabrics their designers can use. Few retailers work like this
and are therefore faced with anything between 4 and 12 week lead times, immediately
restricting responsiveness and flexibility. Bennetton were the first to pioneer this flexible
approach with their grey state garments that were dyed. Jaeger then adopted the same
approach.
Global sourcing in the clothing industry brings cost advantages as labour costs can be
drastically reduced. In an industry that is still very labour intensive and with retailers
squeezing margins, this is very important. But lead times, responsiveness, and control can
sometimes suffer as a consequence of distance.
The pressures in this dynamic market place include:
● Customers demanding more new fashions than ever before at lower prices
● More styles per season leads to fragmentation - more styles to control in smaller
quantities
● Smaller order quantities lead to increased volume of orders
● Small orders need smaller sewing teams, which leads to increased management and
planning
● Shorter lead times – commitment to production takes place later each season
● Changing customer requirements
● Demands for accurate order information
As in any other industry, to remain competitive manufacturers need to:
● Deliver on time
● Improve productivity
● Respond quickly
● Reduce WIP
● Deliver to a price
● Reduce excess costs such as overhead
● Introduce best practices
● Achieve accurate and consistent information.

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Garment Manufacturing Process Lecture handouts Wollo University, KIoT

Fire-fighting is no longer an option. Change is essential in order to survive, and good control is
fundamental. Failing to plan results in bottlenecks, unnecessary style changes, lack of
prioritization, and unclear order status. The result is loss of customer confidence and loss of
future orders.
“The key word is value. How can a company create the most value for its customers and thus reap
the profit growth needed to sustain the company?”
The solution is to install a systematic and detailed approach to production planning, but the
textile industry is notoriously traditional. In too many businesses, departments still operate
as functional ‘islands’. Managers may talk to each other but work is uncoordinated and
ineffective.

2. The Planning Process in Clothing Manufacture

The basic process includes the following stages:

1. Receive the order
2. Plan to check if there is available capacity in sewing to achieve the delivery date
required
3. Plan to check the available capacity in non-sewing areas (cut, embroidery; print, wash
and pack)
4. Plan to check sufficient lead time to order and receive fabric, trims, approve sample,
carry out lab tests
5. Confirm delivery date to customer and reserve capacity
6. Communicate plan to all departments
7. Monitor progress against plan
8. Re-plan as required and return to Point 5.
In an ideal world, this cycle would be carried out in a systematic way. No plan is ever perfect,
but all that we have learned about total quality management reminds us that we must aim at
the ideal rather than settle for ‘Acceptable Quality Levels’ that have a built-in failure rate.
Although the first priority is the customer delivery date, the factory must also consider the
best place to make each product, taking into account both skill and machine constraints.
Production efficiency depends upon this. In the clothing industry, planning will typically focus

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Garment Manufacturing Process Lecture handouts Wollo University, KIoT

on sewing, as it can account for up to 80% of the skill and resources required. However, the
capacity constraints of supporting areas also have to be assessed. In particular, the pre-
production events must be planned to ensure that production begins on schedule.

3. Basic Capacity Calculations

In Apparel Manufacturing, “Production capacity” is one of the most important criteria used
for vendor selection by the buyers. It is because; the production time of an order is directly
proportional to the vendor's production capacity. So it is very important that marketing and
planning personnel should be aware about the production capacity of their production units.
Capacity of a factory is primarily expressed in terms of total machines the factory has.
Secondly, how much pieces does the factory produce daily for the specific products? In general,
the total number of machines in a factory mostly remains the same for a period. But factories
may produce various types of products during the season. According to the product (style)
category, machine requirement may change and daily average production in each style may
vary. So to be specific during booking orders, the planner should know exactly how much
capacity he or she needs to procure the order in a given time period.
A factory’s capacity is presented in total minutes or hours or in pieces (production per day).
The method used to calculate capacity has been explained in the following. To calculate Daily
production capacity (in pieces) one needs following information.
1. Factory capacity in hours
2. Product SAM
3. Line efficiency (Average)
1. Calculation of factory capacity (in hours): Check how many machines a factory has and how
many hours the factory runs in a day. For example, suppose,
Total number of machines = 200
Shift hours per day = 10 hours
So total factory capacity (in hours) = 200*10 hours = 2000 hours
2. Calculation of Product SAM (SAM): Make a list of product categories that you manufacture
and get standard minutes (SAM) of all products you make from work study engineers. Can
anybody estimate SAM (standard allowed minute) of a garment without seeing and/or

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Garment Manufacturing Process Lecture handouts Wollo University, KIoT

analyzing the garment? No. It is not possible. To estimate SAM you have to analyze the
garment carefully and check different factors that affect the SAM. SAM of a product varies
according to the work content or simply according to number of operations, length of seams,
fabric types, stitching accuracy needed, sewing technology to be used etc.
But still many of us inquire for approximate SAM values for basic products, like Tee Shirt,
Formal shirt, Formal trouser or jacket. An estimated SAM helps in capacity planning of the
factory, calculating requirement of machineries and even helps to estimate CM (cut and make)
costing of a garment. However, for better understanding I will suggest you first read articles
‘How to calculate SAM for a garment?’. SAM is a short form of standard allowed minutes. It
means a normal operator can complete a task within the allowed time (minute) when he works
at 100% efficiency.

Standard minutes (SAM) of few basic products have been listed down with its SAM range
according to work content variation. In actual cases garment SAM may go outside of the limit
depending on the above factors. This list will be updated time to time adding more products.

3. Factory Average Efficiency: This data is collected from industrial engineers. Or calculate it
with historical data. Suppose average line efficiency is 50.
Calculation of production capacity (in pieces): Once you have the above information use the
following formula to calculate production capacity.
Production capacity (in pieces) = (Capacity in hours*60/product SAM)*line efficiency

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Garment Manufacturing Process Lecture handouts Wollo University, KIoT

For Example:
Suppose a factory has 8 sewing lines and each line has 25 machines. Total 200 machines and
working shift is 10 hours per day. Total factory capacity per day is 2000 hours (200 machines
* 10 hours). If factory is producing only one style (Shirt) of SAM 25 minutes and used all 200
machines daily production capacity at 50%
= (2000*60/25)*50% Pieces = (2000*60*50) / (25*100) Pieces = 2400 Pieces
[Note: Production will vary according to the line efficiency and during learning curve or in the
initial days when style is loaded to the line]
Production (capacity) planning is normally done based on sewing capacity. Having knowledge
of the capacity in other processes (internal or external) is also very important. Otherwise,
planners may fail and will not be able to meet the deadline. Other departments such as Cutting
room capacity, finishing room capacity, Washing Capacity and capacity of the value-added
jobs.

4. Calculating Line Efficiency

Like individual operator efficiency, efficiency of a production line or batch or section is

important for a factory. Daily line efficiency shows the line performance. To calculate
efficiency of a line for a day, you will need following data (information) from the line supervisor
or line recorder.

1. Number of operators – how many operators worked in the line in a day

2. Working hours (Regular and overtime hours) – how many hours each of the operators
worked or how many hours the line run in a day
3. Production in pieces – How many pieces are produced or total line output at the end of
the day
4. Garment SAM – What is exact standard minute of the style (garment)

Once you have above data you have to calculate following using above information -

a. Total minutes produced by the line: To get total produced minutes multiply production
pieces by SAM

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Garment Manufacturing Process Lecture handouts Wollo University, KIoT

b. Total minutes attended by all operators in the line: Multiply number of operators by
daily working hours.

Now, calculate line efficiency using following formula:

Line efficiency = Total minutes produced by the line/total minutes attended by all operators
For example, refer to the following table. Data calculation formula has been given on the
header row of the table.

No. of Working line output Garment Total Total Line

Operator hours (production) SAM minutes Minute Efficiency
(A) (B) (C) (D) attended produced (%)
(E=A*B (F=C*D) (F/E*100)
)
48 8 160 44.25 23040 7080 30.73
48 11 240 44.25 31680 10620 33.52
34 8 300 25 16320 7500 45.96
35 11 400 25 23100 10000 43.29
35 11 329 25 23100 8225 35.61
34 8 230 25 16320 5750 35.23
34 8 200 35 16320 7000 42.89
35 11 311 35 23100 10885 47.12
34 11 340 35 22440 11900 53.03

5. Calculating Operator Efficiency

In apparel manufacturing, skills and expertise of a sewing operator is being presented in

“Efficiency” terms. An operator with higher efficiency produces more garments than an
operator with lower efficiency in the same time frame. When operators work with higher
efficiency, the manufacturing cost of the factory goes down.
Secondly, factory capacity is estimated according to the operator efficiency or line efficiency.
Hence, efficiency is one of the mostly used performance measuring tools. So how do you
calculate operator efficiency in a factory? To calculate operator efficiency, you will need

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Garment Manufacturing Process Lecture handouts Wollo University, KIoT

standard minutes (SAM) of the garment and operations your operator is making. Use the
following formula and calculate operator efficiency.

6. Efficiency calculation formula:

Efficiency (%) = [Total minute produced by an operator/Total minute attended by him *100]
Where,
Total minutes produced = Total pieces made by an operator X SAM of the operation [minutes]
Total minutes attended = Total hours worked on the machine X 60 [minutes]
Example: An operator was doing an operation of SAM 0.50 minutes. In 8 hours shift day he
produces 400 pieces. So according to the efficiency calculating formula, that operator’s overall
efficiency
= (400 x 0.50) / (8 X 60)*100%
= 200/480*100%
= 41.67%

7. On-Standard Operator Efficiency:

Operator efficiency can be expressed in more specific ways, like ‘On-Standard Efficiency’
instead of ‘over-all efficiency’. An operator may be attending all hours in a shift but if he has
not been given on-standard work to do in all hours, he will not be able to produce minutes as
per his capability and skill level. In this case, to know the operator's on-standard efficiency the
following formula is used.
Operator on-standard efficiency (%) = Total minute produced /Total on-standard minute
attended *100%

Where,
Total minutes produced = Total pieces made by an operator X SAM of the operation
[minutes]
Total on-standard minute attended = (Total hours worked – Loss time) x 60 [minutes]

Example: An operator was doing an operation of SAM 0.50 minutes. In an 8 hours shift day he
produces 400 pieces. Operator was idle ‘waiting for work’ for 30 minutes and his machine broke

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Garment Manufacturing Process Lecture handouts Wollo University, KIoT

down for 15 minutes in an hour's shift. So according to the efficiency calculating formula, that
operator’s on-standard efficiency
= (400 x 0.50) / {480 – (30 +15)}*100% = 200/435*100% = 45.98%
The above example clarifies that if an operator sits idle during shift hours his overall efficiency
will go down.

8. Difference between On-Standard Efficiency and Overall Efficiency

The On-standard efficiency of a line/operator will be higher than or equal to the Overall
Efficiency. If the employee works on the standard job for the whole day, the On-standard
efficiency and Overall Efficiency value will be equal.
In case, an operator does an off-standard job (spent sometimes in the off-standard job), the
On-standard efficiency will be higher than the overall efficiency.
Calculating the overall efficiency (for a line or an operator) is easier compared to calculating
the On-standard efficiency, as to calculate On-standard efficiency, you need to measure time
spent on the standard job.

2020 BY: ENDASHAW YOHANNES