Improvement in sewing and cutting department

&
Reduction of DHU in sewing department

Aman Kumar
Md Nasir Hussain
 Introduction
DHU
• DHU stands for Defect per Hundred Units. It means number of defects found or detected per 100
garments. This is also known as DPHU (Defects Per Hundred Units).

• DHU value is calculated using following formula.

• Defects per hundred units = (Total defects found * 100)/Total garments inspected

• To measure DHU of any process, one needs to record number of total pieces checked and number of total
defects are detected in the inspected garments. It is number of defects not the defective garments. One
defective garment may have more than one defect.
•
Once we have record of the following information of a lot we can measure DHU of that lot using above
formula.

• Total pieces inspected

• Total defects found in those inspected pieces
 Objective
 To improve first time through yield by reducing DHU% of Cutting & sewing
department.

 Focusing on production of defect-free products.

 To improve quality level of the product.

 To reduce rework and rejection of the product.

• Sub-objectives:
 To study the whole existing production process and DHU reduction technique in cutting
and sewing department.
 To study on-going style and notice all the factors which causes defects.
 To modify the job description of employees working in cutting and sewing department.
 To modify the process flow chart in cutting and sewing department.
 To create a DHU sheet to record the hourly stitching defects in lines.
 To create a daily production sheet to record hourly production for each worker in a line.
 To create an excel sheet for calculation daily profit\loss in each line and in sewing floor
as a whole.
 Literature review:

• International Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences (January 2013. Vol.

1, No.4)

• A study was carried out in the garment industry named Opex & Sinha Textile
Group located at Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh at cutting, sewing and finishing
section to identify reworks so as to eliminate them for saving time, cost and
improved product quality.
• The study says that 21% lots fails to achieve required quality in cutting
department and 40%of the stitched garment do not pass the defect test at
Quality checkers desk for stitching problem and fabric problem as well in the
first time.
 Methodology
Study of previous quality system Week 1-2

Implementation of check sheets to capture defects in different departments Week 2-6

Training on concepts of quality, importance of maintaining correct data, usage of Week 3-7

the collected data to analyze and solve quality issues through the tools of
quality
Introduction of Inline Inspection on Sewing floor through a pilot run in one line Week 8

Training on the Sewing floor to QC’s, supervisors and checkers on filling in the Week 9

format and on making Cause & Effect Diagrams

Analysis of defects occurring in the check sheets implemented in various Week 10-11

departments and devising suggestions to improve upon them

Spreading of Inline inspection to other lines Week 12-16

Tracking of improvements and comparing them with previous situation in Week 14-16

different departments
Visual communication of performance. Week 15-16
Shades of India is internationally known as one of the India's most creative textile companies.
Led by Mandeep Nagi (Design Director) and David Housego (former UK journalist),
the brand combines contemporary design with the inspiring workmanship of traditional craft.
The uniqueness of its style lies in the texturing of fabrics, the coordination and contrasting of colors,
and the inventive, unexpected use of surface treatment.

The company is acclaimed internationally for originality and inventiveness of its designs and
has won various awards at major international trade shows including the best product awards
at shows in Paris and New York.
Mandeep Nagi , Design Director, has thrice won the Elle Decor Design Award in India for fabric.

Shades of India is a lifestyle brand that includes apparel,

textile jewelry and bags, and soft furnishings for the home.
Under Mandeep Nagi , it brings out new ranges each year for spring, summer and for the pre-
festive and festive seasons.
 Things we have done in 16 weeks period

• Observe the existing job description in cutting & sewing department and
modified it
• Modify process flowchart in cutting and sewing department
• Implemented Broken needle policy
• Set SOP for stitching operators
• Set SOP for handling light weight fabric
• Set SOP for handling white fabric
• Analysis DHU% in stitching department and suggest solutions
• Root cause analysis of defect
• Implemented cut parts packing system
• Suggest them to use hand towels to keep their hands dry
• Suggest them to aware the workers about QMS, Inspection systems, AQL,
their roles in quality management & improvement of business of the company
 Need of the Project(problem identification)

• After reviewing 4 lines for 1 month 6th January to 5th march . we noticed that the sewing floor was Lacking in meeting
its required target . and some of the main problems were as following:

– Lot of reworks ( around 50% of the garment require some kind of alteration after being Checked by the quality
checkers).
• Both man & machine problem was involved.

• wrong panels , cut\damaged panels were being attached.

• Size mismatch was happening.

• Stich was a mail factor which was causing the re-work.

• Machine were lacking maintainanace .

• Daily line planning was not being done according to the styles.

• Workers were lacking required training & motivation .

• No DHU sheets were there to record the defects or defect% happening.

• Hourly target sheet was not available for every worker in a line.
 DATA COLLECTION & ANALYSIS:
Format Used to monitor DHU IN Sewing department :

This format was made to record the defects and defect % happening per hours
In each line on the floor.

The format was given to Quality checkers and they were asked to fill it .

The filled DHU sheet was then reviewed , signed and remarked by Line Supervisor, Production Manager , and Quality
Manager.
IMPECT OF THE PROBLEM :
Sewing floor was not meeting daily set target.

A lot of rework was happening which was causing a big loss of manpower and time and money.

Industry was missing its delivery dates every now and then , or they have to extend the delivery dates.

This was causing a big loss of money on the daily basis

•
Justification: to calculate the daily financial loss the was happening to the
industry , we made a excel sheet in which we can have line wise loss data as well as
floor loss on a daily basis.

FORMUALE USED =
(Total cost of pcs
produced in a day –
total manpower
expense on that day )
 DAILY PRODUCTION REPORT
To note down the hourly production by every worker in a line , we made a
Daily production report which record piece produced by each worker per hour.

 This sheet helps to record the hourly production of pieces and to know the at which particular worker
the garment is taking much time.
 This helps the line supervisor to plan the line and even change the sequence if needed.
 The sheet was finally reviewed , signed and remarked by Line supervisor and Production manager.
 This sheet helps in controlling the WIP in a line.
 Analysis DHU% in stitching department and
suggest solutions

10 Defects on sewing floor from 20 Jan 20 to 12 Feb 20

Fabric Fault
8.98
9 Color Variation

Broken + Skip
7.82
8 7.63 Stitch
7.26 7.2 Misalignment
6.96 6.8 6.84 1%
7 Roping
3% 3% 3%
Puckering
7% 13%
6
1% Joint Out
5%
3% Balance Out
5 2%
3%
Slip + Uneven top
8% Stitch
4 Stitch missing
11%

2% Unmatch Stickers
3 10% 6% Uneven Raw
Margin
2 18% Pleats

Pintucks
1
Incorrect label
Attach
Incorrect tacking
0
JUNE-19 JULY-19 AUG-19 SEP-19 OCT-19 NOV-19 DEC-19 JAN-20
Uncut Thread
DHU%
 Mainly Occuring defects in sewing line
3.5

2.5
Incorrect label Attach
2 Uneven Raw Margin
Stitch missing
1.5
Slip + Uneven top Stitch
Joint Out
1
Broken + Skip Stitch

0.5

0
3rd week
3rd week 4th
4th week 5th week
week 5th week 6th
6thweek
week 7th
7th week
week
2016 2016 2016 2016 2016
 Further Scope of work
• To improve first time through yield by reducing DHU% of
every department.
• Focusing on production of defect-free products.
• To improve quality level of the product.
• To reduce rework and rejection of the product.
• Benefits of improvement in FTT%
• Increased capacity
• Improved product quality to customer