SAM in Garment Industry

What is the Meaning of SAM in Garment Industry?

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As defined in the book Introduction to Work Study, ILO,

SAM is the time value arrived at for a task based on the average rate of output which qualified workers will naturally achieve without over exertion provided that they know and adhere to the specified method and provided that they are motivated to apply themselves to their work.

Here SAM stands for Standard Allowed Minute.


In garment industry, specifically in production SAM is used for measuring work. In the factory work study department (also know as Industrial Engineering department) measure and calculate SAM for sewing operation using standard calculation method. Read 'How to calculate SAM of the garment'
SAM is used many ways directly and indirectly. Some of those are

• Factory as well as individual operator performance is measured by means of SAM
• Labor cost and associated cost ratios are measured by SAM 
• Operators payroll and incentive amount is calculated based on earned SAM
• Latest production scheduling systems like line balancing system and performance measuring systems use SAM as one of the primary parameters. 

An organised garment manufacturing company can not think about managing and controlling shop floor without using SAM of the garment and  individual operations. Even apparel buyers do negotiation of garment manufacturing price based on garment SAM. 

To derive most appropriate SAM value of a garment, factories use PTS based systems. Standard Time is also derived from time study method.