Production Plan Without SAM Value

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How to Make Production Plan Without SAM Value? [Q&A]

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Mass manufacturing in garment industry is growing in very fast pace and at the same time technology and supporting departments are getting in place. But the real fact is - still most of the garment manufacturing companies don’t have industrial engineering set up. It is not only Bangladesh, even in India and other garment exporting countries, there are many companies those are managed without engineers.

Last week I have posted an article ‘Role of SAM value in Production planning and control’ and this post is based on that question. Yes, there is a way to perform production planning tasks without garment SAM value. In this article I will show you the method.

The alternative way is calculating machine productivity to estimate line capacity as well as your factory capacity. To measure machine productivity of a line you don’t need any engineer. If one know the procedure and formula of calculating productivity of the production floor, can find machine productivity easily. Later this productivity data would be considered as base of production planning.

Method of calculating Machine productivity:

Machine productivity is defined as number of units produced per machine in a given time period. From the daily production and machine used to produce those garments you can measure machine productivity per day. Formula used to calculated machine productivity of a line

Machine productivity = (Total production of a line in a day / No. of machines in the line) pieces per day per machine

For example, suppose a line of 35 machines has produced 280 pieces per day (8 hours shift day). Machine productivity of the line

= 280/35 pieces per machine per 8 hours day

= 8 pieces per machine per 8 hours day

Finding daily line output data and machine numbers would not be a difficult job to anyone. Just for your information - style to style productivity will vary depending on work content of the style. So, you can prepare a database of the machine productivity for the previously produced styles. You can use historical data while required and update your machine productivity after each style gets over.

How to use productivity data in Production Planning:

To explain this I need to repeat few things that have been explained in earlier article. That I don't like. Using productivity figure you can measure following things those come under production planning functions

Factory capacity Calculation:
Suppose machine productivity of your factory for ladies blouse is 6 pieces per machine per 8 hours shift and you have total 400 machines in your factory. So daily production capacity of your factory for ladies blouse would be equal to 400*6 pieces or 2400 piece per day (8 hours shift).

Factory capacity calculation formula of a given product

Factory capacity  (in pieces) = (Machine productivity * No. of running machines in your factory)  

Other planning related tasks those can be performed using factory capacity and line capacity figures are as following -

• Lead time calculation
• Order booking  
• Order scheduling
• Cost per piece

You can also measure line capacity using labor productivity data. But machine number in a factory is more stable than manpower (labor). I would prefer to suggest you to use machine productivity in measuring your factory capacity in term of how many pieces factory can produce in a certain time period.

Would love to hear how you do planning where garment SAM is not measured.

Common Problems in Garment Production

What are the Common Problems Found in Garment Production?

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I would say there are infinite problems in garment manufacturing. A problem can be defined as a matter or situation that effects in production performance, product quality and on time delivery.

You could not find a single factory that works without having problems in production floor. Factories face various kind of problems while making garments in shop floor. Sometimes problems are never ending. When one frequently occurring problem is solved, a new problem comes out. Even problems are occurred in various forms in different processes.

A problem is not always a bad thing but it is also good to know your problems. Most of the problems reduce line performance, effect on delivery and product quality. By recognizing frequently occurred problem you can work for the betterment of the production process. Later you can increase performance in garment production.

Read what all problems I faced while working in garment production. And observed in factories fighting with problems.

Defect Generation in Sewing

At the end of the sewing line, when garments are checked, number of defective garments are found. Defect may be occurred due to defective material or defective cutting or defect may be generated at sewing stage. Or defect in garments may occur due to poor handling. Normally most of the defective garments found after sewing are repaired. Still in finishing stage, one finds number of similar defects. This is a big problem for unorganized factories. Sometimes operators or line supervisors make mistake due to poor communication. Inside quality there are hundreds types of problems.

Also See: List of Garment  Defects (Trouser)

Problem with Raw Materials 

Production floor doesn't get materials on time. Sometimes they receive materials in urgency but with substandard quality and insufficient numbers. Cuttings fed to the lines are not as per standard.

Delay in Production Start

Planning department makes production schedules but in many cases factory doesn't receive fabric before PCD (planned cut date). Line is ready with operators and machines but supervisor doesn't receive cuttings on planned date. Sometimes cutting department takes unexpectedly longer time. Delay in sewing may also happen due to delay in approvals from buyer.

Long Line Setting Time

Due to poor preparation prior to line setting, line setting time increases.

High Lost Time 

Many productive hours are lost by operators due to various reasons. This may happen due poor interdepartmental coordination, delay in completion of previous process, shortage of feeding, and quality issues. See 4 killer non-productive measures.

Operator Absenteeism 

With the operator shortage, operator absenteeism increases labour problem in sewing floor. Factories are paying attendance bonus to attract operators to present maximum days in a month.

Frequent Change in Production Planning

This is often happened in factories that production team loads a style to a line and certainly gets instruction to stop the style and load one urgent style. This breaks the production momentum and reduces line performance.

Insufficient Information

Factories conduct PP meeting and weekly meeting. Even after meetings, complete and correct information are not passed to production team. Due to delivery schedule pressure, bulk production is started without complete approval.

I know you are working in the garment production and facing new challenges daily. It would be great discussion if you kindly add your points here. I mean what problems you find in your factory frequently. Often visible problems are actually not actual problems but symptoms of real problems hidden in the processes.

We always want solution for a problem. But prior to looking for the solution you must study the problem and learn detailed knowledge of common problems occurring in garment production.