The garment manufacturing industry in India even after many years in operations is still working as an unorganized setup where there is no structured method of skill based classification for operators, which is not only instrumental in the growth of company by streamlining its manufacturing processes but also helps in the performance review of the operator and define reasons and methodology for training and re-training of operators in its factories.
Bejaya Kumar, BE in Industrial Engineering & Management and working as a Lean Six Sigma Coach in Australia discusses a scientific approach to operator management. Earlier, before migrating, he worked for Gokaldas Images, Gokaldas Exports, Shahi, and Bombay Rayon to mention a few.
It is increasingly becoming important to manage workers to get optimal productivity and efficiencies even as workers, more so trained workers are becoming scarce. Traditionally, workers were easily available and were not an expensive input in calculating cost of production, so factories did not think too much about managing them more efficiently. Secondly, when workers with certain skill sets were required, contractors were approached for quick solutions. But things have changed as companies started realizing the cost of new recruitment andtraining. Now a majority of operators are employees of the company who are not only working on wages, but are also looking for growth.
In this scenario, it is very important to first know the skill levels of each operator and keep track of performances to work out the right balance of different grades of operators for every line in every factory and offer incentives and growth opportunities to ‘performers’. One of the most important factors that aid the development of an effective skill matrix is the commitment of the management for honest implementation of procedures and practices defined in the worker management process. A comprehensive policy needs to be made for effective implementation.
It would be much more fruitful if an IE team is responsible to devise, decide, and standardize the methodology to be used for evaluation and recruitment of new employees to work at various positions in the production team of the factory (Floor In charge, Line Supervisor, Time Study/Work Study Engineers/Analysts, Defect Analysts, In Line QCs, Endline QCs, Operators, Checkers, and Ironers).
Although, managing workers is a complex job, but still an attempt can be made by dividing the process into 5 core areas:
- Grade Review of existing operators – Defining the grade for each worker in the factory based on scientific evaluation.
- Grade Fixation for new recruitments – Defining a procedure to the skill levels on new operators.
- Grade Revision for operator growth – Devising parameters that determine if an operator has upscaled to a higher grade.
- Creation and maintenance of Skill Matrix Inventory for optimal utilization in line balancing.
- Creating a framework for multi skilling, cross training and retraining of operators.
The motive behind the exercise is to develop a database of skill availability in the factory and promote multi skilling of the operators for effective work allocation during batch setting. Data prepared in this system can also be used for performance appraisal of the operators.
Grade Review
For a factory that has no grading of workers the task is even more difficult as each worker has to be analyzed by a senior industrial engineer based on either evaluation of minimum 3 months’ production data or a series of tests as laid out in the “Criteria for Operator’s Grade Fixation” box as given here. For those companies that are already grading their operators the same method can be used to review and verify if the grading are in line with the parameters defined. It is also critical to award operators for attendance and loyalty towards work. For this a workable formulae is to define a minimum required attendance of 80% of factory working days, while the rest 20% is given as allowance. For example, if factory has worked for 300 days in the year, operator should have attended for minimum 240 days (80%); 45 days of authorized leave (15%); 10 days of ESI (3%); and 5 daysof unauthorized leave (2%). Higher deviation in the set per cent would result in disqualification.
| Operator Grade Review Slip | |||||||||||
| Date: | Factory Name: | ||||||||||
| Operator Name: | DOJ: | ||||||||||
| Over All Experience: | Present Grade as per the Records: | ||||||||||
| Wage as per records: | Evaluation Done By: | ||||||||||
| No Of Sewing tests to be Given: | No Of Easy Tests: | ||||||||||
| No Of Difficult Tests: | |||||||||||
| Operation | Complexity (Easy/Difficult) | Time Required | Time Taken | Fabric Quality | Rating Criterions (Scale Of 10) | Avg Rating | Remarks | ||||
| Quality | H-E Co-Ord | M/C Control | H-E Co-Ord | Speed/
Pace |
|||||||
| Average | |||||||||||
| Result: | Pass | Fail | (Please Tick | ||||||||
| Reason: | |||||||||||
| Proposed Grade | |||||||||||
| Wage as per Proposed Grade | |||||||||||
| Signature of Senior IE | |||||||||||
Grade Fixation
It is important to know which grade of operator is being employed; this also helps in determining the salary most appropriate for the operator. In the prevailing system, production managers in most factories enquire from the prospective candidates details like years of experience, factories he/she has served at (with proof), operations he/she can perform and output he/she can provide for those operations. The production manager makes a subjective assessment based on the information provided and fixes the salary/grade of the operator.
In the proposed system, the personnel officer of the factory should first verify the operator for basic information like educational qualification, years of experience and nature of work handled, factories served for, reason for leaving the previous employment and salary last earned (proof required) and then forward the candidature to the ‘Recruitment Supervisor’ or Industrial Engineer of the factory to evaluate the candidate’s IQ level, Hand & Eye Coordination, Colour Perception, Understanding and Grasping ability of the instructions given, ability to creatively devise easy means of doing work. (Operator recruitment test and the trainability test will be discussed in our October issue). Based on the findings the candidate is recruited in a certain grade with compensating wage.
It is very important to first know the skill levels of each operator and keep track of performances to work out the right balance of different grades of operators for every line in every factory and offer incentives and growth opportunities to ‘performers’.
Grade Revision
It is important to revise/upgrade the operator for wages revision of scale on a quarterly basis, based on their performance in the quarter. This helps to develop, update and monitor skill matrix available in the company and also promote multi skilling of the operators while encouraging them to give a consistent productive output.
The most effective way to revise grades is to first list all operators working on the floor team wise with detailed information of existing workers and their grades and skill levels. Then one month’s full (30 days) production data of all the workers is collected and a point table has to be designed by IE to reflect the consistency of the workers in their work. By this method each day’s production by each of the worker is evaluated using the point table and is accordingly awarded points against that day’s performance.
Further average of such points is taken for the entire month. Those who crossed more than 50% of work efficiency are considered eligible for upgradation. Further filtration is done by taking out a quarter’s attendance details of each of the workers who have satisfied the above said criterion. After the approval of personnel officer, IE prepares the final list of workers eligible for grade change in consent with personnel officer.
Skill Matrix Inventory
The above details of individual skills are recorded based on targets and day wise efficiencies, and based on this collected data, the IE department can analyze monthly the records to obtain the information on operation wise operator’s availability and rate at which each can perform the operation. Also, operator wise listing of skills (not operations) they have expertise in and rate at which they can perform the operation. For example in operator’s skill metrix below, Dolee can do superimposed straight seam at 80% rating but superimposed curved seam at 70% rating. This matrix is very important in planning and balancing lines.
| Operator’s Skill Matrix (Inventory) | ||||||||
| Skills – Operators’ Names | Elastic attaching in multi needle chain stitch | Superimposed seam in O/L | Tape or Elastic attaching in O/L | SNLS with hemmer | Feed off Arm DNCS with lap seam folder | Zig zag SNLS | Superimposed straight seam in SNLS | Superimposed curved seam in SNLS |
| Ann | 50 | 50 | 75 | 75 | ||||
| Bell | 100 | 100 | ||||||
| Cherie | 75 | 50 | 50 | 100 | ||||
| Dolee | 75 | 75 | 25 | 100 | 80 | 70 | ||
| Evan | 75 | 50 | 100 | |||||
| Frank | 100 | 100 | ||||||
| Gail | 75 | 75 | 50 | 50 | ||||
| Honey | 120 | 120 | 100 | |||||
| Iris | 50 | 50 | 100 | 75 | ||||
| Jane | 120 | 120 | ||||||
| Kate | 50 | 75 | 75 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 25 | 25 |
| Lyne | 75 | 50 | 50 | 75 | 50 | 75 | 50 | 50 |
| Mary | 100 | 110 | ||||||
Multi Skilling, Cross Training and Retraining
To develop a strong resource base and optimally utilize the available of manpower, machinery and equipments while motivating and promoting personal growth to contribute to the improvement of productivity, it is critical to continuously train workers. For this a training/retraining/cross-training section in every factory requires to be setup.
Preparing a training schedule/syllabus covering all aspects of garmenting, consistently arranging training sessions during the lean period of production (between styles) at factories, motivating the operators to pick up more skills by considering their skill set for appraisals/incentives, and recognizing the operators who are consistently less efficient and retraining them at training sections, will upgrade not only the operators but also the performance of the company as a whole.
