Application of Lean Tools to Improve Productivity in a Garment Manufacturing Company

Traditional garment manufacturing companies in Tiruppur are facing problems like low productivity, high rework and rejection, high cycle etc. Applying lean tools in micro sized companies are very challenging because of poor planning and execution. The organization's attitude and illiteracy about lean techniques are one of the major bottle necks for implementing lean manufacturing concept. This research addresses the implementation of lean tools in a garment manufacturing company. The main issue in their export is meeting the deadline and many times delayed delivery occurs. The objective of this research is to evolve and test various strategies to reduce idle time of workstations and improve the productivity. This paper briefly describes the application of cause and effect analysis, Pareto charts and time study techniques, value stream mapping, line balancing to improve productivity. Flexible line balancing software version 3.0 has been used to simulate and detect line efficiency. It is observed that by the implementation of Lean tools meeting production dead line was highly encouraging.