Development and implementation of lean manufacturing tools in garments Production

Abstract

This project is on “Development and Implementation of Lean Manufacturing Tools in Garments Production”. The goal of this project is to investigate how the tools of lean manufacturing can be adapted from the discrete to the continuous manufacturing environment and to evaluate their benefits at garments Industry. The project hypothesizes that there are big opportunities for improvement in the garments industries if lean tools are utilized. Although the process and discrete industry share several common characteristics, there are also areas where they are very different. Both manufacturing settings have overlap, but at the extreme, each has its unique characteristics. The objective is to look at commonalities between discrete and continuous manufacturing where lean techniques from the discrete side are directly applicable, and to also examine ways to do so in other areas where this may not be quite so straightforward. The objective is to systematically demonstrate how lean manufacturing tools when used appropriately can help the Apparel industry to eliminate waste, have better inventory control, better product quality, and better overall financial and operational procedures. The ideas are tested on a garments manufacturing company Biswas Group. Value stream mapping is used to first map the current state and then used to identify sources of waste and to identify lean tools to try to eliminate this waste. To quantify the benefits gained from using lean tools and techniques in the value stream mapping.