Improvement of the Line Efficiency of a T-Shirt Manufacturing Unit Using Eight Waste of Lean Tool

Abstract

Lean manufacturing is a systematic approach accepted worldwide to improve a production system by identifying and eliminating wastes in the form of non-value-added activities through continuous supervision. As garment exports has been one of the major driving factors of Bangladesh’s economy, so improvement in garment manufacturing process has become need of the hour for emerging and sustaining as a global leader in this sector. This study focuses on the utilization of a lean tool to analyze the performance of each operator also identifying the lowest-performing operators and improving their performance thus increasing the efficiency and productivity of knitwear (t-shirt) manufacturing unit. This work has identified different problems regarding wastes and weaknesses of operators existing in the sewing section using 8 wastes of the lean tool. The work of each operator has been measured using work measurement tools such as time study and method study and measures were taken to resolve the issues that hindered the efficiency of that production line. After implementation of the lean tool and with the help of time study, the standard minute value of operations was reduced. Likewise, the non-value-added activities nonproductive time of operators were reduced, hence the operator’s performance and line efficiency were improved.This research was conducted to increase the productivity of a garment sewing unit using the lean tool so that this will help improve the operator’s performance and also have a positive impact on the overall t-shirt manufacturing process.