8 wastage in apparel industry

What is wastage?

The Wastage rely on the type of material or element is an unwanted or undesired material or substance. It may consist the undesirable materials left over from a manufacturing process such as (industrial, commercial, mining or agricultural operations,). Or it may from community and household activities. The material may be discarded or accumulated, stored, or treated (physically, chemically, or biologically), prior to being discarded or recycled. It is also can say to describe something, what we use inefficiently or inappropriately. Like inefficiently or inappropriately thinking.

Example:

1. Any kind of activity that add costs or time but does not add any value.
2. Consuming more and more resources like Time, money, space etc, than are necessary to produce finished goods or service. Based on customer demand.

There are three thing at any kind of activity

1. Value
2. Pure Wastage
3. Incidental Waste

Figure: Activity

Value, Pure Wastage and Incidental Wastage are define such as:

Value: value or value added activity, to transform or shapes of the materials, value is what customer want or what the customer demand are. Done right the first time.

Pure Wastage: Actions that could be stopped without effecting customer.

1.       Consume resources but not create any value for the customer.

2.       Could be stopped and it would be invisible to the customer.

Incidental Wastage:   Any kind of Actions that need to be done based on how the current system but do not add value.

1.       No value create and required by current technology.

2.       No value create and required by current thinking.

3.       No value create and required by Process limitations.

4.       No value create and required by current process.

8 TYPE OF WESTAGE ARE GIVEN BELOW: DOWNTIME

Ø   Defect’s

Ø   Over Production

Ø   Waiting

Ø   Non Utilized Talent

Ø   Transportation

Ø   Inventory

Ø   Motion

Ø   Excess Processing

Details of 8 Wastage and common causes

Ø  Defect’s

–         Defective or scrap materials

–         Cost of inspecting defects

–         Responding to customer complaints

–         Rework or re-inspection of questionable materials

• Common Causes:

–         Emphasis on downstream inspection; questionable material passed on.

–         Lack of standard work

–         Material handling (transportation).

–         Process design/equipment

ØOver production:-
This wastage can be simply defined as doing
or making things those are not required now.
Actually over production generate excess inventory in garments. 

Over production means out of target which is not necessary.
Because our need accurate target achieve by any development method.

Common causes:

– Producing more than is required Quantity to make up for yield loss
– Scheduling production to forecasted demand
– lengthy changeovers or avoiding changeovers lead to large lot production

ØWaiting

Waiting can Consider with people, material equipment (prior runs not finished) or idle equipment (mechanical downtime or excess changeover time).  All waiting costs a company has in terms of direct labor dollars and additional overhead costs can be incurred in terms of overtime, expediting costs and parts. Its (Waiting) may also trigger of additional waste of defects, if the waiting triggers a flurry of activity to “catch up” that results in standard work not being followed or shortcuts being taken.

In the many ways, waiting is the opposite of overproduction.  However, it can be mitigated or eliminated with many of the same remedies.  Waiting is often the result of poor process design and can be addressed through proper measurement of takt time and the formation of standard work.

Common causes of Waiting include:

•           Unplanned downtime or idle equipment

•           Long or delayed set-up times

•           Poor process communication

•           Lack of process control

•           Producing to a forecast

•           Idle equipment

ØNone-Utilized Talent

The waste of underutilized talent refers to under-utilizing or engaging employees in a process. This could take the form of employees performing unnecessary work when their talent could be utilized in activities that add greater value, or not utilizing employees’ critical thinking abilities and feedback in processes. Underutilized talent also includes allowing employees to work in silos, which prevents them from sharing their knowledge.

Eliminating the Eighth wastes from a manufacturing value stream is the core of lean manufacturing. Lean manufacturers should be focus on building processes that make these wastes obvious so that they can be addressed–and improvements can be made–immediately.

Common Causes of Non-Utilized Talent:

• Poor communication Skill
• Failure to engaged people in workplace design and development
• Lack of proper strategy or inappropriate policies
• Incomplete measures or wrong measure
• Poor management
• Lack of team activity

ØTransportation

Waste in transportation includes movement of peoples, tools, inventory and equipment, or products further than necessary. Additional movement of materials can lead to product damage and defects. Additional or excessive movement of peoples and equipment can lead to unnecessary activity, greater wear and tear, and exhaustion.

In the office, workers who collaborate with each other often should be closer together. In the factory Level the materials necessary for production should be easily accessible at the production location and double or triple handling of materials should be avoided.

There is Some countermeasures and suggestions to transportation wastage includes developing such as U-shape layout for production line, creating flow between processes, and should not over-producing work in process (WIP) items.

Common Causes of Transportation Waste:

• Poor layouts Design – large distance between operations, Also Wrong Material flow
• Difficult System of material handling
•  Batch sizes are Larges
• Multiple storage facilities
• Poorly design of production systems

ØInventory

Inventory is considered as a waste because of the related holding costs.This inventory is true of raw materials, WIP and finished goods. Over Production and Excess purchasing or poor forecasting and planning can lead to inventory waste.  It may also happen due to signal a broken or poorly designed process link between manufacturing and purchasing/scheduling. Lean Manufacturing System does not just focus on the factory but also requires process  optimization and communication between support functions.

Purchasing, scheduling and forecasting can have a version of standardized work in the form of defined minimums and maximums and order points that are mapped to the process flow and takt time. Should be set "SOP" of Purchasing System ,Purchasing all raw materials only when needed and reducing WIP and eliminating or narrowing the definition of “safety stock” will reduce this type of waste.

Common causes of Inventory Waste include:

• Overproduction of goods
• Delays in production or ‘waste of waiting’
• Inventory defects
• Excessive transportation 

ØMotion
Motion is one kind of wastage because its directly effect on costs money.  This not only includes raw materials but its also includes on people and equipment.  It may also includes excessive  physical motion such as reaching, lifting and bending.  All kind of unnecessary motion results in non-value-added time and increases cost.
Here Again we can  referencing core methodology of Lean Manufacturing and process mapping of Lean System should include facility layout and optimized workplace design that includes analysis of the distance of motion within the required space as well as the area of parts, supplies and tools within the space as well.  As an all effective processes  map is developed, proper utilization of the space can be captured with well designed and documented standard work.

Common Motion Waste examples include:

• Poor workstation layout
• Poor production planning
• Poor process design
• Shared equipment and machines
• Siloed operations
• Lack of production standards

ØExcess processing
Excess processing or over processing  is a sign of a poorly designed process. It could be related to authority / management or administrative issues such as lack of communication, duplication of data , wrong decision, overlapping areas of authority and human error.  It may also be the result of wrong design of equipment , inadequate job station tooling or facility layout.
Appropriate Process mapping is a lean waste elimination tool , that helps define an optimized workflow that can eliminate over processing.  As a key method of lean production system, process mapping is not limited to the performance of production tasks. Its also includes all kind of  reporting, sign off and document control.
Examples of Excess Processing include:

• Poor communication
• Not understanding your customers’ needs
• Human error
• Slow approval process or excessive reporting

 BY
Engr. Rayhan Kabir
B.Sc In Textile Engineering