Improving sewing quality in ready-made garment industry of Bangladesh a case study

Abstract

At the present age, product quality is not only the customer requirement, it is also a competitive advantage for a business organization. Every business organization desperately trying to produce its products with best quality with low production cost. In the recent years, sewing quality in garments industries gets most priority from both producer and customer ends. Defects reduction is the first step to improve sewing quality and to reduce production costs in garments industries of Bangladesh. Higher quality can be achieved by reducing alterations in sewing processes in garments industries. To gain competitive advantages companies are giving more emphasis on assuring the best quality in sewing processes besides productivity and production cost. Identifying different sewing-defects and addressing them properly is the way of getting better quality, higher productivity and lower production cost in garments industries. This case study represents the application of the well-known and frequently used tool of Six Sigma, named DMAIC methodology in identifying and reducing or eliminating the major defects with their root causes in sewing processes in garments industries. The five phase of DMAIC methodology named Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control; this approach minimizes defects analytically. Pareto Chart Analysis Diagram was applied to prioritize top defects based on their nature and frequency. Brainstorming and literature review also helped to get some potential solutions to address this problem. In remedial action, a pilot run was conducted in some selected sewing lines the selected factory and significant result was found in terms of quality improvement in the scale of Defects per Hundred Units (DHU) and efficiency level also.