Are you a C.E.O or an executive of a garment manufacturing and are wondering how to reduce the delayed shipments of finished garments? Answer to this question may vary significantly for different companies, as all companies have a unique set of people, resources, systems and business environment. You may not have one formula that fits all. Following are some causes and some ways in which these issues may be reduced.
People
Your employees, one of the most important asset of the business, employee's passion, motivation and effort can affect the quality of their work and ultimately your results. Does your planning officer know the correct stitching thread calculation technique, waste addition strategies, are they capable of making the right plans or communicate effectively? Find out the training needs and provide opportunities to develop.
Methods, processes or procedure
Your method or technique, for example how you plan fabric, accessories or stitching thread ? is that a correct technique?. Are your plan forwarding procedures correct/ is there a procedure to follow up pending information from the buyers? and what is the procedure for giving production go aheads?
You can do Business process re-engineering, keeping your customer in view, this means you need to review each procedure and change to make it more effective.
Lack of coordination in your department
Do you often find departments blaming one another for delay in shipments, stitching delayed because the cutting was delayed and cutting delayed because fabric was delayed and finally fabric delayed because of non payment to suppliers.
This mainly happens if the roles and responsibilities are unclear or inadequately laid out. Poor communication, lack of traceability also results in this situation.
Machinery and other systems
Your dyeing machine broke down, computer system not working or poor IT systems.
Poor quality of material supplied / unapproved suppliers
The quality of your output (finished goods) to a large extent, depends on the quality of your input (raw material) Low quality labels may bleed or get rejected at a later stage? You must carry out supplier appraisals, to get the right quality of input. What about other materials as stitching thread, buttons, zippers or packaging etc.
Careful examination of internal quality checks will certainly help. Pick any random order and see if the material quality approvals were taken and how long it took?
Managerial and leadership style
There are different leadership and management styles, varying from the autocratic to the democratic. Keeping the right balance between task and people orientation is important.
How often you communicate with your department heads, in which tone, do you have the right reporting system in place? you must maintain the right participation level which allows for the right balance in participation and reportin
As mentioned above every organisation is unique and thus may need different strategies to reduce air shipments. This may need a detailed managerial assessment.
You will first need to carry out a detailed assessment of your management practices and systems, start from your merchandising (order booking) department.
Identify the gaps
Develop an action plan to bring improvements
You may have a look at the consultation provided by the Textile tactics. Their Enterprise Performance Enhancer (EPE) tool may be of help to you.
Generally, You can train your employees, ensure that they are motivated enough to show passion and commitment, Identify the right methods, systems and procedures, for example check how much stitching thread/fabric/yarn is coming back in your store after order completion and why? this will help you identify the reason and accuracy of planning. At Textile tactics we have identified more than a hundred areas which may lead to improvement.
Having result oriented and structured production meetings (15-25 minutes) can help improve the co-ordination among departments and add proactiveness, though that will not be enough.
Your systems, computers, machines must be regularly and proactively maintained and updated and you leadership style needs to be preemptive, caring and professional.
You can also contact Textile tactics, get your merchandising or production planning department freely assessed and estimate improvements required.
Improve your supply chain performance, infuse adaptability and innovation.
The author is a Director has worked in the industry for eleven years.
email: info@textiletactics.co.uk
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