Managing quality in decentralised manufacturing

1. Quality in Small Scale Industry:
Fashion Industry Perspective
A presentation by
Rajesh Bheda
Chairperson, Garment Manufacturing Technology
National Institute of Fashion Technology, India

2. Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at W
Importance of Quality
• All of us know it
• Needs no debate
• Most of us are here to share our
experiences on Quality
• Many organizations represented
here have an ongoing Quality
program

3. Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at W
Journey Towards Total Quality
and ISO 9000
• A well-defined milestone in the endless
journey towards Total Quality
• Credibility Brought in by third party
certification

4. Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at W
Quality in SSI:
• May be most used term But it is least
understood
• Commonsense that is not common
• It is like ten blind men describing an
elephant

5. Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at W
Key Concerns of International
Apparel Buyers
• Product Quality
• Dependable Delivery
• Competitive Price
“Better Quality at lower price”

6. Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at W
Increasing Quality Expectations Among
Apparel Importers and Retailers
• Consumers’ Quality Expectations have
gone up
• Consumer is too busy to come back to
complain
• Not Interested in Taking Special Care of the
Product
• Reduced Consumer Spending on Apparel
• Stores Can’t Afford a Dissatisfied Customer
• Working With Non-quality Vendors Costly

7. Consumers’perception of Quality
A recently conducted research
concludes that Quality of
Apparel sold in the US market
has declined

8. Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at W
Apparel Industry:
•Order quantities are reducing continually
•Highly labor intensive processes
•Labor controlled, not machine controlled processes
•Varied raw material
•Seasonal products with low shelf life
•Largely decentralized manufacturing
•Reserved for SSI

9. Q: Why do you face quality
problems?
A: We have no problems but our
suppliers don’t understand
quality
sub-contractors are not bothered
about quality

10. Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at W
Key to Quality in Apparel
Industry :Process Capability
• Without Process capability Quality can not
be expected
• It is the responsibility of top management to
ensure the process capability of different
process groups

11. Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at W
PLANT & MACHINERY
TRAINING
MOTIVATED PEOPLE
KNOW-HOW
SKILLS
QUALITY
INPUT
=
RAW MATERIAL
+
SPECIFICATIONS
QUALITY
OUTPUT
=
PROCESSED
COMPONENT
OR
GARMENTS
PROCESS MODEL FOR SEWING

12. Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at W
Team Working: An Asset for
Process Capability

13. Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at W
The Process Model
• Organic / Flexible
• Non-hierarchical
• Self Learning & Self
Correcting
• Knowledge Driven

14. Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at W
INPUT
PROCESS CHAIN
OUTPUT
=
PROCESS ‘A’ PROCESS ‘B’
• Output of previous process becomes input to next process.
• No substandard input to be given to any process.
• No process shall allow sub standard output to come out.

15. Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at W
The Benefits
• Promotes Knowledge Workers
• Right first time
• Reduced Inspection
• Increased Flexibility
• Minimum Repairs and Rejects
• Increased Productivity

16. Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at W
Reasons for Failure
•Belief that Quality starts with inspection and ends with inspection
•Mainly quantity driven targets for the departments
•Departmental goals may not synergise with organizational goal
•Have no idea about the Cost of Quality in their organization
•Do not have a clear quality policy nor do they demonstrate
commitment to quality
•Employees of these organizations are well aware of the ‘Chalta Hai’
approach of the management
•To the extent possible they would like to blame others for the
quality problems of their merchandise

17. Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at W
Choice is yours!
Promote Process
Capability in the Total
Supply Chain
Or
Wait for the Disaster