Lean manufacturing tool series -18 (5 Why)

5 Why? Simple but effective lean tool:

Just like any good mechanic, a good lean expert should have many tools to help them do their job. While a mechanic may be fixing something under the hood of a car, a lean expert will be fixing something under the hood of a business. Unlike a mechanic‟s troubleshooting, sometimes the real reason why something is not functioning inside a business isn‟t readily apparent, and there isn‟t a manual to troubleshoot it. Additionally, it may be masked by other problems that appear to be the real reason, or “root cause”, when in truth, it is only a diversion.
Avoiding this is a very important job of all people who work in a company, primarily a lean expert, or someone who works on the quality team. There are many ways in which the quality team can approach the problem, and the 5 why technique is one of them. It is designed to help get to the real root cause of a problem, so the cause can be addressed through a short term or long term corrective action. The corrective action, then, can be tracked for its effectiveness.
The 5 why system is one in which the simple question “why?” is asked at 5 different levels of a problem to get to the bottom of the situation. It was first used in the early 1970‟s by the Toyota Company, who is often credited with being the pioneer of modern quality.
If used correctly, it can provide a way to help identify the true root cause of the problem by using a feedback system. An added benefit is that it can be used both on an individual basis as well as a part of a group attack. It can, and should, also be integrated into the Kaizen, lean, and Six Sigma methods.
It can also be used in conjunction with other tools, such as root cause analysis software and fishbone diagrams to help aid in the discovery of the true root cause and identifying the cause and effect associated with it. While some other root cause analysis tools are complex and require experts to run them, even a two year old knows how to ask the question “why”, so the much more simplified approach is easy to adopt to the level of each individual worker.
Of course, it may seem like the five why method is too good to be true: a simple, effective way to approach complex technical issues that anyone can apply? This is the exact argument that most “five why” critics have used against the system: it is not as effective as thought.
The biggest argument is that, while it is purported to get to the foundation of the problem, in reality, most people stop at the surface level symptomatic issues that appear to be plaguing them on a daily basis. By asking the question “why?”, most will simply come up with another symptom instead of working their way back to the root cause. They will then fix the additional symptom, proclaiming to have found and corrected the root cause, when in fact the problem they were trying to solve never actually is fixed.
Another pitfall that the critics of this system claim detracts from its effectiveness is the tendency for personnel to stop at their level of knowledge or comfort, instead of digging deeper and thoroughly investigating the limits of their technical knowledge. It is too easy for the “five why” method to reward and promote the “quick fix” answer of simply satisfying the question “why”, instead of more thoroughly finding a technical answer.
Lastly, while simplicity is one of the merits of the system, it is also purported to be one of the downfalls. Because anybody can conduct the five why method, they actually do, and do not seek professional assistance in determining whether the “why” they submit is a true, actual “why” and not a surface level quick fix.

Figure (1) illustrates the typical conduct of solving the answer “why does the pump leak”. As can be seen, it addresses the fact that the seal inside of the pump bell housing is leaking fluid. While many companies and employees would stop there, instead, this technique requires the champion to go much further and address the reason why the seal leaks.
Of course, there can be more than one “why” to every reason, as demonstrated by Figure (1). The seal could leak because of improper installation of the seal, or possibly an inadequate seal design. Each one of those has their own “why” branches, which address the more subsurface issue causing the “why” before it.
As stated earlier, anyone can use this method. However, care and consideration should be taken to at least fully train the personnel who will be in charge of leading the five why inquisition, as it is very easy to scratch the surface of the challenge and never actually dig to the subsurface root causes.

The 5 why technique is a great tool when used in conjunction with other tools as an aide in finding the root cause of a problem. Like any other tool, it should be wielded by someone who understands how to thoroughly investigate problems and conduct a solid root cause analysis.



Prepared by:Md. Tarikul Islam Jony
Mail:jonytex073@gmail.com
+8801912885383

Industrial Engineering: General Work flow of IE Dept. in Apparel Industry

Industrial Engineering: General Work flow of IE Dept. in Apparel Industry: Scope of an IE Personnel: Direct Activity: •Capacity Planning •Resource Planning •Production Planning •Supply Chain M...

Does Worker Happiness Lead to Improved Work Performance?

Background:

      Through decade long process improvement & consulting experience, I will say one of the commonly seen major problem of apparel manufacturing industries are worker turnover, absenteeism and their low involvement in process improvement, which gets converted into low productivity, poor quality, increase in wastages and low profitability. This entire problem has a direct relation with worker happiness. 

Global companies like Google, Amazon and many other most successful companies growth and innovation comes from their happy and dedicated employees. These companies have taken serious initiative for improving employee happiness.

Many people would argue, “these are big MNC companies and they have deep pockets and resources” although the argument is more of a myth than a truth. Let us understand how even a small and medium size apparel manufacturing company can even get benefit from - “Worker Happiness Index”.

How to Measure and Analyse Worker Happiness Index?

There are various ways and means to measure the happiness index although it depends on company, to what sophistication level they want to measure and analyze the happiness index.

• Data recording for happiness index:

  1. A well-designed check-sheet format could be used for capturing each worker happiness or grievances.
  2. There could be simpler ways to capture worker’s happiness. For initial identification, organisation could place two baskets named happy and unhappy and each worker could be given similar ball to put in basket. This would help organization to understand quickly percentage of unhappy workers. Incase of high percentage of unhappy workers, in-depth data collection could be initiated in future.

• Understanding situation better through data analysis and various graph, charts:

  
  1. Department wise happiness and unhappiness percentage should be captured every month. 
  2. Reason for unhappiness / grievances category should be analyzed through pareto chart. 
  3. To get the company wide complete picture of worker grievances Radar chart can be used for quick understanding.

• Improve worker happiness through problem solving & implementing simple and innovative solutions:

  1. Once data collection and analysis is done, there are various tools for root cause analysis like: Fish bone diagram, 5 why analysis & Brainstorming etc.
  2. It is very important to select simple and effective solutions which can bring happiness to the worker and employees.
  3. It is very important to continue with worker happiness data capturing, even after it improves.

Benefits:

              Following benefits can be achieved through improved worker happiness:

• Reduction in worker migration
• Reduced absenteeism
• Reduction in excessive overtime
• Reducing the chances of ’worker unrest’ or ’worker strike’
• Increased work efficiency through higher output per person
• Improved quality through well trained happy worker instead of newly joined worker due to higher attrition
• Whole hearted participation in improvement projects which brings financial savings for management

Conclusion:

                  Most of us assume worker/ employee happiness can only come with increased salary, bonus or incentive. Well, they are important but many times it can be improved with simple steps, I have experience where a worker morale & happiness was improved through:

• Improving workplace hygiene, washroom cleanness
• Easy approval for ‘taking flexible holidays’
• Regular acknowledgement of better performance
• Initiating or Improving canteen facility, child care room, medical facility
• Eliminating misconduct with worker
• Regular worker training & motivation

Many times small changes can even bring happiness to the majority of workers. Improved worker & employee happiness not only improves the performance and profitability it also creates the momentum, which takes the company to the path of business excellence.

Published By: Manoj Singh

 Manoj Singh has wide experience of over 12 years in garment industry in

India and abroad. He has done consulting for over 7.5 years and his services has benefited above 70 factories in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar & Dubai. He has actively worked with Factories, Brands, and International funding agencies, Garment Clusters, Boards & Councils and other consulting firms.

General Work flow of IE Dept. in Apparel Industry

Scope of an IE Personnel:

Direct Activity:

•Capacity Planning

•Resource Planning

•Production Planning

•Supply Chain Management

•Inventory Management

Indirect Activity

•Costing

•Industrial Engineering

•Technical Assistance

•Production flow Control, process control

•Ergonomics and Human Factors

R&D

•Product Analysis w.r.t the available resource, capacity and future plan; and estimate the C.M of that specified product and assist to Merchandizing team.

•Production analysis and make report card of each product about actual cost, productivity and profit/loss.

•Assist with process improvisation during development level and sample making.

•Assist to Marker, Pattern section to improvise the marker efficiency and process

•Assist to Cutting Control, Finishing Control so that to get the desired Profitability

Prepared by:Md. Tarikul Islam Jony
Mail:jonytex073@gmail.com
+8801912885383

Yarn Count conversion chart

Count:

Count is a numerical expression which defines its fineness or coarseness of a yarn/Thread. It also expresses weather the yarn is thick or thin. A definition is given by the textile institute – “Count is a number which indicates the mass per unit length or the length per unit mass of yarn.”

Types of yarn count

     - Indirect system- English, Metric,          Worsted etc.
     - Direct system- Tex, Denier, Lbs/Spindle etc.

Most of us know that how we can calculate English count(Ne) or Tex or denier.If you dont know, just search by "What is count on textile?" on internet & you will find many articles.

So, today I want to discuss about the relation between some direct & indirect system. Some time its happend that you get a order sheet where customer discribe the thread count by "English count". But you want to order the thread count as "tex". In that cases, if you follow my chart given below, you can easily convert the count from one to another.

Example: A COATS Astra thread having 27 tex.Now we convert it to English count(Ne).

Then, Ne= 591/27

               =21.89.

Please make an excell chart as above picture & you can convert count easily form one to another.

Prepared by:Md. Tarikul Islam Jony
Mail:jonytex073@gmail.com
+8801912885383

All about WIP in Garments industries

WIP ( Work in Process):

Some people requested to write about WIP in Garments. Many of us don’t know that how to calculate WIP. Example, if we calculate cutting WIP, what it’s include? Only cutting parts or fabric laid on table or fabric kept in cutting racks for relaxation?  

WIP or Work in process means the unfinished items or products in a production process. These items are not yet completed but either just being fabricated or waiting in a queue for further processing or in a buffer storage. In garment manufacturing, WIP is generally measured in pieces (unit). WIP can be measured as:

WIP= Total pieces loaded in a process - Total pieces out from that process.

This is the WIP of that process.

To calculate current WIP level -

Cutting Room WIP: 

When one calculates cutting room WIP only stock cut pieces is considered as cutting WIP. Fabric those are layered on table or received from fabric store for cutting is not considered as WIP.

Cutting WIP = Total cut qty - Total qty input to sewing,
For example, Cutting room cut total 20000 pieces for style: A,B,C,D and 15000 pieces have been issued to sewing department. Then cutting room WIP will be 5000 pieces.

Sewing Section WIP: 

WIP level of sewing section can be calculated for a line, for a floor, even WIP between two operations.
Sewing Line WIP = Total pieces inputted to the line - pieces completed from the line.
For example, To Line 1 total 1000 pieces have been inputted for style A and total 2000 pieces have been inputted for style B. Total 1500 pieces are out from the line. Sewing line WIP is (1000+2000)-1500 = 1500 pieces for that day.

Finishing Room WIP:

Finishing room WIP = Total received from sewing - Total pieces packed.

If the goods having washing process, then the formula will

Finishing room WIP = Total received from wash - Total pieces packed.

Prepared by:Md. Tarikul Islam Jony
Mail:jonytex073@gmail.com
+8801912885383

Lean manufacturing tool series -17 (Cause and effect diagram)

Cause and effect diagram (Ishikawa Diagram):

A company has a problem that they need solving. For sake of example, it is a quality issue. So the company gathers a team together to figure out what is happening to truly cause this problem. They have all heard of a “root cause analysis”, and would like to find the true root cause that is causing this problem. They gather together in a room and start to brainstorm what the possible causes are. But they quickly realize that their brainstorming session isn‟t focused at all, but they keep going.

They come up with what they think is the true root cause, and find a corrective action for it. They implement the corrective action, only to find out later that while they have helped the problem, they haven‟t actually found or fixed the root cause. This is the hazard of not using the cause and effect diagram during a root cause analysis.

A cause and effect diagram, simply put, provides a way for the average manager or office worker to be able to effectively come up with a true root cause of a problem. It is a process that can be repeated by anyone with a basic level of understanding of the system or the processes involved. It also allows the team to be able to approach extremely complex problems and situations by breaking it down into the fundamental components of what usually goes wrong in most situations.

The first cause and effect diagram was created in 1943 at the Kawasaki Steel Works to depict the work factors involved with a process. Because of this, they are sometimes called Ishikawa diagrams, after the original presenter, Kaoru Ishikawa. They are also called fishbone diagrams in some circles because of their resemblance to fish bones.

It is very uncommon for a quality problem, or any problem in today‟s high tech world, to be simple. Often, they contain many different factors and interactions that are hard to conceptualize when sitting in a meeting room. A cause and effect diagram breaks these complex problems down into easier, more simplified components, so they can each be individually addressed for determining their root cause.

A good diagram will break down the issue into major causes and sub causes, leading to the eventual discovery of root causes, which is the end goal of all six sigma processes. It will also provide a visual understanding of the problem for all parties involved, leading to a better understanding of the problem, and provides a way to focus on the correct issues to discuss and analyze.

                                                               Fig-01

There are very few instances of brainstorming sessions that should not include a fishbone diagram. An example of a fishbone is contained in Figure (1). The cause and effect diagram should always start with the effect that you wish to change on the right side of the paper, in the case of the above example, the “Leaking Pump”. You should then draw the backbone of the fish, a horizontal line from left to right. Include the primary causes, or even just a general category of cause on diagonal lines that are alternating between above and below the backbone of the fish. This can be seen in Figure (1) by the categories of “Leaking Seal”, “Leaking O-Ring”, “Misaligned Leakage”, “Improperly assembled seal kit”, “Environmental”, and “Ruptured Seal”.
From those lines, you should branch off into additional diagonal lines that indicate the secondary causes, or the causes of the primary causes. For example, in Figure (1), the “Static vs. Dynamic” and “Cold Weather” causes are the root causes. From there, you can branch off a third time from each secondary cause, which will indicate the root cause that should be addresses. Not every secondary cause is going to have a root cause, as the secondary cause is sometimes the root cause of the problem. Figure (1) doesn‟t have any third level causes, as the second level each contain the true root causes.

Once you have done this, you should have a good, thorough, cause and effect diagram. From here, you should mark the causes that you plan on correcting, and then brainstorm a corrective action, or many corrective actions, that will address the root cause.

Theoretically, if the root causes of a problem are eliminated, the problem will either disappear, or be dramatically reduced. In reality, what happens in many situations, is that the problem changes into a new problem with the same symptoms, making it look like the root cause was not the true root cause. What actually happens is that the root cause changes, but causes the same problem. Many times, the reason for this is that the new root cause was being masked by the bigger, original root cause.

Many companies require all of their employees, from the hourly worker to the CEO, to be able to correctly make a fishbone diagram and participate in the root cause analysis. It is a simple process that can be understood by all, yet can lead to dramatic changes for the better. It is in a company‟s best interests to be able to fix a lot of their problems by using the cause and effect diagram by any and all personnel.

If a company is interested in a process that is simple, straightforward, and more often than not attacks the root cause of the problem, all employees should be well versed in creation and execution of a fishbone, or cause and effect, diagram.


Collected by:Md. Tarikul Islam Jony
Mail:jonytex073@gmail.com
+8801912885383