Footwear is one of the trending sectors in Bangladesh. If we can keep pace with the competitive world, we could get a better position in the world. The economic and political change taking place in the world due to COVID-19 will also have a negative impact on the global market. So, it will be more challenging for us than before. Day by day, the global market is getting more competitive than before. In this situation, if we don’t update our business policies and technologies, we won’t be able to survive. Now most buyers will want to buy good products at low prices. And with this in mind, we have to make products. The term “good products at low prices” is the challenge for us which will determine whether we can capture the global market in the future or not. One thing to keep in mind while calculating the price is that the exported product’s price is determined before the product is manufactured and exported. Therefore, if the cost of production increases after producing the product in any way, there is no chance to increase the product’s price again. In that case, you have to face loss. Now we have to think about how we can deal with this challenge. Currently our most challenging issue is to reduce product’s price and maintain quality standards.
According to the rules, it is understood that if the value of downtime can be reduced in any way then the value of output time will generally increase. And if the value of output time increases, the efficiency must increase. And increasing efficiency will reduce the LOH cost of our products, which depends on whether we can capture the global market in future or not.
Now we need to know how downtime is and how to reduce it. In general, downtime means wasted time. It can be in eight ways. Those are defects, overproduction, waiting, non-utilized talents, transportation, inventory, motion and extra processing.
If we reduce these wastages, our output time will increase generally. So, our success depends on two factors. One is to eliminate these wastages and the other is to maintain quality standards. Now naturally a question may arise as to whether there is any technology at all to control these two factors. The straight answer is yes. And that is Lean Six Sigma.
Some people here may not agree with me. They will say that if we try, it is possible to prevent these wastages even in the traditional system. In this case, I would say, your idea is partially true. You can reduce the downtime using this traditional system but you can’t. Year after year we have been manufacturing following this method but have failed to bring any significant improvement. The system loss of this method is very high and it takes a lot of human efforts. And for this, modern technicians wanted to invest in such a manufacturing method that would yield better results with minimum system loss. The Lean Six Sigma manufacturing system has been invented in the continuation of that. You are a human being. You have more limitations than a system. It is not always possible for you to give continuous efforts. But Lean Six Sigma is such a verified system where the main function is continuity or continuous improvement. That means its main concept is continuous improvement of a process and increasing quality by reducing wastages and variation of processes with statistical analysis.
The point is, if people control the system, the output of that system can never be maximized. On the other hand, if the system controls people, then it is possible to get maximum output from that system.
Even then we couldn’t introduce this system in our footwear sector. I think the reasons may be lack of support, knowledge or resources, consultant, foresight, goodwill and due to conservatism and bureaucracy.
Now many wonder how it is possible to reduce wastages and variation of processes in this way. For this, I did research on an export shoe factory. I noticed that the production capacity of a baby shoe of that company was about 4800 PRs per day but in reality, it was around 3000 PRs. I started searching for the causes. I noticed that the output of the Cutting section was about 3000 PRs only. And that was the problem. Then I started statistical analysis such as process mapping, motion study and drew a spaghetti diagram of the cutting section to find out the root cause. I found that 51.48% of the time wasted was just for unnecessary motion and transportation. Then I planned and set up a layout of cutting section using the continuous flow strategy of Lean Six Sigma manufacturing system subject to discussion with the authorities. And then in three days we were able to achieve our target.
This statistic is based on seemingly motion or transportation. So, understand what results can come if a thorough motion study is done. Unnecessary motion is a waste that is happening in front of us but we don’t take it into account. We have to realize that a lot of time is being wasted in our traditional system, and it is reducing our productivity and efficiency. Ultimately, LOH is increased and as a result the price of the product goes high. If you follow the system, success must come. If not, then it is not failure of the system, rather an issue of proper implementation and execution of the system. The repercussions for failing to adopt to a new system will be future loss. In the current competitive situation, we must take the necessary and timely steps to update our system as soon as possible without any further delay.
The writer is Footwear Technician
and Researcher
