In one of my previous post I have written a detailed list of job profile of an Industrial Engineer. Read that post to know more on job responsibility of an engineer.
Recently I had a discussion with couple of engineers and I learnt that engineers have a bigger role in managing manufacturing processes rather than daily use of IE tools. In daily schedule they do constant monitoring of all production processes and lot more as below
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Recruitment of sewing operators through standard test.
Evaluation of existing production target and fix a new production target.
Extend work measurement in other processes like cutting section and finishing section.
Constant control of direct labor cost.
Data analysis and look into monthly trends of each KPIs
Preparing daily production reports, Monthly improvements reports with graphical presentation.
Time study and updating time study database including videos on constant basis.
Research on motion study and implementation of the better system to eliminate excess motions.
Research on new machinery and latest systems that meets companies long term goal and preparing cost benefits analysis and ROI for the same.
Initiative on lean manufacturing, learning of lean tools and looking for scope of implementation.
Research and development for samples prior to production start.
There are many more jobs for which engineers are responsible. If any project is being implemented in a factory related to production engineers lead the project.
It was just a couple of years back that demand of an industrial engineer has increased many times. Reason, an Industrial engineer can do a lot to improve performance of a company. But the fresh students passed out from educational institutes (Fashion institutes) acquired limited knowledge about the job profile of an Industrial engineer. Most of the jobs are learnt in factory by doing things. There are numerous tools and techniques which are used in by industrial engineers to establish an effective production system in the company. Without having such tools earlier production managers and line supervisors faced difficulty in measuring work content, garment costing, and production planning correctly, even it was difficult to finalize orders. Our team has worked to find out important tasks those are important for an engineer, and needs detailed understanding of production fields, included in the following.
Though job profile of an Industrial Engineer varies company to company, most of the job profile fall under following list.
1. Knowledge about various sewing production systems
2. Knowledge of all types of Sewing machine necessary for the company
3. Time study (Cycle timing)
4. Motion analysis of the operations
5. Operation break down
6. Preparation of OB (Operation bulletin)
7. SAM Calculation
8. M/C Layout and Work station layout
9. Line Set up
10. Production estimation of a line
11. Work Sampling
12. Method Study (Seeing Movements of an operation)
13. WIP Control
14. Line Balancing
15. Capacity study
16. Cost estimation of a garment
17. Developing and Maintaining Skill Matrix
18. Incentives schemes
19. Calculating Thread Consumption
20. Work aids, Guide and Attachment
21. Performance Rating An industrial engineer must have knowledge and skill on each tool and technique.
Implementation of all tools at a time is not needed. Engineer has to go step by step. Almost all work study tools and methodology are adopted from others industries and implemented to the garment industry. So each work study tool has guaranteed benefit if it is used effectively.
SAM or Standard Allowed Minute is used to measure task or work content of a garment. This term is widely used by industrial engineers and production people in the garment manufacturing industry. For the estimation of cost of making a garment SAM value plays a very important role. In past scientists and apparel technicians did research on how much time to be allowed to do a job when one follows standard method during doing the job. According to the research study minute value has been defined for each movement needed to accomplish a job. Synthetic data is available for each movements.
General Sewing Data (GSD) has defined set of codes for motion data for SAM calculation. There is also other methods through which one can calculate SAM of a garment with out using synthetic data or GSD. In this article both methods are explained in the following.
Method #1: Calculation of SAM Using Synthetic Data In this method 'Predetermined Time Standard' (PTS) code are used to establish 'Standard Time' of a garment or other sewing products.
Step 1: Select one operation for which you want to calculate SAM.
Step 2: Study the motions of that operation. Stand by side of an operator (experienced one) and see the operator how he is doing it. Note all movement used by the operator in doing one complete cycle of work. See carefully again and recheck your note if all movement/motion are captured and correct. (for example motions are like - pick up parts one hand or two hand, align part on table or machine foot, realign plies, etc.)
Step 3: List down all motion sequentially. Refer the synthetic data for TMU (Time measuring unit) values. For synthetic data you can refer GSD (without licence use of GSD code prohibited but for personal use and study one can refer GSD code and TMU values) or Sewing Performance Data table (SPD). Now you got TMU value for one operation (for example say it is 400 TMU). Convert total TMU into minutes (1 TMU=0.0006 minute). This is called as Basic Time in minutes. In this example it is 0.24 minutes.
Step 4: Standard allowed minutes (SAM) = (Basic minute + Bundle allowances + machine and personal allowances). Add bundle allowances (10%) and machine and personal allowances (20%) to basic time. Now you got Standard Minute value (SMV) or SAM. SAM= (0.24+0.024+0.048) = 0.31 minutes. I like to refer you an article Secret Behind Calculation of Machine Time in SAM for better understand of SAM calculation.
Method #2: Calculation of SAM Through Time Study
Step 1: Select one operation for which you want to calculate SAM.
Step 2: Take one stop watch. Stand by side of the operator. Capture cycle time for that operation. (cycle time – total time taken to do all works needed to complete one operation, i.e. time from pick up part of first piece to next pick up of the next piece). Do time study for consecutive five cycles. Discard if found abnormal time in any cycle. Calculate average of the 5 cycles. Time you got from time study is called cycle time. To convert this cycle time into basic time you have to multiply cycle time with operator performance rating. [Basic Time = Cycle Time X performance Rating]
Step 3: Performance rating. Now you have to rate the operator at what performance level he was doing the job seeing his movement and work speed. Suppose that operator performance rating is 80%. Suppose cycle time is 0.60 minutes. Basic time = (0.60 X 80%) = 0.48 minutes
Step 4: Standard allowed minutes (SAM) = (Basic minute + Bundle allowances + machine and personal allowances). Add bundle allowances (10%) and machine and personal allowances (20%) to basic time. Now you got Standard Minute value (SMV) or SAM. SAM= (0.48+0.048+0.096) = 0.624 minutes.
