Implementing Lean Manufacturing in the Sewing Industry

Abstract

Lean manufacturing has been adopted in a number of industries including electronics, automotive, and consumer products manufacturing. Several industries are questioning the applicability of lean manufacturing principles. One such industry is sewing industry. This research is focused on extending the scope of lean application by implementing lean manufacturing in sewing industry. A sewing factory is selected for a case study. Characteristics of sewing are first identified. Value Stream Mapping is developed to identify wastes. Five types of wastes are identified and analyzed in one sewing production line: defects, inventory, overproduction, transportation, and waiting time. Applied lean techniques include line balancing, layout redesign, and quality-at-the-source. The impacts of these techniques on production are analyzed and an improved future state VSM is developed. Results show a reduction of 96% in production wastes and 43% in lead time.