Improving the Productivity of the Sewing Section through Line Balancing Techniques: A Case Study of Almeda Garment Factory

Abstract

Nowadays, business manufacturers must have the ability to respond rapidly to customer demands. In order to have this power, the organization generally produces mass volumes of specific products. In mass production systems of specified products, assembly lines are generally used. In assembly production, imbalances are well-known problems. Line balancing (LB) is the leveling of the workload across all processes in a line or value stream to remove bottlenecks and excess capacity. Poor balance causes an increase in the production cycle time as well as idle time. This leads to lower efficiency and subsequently lowers productivity in the organization. Furthermore, this research addresses the implementation of line balancing concepts in Almeda Garment Industry (AGI). The existing operating Garment Industries are facing problems in fulfilling targets demanded by customers, resulting in the use of overtime, to overcome the problem, thus, increasing production cost. At an earlier stage, a review of the literature on productivity and different line balancing models was conducted, from the creation of the concept of productivity to its main tools and techniques. After understanding the concepts of line balancing, a description and critical analysis of the existing system in Almeda Garment Industry was made and the problem diagnosed. Improvement scenarios were suggested relating to resources, method change, and layout arrangement.

After implementation of some of the solutions, results observed were highly encouraging. Some of the key benefits included, increased balance efficiency (by 25.74%), reduced production cost by (-2.41 birr/pcs), a 35.5% increase in productivity and a production rate increase from 49 to 68 pieces per hour. In the last part of this thesis, results before and after balancing were compared.