Contents

VISIT TO GENUS APPARELS Ltd. ........................................................................................... 2

AIM OF INDUSTRIAL VISIT .................................................................................................... 2
ABOUT GENUS APPAREL LTD. .............................................................................................. 2
FABRIC STORE ...................................................................................................................... 3
CUTTING DEPARTMENT ....................................................................................................... 4
MANAGEMENT..................................................................................................................... 5
WORKERS, EFFICIENCY AND CAPAC ITY ............................................................................... 5
MAINTENANCE ..................................................................................................................... 5
LEAN TOOLS THAT CAN BE APPLIED IN TRIM STORE OF GENUS APPARELS ........................ 6
1. 5 S ................................................................................................................................. 6
2. RIGHT FIRST TIME ......................................................................................................... 6
3. ANDON ......................................................................................................................... 6
4. JUST IN TIME................................................................................................................. 6
5. POKA YOKE (error Proofing) ......................................................................................... 6
6. MUDA ELIMINATION .................................................................................................... 6
7. PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) ......................................................................................... 6

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 VISIT TO GENUS APPARELS Ltd.
On 23 rd of November we visited Genus apparels Ltd. A Sub company of Parent company
Genus enterprises. The company manufactures garments and the process start from
buying the raw materials to making finished garments and dispatching them.
In this process they require various machines and equipment. The equipment and
resources should be kept well maintained in order to ensure desired plant availability
and.
So, In order to understand the whole process of maintenance of equipment and to make
students abreast with practical side of their coursework, an industrial visit to Genus
apparel Ltd., Faridabad was organized by Fashion Technology department of NIFT ,
Kangra for third year students.

AIM OF INDUSTRIAL VISIT

Industrial visit is considered as one of the tactical methods of teaching. The main reason
behind this- it lets student to know things practically through interaction, working
methods and employment practices. Moreover, it gives exposure from academic point
of view.
As maintenance is one of the major part of the industry and is required to keep the
Industry facilitate smoothly. Even a single breakdown of a small time can cause loss. So
the main aim of the Visit was to make students practically understand about importance
of maintenance in garment industry and how it’s done. Also the main objectives of
maintenance like

 To understand the pattern in which maintenance happens.

 To comprehend the efforts involved in maintenance, planning and Control.
 To deal with the planning and control of various maintenance engineering.
 To realize formal costing and budgeting to encourage predictions and Pre-
planning of maintenance activities.

ABOUT GENUS APPAREL LTD.

Based in Delhi (Faridabad – NCR region), since 2005, Genus Apparels is a trusted Hi-
fashion garment exporter. It mainly deals with Knits but in some cases in Wovens as
well. Their production capacity is 1 Lakh to 1.5 Lakhs knitted garments per month. Their
revenue was approximately 50 Crore last year and they plan to grow the same at 20%
CAGR for next 10 years. They have 300-350 employees out of which 190-200 are
Operators, 50-60 in management, merchandizing and industrial engineering.
In fabrics they offer; Cotton/Viscose/Vortex/Modal, polyester and all kinds of blends
and knit structures-Jersey, Pique, Ribs, French terry, Fleece, heavy fabrics, Thermals,

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Popcorn, Ottoman, Suede/Carbonized, Interlock and Jacquards depending upon the
order by the buyers. They do not have any minimum order quantity.
They mainly manufacture Polo T-shirt but they also deal with shirts, Dresses, Tops ,
Skirts, Trousers etc.
Departments they have are:-

FABRIC STORE
In fabric store the fabrics were sorted and stored. The fabric is stored in racks sorting
was done on the basis of style, buyer. The process followed in Fabric store is
 Raw material is outsourced
 Physical quantity is checked
 Quality Check(QC) (On table and On machine)
 Packed in a bundle.
 Stored

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  Dispatched to cutting dept. when needed

In Physical quantity check the material is

weighed. In table inspection the material is kept
on a table and its dimensions are checked. The
machine has rollers and its work surface is
inclined diagonally so the fabric moves easily.
Fabric inspection machines are designed to check
weaving, knitting defects and shade variation in fabrics. The fabric inspection machine
allows you to inspect and make necessary markings for QC. These machines are available
to detect errors in fabric that are not easily noticeable to the human eye. The Inspection
is done on 4 point system.
 If defects points are below 20, the fabric passes.
 If defect points are from 20 to 30 then fabric is under decision and then the
decision lies in buyer’s hands whether to pass it or not.
 If defect points are above 30, the fabric fails.

CUTTING DEPARTMENT
There is 1 cutting department which is centralized. First for every assembly line there
used to be separate cutting table and finishing table. But they found that 1 centralized
cutting table is more effective than individual cutting tables.
The problems in individual cutting table are: -
 It takes more area.
 More manpower is required.
 If once the order is cut. The cutting table remains free and therefore the
efficiency is lost.
But now in centralized cutting these problems are solved except for one that the
travelling distance is increased between cutting and stitching department. Man to
Machine ration is 3.5:1.
The spreading in manual. Mostly cutting is done in layers but in some cases like
embroidered fabric single panel cutting is also done. The machines available in cutting
department were straight knife, round knife, band knife and in some cases die cutting
3000-3500 pieces are cut every day with a marker efficiency of 80%. Marker making is
done through AutoCAD software OPtex.

STITCHING DEPARTMENT AND FINISHING DEPARTMENT

There were 5 assembly lines in stitching department and after every assembly line there
is 1 checking table and 1 finishing table. After the Stitching is done checking and finishing
are done simultaneously.

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The man is to machine ratio in stitching department is 1.5:1 and in finishing table is 2:1.
The pieces produced in finished in a day depends on number of cut pieces. The work in
progress is very less and therefore they partially apply the concept of JUST IN TIME.

MANAGEMENT
They follow MIS system i.e. Management Information system. A management
information system (MIS) is a computerized database of financial information organized
and programmed in such a way that it produces regular reports on operations for every
level of management in a company. It is usually also possible to obtain special reports
from the system easily. The main purpose of the MIS is to give managers feedback about
their own performance; top management can monitor the company as a whole.
Information displayed by the MIS typically shows "actual" data over against "planned"
results and results from a year before; thus it measures progress against goals. The MIS
receives data from company units and functions. Some of the data are collected
automatically from computer-linked check-out counters; others are keyed in at periodic
intervals.
In Genus apparels the MIS is controlled through an app where all the hourly data is
inputted after the finishing is done and the performances and bottle necks in every
assembly line is determined. All the management employees has access to the app in
their phone and there are LED displays in the assembly line where the data is displayed
so that the operators can see their performance.

WORKERS, EFFICIENCY AND CAPAC ITY

There are 300-350 employees in the industry out which 190-200 are operators. Out of all
operators 75% works on piece rate basis and rest 25% are permanent.

The shift is of 8 hours and 2 hours of overtime daily. The capacity at expected 60% efficiency
according to 10 hour shift is 18 lakh minutes per month but the achievable capacity is 14-15 lakh
minutes per month that is 45% - 50% efficiency.

They mainly manufacture Polo T-shirts whose SAM is generally 10-15 min. Cost per minute
(CPM); taken from minutes produces in stitching department is 6.5 Rs per minute.

MAINTENANCE
The machines they have were SNLS, Over-lock, Flat-lock, Bartech, Button attaching machines etc.
The type of maintenance is usually scheduled maintenance. The maintenance of all machines are
on daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis.

The company spends 7 lakh per year for maintenance.

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TRIMS AND ACCESSORIES STORE

The trims and accessories are outsourced from different places. The process before storing trims
and accessories is as follows:

 Trims and accessories are outsourced

 The quantity is checked
 Then they are visually checked for defects
 If no defects found they are stored in racks/ If defects found those pieces are stored
separately

The trims and accessories are stored Buyer wise, Style wise and by type. If an operator wants to
take the trims to the Sewing department then the process he follows is:

 Fill the Sign-off (It is a document in which the receiver has to write down the
information of the trims to be issued from trim store)
 Take authorized person’s sign on the sign-off
 Get it to the trim store to issue the trims.

The trims and accessories brought are only visually checked. For physical tests if requested by
buyer the trims and accessories are sent to SGS testing labs or Bureau Veritas

LEAN TOOLS THAT CAN BE APPLIED IN TRIM STORE OF GENUS

APPARELS

1. 5 S
2. RIGHT FIRST TIME
3. ANDON
4. JUST IN TIME
5. POKA YOKE (error Proofing)
6. MUDA ELIMINATION
7. PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act)
8. KAIZEN

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1. 5S:
It is a Japanese philosophy of organizing a work place especially a shared workplace. At
GENUS, it can be applied in trims and accessories in the following ways:

 SEIRI: means sorting

There was a red tag area there but it was not being used instead it was
used to keep cartons of trims and accessories.
- Keep buyer wise separate sorting arrangements which is to be divided into
different styles.
- Every style wise arrangements should have different chambers.
- Keep only active trims and remove the unnecessary ones.
- Follow proper documentation remove the unnecessary files.
- Tag and label each chamber of the section.

 SEITON: means systematic arrangement.

- Use wall cabinets at the circumference of the section and divide into
different zones.
- Keep adequate amount of space for the movement of the personnel.
- Arrange the proper lighting and ventilation system in the section.
- Every style wise arrangement should contain wooden partitions.
- Instead of keeping trims wrapped in polythene covers keep them in seprate
boxes.

 SEISO: means shine or super clean.

- Assign individual cleaning responsibility.
- Assign one worker to monitor trims and accessories section cleaning.
- Standardize housekeeping.
- Keep the trash bins at each corner.

 SEIKETSU: means to standardize.

- Workers should look after the storing inventory of the section.
- Routine maintenance of the section.
- Routine clean up of the whole on regular basis.

 SHITSUKE: means to sustain.

- Arrange at least 1 or 2 hours per week training sessions to motivate and
encourage workers why 5S is so important in the working field.

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 - Create awareness of work-place discipline, to ensure speedy and safe
disciplined working environment.
- Make correction adjustments and apply in the section.

2. RIGHT FIRST TIME:

Right First Time is lean tools that mean doing the thing right in the first time which can
remove eliminate or repair and defects producing in garments manufacturing.

Sometimes, the defects in trims and accessories cannot be identified as there is only
visual inspection. Initially, it does not create much problem. But on the later ones, for
example, when the garment is sent for finishing, defects pose a larger problem.

If there is a physical test at the earliest of stages only in the trims and accessories
department defects can be identified and can be separated from the active necessary
one.

3. ANDON:
Means 'Sign' or 'Signal'. It is a visual aid which alerts where the action is required.
Andon lights can be installed at the department for call for abnormalities. Indicators
can be used for counting good and bad pieces. Monitors and software can be used for
easy and quick assembly of trims in designated chambers.

4. JUST IN TIME:
It denotes a manufacturing system in which materials or components are delivered
immediately before they are required in order to minimize storage costs.

Just in time can be applied at GENUS by:

 Miscounts are common at the receiving and order fulfillment stage, especially if
you’re working manually. Using electronic data interchange (EDI) and bar code
scanning can help eliminate data entry errors.
 Try to avoid unnecessary and scrap inventory.
 Keep constant flows to the other departments to not have ideal material.
 Reorganize equipment, people, and workstations to get a better space
arrangement.

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5. POKA YOKE(error proofing):
It is a Japanese term that means "mistake-proofing" or "inadvertent error prevention".
A poka-yoke is any mechanism in any process that helps an equipment operator avoid
(yokeru) mistakes (poka).

Poka Yoke at GENUS can be applied as:

 Using standardized containers for storing trims and accessories enables workers to
know exact quantities without having to weigh or count the contents.
 Use of color coded date labels to mark the types of trims. This way the different batches
are easily identifiable for the purpose of product rotation.

6. MUDA ELIMINATION:
Muda means waste in Japanese; however, the implications of the word include anything
or any activity that does not add value.

At GENUS:
 Waste of over production can be eliminated if we order trims and
accessories only according to the customer demand and needed just in
time
 Supplying items only when and where needed.
 Unnecessary inventory which is hardly needed or used to be eliminated

7. PDCA – PLAN, DO, CHECK AND ACT:

PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) is an iterative, four-stage approach for continually improving
processes, products or services, and for resolving problems.

 PLAN: A good plan includes a supervisor who will help out in managing the
arrangement of trims and accessories department.

 DO: is an implementation activity of the plan.

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  CHECK: Compare new data to the previous data to check improvement & its
accordance with the goal/target set.
Check is a phase to analyze and compare and document basic method
improvements implemented.

 ACT: Standardize outcome and process. Make counter measures if outcome

results are substandard

8. KAIZEN

It is a concept referring to business activities that continuously improve all functions and involve
all employees from CEO to assembly line worker. The foundation consist of 5 key elements:-

1. Teamwork

2. Personal Discipline

3. Improved Morale

4. Quality circles

5. Suggestions for improvement

If all the employees come together and give their input in 5 S implementation and other lean
tool implementation the trim store could be maintained properly. Also each person should have
a responsible approach towards the trim and accessory store. It is a very small area to work
upon but if it is maintained properly many defects that are identified during the QC can be
reduced.

9. DIGITAL DATA ENTRY

The data of buying, supply of customer demands, supplying trims in the sewing department, Lot
information etc. Is mainly in paper work. They can use digital data entry which would make the
sorting of data, files and queries much more easier and efficient.

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