Quality in Small Scale Industry:Fashion Industry Perspective

Importance of Quality

• All of us know it

• Needs no debate

• Most of us are here to share our experiences on Quality

• Many organizations represented here have an ongoing Quality program

Journey Towards Total Quality and ISO 9000

• A well-defined milestone in the endless journey towards Total Quality

• Credibility Brought in by third party certification

Quality in SSI:

• May be most used term But it is least understood

• Commonsense that is not common

• It is like ten blind men describing an elephant

Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at WCTQ 1999

Key Concerns of International Apparel Buyers

• Product Quality

• Dependable Delivery

• Competitive Price

“Better Quality at lower price”

Increasing Quality Expectations Among Apparel Importers and Retailers

• Consumers’ Quality Expectations have gone up• Consumer is too busy to come back to complain• Not Interested in Taking Special Care of the

Product• Reduced Consumer Spending on Apparel• Stores Can’t Afford a Dissatisfied Customer• Working With Non-quality Vendors Costly

Consumers’ perception of Quality

A recently conducted research concludes that Quality of

Apparel sold in the US market has declined

Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at WCTQ 1999

Apparel Industry:

•Order quantities are reducing continually •Highly labor intensive processes•Labor controlled, not machine controlled processes•Varied raw material•Seasonal products with low shelf life•Largely decentralized manufacturing•Reserved for SSI

Q: Why do you face quality problems?

A: We have no problems but our

suppliers don’t understand quality

sub-contractors are not bothered about quality

Key to Quality in Apparel Industry :Process Capability

• Without Process capability Quality can not be expected

• It is the responsibility of top management to ensure the process capability of different process groups

Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at WCTQ 1999

PLANT & MACHINERY

TRAINING

MOTIVATED PEOPLE

KNOW-HOW

SKILLS

QUALITYINPUT

=

RAW MATERIAL +SPECIFICATIONS

QUALITYOUTPUT

=

PROCESSEDCOMPONENT ORGARMENTS

PROCESS MODEL FOR SEWING

Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at WCTQ 1999

Team Working: An Asset for Process Capability

The Process Model

• Organic / Flexible

• Non-hierarchical

• Self Learning & Self Correcting

• Knowledge Driven

Presentation by Rajesh Bheda , GMT,NIFT at WCTQ 1999

INPUT

PROCESS CHAIN

OUTPUT

=

PROCESS ‘A’ PROCESS ‘B’

Output of previous process becomes input to next process. No substandard input to be given to any process. No process shall allow sub standard output to come out.

The Benefits

• Promotes Knowledge Workers

• Right first time

• Reduced Inspection

• Increased Flexibility

• Minimum Repairs and Rejects

• Increased Productivity

Reasons for Failure•Belief that Quality starts with inspection and ends with inspection

•Mainly quantity driven targets for the departments

•Departmental goals may not synergise with organizational goal

•Have no idea about the Cost of Quality in their organization

•Do not have a clear quality policy nor do they demonstrate commitment to quality

•Employees of these organizations are well aware of the ‘Chalta Hai’ approach of the management

•To the extent possible they would like to blame others for the quality problems of their merchandise

Choice is yours!

Promote Process Capability in the Total

Supply Chain

Or

Wait for the Disaster