Quality Enhancement of a Garment Sewing Process through Six sigma and Failure mode and effect analysis: A case of Eltex Textile and Garment Factory
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Date
2023-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The Ethiopian Textile and garment sector is one of the top priority manufacturing sectors that is given due attention by the government for its generation of foreign currency and job creation for its increasing population. However, the sector faces challenges related to productivity and quality due to several reasons such as poor work culture, skill gap, inappropriate methods and poor system integration. The objective of this study is to improve quality of a garment sewing process through a continuous quality enhancement model. Previous literature on six sigma frameworks in the garment industry do not take into consideration key performance indicators other than defect per hundred units or percentage defectives, such as efficiency, productivity, and cost per SAM or cost per garment. Similarly most six sigma frameworks are not backed by cost/benefit impact analysis hence this research incorporated key performance indicators along with cost/benefit impact analysis by taking 128,311 samples from five product styles in one of the export based company located outside Addis Ababa. The study included an extensive investigation of secondary data in the form of literature reviews and company quality reports, while primarily data is collected through observation, formal and informal discussions with top and middle management. Secondary data collected from the case company shows an average defects per hundred units (DHU) of 19.7%. Data collected from the case company identified significant out of control situation for polo categories and slight out of control situation for the t-shirt categories. Pareto analysis identified six major defects contributing to 82 % of quality reworks. Furthermore questionnaire is used for conducting failure mode and effect analysis. Root causes identified are prioritized using failure mode and effect analysis and improvement solutions presented. Based on the results obtained from quality enhancement model DHU is reduced by an average 5.3% from the existing 19.7 % to 14.4%. Whereas as efficiency and cost per SAM improved by an average 5.6% and 0.76 Birr respectively. The study demonstrated that continuous quality enhancement model comprising six sigma and failure mode and effect analysis have a strong impact on the financial stability of the company.
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Keywords
Quality enhancement, Garment industry, Sewing process, Six Sigma, Failure mode and effect analysis