Apparel Online Bangladesh Magazine May Issue 2019 | Page 27

EXPORTER PERSPECTIVE
Ergonomical chair for operator near linking machine
behind transforming the production
floor of our factory was to use those
technologies which Bangladesh
sweater manufacturing players were
not using and we were amongst the
first ones to use advanced Japanese
knitting technology of Shima Seiki and
Italian linking technology of Complett
to manufacture our products,” claimed
Sunil Marasinghe, GM, Pretty
Sweaters.
Sunil further underlined that
previously major components such
as panels in sweaters were handled
manually which resulted in low
production. “The use of technology
has helped us increase our production
by 50 per cent over the years,”
asserted Sunil. The factory earlier
used to work on ‘Make Through
System’ where an operator assembled
a single piece of sweater at a time by
carrying out all the sewing processes
necessary to assemble a sweater. In
this system, an operator was provided
with a bundle of cut-work pieces and
he/she continued to assemble them
based on his or her own method of
work. But the method was not efficient
when bulk production was there. Since
it takes an immense level of operator
skills and time to manufacture a
sweater, Pretty Sweaters switched
from ‘Make Through System’ to ‘Line
System’ seeing the huge quantity
of orders placed by Japanese and
European buyers. “My intention was
to go to the line system from the start
– one operator, one machine and one
operation out of around 20 operations
that are there to manufacture a
high-end sweater,” said Sunil. Pretty
Sweaters has installed 1,500 Shima
Seiki knitting machines that auto-knit
shaped panels of huge quantities of
Profile of Pretty Sweaters
sweaters. Normally, one operator
can do six to eight pieces of sweaters
in a day, while with the induction of
Shima Seiki knitting technology, the
factory increased to 200 per head
as one operator can now handle 10
machines simultaneously.
Notably, the main difficult part is to
handle the labour involved in the
assembling of sweaters which is a
serious thing to consider. Taking this
difficulty as a challenge, Sunil and
his team worked hard to eliminate
this using line balancing and the
use of technology. The team set up
dedicated lines with all necessary
linking machines and divided
components in these lines operation-
wise. The manual operations needed
in these assembling processes
are also added in these lines.
Once shaped panels come to these
assembly lines, linking method
is used in almost every design
of sweaters to join those panels.
However, in some cases, shaped
panels are joined by sewing process
as well. “22 machines are there in
each line. One machine can reduce
two to three operators which is a
great saving for us,” claimed Sunil.
Pretty Sweaters is in full support
to use expensive but proven
technology because of long-term
benefits. According to Sunil, linking
machines of Complett cost almost
10 times higher than normal sewing
machines but they can reduce
three workstations and eliminate
the need to have 6 to 9 operators.
“ROI is also just eight months and
average sweater production per
head in assembly is 40 to 60 per
day as compared to around 20 to 30
The factory
earlier used
to work on
‘Make Through
System’ where
an operator
assembled a
single piece of
sweater at a time
by carrying out
all the sewing
processes
necessary to
assemble a
sweater. Since
it takes an
immense level
of operator
skills and time
to manufacture
a sweater,
Pretty Sweaters
switched from
‘Make Through
System’ to
‘Line System’
seeing the huge
quantity of
orders placed
by Japanese
and European
buyers.
in other manufacturing units who
work on normal machines which is a
massive difference. It’s not that we
‘eliminated’ the manpower but we can
say that we increased the capacity to
almost double,” explained Sunil. 
In another development, Sunil has
kept the ergonomics standard on top
priority for the operators performing
linking operation. It’s a fact that
linking operators have to move on
both the sides and bend forward to
carry out the operation effectively
but the standard chairs are difficult
to sit on with so much activities to
perform for an operator, resulting in
increased fatigue level and back pain.
Sunil and his team have therefore
developed C type chairs with rollers
underneath which move according to
the movement of the operators. “You
won’t find this development anywhere
else. We have to look at the comfort
of operators as well and imbibing
technology should not be the only
thing to consider,” boasted Sunil.
Not just garment technology, Pretty
Sweaters is also using tools to collect
data which help them in decision
making. The company has RFIDs
to rope in a proper system for data
collection and to eliminate the
chances of playing with production
data on shopfloor. Asserting the
same, Sunil concludes, “At least 5
per cent production data prepared
manually by most of the garment
units is not correct. We wanted to
keep a watch on working progress
on the production floor using RFIDs
to know where we stand and what all
tasks are left to do. At each and every
area, we have a data which helps us
in decision making.” 
www.apparelresources.com | MAY 2019 | Apparel Online Bangladesh
27