INDIA
Manufacturing excellence: The only way
When compared to other competing
countries, the efficiency and
productivity levels of Indian textile
sector is quite low. The government
can have a R&D fund, which could be
used for deploying state-of-art modern
technologies.
54 | FIBRE 2 FASHION NOVEMBER 2017
Achieving ‘The Vision’ of $400 billion by 2030 is not going to be easy and is improbable with
business-as-usual approach. To attain such growth target, industry is required to take some
important measures.
With fierce competition in the market, the requirement of low cost products has increased.
Unfortunately, cheap labour is not the only requirement to achieve this goal. Cost advantage
comes through superior product quality, innovative design, customisation, on-time delivery,
technology innovations and finally admirable after sales service. All these factors culminate to
customer satisfaction. The ability to deliver on these parameters is what constitutes manufacturing
excellence.
The key components of manufacturing excellence are as under:
Operational excellence: The constituents of operational excellence include streamlining
manufacturing operations, quality and process improvement, capacity improvement, and
information systems for operations and control. Thus, an ideal production process would
be where throughput time is minimal, inventory is balanced, bottleneck operation is none,
changeover time is negligible, defects are zero, and critical path is well defined.
Manpower: The shortage of talent calls for recruitment of right people and retaining the talent
to achieve maximum benefit. Hence, it becomes important for the businesses to not only locate
and recruit employees but also bring a change in the working environment as well for their
successful retention.
Market intelligence: Since every market is different, it is important for companies to develop a
strong understanding of each market and how their product will fit to improve their chances of
success. Entering into market without proper understanding may lead to financial loss, wastage
of time and management frustration. Moreover, exploring the markets helps in analysing global
competition. Therefore, it is also important to consider an analysis of competitors.
Continual improvement: Creating and embracing continuous improvement of people,
processes and product leads to achievement of excellence. Continuous improvement is all about
leading by doing and empowering employees to make continuous improvement.