Lean manufacturing assessment in weaving textiles with regards to ergonomics practice- A case study
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Date
2019
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UMT, Lahore
Abstract
Rapidly changing textile environment and intense competitive situation forced many organizations worldwide to reduce cost and become more responsive to customer demands of which speed, time, and customized services are of high importance. Lean manufacturing offers them a proven method to reduce costs, eliminate waste, increase productivity, maintain high levels of quality and still make a profit.
The concept of lean manufacturing was developed for maximizing the resource utilization through minimization of waste, later on lean was formulated in response to the fluctuating and competitive business environment. Due to rapidly changing business environment the organizations are forced to face challenges and complexities. Any organization whether manufacturing or service oriented to survive may ultimately depend on its ability to systematically and continuously respond to these changes for enhancing the product value. Therefore value adding process is necessary to achieve this perfection; hence implementing a lean manufacturing system is becoming a core competency for any type of organizations to sustain.
Taking into account the previous researches, it is concluded that in textile sector, weaving is the most ignored sector by the researchers and if lean is implemented, ergonomic factor is ignored. In this research, a lean route is developed for the organization to implement the lean 5S technique integrating ergonomics principles as it is a key to take out one of the types of wastes called Muri. The Qualitative survey analysis’ repercussions of Sapphire Textile Mills (STML) weaving unit are summarized to illustrate the study of lean elements assessment and implementation in demanding and challenging environment. The data was collected through questionnaires and semi-structural interviews. The findings of this study were synthesized to develop a unified theory for implementation assessment of lean elements with regards to ergonomics.