The project conducted the training over a period of five months with the international lean expert Dr. Charles Dagher, visiting the companies and providing a combination of services including in-class presentations, exercises, demonstration, advisory services, team assignments, in-factory coaching and reporting. One important feature of the training was the establishment of implementation committees with members drawn from various departments of the factory such as cutting, finishing, production, maintenance, and warehouse, to oversee the planning and implementation of activities emerging from the training program.
The improvements included the development of systems and tools such as displays for monitoring workflow and reordering processes, key procedures to ensure system effectiveness, new supervisory roles, the implementation of the Kanban/just-in-time system, a shift from push to pull production, and a team-based production approach. Furthermore, the manufacturing area was equipped to establish an agile and flexible production team structure, restructure sewing teams, evaluate workforce needs for flexibility, optimize work methods, set up a Kanban zone, reorganize packing teams, develop a workload balancing system for the packing area, and design a new layout.
These changes at the factory led to some positive outcomes. These included about 159 percent increase in cutting table capacity, 89 percent improvement in throughput time for cut jobs, 66 percent increase in labour utilization, 88 percent reduction in retention time for work in processing, 58 percent decrease in inventory levels, and 28 percent enhancement in space utilization.
