productivity improvement

1. The 11 steps to
productivity
improvement
BASED ON ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN STITCH WORLD
OCTOBER 2006 EDITION
CASE STUDY OF SHL

2. STEP 1
 For awareness we put slogans on different walls. Some
examples are given herewith:
Slogans used to create awareness-
 Our target – 100 % shipment on time
 Our aim – 0% reprocessing
 Our motto – 0% rejection

3. Other slogans
 Help each other to have better productivity
 Have a productive day
 Let us produce more with less
 Better productivity – only way to success
 Our target is to be more productive than others
 Always try to be more productive
 “team work” basic need to improve productivity
 Number ONE priority – quality and productivity

4. Other slogans cont….
 Make it right the first time
 Productivity begins with you
 Let’s reduce wastage of fabric and garments
 Zero wastage – ultimate target
 Thank you for working safely

5. STEP 2
 Defining vision and mission
 Vision
 Achieving status of most reliable source of knitted socks
in pakistan
 Mission
 Want to make SHL most competitive and profitable
organiztion by improving its productivity

6. objectives
 1. 100% shipments on time
 2. 0% re-screening of shipments
 3. 3% difference between knit and shipped quantity
 4. on time payments to vendors
 5. lowest share of utility bills in total cost in the market
 6. 100% retention of people
 7. 10% annual growth in sales
 8. better salary package than market

7. Strategy
 By proper and flawless planning
 By reducing rejections
 By improving working conditions
 By taking care of human resources
 Giving first priority to customer requirements
 By focusing on core values
 Through better training of HR
 By making a strong and direct link between top and
front line management

8. STEP 3
 Establish productivity indicators.
 Rejection rate in knitting
 Dyes and chemical cost
 Utility cost per socks
 Rejection rate in finishing
 Knit to pack difference
 Shipment on time
 Cost of accessories

9. STEP 4
 Productivity was measured at various levels and in
different departments, e.g., in knitting, dying and
finishing

10. STEP 5
 Evaluation of indicators with different benchmarks.
 After measuring productivity we evaluate it with
different standards (bench marking). Market practice
was taken as bench marking

11. STEP 6
 Putting results before the team
 All managers were called and we put the results before
them. After that meeting of supervisors were called and
discussed the matter. Finally we had a detailed meeting
with workers and showed them our findings in graphs
and conducted training programs.

12. STEP 7
 Involving team in planning for improvement
 We asked the team to plan for better productivity.
People at all levels made their plans

13. STEP 8
 Implementation of the decisions made by the team
through the team
 We just watched the implementation process. However
we tried our level best to remove any hurdle, if it
occurred.

14. STEP 9
 Measuring the result again
 After few weeks we measured productivity indicators
and showed to people. People became motivated and
inspired.

15. STEP 10
 Share the feeling of success

16. STEP 11
 Sharing the gain of the productivity improvement
 We asked management to share the gain. We regret that
management did not share the gains of the productivity
cycle properly.

17. CHALLENGES
 1. People did not agree that they can achieve targets,
they believed that the targets are too high.
 2. people were not ready to accept the changes since
they felt that it would create problems in their working.
 3. directors were not ready to give the awards to
people, since they believed that the targets set were
the basic requirements. They would give awards only
when the performance would better market standards
(from the best player of the market)

18. CHALLENGES cont….
 5.Managers of the view that productivity meetings
would be just wastage of time.
 6. Managers were not ready to accept our findings since
these were more than their normal observations. For
instance, we told them they are consuming 10% extra
raw material than planned, while they had given the
impression to the directors that they are consuming raw
materials as planned