Challenges and potential impact of applying lean manufacturing techniques to textile knitting industry: A case study of a knitting factory in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Application of lean manufacturing in mass production, especially in apparel industry, has become a popular practice in meeting the objectives of waste minimization and productivity improvement these days. But when it comes to batch production, for example textile knitting which is an upstream process of the supply chain, application of lean techniques is a challenge. This study investigates challenges of application of lean techniques to a textile knitting factory in Sri Lanka. . The purpose of the study was to investigate the challenges in improving the productivity through lean techniques in a less labour intensive batch production environment. The objectives of the study were to quantify the impact of lean practices and to identify the key challenges specific to the knitting industry. The case study based research approach was followed thought the project which is similar to that used by Kasul and Motwani’s study. Interviews, observations and archival sources were the sources from which data was collected. The results were calculated of main product categories based on the volume and price. For example it was found that the process Value added (VA) to Non-value added (NVA) ratio for JCOL 56(the main product) is 4.64% and with the suggested improvements for waste minimization it was found the ration could be improved to 9.37%. Therefore improving the process would bring in a lot of financial & non-financial gain as well as the lead time reduction which is a key factor in reducing the operational costs.