Computer Application in Textile and Apparel Manufacturing Sector:
Bangladesh needs urgent & immediate improvement in productivity in its garment factories. One of the techniques to promote productivity is the comprehensive & appropriate use of computers throughout the enterprise, in the office, in the import & export departments, in the production & technical departments, in the warehouse, etc. This will lend immediate boost in the factory-wise productivity & quality of not only products but also of all actions & activities in the enterprise. This will greatly promote to bring in Total Quality Assurance in the organization.
Application of Computer in Apparel Manufacturing and Textile Industry:
Let us now focus on how computers can be effectively used in the textile and apparel manufacturing industry.
1. Drafting letters, office notes notices, etc. by full computerization or by using Office programs:
Personnel & administrative section in many garment factories are quite week. Disciplinary procedures are not strong. Arbitrary actions are taken without taking recourse to appropriate disciplinary procedures. Many factories find itself in a helpless position during social audit by buyer’s representatives. Writing letters or notices manually is time consuming & outdated procedure. So a computer in charge of an officer efficient in computer use can solve this problem right away.
2. Computerization of employee attendance by using computers & scanning technology:
Recording of employee attendance may be computerized. Attendance may be recorded from time card by scanning technology. This expedites the process. If this is done with appropriate format, it will help computerization of making salary sheet, Overtime sheet, manpower management, half yearly or yearly employee evaluation, other financial status regarding employees. Thus computerization may make the total work easy, smooth, less time consuming & accurate.
3. Management of store & inventory with specialized software:
Big garment factories & group of companies need to handle grandiose amount of raw-materials & other merchandize. These materials need to be tracked in time, supplied to the production floor in time. Management of store is a very week point in apparel factories. Production is disrupted frequently because raw-materials cannot many be accessed in time and as a result they cannot be supplied in time to the floor. Such a situation can disrupt production & brings in disaster for garment factories. Computerization of store management can solve the problems right away.
4. Production & shipment planning with specialized software:
For large companies production & shipment planning is a time consuming & cumbersome process. Especially in apparel industries production planning, tracking of problems & delays are difficult tasks. Manual methods are not comprehensive & cannot solve many issues. Computerization of the process is the right solution.
5. Computerization of total material sourcing:
Material sourcing is a very cumbersome procedure when you are in need of procuring hundreds of materials locally and from abroad. Failure in sourcing materials in right time will put production & shipment of apparels in disaster. Computerization will help make the whole process of procurement, tracking of each material, relevant L/Cs & shipment status easy & smooth. Any required data will be on finger tips.
6. Computerization of making right packing list with specialized software:
Many factories face problems in making packing list in time, as some of them are difficult & cumbersome. Besides, some factories need large number of packing list because they handle large number of work orders. Many knit factories face such troubles. Easy software may solve the problem for good.
7. Computerization of manpower data management, employee evaluation, etc.:
Much of manpower related data are required by top management from time to time. For example, monthly & yearly turnover of employees, male-female ratio, designation-wise manpower status, grade-wise employee record, personal records, etc. may be necessary from time to time. Different data are also required at the time of employee evaluation. The whole process of employee evaluation is handled incorrectly in many garment factories; it is done with carelessness, with a sense of haste & at the last moment. Right data of employees attributes are not checked. Thus employee evaluation totally becomes a subjective matter. Persons liked by management are rewarded irrespective of performance & other attributes. Employees devoted to company interests, hard worker, talented may be lost sight of. Actually employee evaluation should be done with objective approach based on performance, records & data so that employee satisfaction is retained or boosted. This whole gamut of work may be computerized along with computerization of attendance record. This will bring in any required data at finger tips.
8. Computerization of daily, weekly & monthly production & shipment status:
These are very important data required by top management from time to time. So their computerization is essential.
9. Computerization of financial matters:
Many financial data & records need to be processed quickly & stored for a long time. They also need to be retrieved from time to time for decision making. Computerization makes such work easy & smooth.
10. Personal Action Planning by computer:
Executives in an enterprise need to make their daily, weekly & monthly action plan, MS Outlook can make such work easy, quick & smooth. There is other customized software available.
11. Training:
Each and every personnel who handles computers must have adequate training in doing their job quickly. They must have high fingering speed, competence in using right command, etc. otherwise computers will be idle or semi-idle luxury may be a symbol of status or a show-piece. Prior to purchase of computers, relevant executives must be imparted training or they must be cautioned to acquire competence in computer handling and achieving right speed.
12. Using e-mail & network:
Each organization should install e-mail & networking set up. This will enable quick receipt, delivery & dissemination of information. Networking sets up link among all the computers in the enterprise. All executives including top executives may share information and resources. The whole enterprise can share only one printer, for example. The top management can access information of each computer. All these save time and cost by computerizing conventional delivery & receipt of documents. It saves transport and manpower cost. And over & above, it boosts productivity in the office.
13. Relation between man & computer:
Many factories possess computers, some of them in dozens. Unfortunately they are not effectively used to promote productivity in a substantial way. The reasons are that either there is a lack of competent operators, or executives are unable to use them productively or management is not aware how and where to use them. Computers are highly sophisticated and automatic machines. If commands are given to the computer, it can solve the problem within a fraction of a second whatever complex the problems may be.
The computers have a dizzying speed to the tune of several million mega hertz (2x 10 hertz) per second. It is obvious that incompetent operators cannot realize the potential of the most efficient machine on the earth. Unfortunately though computer is one of the most automatic machines, it cannot work automatically without the of an operator. This is the reason why trained & competent executives should be in charge of handling computers to realize most it potentials.
Mayedul Islam is a Founder and Editor of Garments Merchandising. He is an Expert in Garments Merchandising. Writing is his passion. He loves to write articles about Apparel, Textile and Garment Washing specially on Merchandising. Mail him at mayedul.islam66@gmail.com