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| Wednesday, 22 September 2004 |
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Improve productivity, lower production costs to face MFA challenge - Consultant by Shirajiv Sirimane Sri Lanka can successfully face the challenge of the upcoming free quota era (Multi-Fibre Agreement - MFA) with the improvement of productivity and lowering production costs in their manufacturing plants. Sri Lanka's manufacturing concepts are based on older thinking of high volume low cost production as practised by Europe in the 70s and this should change if the local apparel industry is to surge ahead with the minimum number of unemployment risks, said Peter Wilson, a Senior Consultant specialising in productivity and quality management improvement programs aimed at labour sensitive manufacturing companies, particularly those within the Textile, apparel and shoe manufacturing industries. He told the Daily News that most of the improvement in productivity can be introduced without additional costs. "Only new thinking is needed," he said. China's productivity could enable it to capture fifty percent of the world's exports and almost all export growth. As a result, exports from other Asian countries in aggregate cannot grow, and each of these countries will have to out-compete to survive and grow. The United States, United Kingdom and Japan account for 80 per cent of the world's apparel buyers and Sri Lanka is in this market in a big way. "This is especially evident in the US and UK markets where there is an increase in demand," he said. Sri Lankans have maintained a sound trading track record for over two decades and the trust is a major advantage for Sri Lankan companies. "Sri Lanka lingerie is rated as among the best in the world," he said. Sri Lankan companies have now realised the importance of facing this challenge. "This is evident from the response the Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAFF) received at a workshop on the National Productivity Improvement Project for the Apparel Sector," he said. He said this program has addressed key areas in the improvement of productivity. The concept of "Lean Manufacturing", change the factory "Physics" and develop the peoples "Chemistry", improving labour efficiency and new ways of thinking and operating are some of the key areas on Wilson's presentation. He said that the company management must always realise that people are more important than machines. Another way to overcome the MFA barrier is to open more sales offices overseas. The apparel sector is a Price sensitive industry and it is important to contain costs. JAFF, the lead body of the apparel sector has started many programs in this regard. Wilson has been involved in developing strategies for the textile and clothing sectors in Egypt, Eritrea, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Poland and Bangladesh. He has wide experience in reviewing and benchmarking companies within the sector and setting strategies to target improvement in productivity, quality, and market penetration and supplier compliance. |
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