Garment factory improvement programme, a success

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

FACTORY PROJECT: The third ILO Factory Improvement Programme (FIP 3) for apparel factories implemented by the EFC with JAAF as a collaborating partner, has helped in making considerable improvements for participant factories during a short period from its commencement in April last year.

ILO Regional Specialist and Manager Sri Lanka Jayantha R. de Silva said that midway during the programme, some of the enterprises discovered savings from materials and other consumables amounting to between Rs. 500,000 and 2 million which were put to productive use.

As the third programme ended in March this year, most enterprises were in a position to state that they were continuing to gain in excess of over Rs. 500,000 per month covering their participation fees many times over, he said.

De Silva said that varied quantifiable improvements were evident in the increase in quality through reduction in defects by 25% (re-work and rejects), improvement in productivity by 20% such as cutting and sewing to packing efficiencies , decrease in labour turnover per month and average absenteeism by 4%, employee concerns being continuously monitored and addressed, increase in sample turnaround time by 30%, an improvement in the persons to machines ratio, and focus on cost per minute monitoring. Fifteen key indicators were tracked on a monthly basis per factory.

According to De Silva benefits accrued in the past through this approach have been many and some factories have been able to attract new brands and increase volume of exports.

Among the other important gains are management level meetings being held on a regular basis to discuss issues, improvements, supervisory staff meet with floor level staff on a daily and weekly basis, workers freely express needs, issues of supervisors ,executives, workers involved in problem solving, increased teamwork and togetherness amongst workers and executives.

The fourth ILO FIP programme is scheduled to commence in July and is open to the manufacturing industry.