LOW PRODUCTION EFFICIENCY IN POLYTEX GARMENT LTD.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Sri Lankas apparel export industry is the most significant and dynamic contributor for Sri Lankas economy. The industry has grown over the last three decades and has become the number one foreign exchange earner and the largest single employer in the manufacturing industry. Today, the garment industry occupies a pre-eminent position in Sri Lanka, producing high quality garments combined with an industry which is flexible and uniquely capable in servicing leading international brands.Under this competitive manufacturing world, efficiency takes a vital place in the overall operations of a production plant. Utilizing human, financial and material resources in a correct way leads to carry out high production efficiency level which helps to increase the profit of an organization. The purpose of this research is to identify the production efficiency level of a business organization and the issues which affect the increase or decrease of the efficiency level in real world business practice. Polytex Garment LTD. was the organization we chose for the purpose of fulfilling the main objectives of the assignment. We were also able to recognize and understand the various disparities that exist, based on the past records of production efficiency. Our group members collectively participated in giving suggestions for the further improvement of the current efficiency level in Polytex Garment LTD.

Table of ContentsList of TablesviiList of FiguresviiiCHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT101.1 Introduction of the Organization101.2Background of the Study111.3 Research Problem111.4 Research Questions121.5 Research Objectives121.6 Scope of the Research131.7Methodology131.8Limitations of the Study14CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW152.1 Production Efficiency Theory152.2 Motivation Theory18CHAPTER 3 PRESENTATION OF DATA AND ANALYSIS203.1 Organization Process203.2Efficiency Variations of Polytex Garment223.2.1Annual Efficiency Variation 2011 & 2012223.2.2Line wise SAH efficiency variation 2013233.2.3Line wise SAH efficiency variation 2014293.2.4First time achievement in 2013 &2014393.3Questioner Analysis40CHAPTER 4 DISCUSSION54CHAPTER 5 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION605.1 Recommendations605.2 Conclusion62APPENDICES64List of References68

List of Tables

Table 1 :- Age Group40Table 2:- Satisfaction of the current work load41Table 3:- Nature of The Training Programme42Table 4:- Satisfaction of the Reward System43Table 5:- Nature of the Working Condition44Table 6:- Relationship with Supervisors45Table 7:- Relationship with Subordinates45Table 8:- Supervisor Assistence47Table 9:- Supervisor Appreciation for the Performance and Skills48Table 10:- Suerpervisor Interference in employee problems49Table 11:- Satisfaction about the Job Security50Table 12:- Knowledge about the Policies and Procedures51Table 13:- Nature of the opportunities for the personal growth and personality52Table 14:- Influence of the Management53

List of FiguresFigure 1:-Line wise SAH efficiency variation 2011 & 201222Figure 2:- Efficiency Rate of January 201323Figure 3:- Efficiency Rate of February 201323Figure 4:- Efficiency Rate of March 201324Figure 5:- Efficiency Rate of April 201324Figure 6:- Efficiency Rate of May 201325Figure 7:- Efficiency Rate of June 201325Figure 8:- Efficiency Rate of July 201326Figure 9:- Efficiency Rate of Auguest 201326Figure 10:- Efficiency Rate of September 201327Figure 11:- Efficiency Rate of October 201327Figure 12:- Efficiency Rate of November 201328Figure 13:- Efficiency Rate of December 201328Figure 14:- Efficiency Rate of January 201429Figure 15:- Efficiency Rate of February 201429Figure 16:- Efficiency Rate of March 201430Figure 17:- Efficiency Rate of April 201430Figure 18:- Efficiency Rate of May 201431Figure 19:- Efficiency Rate of June 201431Figure 20:-- Efficiency Rate of July 201432Figure 21:- Efficiency Rate of Auguest 201432Figure 22:- Efficiency Rate of September 201433Figure 23:- Efficiency Rate of October 201433Figure 24:- Efficiency Rate of November 201434Figure 25:- Efficiency Rate of December 201434Figure 26:- FTY 2013 & 201439Figure 27:- Age Group40Figure 28:- Satisfaction of The Current Work Load41Figure 29:- Nature of the Training Programme42Figure 30:- Satisfaction of the Reward System43Figure 31:- Nature of the Working Condition44Figure 32:- Relationship with Supervisors45Figure 33:-Relationship with Subordinates46Figure 34:- Supervisor Assistence47Figure 35:- Supervisor Appreciation for the Performance and Skills48Figure 36:-Suerpervisor Interference in employee problems49Figure 37:- Satisfaction about the Job Security50Figure 38:- Knowledge about the Policies and Procedures51Figure 39:-Nature of the opportunities for the personal growth and personality52Figure 40:-Influence of the Management53 2013/2014

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT1.1 Introduction of the OrganizationPolytex Garment Ltd group is one of the outstanding apparel exporting companies in Sri Lanka, which is operating under the world class Esquel Group. Esquel Group is the leading producers of premium cotton shirts in China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Mauritius, and Sri Lanka. Esquel's vertically integrated operations ensure the highest quality in every step of the apparel manufacturing process. Y. L.Yang established Esquel Group in 1978 which was basically started to produce local garments. Polytex Garment Ltd was also established in the same year in Sri Lanka along with facilities of sewing factories, cutting, washing and embroidering. There are five production plants located under the Polytex Group in Sri Lanka, where Ekala, Yakkala, Kagalla, Koggala plant I and Koggala plant II.

In the recent past, Polytex Garment haddeveloped and invested on new technology in order to manufacture the best cotton garments in Sri Lanka. Polytex Garment Ltd mainly manufactures Knit garments, focusing only on cotton T-shirts as their main product. The company is renowned for continuous product innovation and maintenance of the stringent quality standards, and Polytex Garment is proud to be the preferred choice for leading international brands such as Polo, Nike, Banana Republic, Marks & Spencer and Tommy Hilfiger.

Polytex Garment Ltd has achieved ISO 9001 International Standard Certificate, ISO 14000 Environmental Standard Certificate and also WRAPCertificate. In Polytex Garment, there are about 5000 employees who deeplycontribute to the work in a devoted and enthusiastic manner.1.2 Background of the Study

A study on the garment industry was carried out in the Ekala branch of the leading manufacturing company. This research mainly aimed examining the production efficiency rate of the Polytex Garment, specifically focusing on the factors that affect the efficiency rate of the production floor. The production process is the key procedure of every manufacturing company, where the efficiency of production takes a vital place and also creates a huge influenceon the profit of the company. However, currently their efficiency rate of production floor is lower than the expected level. This caused the emergence of a number of problems to the company. A qualitative approach has been adopted for the study. In order to gather information on the subject matter under discussion, apart from the interviews, questionnaireswere distributed to get the views, perceptions and opinions of the selected 25 employees in production floor at Polytex Garment.1.3 Research ProblemIn the modern business world, efficiency in an organization plays a major role to attain organizational goals and objectives. Over the years, the company was involved in production of knit garments. It was mainly manufacturing cotton T- shirts with embroidering. Currently there are 750 sewing machines available at the Ekala plant, but only 391 employees (machine operators)are being employed to run those machines. Therefore, the continuous gap between expected efficiency level and current efficiency level of the production division was identified. The companys monthly efficiency level is expected to be maintained at 70%, but so far only 60%-65% efficiency level has been achieved. Hence many factors that affect decrease in the efficiency level of Polytex Garment are in existence. Therefore this study was conducted in order to identify, investigate and address to: what are the key factors or reasons for the gap between expected efficiency level and current efficiency level of Polytex Garment in Ekala plant? 1.4 Research Questions What kind of place does the garment industry have in the world? What is the production efficiency? Why is production efficiency important to the manufacturing company? How does the production efficiency affect the overall process of the company? What are the factors affecting the decrease in the production efficiency? What kind of steps could the company take to minimize the issue?1.5 Research Objectives To identify the flow of the production process of the company. To identify the production inefficiencies within their existing infrastructure. Identification of root causes responsible for the inefficiencies. Recommendations for minimize inefficiencies and improve productivity.1.6 Scope of the Research

This report is concerned about analyzing the efficiency gap that is prevalent in the Polytex garment Ekala branch by mainly focusing on the production department. Since, it is a small scale qualitative research; the survey was conducted for a sample of only 25 employees in the production plant, while a discussionwas held with the manager. 1.7 Methodology

The target population of the research was employees of the production floor of the Polytex Garment in the Ekala plant. Sampling MethodThe research sampling method that was used in this study is the stratified sampling technique, in which scientific result were gathered in order to represent the entire population of the production lines. There are 12 sewing lines in Ekala plant with 32 employees are working in each line. Totally, 391 employees operate the sewing lines. Among 391 employees, 2 employees will be picked from each sewing lines randomly to create the sample of 25 employees. Data Collection Primary Data SourcesA survey was conducted to collect data from the sampled employees and an interview was carried out with the manager of the production department to identify the main reasons for this problem.

Secondary Data SourcesEfficiency variation documents (which have been the organizations basic analysis technique) were used as a tool for the collection of secondary data. Analyzing Method The survey collected quantitative and qualitative data from the employees and was examined in detail through commercial spreadsheet packages such as MS-Excel and other suitable methods. Data is presented data through charts and diagrams for clarity.

1.8 Limitations of the StudyEvery organization has their rules and regulations according to the organizational culture. So management of the organization was not ready to disclose the secondary data to the outside parties. There were instances where we realized that the management wasunable to understand the situation that created a huge problem as well. Some members were not willingto express their personnel ideas about the real situation that supported to create the research problem in which the required information could not be obtained.

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW2.1 Production Efficiency Theory

In the modern competitive business world organizations need to change or be up-to-dated, as otherwise the survival of any organization would not be possible. In this case, the efficiency level of every department should be at the optimum level. Production efficiency plays a major role to face the challenge of surviving in the competitive business environment. Products should be supplied to the buyers on time for the company to gain a good reputation. If this does not happen so, competitors will get the benefits of it, where there is a chance for the organization to collapse. Production efficiency mainly consists of efficiency of employees (labour efficiency), efficiency of machines and many more. The above mentioned factors should need to be at its best for attainment of the optimum production efficiency rate. It is a responsibility of every organization to manage all these resources well to make higher production efficiency rate.Efficiency is considered to be as one of the critical challenges in the production process. Efficiency is measured by comparing the actually attained or realized value of the objective function against what is attainable at the frontier. The resource constraint makes increasing efficiency one of the most important goals of any individual and society since efficiency acts as an important source of growth. Thus efficiency has policy implications both at the micro and the macro-economic level.Increasing technical and allocative efficiency is an important factor of productivity growth and is more appropriate in developing countries where resources are scarce and raising production through improved efficiency does not generally require increasing the resource base or developing new technology. The importance of measuring and analyzing the level of efficiency of firms cannot thus be overemphasized. In microeconomic theory of the firm, production efficiency is decomposed into technical and allocative efficiency. A producer is said to be technically efficient if production occurs on the boundary of the producers production possibilities set, and is technically inefficient if production occurs on the interior of the production possibilities set. That is, technical efficiency is the extent to which the maximum possible output is achieved from a given combination of inputs. (Ellis, 1988) On the other hand, a producer is said to be allocatively efficient if production occurs in a region of the production possibilities set that satisfies the producers behavioural objective.Farrel (1957) distinguished between technical and allocated efficiency in production through the use of the frontier production function. Technical efficiency is the ability to produce the given level of output with a minimum quantity of inputs under a certain technology.The measurement of production efficiency has been highly recognized as an important exercise in view of its relevance for policy makers in showing whether it is possible to increase output by simply increasing the efficiency of the firm without substantial additional resources. The methodologies for examining the production efficiency of an entrepreneur can generally be grouped into four different broad categories: the average factor productivity estimates; the linear programming approach; the production function approach; and the profit function methodology. The simplest of measure of efficiency is the partial or average productivity index. This approach is an unsatisfactory measure since it ignores the presence of other factors, which affect the average or marginal productivity and considers only one input at a time.A simple comparison of total factor productivity is not a satisfactory efficiency indicator because a business firms differ with respect to factor proportions, subsistence needs, and off firm income opportunities, all of which have an impact on the revenue obtainable in a given resources endowment (de Hean and Runge-Metzger, 1989). The attempts to overcome this shortcoming led to the development of total factor productivity indexes in which a weighted average of inputs was compared with average output. The profit function approach is also seriously criticized because of its assumption of profit maximization as the given objective in the allocation process (Ellis, 1988). Entrepreneur objectives may not necessarily be that of profit maximization. Utility maximization or minimization risk could be important factors influencing entrepreneurs decision making. The conventional production function approach is the most widely used the measure in the analysis of production efficiency of business firms. The traditional approach is to estimate an average production function by a statistical technique such as least squares. Average production functions have received far more attention for the simple statistical reason that the mean of the error terms is zero. This is, however, not consistent with the definition of production function. The finding a measure of technical efficiency that is consistent with the definition of production function has been a major concern for many researches. The production technology is represented by the transformation (production) function that defines the maximum attainable outputs from different combinations of inputs. Alternately, if considered from an input orientation side, it describes the minimum amount of inputs required to achieve a given output level. In other words, the production function describes a boundary of frontier.2.2 Motivation TheoryMotivation can simply be described as a process of generating commitment and enthusiasm among every employee of the organization in order to achieve its goals efficiently and effectively. The key elements included in the motivational process are how hard a person tries to achieve the goals (intensity), how are they accomplished (direction) and the continuous interest of the individual for goal attainment (persistency).Herzbergs Two Factor TheoryPsychologist Frederick Herzberg took the view that man lives at two levels, physical level and the psychological level concerning about their success or failure of the job. Herzberg investigated what do people want from their jobs? in detail, which they felt exceptionally good or bad about their jobs. Several factors lead to employee satisfaction while the others lead to dissatisfaction. Those are called Hygiene factors and Motivation factors. Hygiene factors. These are factors whose absence motivates, but whose presence has no perceived effect. They are things that when you take them away, people become dissatisfied and act to get them back. A very good example is heroin to a heroin addict. Long term addicts do not shoot up to get high; they shoot up to stop being sick -- to get normal. Other examples include decent working conditions, security, pay, benefits (like health insurance), company policies, interpersonal relationships. In general, these are extrinsic items low in the Maslow/ Alderfer hierarchy. Motivators. These are factors whose presence motivates. Their absence does not cause any particular dissatisfaction, it just fails to motivate. Examples are all the things at the top of the Maslow hierarchy, and the intrinsic motivators.So hygiene factors determine dissatisfaction, and motivators determine satisfaction. The two scales are independent, and you can be high on both. If you think back to the class discussion on power, we talked about a baseline point on the well-being scale. Power involved a threat to reduce your well-being, causing dissatisfaction. Hence, power basically works by threatening to withhold hygiene factors. Influence was said to fundamentally be about promising improvements in well-being -- when you are influenced to do something, it is because you want to, not because you were threatened. Influence basically works by offering to provide motivators (in Herzberg's terms).

CHAPTER 3 PRESENTATION OF DATA AND ANALYSIS3.1 Organization Process

Esquel group is the mother company of Polytex Garment which is located in Hong Kong. Mother company allocated all the orders (designs) and resources (fabrics, accessories) to the Polytex. When the mother company placed an order to the Polytex, management of the company measured the production capacity first. Polytex garment approved their orders according to the production capacity at that moment. Production capacity was measured consistent with the number of operators and produce hours. Produce hours was calculated by the mother company, Esquel group. If polytex garment approved an order, buyer informed its needs and requirements to the merchandising department and sent it to the sample room to make a sample of the order. If that order needed washing and embroidering parts, washing plant and embroidering department also involved to make a complete sample of the order. Then the sample sent to the buyer through merchandiser to check whether the sample made in a desired quality or not. If the buyer satisfied about the sample, pre-production planning department made the targets and budget for the order according to the production capacity. Targets were creating based on efficiency rate with using a specific measuring system called Standard Minute Value. Standard Minute Value (SMV) means the time required for a qualified worker working at Standard Performance to perform a given task. To calculate the SMV, pre-production planning department used worldwide recognized software called General Sawing Data.Polytex Garment was using vertical integration process for their manufacturing operation. As an above mentioned, Polytex Garment Group received all the resources from their mother company Esquel Group. Esquel Group has owned theirs cotton farms, produces a high-count yarn that has a silken texture and is extremely fine and lightweight, making it the ideal fabric for garments of the highest quality. Sending all the fabrics, yarn and accessories to the Sri Lanka reduced unnecessary cost of the operation. After the resources received from China, management released bulk order to the production floor. At the production floor first of all the fabrics was receiving to the cutting department. Monthly, the cutting capacity was 128,000 dozens in the cutting department. After that, pieces were procuring to the embroidering department if needed. And then those pieces were releasing to the sawing lines. There were 12 sawing lines at Ekala plant and each sawing line was operating from 32 employees. When the sawing line released a complete garment, that garment sent to the washing plant. After that the garment was receiving to the ironing, pressing, quality checking and finally packing department respectively. This is the production process of the Polytex Garment.

3.2 Efficiency Variations of Polytex Garment3.2.1 Annual Efficiency Variation 2011 & 2012

Figure 1:-Line wise SAH efficiency variation 2011& 2012

According to the above figure1 in 2011, Line 10 was not working. The reason was the high labour turnover in line 10, therefore existing employees of line 10 allocated to the other departments. Such as cutting, embroidering, packing and pressing.And it shows in red colour24% of efficiency rate in line 11 as lowest efficiency rate of the 2012 due to the management was appointed newly trained employees to the line 11.

3.2.2 Line wise SAH efficiency variation 2013

Figure 2:- Efficiency Rate of January 2013

Figure 3:- Efficiency Rate of February 2013

Figure 4:- Efficiency Rate of March 2013

Figure 5:- Efficiency Rate of April 2013

Figure 6:- Efficiency Rate of May 2013

Figure 7:- Efficiency Rate of June 2013

Figure 8:- Efficiency Rate of July 2013

Figure 9:- Efficiency Rate of Auguest 2013

Figure 10:- Efficiency Rate of September 2013

Figure 11:- Efficiency Rate of October 2013

Figure 12:- Efficiency Rate of November 2013

Figure 13:- Efficiency Rate of December 2013

Following figure 6, 7, 8 and 9 in 2013,April to June, there was a higher decline of efficiency level. Union problem hasaffected to the overall operation of the company in those months.3.2.3 Line wise SAH efficiency variation 2014

Figure 14:- Efficiency Rate of January 2014

Figure 15:-Efficiency Rate of February 2014

Figure 16:- Efficiency Rate of March 2014

Figure 17:- Efficiency Rate of April 2014

Figure 18:- Efficiency Rate of May 2014

Figure 19:- Efficiency Rate of June 2014

Figure 20:-- Efficiency Rate of July 2014

Figure 21:-Efficiency Rate of Auguest 2014

Figure 22:- Efficiency Rate of September 2014

Figure 23:- Efficiency Rate of October 2014

Figure 24:- Efficiency Rate of November 2014

Figure 25:- Efficiency Rate of December 2014

Line number 1 achieved their target efficiency rate only 3 times in 2013 in March, May and August respectively. Line number 2 unable to achieve their expected efficency rate in any month. In April it is recorded the 3rd lowest efficiency rate of 39% in this month. Line 3 only achieved three times of their expected efficiency rate in 2013 Efficiency rate of line 4 often stayed between the range of 45%-55% in 2013. Line 5 only achieved 4 times of their target efficiency rate in 2013. Line 6 could able to achived nine times of their target efficiency rate in 2013. Line no 7 only achieved one time of their expected efficieny rate 72% in July. Line no 8 also achived only one time of their expected efficiency rate in this year and it is recorded the 3rd lowest efficency rate in the month of June. Line no 9 only achieved 2 times of their expected efficiency rate and recorded the 2nd lowest efficiency rate of 38% in the month of April. Line 10 only achieved 2 times in the target rate. Line 11 only achieved one time of their target rate and recorded the lowest efficienc rate of 32% in the month of April. Line 12 started their work in the beginning of July month and achived their target efficiency rate only in December.

Table

In 2014 according to the above table line 1 achieved expected efficiency level only in two months, January and September respectively. There can be seen only one efficiency achievement in the line 2. Line 3 achieved expected efficiency level in 4 times 80% in January, 91% in april, 76% in July, 71% in December. 72% of efficiency level achieved by the line 4 only in the month of September. Above table shows line 5 achieved 71% and 83% of efficiency level in March and April respectively. Highest rate of efficiency level recorded in line 6 in the year of 2014. Fabulouse rate of 102% reported as the highest efficiency rate achievement by an any line in the last 4 years. Line 7 unable to achieve the expected efficiency rate in any month. This line has the lowest efficiency rate in the 2014. Line 8 achieved expected efficiency level only in two times in the 2014. Line 9 achieved expected efficiency rate in January, February and Novenber in 2014. Line 10, Line 12, Line 13 and Line 14 couldbe able to achieve their efficiency level specially at end of the year.

3.2.4 First time achievement in 2013 &2014

Figure 26:- FTY 2013 & 2014

3.3 Questioner Analysis

Question1:- Age groupTable 1 :- Age GroupScale No. of employeesPercentage

10 to 20936%

20 to 30728%

30 to 40832%

40 to 5014%

Figure 27:- Age Group

Above Figure 28 shows the age group of the employees who are working at the production floor. Majority of the employees are in the age group of 10 to 20 (36%).

Question 2:- My job content and responsibilities are appropriate (not over loaded or not under loaded) for me.Table 2:- Satisfaction of the current work loadScaleNo. of employeesPercentage

Agree0728%

Neutral1872%

Disagree000%

Figure 28:- Satisfaction of The Current Work Load

According to the Question no. 2, Figure 29 shows employee satisfaction on the current work load. 72% of employees are been response as neutral.

Question 3:-My organization provides better training programme to me.

Table 3:- Nature of The Training ProgrammeScaleNo. of employeesPercentage

Agree 1248%

Neutral 832%

Disagree 520%

Figure 29:- Nature of the Training Programme

Thisfigure shows that the majority of the workers, 48% are satisfied with the training programs which they have been given by the company.

Question4:-I think that financial or financially related reward system in my organization is fair and satisfactory.Table 4:- Satisfaction of the Reward SystemScaleNo. of employeesPercentage

Agree 624%

Neutral 1040%

Disagree 936%

Figure 30:- Satisfaction of the Reward System

36% of total employees are not satisfied and 40% of employees are neutral about the current reward system that the company is maintaining. This shows that the reward system of the company is not an appropriate level.Question 5:- I feel that working conditions are clean, pleasant & safe in my organization.Table 5:- Nature of the Working ConditionScaleNo. of employeesPercentage

Agree 1040%

Neutral 1560%

Disagree 00%

Figure 31:- Nature of the Working Condition

60% of employees are been response as neutral about the working condition at the production floor.

Question 6:-My relationship is good, with supervisorsTable 6:- Relationship with SupervisorsScaleNo. of employeesPercentage

Agree 416%

Neutral 936%

Disagree 1248%

Figure 32:- Relationship with Supervisors

48% of total employees are directly saying that they have not a good relationship with their supervisors and 36% are been neutral in this matter.

Table 7:- Relationship with PeersWith subordinatesScaleNo. of employeesPercentage

Agree 1768%

Neutral 832%

Disagree 00%

Figure 33:-Relationship with Subordinates

Above figure shows that 68% of employees have a good relationship with their peers.

Question 7:-Our supervisors assist employees to work efficiency.Table 8:- Supervisor AssistenceScaleNo. of employeesPercentage

Agree 936%

Neutral 28%

Disagree 1456%

Figure 34:- Supervisor Assistence

56% of employees are in dissatisfaction level about the guidance of their supervisors. Only 8% says that they have been guided in a good way by their supervisors.

Question 8:-I feel the supervisors give appreciations for our performance and skills.Table 9:- Supervisor Appreciation for the Performance and SkillsScaleNo. of employeesPercentage

Agree 520%

Neutral 832%

Disagree 1248%

Figure 35:- Supervisor Appreciation for the Performance and Skills

Considering about the figure 36, it shows that the supervisor appreciation to subordinates for their performance and skills is not in a satisfied level. 48% are disagreed and 32 employees are neutral in relation to this matter.

Question 9:-I feel better about the supervisor interference in our problem, well-being and feature.Table 10:- Suerpervisor Interference in employee problemsScaleNo. of employeesPercentage

Agree 416%

Neutral 624%

Disagree 1560%

Figure 36:-Suerpervisor Interference in employee problems

This figure37 show that the interference of supervisors in relation to employees' problems are not in a please way. 60% of total employees are not happy about the way their superiors' interference to their problems.

Question 10:-I am satisfied with the job security given by the organization.Table 11:- Satisfaction about the Job SecurityScaleNo. of employeesPercentage

Agree 624%

Neutral 1144%

Disagree 832%

Figure 37:- Satisfaction about the Job Security

This figure38 shows that the majority of employees feel unsafe about their job security level. 40% of employees directly said their job security is in unsafe level.

Question 11:-I am aware with policies and procedures to the company and I find that satisfactory.Table 12:- Knowledge about the Policies and ProceduresScaleNo. of employeesPercentage

Agree 1976%

Neutral 624%

Disagree 00%

Figure 38:- Knowledge about the Policies and Procedures

76% of employees are agreeing with the statement of having a good knowledge about the policies and procedures of the company.

Question 12:-I think there are right opportunities in this organization for my personal growth and personality.Table 13:- Nature of the opportunities for the personal growth and personalityScaleNo. of employeesPercentage

Agree 624%

Neutral 1976%

Disagree 00%

Figure 39:-Nature of the opportunities for the personal growth and personality

According to the question no. 12, 76% of employees feel that the opportunity for the personal growth and personality given by the company is neutral.

Question 13:-I believe that the cooperation of the management also influences the level of motivation.Table 14:- Influence of the ManagementScaleNo. of employeesPercentage

Agree 624%

Neutral 1560%

Disagree 416%

Figure 40:-Influence of the Management

CHAPTER 4 DISCUSSION

When concern about these charts, can see a huge variation of efficiency rates between sawing lines in each month in Polytex Garment. There are some factors which lead to make these huge efficiency gaps.In Ekala plant of Polytex Garment has 12 sawing lines in production floor. 32 employees were operating different tasks in each sawing line.When allocating orders to the production floor, all the sawing lines did not handle the orders which came from the same buyer at the same time. For an example, if line1 handle an order from POLO at the same time line2 handle an order from Tommy Hilfiger. It means different types of orders can be placed to the production floor at the same time. And also some orders can be simple and the other orders can be difficult. Therefore sawing lines which are handling simple orders get higher efficiency rate more than lines which are handling complex orders. According to the above figures in an every month of the every year some sawing lines achieved the efficiency target but some were not. As an example, considering about the efficiency variation of February 2014, Line 6 achieved 102% than the other sawing lines.

Another important factor which leads to the efficiency variation is management failures of allocating orders. There was no any special plan to allocate orders to the sawing lines. Management selected sawing lines randomly to handle the orders, if it was easy or heavy. Think that there was a line which was having newly trained employees like the sawing line number 11 in 2012.When compare to the other sawing lines in 2012 line number 11 achieved only 24% of efficiency. It was the lowest achievement in that year. Management should need to aware about these lines and they should allocate simple orders to these lines because it does not have skilled employees to face the big challengers. But if management selecting the lines randomly the lines which are having lack of skilled employees are going to face some difficulties and it will lead to lose the customers.

Mixing easy and heavy orders is another error that management did when allocating orders. When there is a new order received to a sawing line it takes some time to arrange to the new order to get maximum output. Additional embroidering parts, different type of sleeves or collars and some value added process can be included to the orders. Sometimes it had to change the machines in the sawing lines to continue the process. Whatthe management did is, if a sawing line completed its order they give completely different order from previous one as the next task. Therefore again same line have to take more effort and get more time to arrange to the new order and it will lead to reduce the total efficiency of the company.If a sawing line needs to perform well other sections also should need to play their role well. Those sections have to do the backup part to push the sawing lines to achieve the target. There are some important sections which are playing the backup part of the main production process such as cutting section, quality check department, embroider department Etc. Sometimes there can be see cutting issues, fabric delays, accessories delays and incompatibility of existing fabrics and some fabrics does not meet the required standard to complete a quality garment. Polytex Garment has received orders from world populist companies such as Tommy Hilfiger, Polo, Marks & Spencer, Etc. So the materials should need to be fulfilling the standard level. Polytex Garment received all the fabrics from their mother company Esquels Mill. Sometimes the fabrics were not fulfilling the standard level. And also Esquel Group was sending all the materials only for the required quantity. Sometimes received materials were not enough to complete the order. Therefore sawing lines need to wait for received the best fabrics to complete the given task. The delay of each second, each minute will reduce the huge amount of total efficiency in Company.Polytex Garment proceeds theirs own training department to train new employees according to their process of the company. The required efficiency level for a training employee to allow the main production line is 50%. It means all the trainers who are having efficiency rate 50% or more than that allowed to perform the main production process. Company overall expected efficiency rate is 70%. According to the process of the company efficiency rate was calculating based on the Standard Minute Value. SMV means the time required for a qualified worker working at Standard Performance to perform a given task. Standard Performance showed an employee working in 100% of efficiency. If an employee worked in a sawing line, which has 50% of efficiency, it matters to decrease half of the efficiency rate in one part.So it is totally impossible to get 70% of efficiency rate by using the workers who are qualified only from having 50% efficiency rate.Employee absenteeism is one of a factor which affect to the overall process of the company. Absenteeism is an employees intentional or habitual absence from work. While employers expect workers to miss a certain number of workdays each year, excessive absences can equate to decreased efficiency and can have a major effect on company finances, morale and other factors.If there is an absence of skilled employee, there are no new trained employees to fulfill or replace the missing place. Therefore absenteeism of a skilled employee can affect to reduce the large quantity of daily efficiency rate.Concerning about the matters in 2011 at line 10 and line number 11 in 2012, both problems arose due to lack of skilled employees who can perform at more than 60% of efficiency rate. There was a huge labour turnover in line number 10 at the beginning of the year 2011. Almost 40% (13 skilled employees) of skilled labours leaved the company and existing employees could not handle the targets in a successful way. Management replaced the vacancies by using training employees but their capability and experience does not match the desired outcome. Therefore they decided to close the line number 10 and existing employees allocated to different departments such as cutting, pressing, washing and embroidering. In 2012 there were 75% (24 employees out of 32) of newly trained employees in line number 11. So new employees who are not have enough experience unable to reach the speed as their seniors did before. And supervisor in line number 11 unable to do the coordinate part between existing senior employees and newly trained employees. Therefore in 2012, line number 11 unable to reach its given task. Labour unions one of the most crucial factors which can affect to the process of any organization. It might build an opportunities and as well as the challenges to the management of the organization. There was a union problem in 2013 till the end of the July form April. According to the above figure 6, 7, 8 and 9 can be seen a higher decline of efficiency variation in 2013. The speed of the production process remained lower level due to the conflicts between union and the management. Labour union always tried to affect to the production process in a bad manner. They force the employees to do not cover the remaining targets. Because of that, supervisors in each line had to struggle and they also had to force the employees to cover the targets on time. According to the questioner analysis employees do not have good relationship with their supervisors. Table 06 shows that only 16% of employees agree for the having good relationship with their supervisors. Majority of the employees (48%) were disagreeing with that statement. The satisfaction of financially or financially related rewarding system was low among the employees. 46% of employees were disagreeing with that statement. Another factor which causes to reduce the efficiency rate is machine breakdowns. In polytex garment there were 750 sawing machines and 10 embroidering machines. Normally organization cannot stop the decaying and breakdowns of the machines. But when going to replace the machine it will take long time period such as 15 to 20 minutes. It means the working process of technical operators was going slowly. This is a big matter that management should concern about.Lack of employee motivation is another problem that can be seen at the Polytex Garment. It can also be a reason for the above mention two problems, employee absenteeism and turnover. Motivation leads to encourage employees to do their works in an effective and efficient manner. It is affect to the overall efficiency of an organization. Considering about the questioner analysis can find out some demotivation factors. According to the Table 6 employees do not have a good relationship with their supervisors. Supervisors are the people who work closer to the employees at the production floor. Bad relationship between employees and supervisors leads to create big problems. Other statements in questioner which are related to the supervisors behaviour helps to proof above mention reasons further more. Table 8 shows 56% of employees disagree with the statement of better assistance from supervisors to do their works efficiency. And there was a complaint from employees that supervisors were not appreciating employee performance and skills. Table 9 shows 48% of employees proof that complain. The supervisor interference for the problems among employees is also low at the Polytex Garment. According to the Table 10 60% of employees agree with that issue. Due to those problems the employee motivation gets decreases to work in an efficient and effective manner at the Polytex Garment.

CHAPTER 5 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION

5.1 Recommendations

Need to reduce the arranging time period to the new order.Different types of orders can be placed to the production floor. It can be an easy style or a heavy style. Management should need to get complete idea about the new order before it release to the sawing lines. And also analyzing information about the previous styles which are already placed to the sawing lines helps to allocate orders to the right sawing lines. As an example, if the new order is a heavy one, there can be some sawing lines which are already completing same kind of style, so allocating that new style to the same sawing lines than the sawing line which is completing easy type of style reduces unnecessary arranging time period for the new order. Therefore those sawing lines can easily achieve the efficiency targets. So management should always need to allocate orders to the lines which are more capable to adapt to the new order. Need to increase the required efficiency boundary of a training employee to represent the main production process.Polytex Garment has their own training department to train new employees according to their operational process. New employees can have different skills and abilities according to their educational level. Some trainees can finish training period in 2 or 3 months, but some are not. Polytex Garment follows a procedure to select new employees to the production floor with calculating efficiency rate of an each employee. Currently the required efficiency rate for a training employee to perform to the main production process is 50%. But company overall expected efficiency rate is 70%. According to the scale of SMV (Standard Minute Value) training employee should need to have at least 60% of efficiency level to contribute to achieve overall efficiency level in the production process. Otherwise new employee would not be capable to saw alike the senior skilled employees sawing speed and to perform the high pressure events. Mixing new employees with the skilled employees.Studying above incidents in discussion part, can realized how important this is. New employees do not have enough experiences to handle sawing process in an effective manner and unable to reach the efficiency level. As an example, in 2011 line no. 10 and line no. 11 in 2012, both could not be able to achieve expected efficiency level due to lack of skilled employees while doing serious damage to the production floor. Therefore when allocating newly trained employees to the main production flow management should mix new employees with skilled employees rather than make them stick together to make sure that the above incidents will not happen again. Backup parts should need to be on timeQuality check department, cutting section, embroider sections are some examples for the backup parts of the main production process. If those departments have failed to do their jobs eventually the sawing lines will fail to cover the targets. Sometimes sawing lines have to wait until it received the required quantity of fabrics. Sometimes they received fabrics in desired quantity but the quality of the fabrics is at a lower level. Cutting department need to be hurry because they have to supply the desired materials at the right time. So there should be a clear, effective system to coordinate those departments and to monitor the whole process of the company. Increasing employee motivationIn relation to the discussion part lack of motivation is a big problem at the Polytex Garment. Because of that employee absenteeism and turnover was increased. Large number of skilled employees tends to leave the organization due to this reason. So without enough skilled employees, production department cannot be able to achieve the expected efficiency level. First of all management should need to facilitate a good atmosphere to create a proper communication process among employees and supervisors. Such as organizing annual get together, annual trips, sports competitions. It helps to decrease the conflicts between employees and supervisors. Especially management should need to organize a training programme for the supervisors as well. (Training supervisors about how to build a good relationship with their subordinates and how to understand their feelings [some kind of a mental training]) And also need to create a rewarding system (non-financial) to appreciate employee skills and performance.

5.2 Conclusion

Over the past few years, apparel industry has become one of the most popular manufacturing fields in the world. This study focused about the low production efficiency of Polytex Garment, one of a leading apparel company in Sri Lanka. According to the above chapters Polytex Garment has faced an issue of decreasing production efficiency during last two three years. As recognized, there were some problems, when placing orders to the production floor, selecting and allocating newly trained employees to the sawing lines, performance of the backup sections, machine breakdowns and the lack of motivation of an employee. Those are the reasons that affect to reduce the production efficiency of Polytex Garment. It suggested, reducing the arranging time period for the new order and providing good atmosphere for the backup sections to work on time, thereby reducing the time of operation and reducing the lead time in production. Thus the cost of production can be reduced. By rectifying other reasons with motivating employees to do their work in best way and mixing training employees with the existing employees, production rate can be improved. According to the study, production efficiency contains the effective time management, low cost, effective usage of resources, Etc. all these factors affect to the overall process of the organization. As the conclusion, in manufacturing field production efficiency is a major component that affect to the profit of the organization.

APPENDICESEmployee Motivation SurveyAs students of the National Institute of Business Management, we are conducting this survey to review the application of the Motivation for the requirement of fulfilling the research. We assure that the information will be used for academic purpose only and shall be kept confidential.1. Department:2. Gender:Male [ ]Female [ ]3. Age:a. 10 to 20[ ]b. 20 to 30[ ]c. 30 to 40[ ]d. 40 to 50[ ]4. My job content and responsibilities are appropriate (not over loaded or not under loaded) for me.a. Agree [ ]b. Neutral [ ]c. Disagree [ ]5. My organization provides better training programme to the trainees.a. Agree [ ]b. Neutral [ ]c. Disagree [ ]6. I think that financial or financially related reward system in my organization is fair and satisfactory.a. Agree [ ]b. Neutral [ ]c. Disagree [ ]7. I feel that working conditions are clean, pleasant & safe in my organization.a. Agree [ ]b. Neutral [ ]c. Disagree [ ]8. My relationship is good.with supervisors,a. Agree [ ]b. Neutral [ ]c. Disagree [ ]with subordinates,a. Agree [ ]b. Neutral [ ]c. Disagree [ ]9. Our supervisors assist employees to work efficiency.a. Agree [ ]b. Neutral [ ]c. Disagree [ ]

10. I feel the supervisors give appreciations for our performance and skills.a. Agree [ ]b. Neutral [ ]c. Disagree [ ]11. I feel better about the supervisor interference in our problem, well-being and feature.a. Agree [ ]b. Neutral[ ]c. Disagree [ ]12. I am satisfied with the job security given by the organization.a. Agree [ ]b. Neutral [ ]c. Disagree [ ]13. I am aware with policies and procedures to the company and I find that satisfactory.a. Agree [ ]b. Neutral [ ]c. Disagree [ ]14. I think there are right opportunities in this organization for my personal growth and personality.a. Agree [ ]b. Neutral [ ]c. Disagree [ ]

15. I believe that the cooperation of the management also influences the level of motivation.a. Agree [ ]b. Neutral [ ]c. Disagree [ ]

List of References

Employee handbook Polytex Garment, Ekala, Sri Lanka Documents of Line Wise SAH Efficiency Variation 2011, 2012, 2013 & 2014 .Polytex Garment, Ekala, Sri Lanka Ricky W. Griffin, Herzbergs Two Factor Theory, Management: Principles and Applications, 10thEddition, 2012 http://www.esquel.com/en/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Productive_efficiency http://www.tutor2u.net/business/gcse/production_efficiency_measures.htm http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-10122007-115628/unrestricted/03chapter3.pdf http://industries.ul.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/12/MC102_ProductionEffiencyAssesments_F_Web.pdf http://www.tutor2u.net/business/people/motivation_theory_herzberg.asp