How often would you re-design the floor layout?
There is no single answer to this question. You may think of redesigning the line layout after getting an idea of betterment. One may hire a consultant for process improvement and they suggest a new way of doing the work for better productivity. You might have visited a garment production facility in another part of the country or another country and you liked their production floor layout and process flow design.
I am writing this article after observing one factory for the last 10 years. In the last 10 years, the factory has rearranged the sewing floor, cutting floor, and other departments a couple of times. Changing the floor layout from time to time is good for many reasons.
Whatever way you design the floor layout, it has some benefits. I would say, it is not only for productivity improvement. I can relate this to the good feelings of workers. When feeling good is improved, production increases automatically. The floor becomes more lively when you rearrange the production floor.
How to bring changes in the floor layout?
You can take the expert’s suggestion for layout change (workplace re-engineering) of the production floor. Here I have listed a few pointers that can be useful for changing floor layout without an expert’s guide.
- Moving small work sections from one floor to another floor. Or from one corner to another corner on the same floor.
- Change directions of the material flow or operator seating direction.
- Change cuttings loading place. It is not necessary that you need to keep one table at the start of the line. You can keep in one corner of the flow
- Use trolleys
- Make it a straight line if you have a different line layout
- Make it a U-shaped line, if you are following a straight line
- Set up inline finishing and washing section
- Make parts in a separate section
- Make parts in the main production line
- Relocate the fabric-checking tables and fabric racks
- Upgrade the office area. Why not make the office space like an IT office?
- Remove cabins for HOD and managers
Benefits of changing production floor layout
I can visualize the following benefits.
- improves productivity
- the floor becomes neat and clean as all the clutters and unwanted items from the floor are removed from the floor
- the floor becomes more lively. Improves lighting after cleaning and airflow.
- All the factory staff and workers get something to discuss. Many employees get motivated after doing the tough job of changing the floor layout
- This improves teamwork and relationships between workers.
- Continuous improvement happened
Did you change the floor layout in your factory after the first set-up?
Try this and do it regularly. You will experience more energy flowing inside the production floors and the factory.
You might be thinking of time lost in redesigning. Choose the season when you have fewer orders. The cost incurred in doing changes – consider this a maintenance activity.
Doing a whitewash of the walls and ceiling once a year is not a bad idea.
Share your experience with us, if you recently changed the production layout in a garment factory.
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