What is the Standard Man to Machine Ratio (MMR) in the Asian Garment Factories?

I have received this question many times from garment industry professionals, industrial engineers, and students. I did not have an answer to this question at that time. Also do not have the answer now.

As per my knowledge, there is no standard man-to-machine ratio. No benchmark is found on MMR data in any research paper or in a book.

But still, we need a number to refer to set-up MMR target for our factories. Many garment factories want to achieve the best in each KPI. For that, they look for the industry benchmark on the Man-to-machine ratio.

As I don’t have the answer, I will take the help of a Facebook group discussion on MMR data and try to conclude the industry benchmark on the man-to-machine ratio.

In this post, I will share some data on MMR that I found on a Facebook group discussion – IE Q&A. About 32 industrial engineers from Bangladesh and other countries shared the MMR of their factories.

Related post: How to calculate Man to Machine Ratio

Less the ratio better is
the factory performance in terms of the factory’s overhead costs. See the MMR ratio
provided by  (Note: in the data there was
no standard formula used). 

Table: Garment factory’s MMR 

Respondents

MMR (Man:Machine)

Comments

Respondent
1

2.20

 

Respondent
2

1.15

Woven
factory

Respondent
3

1.25

Knit
factory

Respondent
4

1.38

 

Respondent
5

1.81

 

Respondent
6

2.18

 

Respondent
7

1.20

Marked
as World standard MMR by the respondent

Respondent
8

1.80

 

Respondent
9

2.20

 

Respondent
10

1.90

Jacket

Respondent
11

2.23

 

Respondent
12

1.70

 

Respondent
13

1.70

 

Respondent
14

1.70

 

Respondent
15

1.70

 

Respondent
16

1.81

 

Respondent
17

2.10

 

Respondent
18

2.36

 

Respondent
19

1.29

 

Respondent
20

1.18

 

Respondent
21

1.33

 

Respondent
22

1.40

 

Respondent
23

1.78

 

Respondent
24

2.25

 

Respondent
25

1.80

 

Respondent
26

1.75

 

Respondent
27

1.65

 

Respondent
28

1.40

 

Respondent
29

1.50

 

Respondent
30

1.80

 

Respondent
31

1.39

 

Respondent
32

1.70

 

Industry Average

1.71

Credit for this datasheet

I like to say thanks to the Facebook group admin Mr. Mojaharul Hannan for posting this question on Facebook and grateful to each respondent for sharing their factory’s MMR KPI (without fearing their management for breaching the data confidentiality clause). I love engineers who share information with the world without any condition – just for helping others to learn more and to achieve more.

Conclusion:

From the above 32 responses, we can say the benchmark MMR of the garment industry is 1.71. We can further improve this Benchmark if we get more data from the industry. So, if you are interested, you can share your factory Man-to-machine ratio. 

Also read: Why Measure MMR?

man to machine ratio garment factories

Prasanta Sarkar

Prasanta Sarkar is a textile engineer and a postgraduate in fashion technology from NIFT, New Delhi, India. He loves writing how-to guide articles in the fashion industry niche. He has visited garment factories in many countries and implemented process improvement projects in numerous garment units in different continents including Asia, Europe, and South Africa.

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