The Machinery never played an important role in the Apparel Trade in India, till recent years. The Operator's skill was more relied upon in the past.
Consider these scenarios :
- Shortage of operators due to growth in Industry.
- Apparel Industry being set up in a geographical location where Experienced and Skilled Operators are not available.
- High Salaries and Perks paid to the Skilled Operator to retain them.
- Replacing a Highly Skilled Operator.
- High absenteeism rate.
- Experienced and High Skilled Operators opting to work in other Industries due to various reasons.
- These are everyday difficulties faced by the Apparel Industry.
What if the Industry can opt for High End Machines with latest Technology which can be operated even by inexperienced Operator. Consider these scenarios:
- The Machinery is designed and made for a Specific Operation.
- The Machinery can be operated even by the inexperienced Operator.
- The Machine run at very high speeds, improving productivity.
- The Machine depends on Technology rather than the Operator Skills.
- The Machine provides Quantity and Quality Output.
- The Machine can be programmed to handle complicated Sewing processes.
- The Machine consumes only 50% or less Electricity compared to the older models.
- The Machine can be operated by unskilled Operator - Cost Saving to the Industry and Industry can move to any geographic location.
These are some advantages of Latest Technology Machineries.
There are Attachments available for some specific operations where in the Operator finds it difficult to do a certain operation because of physical considerations - big /small etc. There are special attachments for some High End Machinery which can do few operations put together at a single stretch.
If the Apparel Industry is to put together all the above Technology together in the right way, It can achieve tremendous improvement in both Productivity and Quality Output, not to mention the cost savings.
Preferably the Industry should be set to this standard at the very beginning itself. And continuos research needs to be done and the Machinery upgraded as and when required.
This exercise when being done at the later stage, is called Re Structuring and Re Engineering. The same is very much possible but it does take more time and efforts comparitively.