Causes of Low Productivity in Apparel Industry

Garments manufacturing factories or Bangladesh work with quite poor apparel productivity, which is manifested by the off-the-clock work in this very vital sector of our industry. The major stumbling block is the poor management status in this sector. Factory management hardly strives to achieve improved productivity and performance. This article presents the Causes of Low Productivity in the Apparel Industry.

The number of industries that look for better systems and management tools is very few and far between. This lack of interest most probably emanates from the easy availability of cheap labor in this part of the world during the last few years, female workers are not in abundant supply due to completely other reasons. Especially, due to the shortage or non-availability of living quarters for the teenage female workers. Management may easily coerce workers into off-the-clock work.

The local laws existing in the books are not enforced. So, factory authority looks for long hours of work rather than looking for modern management tools to complete the apparel production target within the designated hours of work. This is the main reason why a vast industrial sector has been working without modern management tools like work study methods. ISO 9000.2000, TQM, etc. 22 Causes of Low Productivity in Apparel Industry described below:

What are the Causes for Low Productivity in the Apparel Industry?

Apparel industries work under great stress & with poor productivity due to the following reasons:

1. Delays in raw material supply (fabric, trims, accessories), They cannot source materials such as fabrics, trims, accessories, etc. on time. So, apparel production is disrupted.
2. Composite mills cannot develop fabrics of designated quality as per schedule.
3. Delaying in sampling and approval process, Lab dip takes a long time to develop.
4. Personnel, supervisors, and managers are poorly trained. So, productivity is poor.
5. Modern management systems like work-study have not been launched.
6. Apparel production lines are poorly designed & balanced, entailing poor productivity.
7. Workers are not properly taken care of. So, they are not motivated.
8. Employees & workers are not continuously trained. So, there is poor performance.
9. The concept of continuous improvement in all walks of work has not been assimilated in the apparel industry.
10. Social compliance has not been instituted in the industry with full force.
11. Workers’ salaries and overtime are not delivered on time, thus pushing workers to the extreme of dissatisfaction.
12. Harassment, insult, humiliation, etc., are rampant in the apparel manufacturing industries that impede apparel productivity & performance.
13. Frequent machine breakdowns or maintenance issues.
14. Inadequate use of automation and technology (e.g., manual cutting instead of laser cutting).
15. No adoption of lean manufacturing or Industry 4.0 technologies (IoT, AI, robotics).
16. High defect rates due to a lack of quality checks at each stage; rework and rejection of finished garments are increasing lead time.
17. Waste (fabric waste, time waste, overproduction) is not minimized.
18. No implementation of lean manufacturing (e.g., 5S, Kaizen).
19. No performance monitoring or productivity benchmarking.
20. Congested workspaces are slowing down material movement.
21. Poor ergonomics leading to worker fatigue.
22. Inefficient material handling (e.g., excessive manual transportation).
23. Not using any Quality improvement methods and QC tools.

Apparel makers will increase productivity, reduce expenses, and compete more efficiently on the global stage if they address these problems.