Effect of wastes on changeover time in garment industry

Nowadays, garment industries in Tunisia are adopting new strategies that producing a very large variety of garments in extremely small quantities. This means a practical difficulty of changing tools and production lines frequently. Here, a study has been carried out to find out the changeover time and the kinds of wastes in the sewing line. For two months, a series of observations and analyses of two garment factories has been taken in order to identify wastes and to eliminate them. Lean manufacturing and SMED technique are two methods that have been considered as guideline to solve those problems. Serious problems have been detected in studied sewing lines: the technological constraints due to the skill level and efficiency of mechanic's labor and the working process.