StitchWord Editorial Issue August 2014

When nothing is in news, it can only mean that the order books of the exporter is full and the company management has enough in hand... without really being bothered by its immediate surrounding disruptive environment.

And it seems that the Textile Ministry has chosen the right moment to bring out its ‘Vision, Strategy and Action Plan’ for the Indian Textile and Apparel Sector… which is really nothing but a cleverly worded paper with a bureaucratic stamp.

 It fails to consider most of the core demands of the garment industry be it a common integrated textile policy or revision of the labour laws. It also fails in its understanding of why there needs to be a strategic shift from capacity building to capability building. The intricacy of a thrust for new markets v/s consolidation of established markets, creating our own niche v/s imitating the established players like China, which is now a falling giant is missing, resulting in misguided approaches to these critical issues.

I have written an open letter to the Minister in my Apparel Online editorial (August 16-31) apprising him of all the pitfalls of his Action Plan and how the bureaucrats with little knowledge of the industry are dusting old files and inking a so-called new vision plan for the industry…, this really saddens me.

But as they say…, the show must go on and we at StitchWorld try in our own small way to make a difference. This issue is a collector's issue for those who want to understand the importance and application of IE in garment manufacturing. The exhaustive article thread bares the different approaches of Method Improvement via Method Study for best results. The concept is explained through real time shop floor scenarios wherein method study has been discussed and improvements suggested for better productivity and quality.

An interesting Survey was conducted among 446 operators in 35+ factories across Delhi-NCR with Focus on Training Needs Analyses. Many interesting findings have been highlighted on present skill levels of sewing operates, growth path they would like to take and job-specific aspects they would like to improve on. To our astonishment, while the industry blames MNREGA for shortage of labour, of the workers surveyed, only 58% had heard about the schemes and only 10% actually worked under the same.