Why the international single brand retailers, especially the 'fashion brands', would have an objection to the Government stipulation of 30% mandatory sourcing from local SMEs in the case of 100% foreign investment, is beyond me… when in fact many of these retailers are already sourcing a chunk of their products from Indian manufacturers.

Take the case of Gap, which is doing around US $ 1 billion buying from India, which would be between 20 to 25% of its total sourcing… why would then it be difficult for them to increase the buying and achieve the target? Even other single brand retailers like Zara, H&M, M&S, Esprit and many others are actively sourcing from India in huge quantities.

Of course, it would help retailers if their buying for both their international operations and Indian operations is clubbed together to comply with the 30% mandatory local sourcing norm as set by the Government.

This will have some distinct advantages for the country besides easing the pressure on the retailers… the most obvious will mean more FDI in the country, which will help in achieving the target of 25% share of manufacturing in the GDP by the year 2022 and simultaneously generate better employment opportunities since the garment industry is labour intensive, in addition it will also mean greater opportunity for the exporters already working with the brands.

Since these retailers would be complying with the international norms of quality and compliances, both social and environmental, it would help the local industry to mature from being an unorganized setup to an organized industry. It will also help them scale up their operations, build operational efficiencies and improve capital and human productivity.

Madura is a true benchmark company and strives for excellence in all its endeavours… A visit to the suit manufacturing unit of the company was an eye opener for the StitchWorld team. In this issue we highlight its manufacturing and management practices that set it apart.

This monthly also previews the technology that will be on display at the upcoming JIAM fair. The focus is on automated machines to cater to the mature market where labour saving is a priority, not that these technologies are not popular in developing economies.

With most consultants in the market claiming to be Lean experts… choosing the right consultant is almost as critical as implementing Lean for success. The article “How to Choose a Lean Consultant?” has some useful tips from Lean professionals in the field.

Inclusive Growth

“Technology is passé, usher in people”… When I say this I don’t mean to undermine the importance of technology in the growth of a company, but the phase when the concentration of the industry was on upgradation and automation is over and the new decade belongs to its ‘people’.

The expectation that the technology would bring in more productivity and improve bottomlines has now seen shift in the focus to motivated and trained employees or employables to be the drivers for better and perpetual growth. With social responsibility and ethical manufacturing becoming the mandate for growth at the buyers end, the industry has taken the cue.

Not only that, since poverty alleviation is a major component of national policy agenda, one of the means to achieving this is through inclusive growth, also termed as ‘shared growth’ and ‘pro-poor growth’ involving the worker. Training and then making them employable through policies like NREGA or through PPP route is high on the Government priority list.

Besides, management concepts like Kaizen, TQM, TPM, SMED, Takt Time, Cellular Manufacturing, Lean, are all now so commonly used and practiced in the industry… and what is the common factor in each of these concepts are the motivated and trained workers.

Another aspect to inclusive growth is taking factories to where the workers live rather than waiting for them to come to the metropolitans. After all, employable workers are happy at home rather than living in dingy dormitories away from their families. But this is easier said than done and there are many challenges and practical hurdles to cross before the transit can happen on a large scale… though few companies have started to test the potential, which is a good sign.

As we embark on a more meaningful journey not only for the New Year but for the new decade, I look forward to seeing ‘inclusive growth’ a part of the DNA of a company just like technology and compliance have become.

Defining the critical influences of 2010 was an interesting exercise as it only reinforced my belief that sustainability in all its aspects is important – social, environment and economical. Even technology providers are striving to offer more ecological and user-friendly machines. The three R’s of sustainability have not yet caught the attention of manufacturing industry yet, hopefully the concept of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle will set a new trend among industry and buyers will find another new parameters to benchmark! And who can shun the reality that the ultimate aim of every company is to make profits… only the route has been re-defined.

Big Thing...

Retaining of employees is touted as the next big thing in manufacturing and as all the stakeholders are scampering to train and re-train their workers, the training sector is buzzing with activities. But I wonder whether we are going anywhere or is this trend going to be just another fad that will lose steam.

There are two types of interventions that manufacturers are engaged with today: firstly, improving factory performance (with wide variety of deliverables from quality/productivity to lean) through engagement of professional consultants; and secondly, training of shopfloor workers (primarily sewing operators) through Government initiated development programs.

The first initiative is either due to buyer pressure, a ‘me-too’ effort to do something, or because of the understanding/realization of the importance of making use of available capacity to enhance/diversify output. Therefore, in the last one or two years we have seen brisk activities amongst consultants who were kept busy improving the efficiency of existing plants. ‘Me-too’ efforts are often directionless, as the companies try to ape the result without setting the objectives right. I have mentioned in my previous editorial that hiring a consultant is the easiest part of the job, implementing the changes rigorously is the most difficult task.

The second initiative has rather unexpectedly been made available because of the timely sop from the Government, where the training of workers is partly funded by Government schemes. Training of sewing workers was always looked upon as a futile exercise, due to poaching by other companies. However, the Government initiatives have prompted the large manufacturers to utilize the opportunity to get professional and most importantly customized trained workers. I am sure more and more manufacturers will utilize these opportunities in future and probably this will create much needed pool of trained and employable workforce.

Employee Engagement…

Most companies hire consultants and then create circumstances which make it difficult for the consultant to deliver. They unwittingly challenge them to show results by giving them a production line which is already performing at its peak or at times is the worst performing line; in both cases the loss is of the company… There are two critical elements in achieving results – have you chosen the right consultant and are you giving him the right tools including people and authorities to bring about the changes.


To bring about a change in any organization or inculcate a culture which is acceptable to its people, it is important that the top management has complete faith in the consultant… He has to be wholeheartedly supported by assigning him the best of the managers in the organization who are not only liked for their people-management skill but also technically competent to command respect of both the top management and the operators to help lead the changes. This way the consultant will be able to bring necessary changes.


Every consultant brings with him the baggage of his earlier experience, but it is not necessary that his experience will be a success in the current setup because the resources – whether technology, its people or the process – are all different. He has to first study the methods, then evaluate the entire system and finally accord priorities to slowly bring about the changes. The changes need to be brought about in all areas including new equipment, technology solutions and work-aids to having a relook at processes… But the most difficult and challenging area for any consultant is to change the people of wrong habits that impair change!


I once read that Tiger Woods had to stop playing for whole one year to work on his new stance. All because he got too used to playing the shot in a certain way and to improve he had to change the habit. It is the habit or the culture of its workforce which is the most difficult part to change in any organization… to first break the habit and then reassemble in a new way.

Boom Boom...

The retail industry is booming with increasing number of international brands coming into the country, not that the national brands are doing badly, and the best part is they are looking at manufacturing locally.The critical question is… does the local manufacturer understand the needs and wants of these International brands? Their lead times, inventory, logistics or the merchandise mix?The just concluded OGTC meet had a large contingent from Madura and a few participants from Wills Lifestyle, both of which are producing for their own brands. Sadly, they got little out of the event as the entire seminar was single-mindedly addressing manufacturing needs specific to exports…If we compare the supply chain of any international brand who sources globally, the situation is not comparable to that of National and International brands that are sourcing locally…The manufacturing sector is shying away from best practices, the isolated efforts bringing results in bits and pieces to limited few. There is confusion everywhere and lack of knowledge, one is merely trying to ape another without knowing what is right for whom, leading to a situation what American automobile sector faced while trying to copy Japanese concepts. I am sure that the OGTC has many members who would wish to work for domestic brands to cover up their lean periods or may also wish to launch their own brands in the future… Maybe it is time now to widen the scope of the event.One thing both the international and domestic players agree upon is that it is people… people and again people who are engineers of growth. They are drivers of systems in any organization. Sessions on Lean implementation, Green is lean, Training the trainer, Lean productivity… all had one common theme, it’s people who are the "differentiators" and rightly put, it was also the theme of the seminar…A very well planned and extended seminar with amazing interest from the industry too, I take the opportunity to congratulate OGTC on the show.

Common Games…

Why blame the garment industry for being unorganized, inefficient, unproductive and non compliant when it is one such industry that has to work with so many variables, some of which are low volumes, multi designs, ever reducing prices, fluctuating currencies, Government apathy and poor infrastructure support. But despite that, it has always been able to deliver on time while maintaining a reasonable quality. May be, at times, the goods get air freighted rather then shipped. Now compare it with the mess that has happened at the project Common‘Wealth’ Games… Can one expect any such big blunder by any of the garment exporters? Off time and poor quality…
I would say that Government should have placed a few garment exporters on the Commonwealth Games project planning board, and going by the reputation of managing crisis the stalwarts from the garment industry would have made sure the job gets done and delivered on time using their expert understanding of special technique called jugad, salvaging the situation and the country’s pride (some may argue that jugad is the reason for India’s downfall).

Turel Classic show, GTE and ITMA-Asia + CITME…

I have attended three fairs in the last month… Besides all of them showing a good visitor turnout and continuing with the discussions on offering sustainable products, what struck me was that all the machine manufacturers and suppliers presented their automated solutions. Probably, the enhanced business confidence followed by the improvement in order position has brightened the mood of the industry. Even the Government policies and schemes are working out to be a breather for large investors, making the cost of ownership lighter.
We can of course not neglect the impact of labour shortage, which is slowly but surely pushing manufacturers to opt for automation as an alternate… Another emphasis area for the technology providers was their claim to having machines with lowest running cost or operating cost. The operating cost is no doubt the critical factor in any buying decision and ideally it would include maintenance, support infrastructure and consumables, apart from energy and labour.
Among the operating cost, the investors are more concerned about cost of downtime (equivalent to loss of production), cost of repair (spare part and labour cost, which sometimes involves expert flying in from other countries), and cost of maintenance (Annual Maintenance Contracts (AMC) and machine engineers salary). For India, with poor spare part availability and lack of trained engineers, these factors are looming large during any investment decision…