A monthly people review for textile and garment units: ten questions for the owner

A garment owner knows the efficiency figure for every sewing-line by lunchtime. He rarely knows how many of his best operators have been approached by the factory down the road. Numbers on the target-board are tracked daily. Numbers on the people behind them are tracked when somebody quits.

Below is a monthly review that takes an hour, built for spinning mills, weaving sheds, knitting units, dye-houses, stitching factories and home-textile units. You get ten questions, a form to photocopy and a plain roster of who writes which line. The wider trade is covered in the textile and garment overview.

Absence bites the same day. An empty chair at an overlock-machine slows the whole sewing-line. A missing doffer at a ring-frame leaves bobbins waiting. A weaver on leave idles two looms. Piece-rate-cards and targets generate daily quarrels. Many supervisors started as tailors. Buyers set the ship date, and the festival season shapes the calendar.

A monthly sitting suits this rhythm. An hour in the factory office is long enough to see a pattern. Short enough to act on before the next ship date.

• Which five operators or machine minders would hurt the order most if they left, and what have you heard about them?
• Which line, loom-row or ring-frame side ran short of hands most often, and on which weekday?
• How many floaters did you have on the rota, and were they used or borrowed away?
• Which style-change this month took longer than planned to settle, and who struggled?
• Which rate-card or target dispute reached the supervisor's desk, and was it settled the same week?
• How many new joiners left inside thirty days, and what did they say?
• Which line-leader or supervisor needs help with how they speak to the crew?
• How much overtime did the top ten earners work, and is it falling on the same names?
• What rework or alteration pile can be traced to a person or a stage, not just a style?
• What single change do we make before the next sitting?

For month of ____ ; present: owner, factory manager, HR lead, one line supervisor.
Line 1   Five hands to protect: names, exit-risk (low, medium, high), what was heard.
Line 2   Short-staffed spots: line or loom-row, weekday, hands missing.
Line 3   Floaters: number on rota, days used, days borrowed away.
Line 4   Style-change: style, days to reach target, who found it hard.
Line 5   Rate-and-target disputes: count, topic, days to settle.
Line 6   Leavers inside thirty days: count, stated reasons, line or shed.
Line 7   Line-leader notes: name, topic, who will coach them.
Line 8   Overtime: top ten names, hours, trend.
Line 9   Rework: pile traced to stage or person, count, owner.
Line 10  The one fix agreed today: the task, the holder, the due day.

1. 1

   Last week of the month

   The HR lead lifts attendance by line, overtime hours and leavers from the registers. Line supervisors add lines two, three and nine from the end-line-checker's tally.

2. 2

   Sitting day

   The owner and factory manager sit for sixty minutes. Lines one, four, five and seven come from their own eyes and ears. Where the checker's tally and the supervisor's memory disagree, they dig.

3. 3

   Same day

   The final line is agreed aloud, put in simple words and given an owner and a deadline day.

4. 4

   Next sitting

   Open with line ten. Did it happen? If not, find the blockage before piling on a new task.

Leave the office after the sitting and walk the floor with the supervisor whose line sits highest on the sheet. Stand at the first operation and watch the bundle-tickets come in. Notice whether the operator at the bartack waits for work, or whether the thread-trimmer piles up pieces. Ask the line-leader one open question about the week. The sheet points. The walk explains.

Hunt for a line that shows in several rows at once. A stitching-line that is short of hands, has a new style and has a leader flagged for shouting is the line to visit first. A weaving-shed with many leavers inside a month and long overtime on the same few weavers has an induction problem and a spread problem.

The overtime row deserves care. In many units the best bartack and buttonhole-operators carry the festival rush, then fall sick or leave in January. Ideas for sharing the load are in the garment unit rota and leave notes.

• Using it as a league table for supervisors.
• Writing from memory when a checker's tally exists.
• Piling on questions after a bad month. Hold at ten.
• Showing named exit-risks to line-leaders.

Allow three monthly rounds before you judge it. To get the counts without hand copying, ask about reporting built for textile units. Want help running round one with your people? Outline the factory in our requirements wizard. Fabric and weaving units may find wage comparison for fabric makers useful for line five.