It is the small hours at a processing house. A soft-flow jet is mid-cycle on a dark navy lot. The C-shift operator's relief has not arrived, his own shift is over, and he has a bus to catch. Nobody wrote down who he should call, so he tells the boiler man and leaves. The cycle runs past its time, the shade goes off, and the lot comes back for stripping and redyeing.
Every unit has attendance rules of some kind. What matters is whether they survive a short-staffed Saturday with a tired supervisor. Below is a short rulebook for spinning mills, loom sheds, processing houses and stitching units. These are the floors described in our textile and garment overview. Write it once, pin it up, and apply it identically on A, B and C shifts.
What the rulebook has to cover
- Shift timings for each section: general shift for stitching and packing, A, B and C relays for frames, looms and jets.
- Grace time at shift start, what counts as a late mark, and what happens after repeated ones.
- Missed or wrong punches and how they are regularised.
- Handover at continuous machines, and the rule that nobody leaves a running machine unrelieved.
- Leave applications, approval times and festival leave windows.
- Reporting an unplanned absence: by phone, to whom, and by what time.
- Shift swaps between operators.
- Who arranges cover, and in what order floaters and relievers are used.
- How overtime is approved, recorded and rotated.
- Monthly close of attendance for wages.
Shift start, late marks and missed punches
Set a single grace period and print it. A late mark after grace is recorded by the biometric or the time office, never by a line leader's memory. Say what follows repeated late marks, in steps, beginning with a quiet word, not a wage cut. Bus timings cause many late arrivals in garment belts, so check them before treating lateness as discipline.
Missed punches are common at crowded gates and when machines fail. Give operators one simple route: a regularisation slip countersigned by the line leader inside two working days, settled before the monthly close. A ready regularisation slip can be adapted for this.
Handover where the machines never stop
Ring frames, speed frames, combers, looms and dye jets keep running across shift change. The rulebook should say plainly that no operator leaves a running machine until a named reliever has taken over. It should name who to call when the reliever is late: the shift in-charge first, then a standby operator, then the section head by phone. A short handover register at each section records what is running, any faults, doff timings, and where each jet or winch is in its cycle.
Loom sheds will find section detail in shift rules for fabric weavers. Dye houses can turn to rosters built around the dye cycle.
Leave, swaps and unplanned absence
Every leave slip is answered inside a fixed number of working days, so people stop guessing. Festival and harvest leave opens early and is staggered by line. An operator who cannot come phones the time office before shift start, not the line leader at noon. Swaps are allowed between operators of the same grade on the same machine type, written on a swap slip and approved by the shift in-charge. Informal swaps that nobody records are how a line discovers at seven that its overlock operator is in another shift.
Cover and overtime on a busy day
- 1
Time office posts the absence sheet
Thirty minutes into the shift, listed by line, operation or frame side, with critical positions marked.
- 2
Shift in-charge assigns floaters first
Trained floaters go to critical positions in order of need. Line leaders do not grab them independently.
- 3
Then rebalance within the line
Only after floaters are placed does the line leader move operators, and only to operations they are graded for.
- 4
Overtime is approved before it is worked
The production manager signs an overtime slip naming the line, the people and the hours. Unapproved overtime is flagged at the monthly close.
- 5
Rotate the overtime list
Willing operators take turns, so the same names do not carry every late night.
Shift timings by section, including relay changeover times.
Grace at shift start, and the steps after repeated late marks.
Missed punch: regularisation slip, countersigned, within the stated days.
No operator leaves a running frame, loom or jet without a named reliever.
Reliever late: call the shift in-charge, then the standby, then the section head.
Leave: apply in advance, answered within the stated working days.
Unplanned absence: phone the time office before shift start.
Swaps: same grade and machine type, on a swap slip, approved by the shift in-charge.
Cover: floaters placed by the shift in-charge before any line rebalancing.
Overtime: approved in writing before it is worked, rotated among willing operators.
Attendance closes on the stated date each month, and disputes are settled before wages.Rolling the rules out
- Draft with the time office, two line leaders and a shift in-charge from a continuous section.
- Translate into every language spoken on the floor.
- Read it out at every shift's opening for a week, and take signatures.
- Pin copies at the time office window and in each section.
- Tell line leaders which calls are theirs and which belong to the shift in-charge.
- Review after one month using the absence sheets, handover register and overtime slips.
Our shift, attendance and leave design work can draft the rulebook and set up the absence sheet. It also ties both to your wage cut-off.
