A Study on Power looms by Management Intervention: 5s Philosophy

Abstract

For a society or a nation to raise the standard of living of its population, it must strive to maximize the return from all its resources so that the economy can grow and sustain a better quality of life. This calls for sustained efforts at improving productivity of all investments. Productivity in the individual enterprise may be affected by a series of external factors as well as by a number of deficiencies in its operations or internal factors. Example of external factors include the availability of raw materials and skilled labor, government policies towards taxation and tariffs, existing infrastructure, capital availability and interest rates, and adjustment measures applied to the economy or to certain sectors by the government. These external factors are beyond the control of any employer. Other factors, however, are within the control of managers in an enterprise and these are the ones that will be tapped.

Keeping this as a backdrop, this paper attempts to increase the productivity in the Solapur (Maharashtra) based yarn dyed jacquard terry towel power looms, many of which are small and medium scale units. The study aims to identify different management techniques which can be applied and these may be unknown to the traditional business owners.

This paper examines the Basic Work Content and ineffective time. By applying the management techniques of Work Study, the ineffective time is sought to be reduced by giving a time series consultancy for five power looms and the productivity is increased by considering the key areas like factory operations, quality control, inventory, planning, human resource management and sales, order management. Solapur is a unique city in manufacturing the yarn dyed jacquard terry towels where the export quantity is high. The paper deals with one management intervention which is inventory and the causal impact of inventory on productivity.

Key words: Power looms, 5 S, Management Intervention, Inventory Control