Hanger conveyors catch fancy of hosiery industry

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 28

The local hosiery manufacturing units have started introducing hanger conveyor system as it helps to keep a tab on the production, the lapses on the part of labour and to keep a check on the rejected pieces, thus curtailing wastage of material.

According to Vivek Lakra from Superfine Industries, the system provides the owners details on how many pieces were made each day, was the labour able to produce sufficient number of pieces, how many pieces got rejected and for whose fault, the pieces made faulty (cutting person, stitching person, one putting buttons, making collars etc everyone became accountable).

He said that adoption of the hanger conveyor system had been necessitated by the increasing wastage of raw material as many finished pieces of garments got rejected at the final stage.

Lakra said many of the neighbouring countries including China, Vetnam, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh were getting most of the raw material (in garment sector) from India, still they were able to sell the end product at cheaper prices, giving tough competition to the Indian manufacturers. The major factor for this was that these countries used technology, which was not just energy efficient but enhanced production as well.

The new system helps to keep a tab on the production, the lapses on part of labour and to keep a check on the rejected pieces. Vivek Lakra said that the hangers had different loading stations and these kept on moving till the stocks reached at last loading station- the checking point.

“The production increases with the new system in place. It makes the labour not just accountable but also helps increase his/her efficiency at work. They remain focused and alert. The chain of hangers keeps on moving and the labour remains cautious as they need to produce a fixed number of pieces. In case of labour becoming sluggish and lethargic, the supervisor can ask them to pull up socks to increase production and ultimately, we, by sitting in our offices regularly monitor the labour/production as everything is online,” said Lakra.

The particular system has been adopted by three leading hosiery units in city and is slowly picking up. By keeping a tab on labour working on hangers, the owners start giving them incentives according to increase in production and those who fail to deliver (labour), are replaced.

The new system also ensures that the garments do not touch the ground and get dirty since the hangers keep moving from one labour to another. The manufacturers said that earlier they had to spend huge on removing the stains but now since the pieces were hung on hangers, there were rare chances of any stain or dirt.