Production and Operation Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Production and Operation Management - Essay Example Based on these, the owner selects particular designs to be made on a weekly basis. Ms. Brown also selects the kind of clothing material to be used for the particular chosen design. She employed 10 female workers to work on the rest of the process. Pattern design is done manually by one worker before grading, measurement of fabric, cutting and finally, sewing and assembling. For clothes requiring intricate designs such as patching or needlework, one female worker, Karen Smith, who specialize on this area does the final touch and inspects the garments made prior to pressing and packaging. The first few months of production have been smooth and productive. On the seventh month, there had been returns sent by the shopping mall due to defects. Apparently, some garments were not inspected thoroughly and exhibited the following defects: â€Å"open seams, wrong stitching techniques, non- matching threads, missing stitches, improper creasing of the garment, erroneous thread tension and raw e dges† (Ahmad, 2011). Ms. Brown questioned Karen Smith and was determined to investigate the cause of increased defects. If not corrected immediately, the garment company faces a greater dilemma of revoking their contract to supply garments with the shopping mall. Statement of the Problem There were apparently high levels of returns for garments that have been delivered to the shopping mall. The person authorized to inspect, Karen Smith, also tasked with doing the intricate final designs of patching and needlework. Likewise, no other person counter checked the quality of the garments prior to packing and delivery to the shopping mall. Research Objective The objective of the research was to investigate the cause of the surge of defects on the garments that was already delivered to the shopping mall. The contract to supply garments was usually based on the agreement that no significant defects should be exhibited that would cause returns. Defects of more than 20% in one batch of deliveries would be subject to full return and refund. If the next batch would contain defects of more than 10%, the contract would be revoked. Another objective was to review the manufacturing process to determine ways of minimizing the defects noted and to ensure high quality of garments are consistently delivered. Comparative Key Processes in the Manual to the Actual Practice The process manual clearly indicates that after sewing, Karen Smith, is tasked to inspect the garments prior to packing. Upon closer inspection, Ms. Brown discovered from interviews with the sewers that most of the time, Karen Smith was overloaded with final details of patching and needle work demanded from the chosen designs. As such, with full confidence, she delegated the sewers to closely inspect their works. In this regard, the following flaws in the operations process were noted: (1) The inspector and the person doing final touches on the garments are the same. Increased volume of work to be done leave s little time for inspection. (2) There was no clear policy in the procedures manual regarding any sanctions for violating adherence to high quality standards of the product; (3) There were no clear policies on inspection for the garments or in accurately identifying accountability (which sewer creates the most mistakes and defects); (4) All designs and pattern making are still done manually; (5) Roles and responsibilities for employees