Page 164 - CITS - Dress Making - TT - 2024

DRESS MAKING - CITS

Lesson 22 - 29 (4) : Duties of a Supervisor

Objectives
At the end of this lesson you shall be able to
• Know about duties of a supervisor in a garment industry.
• Understand the key responsible areas and qualities of a supervisor.

Introduction:
Garment production supervisor is the key person in garment factory. A supervisor has great role in garment
industry to maintain quality and productivity. A garment production supervisor has to manage and motivate workers.
Besides, garment production supervisor manages apparel production teams by making sure team members meet
quotas, use equipment correctly and adhere to company policies.
Production supervisors widely vary depending on organization structure. Small and unorganized garment
manufacturers still don’t have industrial engineering (IE) department that assists production supervisor in
production preparations, like garment analysis, making line layout, manpower requirement and target calculation
etc.

Factories those have established industrial engineering department production preparation is done by industrial
engineers. And Supervisor’s responsibilities are reduced many times.
Key responsible areas of a line supervisor in a typical factory are as following: (This list is made considering that
there is no presence of the Industrial Engineering department in the factory.)
1 Discipline in Shop Floor: Discipline in the sewing floor is very important to create a good work culture in
the company. Like starting line on time in the morning, switch off sewing machine when there is no work or
operator is not in the machine. Operators may not be aware of how to behave on the factory floor. A supervisor
is responsible to train such things to their operators and helpers. For example, operators should keep the
floor clean, keeps accessories on defined place, and should not talk unnecessarily with other operators during
working hours.
2 Style Analysis: It is an essential task for a supervisor to collect a sample of the style that is going to be
loaded in his/her line and analyze garment construction and operation details. A supervisor should completely
understand what to be done. In case any confusion s/he should contact to merchandiser and get clarification.
The quality requirement can be discussed with the quality team or merchandiser.
3 Line Setting: In line setting, supervisor does sequencing of machine, select most suitable operators from
available operators for each operation. Supervisor stands aside of the operator and instruct to her/him how to
make the operation on first pieces.
4 Machine Selection: What sewing machines and equipment should be used for the style and how many
machines should be allocated to a particular operation is decided by line supervisors. Unlike industrial
engineers, the supervisor is not able to plan machine requirement in advance but they do it based on the
actual requirement to meet the daily production target.
5 Line Balancing: Leveling of workload throughout the line is very important to improve capacity (resource)
utilization. No line should have excess work in process as inventory.
6 Operator Training: Though companies set up a training center for sewing operator training or hire only
experienced operators, supervisors need to train unskilled operators on the job. While a trainee operator is
allocated for an operation and the trainee operator is not confident how to do that job or hesitating to follow
an operation method, supervisor’s responsibility is to guide and instruct them the correct method of doing that
operation.
7 Meeting Target Production: Line supervisors are given daily production target based on resources available
in a line (machine and manpower). Supervisor is responsible to produce target quantity at the end of the day.
To meet the target, supervisor need to monitor operators working pace, loading of works, lost time etc. There
might be many reasons for low production. Still supervisor need to find a way to hit the daily production target.

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