LEAN IS NOT JUST A PROCESS

Reducing waste, reducing the "mountains" of surplus stock and shortening the production time are the practical benefits of the LEAN process when applied in Sai Gon 3 Company. But LEAN is much more than that.

Executive Director Phan Hoa was the man who brought LEAN to the Company and made it into a production process system for Sai Gon 3. The LEAN department he set up had to do the first job of "turning Toyota language into the language of garment industry ", which means to learn, to adapt and to flexibly apply each step of the original process to meet the requirements of the garment industry, including those of Sai Gon 3 culture.

LEAN, a toolkit to increase income for workers

According to Mr.Hoa, he had to personally experience the pilot process in each production line before deciding to create the LEAN department. Next, the staffs of this department chose the toughest production line to pilot again, to examine and to improve its weaknesses, then they could apply the process on larger scales, from a single workshop to the entire system. The process begins with the most important production group, which is the sewing workers, and then the workers of other steps in production including cutting, finishing and packaging. As Mr. Hoa said, "when the sewing productivity increases, operation in other stages must accelerate to keep up."

When LEAN started its application, the departments and the sewing production networks coordinated smoothly. Each production line has many workers doing certain assignments based on commodity codes. If needed two or three lines can cooperated to work as one for better efficiency. The 35-second duration for one step of the sewing process is the key factor that leads to increased productivity, better cost-effectiveness, and higher income for the workers.

Previously in Sai Gon 3, there always existed significant gaps in the workers’ salaries. Some got too much while others got too little, and the overall productivity remained unchanged for years. The stagnancy was due to the inappropriate and illogical production process, which in turn causes waste of production time in some stages and surplus garment parts while the end-products were incomplete. As a result, the employees had to work very hard and got paid little. Thanks to the new model of LEAN, the high or low salaries of the workers in each production line will depend on the required working speed of their assigned tasks. Furthermore, the technical specifications of the product will be announced hourly and daily, so that the workers know how much they have made in that day and how much money they will get. These days, in Sai Gon 3, there are some production lines with average earnings of VND 10.4 million per worker, excluding benefits such as insurance, meals and travel allowances.

The new process creates the new culture

In addition to increasing employees’ income, LEAN also helps with pay-related issues such as reducing work hours, limiting overtime work or giving extra days off for workers. It can be said that besides raising wages, LEAN improves the quality of life for workers, giving them more time to take care of their families and to enjoy themselves after hard work, whereas their income remains the same or even increases. Thanks to LEAN's effects in balancing labor and productivity, the Company can carry out "turn-off time" at noon. This is not to save energy, but to let the workers take a break at mid-day.

Profits from LEAN also make workers change their discipline for the better: they come to work and leave work on time. What an individual can do becomes what their community can do, so the Company has managed to build up a unified and consistent workforce. Since then, the relationships among workers, group leaders, managers and directors have improved remarkably. According to Director Phan Hoa, thanks to LEAN, the chess pieces were placed right on the chessboard to make the best strategy. All the people here have created the unique culture of Sai Gon 3, which are deep sharing, caring and active contribution to solve any problems that arise within minutes.

Keep existing customers and attract new ones

LEAN is also an essential tool for Sai Gon 3 to keep existing customers. The new model helps maintain production quality, as well as meet scheduled deadlines and code standards and minimize the number of defects. At the same time, it helps attract new customers through relevant marketing activities such as getting feedback for new products and offering factory tours. Although the Company is lucky to have a number of long-term customers, it cannot compete in the market if it refuses to expand the customer base. The effectiveness of LEAN process in Sai Gon 3 will be the best marketing strategy to get new customers to the Company. With LEAN, Sai Gon 3 has received plenty of orders all year round, even in off-peak season in June, July and August, thus avoiding the pressure of overtime work in peak times. Furthermore, there have been many opportunities for the Company to produce standardized commodities when it got to work with customers specialized in high-tech items that only LEAN can meet.

The Company is having many great ambitions, such as reaching 5,000 workers in total, especially sufficient manpower in new production lines, raising the average salary of workers to about 10-11 million, building more factories in Nhon Trach, opening more representative offices and making joint ventures to create its own brand. These will be difficult to realize without LEAN.