Common Challenges Faced by Garment Production Floors

I would say there are infinite problems in garment manufacturing. A problem can be defined as a matter or situation that effects in production performance, product quality and on-time delivery. You could not find a single factory that works without having problems on the production floor. Factories face various kind of problems while making garments in the apparel shop floor. Sometimes problems are never ending. When one frequently occurring problem is solved, a new problem comes out. Even problems occur in various forms in different processes.

A problem is not always a bad thing but it is also good to know your problems. Most of the problems reduce line performance, the effect on delivery and product quality. By recognizing frequently occurred problem you can work for the betterment of the production process. Later you can increase performance in garment production. In this post, I have shared the common issues I faced while I was working in garment manufacturing company. And observed in other factories fighting with problems.

Image via Flickr user Mohammad Moniruzzaman

7 Common Issues Faced by Garment Production Floors

1. Stitching Quality Issues

At the end of the sewing line, when garments are checked by quality checkers, a number of defective garments are found. A defect may be occurred due to defective material or defective cutting or defect may be generated at the sewing stage. Or defect in garments may occur due to poor handling. Normally most of the defective garments found in the sewing process are repaired in the production floor. Still in finishing stage, one finds number of similar defects. This is a big problem for unorganized factories. Sometimes operators or line supervisors make mistake due to poor communication. Inside quality there are hundreds types of problems.

2. Problem with Raw Materials

Another common observation is that the Production Floor doesn't get materials (trims and sewing supplies) on time for the orders that is already on the floor. Often factories that receive raw materials in urgency, come with substandard quality and insufficient quantity compared to the requirement to complete the order. Garment components (cuttings) supplied to the floor, are not as per standard. All these result delay in production and quality.

3. Delay in Production Start

Planning department prepares production schedules for the order when the floor need to start the bulk production. But in many times factory doesn't receive fabrics before PCD (planned cut date). Line is ready with operators and machines but supervisor doesn't receive cuttings on planned date.

Sometimes cutting department takes unexpectedly longer time to complete cutting for the planned orders. Delay in sewing start may also happen due to delay in approvals of PP sample and trims from buyer.

4. Unexpectedly Longer Style Changeover (Line Setting) Time

In the production floor, style changeover is a common phenomena. For short run production orders, there will be multiple style changeover per month. During the style changeover, also known as line setting for a new style, line management needs to rearrange sewing machines, allocate new machinery as per style need and need to train operators for the new operations. Quality check for each operation is also necessary during line set up. Due to poor preparation prior to line setting, line setting time could be unexpectedly longer. This causes lower productivity for the line.

Read this article to know the steps for reducing style changeover time:

How to Reduce Style Changeover Time (COT) in Garment Manufacturing

5. High Lost Time (Non-productive time)

Many productive hours are lost by operators on the production floor due to various reasons. Loss of productive hours directly impact the performance of the line and individual operators. This may happen due poor interdepartmental coordination, delay in completion of previous process, shortage of feeding, and quality issues. Many garment factories even do not bother in capturing the non-productive times (hours) on the floor. Due to such ignorance, failed to estimate it full production capacity.

Related Article | 4 killer non-productive measures.

6. Frequent Change in Line Loading Plan

This is often observed that the floor management is asked to hold production of certain styles or reduce the number of lines allocated to the style. They need to utilize those sewing lines for the urgent orders. This change in production planning is acceptable but this has negative impacts as it breaks the production momentum and reduces line performance.

7. Incomplete Style Information for Production

Asper standard procedure, garment factories conduct pre-production meetings (PPM) and weekly meeting. Even after meetings, complete and accurate information is not passed to the production team. Due to delivery schedule pressure, bulk production is started without complete approval. You can understand what will happen in some quality standard is not followed in production floor or incorrect trims are attached to the garment.

Conclusion:

I know you are working in garment production and facing new challenges daily. It would be a great discussion if you kindly add your points here. I mean what problems you find in your factory frequently. Often visible problems are actually not actual problems but symptoms of real problems hidden in the processes. We always want a solution to a problem. But prior to looking for the solution one must study the problem and learn detailed knowledge of common problems occurring in garment production. Once we know the root cause of the problem, team can work on resolving the problem using problem solving methodologies.

Updated on: 24 January 2026

Original post date: 29 May 2014

Old Title of this post: What are the Common Problems Found in Garment Production?