LEAN MANUFACTURING AS LINE - BALANCING CONCEPT

Textile and apparel industries are time consuming and labor oriented. Therefore to control cost and waste reduction is main concerns for maintaining the economy of these industries. A number of techniques are followed to control the overall cost like removing non - productive works. Lean manufacturing is also a kind of approach for the same. It is a systematic approach to identify and remove wastes (non - value added activities) which were originated and developed in Japan. As lean manufacturing eliminates numbers of the problems associated with poor production and line balancing so particularly suitable for companies those do not have strong m aterial requirements planning (MRP), production scheduling and production allocation systems in place. This management tool helps in visualizing the different wastes generated in the organization (during the production) and future possibilities of eliminat ing or reducing them. Present review is an attempt to highlight application areas of lean manufacturing in textile and garment industries as a line balancing concept.