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Lead Time Management in the Garment Sector of Bangladesh: an Avenues for Survival and Growth

Nuruzzaman
Department of Marketing, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh

Ahasanul Haque
Department of business Administration, International Islamic University Malaysia, Box No. 10, 50728 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Bangladesh has emerged as an important supplier of quality readymade garments in the global market. The spectacular growth of garment sector in Bangladesh in recent years has dramatically changed the landscape of export composition of the country. Once heavily dependent on exports of primary products lead by Jute, the economy of Bangladesh is now experiencing almost 76% export contribution from readymade garments (RMG). The sector has now occupied an important place in Bangladesh national economy. Nevertheless, all is not well in this sector. It faces numerous challenges and it is now on the crossroad with the phasing out of quota system, GSP facilities and new provisions of WTO. In this study attempts have been made to find out the ways to face the competitive business environment by the efficient management process towards the lead time reduction. The main purpose of this article is to analyse the business process of the garment sector to find out it’s lead time minimization process. The study has been concluded by the development of a new diagram of business process with the outcome that the other management process in the supply chain is an important factor rather than process management in the lead time minimization process.

Keywords: RMG, Lead Time Minimisation, Management process, Supply Chain.

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Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Non-commodity: Livelihood

Objectives:

The purpose of the present study is about analysing the present situation specially of the lead time management in the present business process of RMG export from Bangladesh. In view of the above purpose the specific objective of the study is to focus on reducing the lead time in relation to the business process and supply chain management. However the objectives of this study are; 1) To analyse the order lead time management process and 2) To develop a new business process to minimization of lead time The purpose of the present study is about analysing the existing situation specially the lead-time management in the RMG sector of Bangladesh.

Methodology:

Research Methodology: The study is based absolutely on primary data. The primary data have been collected through free discussion and interviews with the key personnel of different company. Primary data have been collected from 50 Bangladeshi RMG units including 5 leading garment factories of Dhaka City on the basis of structured questionnaire designed in the light of the objective of the study. In this study the sample units have been selected randomly but 5 leading factories purposively. Interviews have been taken from Managing Directors, Managers and other officials of the merchandise department. Secondary data were also collected from some reports, articles, & various stuffs that were provided by the companies. Collected literature, data and information have been analyzed in line with the objectives of the study. In this study conceptually developed some model, Lead time measurement equation have been used. As a real example, business process of a sample company has been discussed with the lead time measurement equation. Qualitative research method and various statistical tools like averages, percentages, growth rate etc. have been used in this study to interpret and analyze the collected data in a descriptive way.

Findings and Analysis The RMG industry of Bangladesh still plays the role of tailor in the garments business. The required fabrics and limited accessories till now come from abroad. The industry is heavily dependent on imports and had to spend about 55-75 days to import fabrics from abroad. This backdrop is the main reason for long lead time. Bangladesh garment export in volume is increasing @ 15-20 percent for the last 20 years, whereas Bangladesh RMG are depending only on Chittagong port (Nuruzzaman, 2007). The facilities of Chittagong port have not increased at the same rate. The containers kept stuck up in the port and many containers remain jammed for 15-20 days, which is required to be released within three days. If the raw materials remain idle in the container at Chittagong port for 10-15 days, the garment industry would definitely face a serious negative impact (Kutubuddin Ahmed, 2002). According to an estimate, it takes about four days for goods to reach Chittagong from Singapore. But in a very sharp contrast, it takes about 18 to 19 days or nearly three weeks on average for the same goods to travel to the inland container depot (ICD) at Kamalapur in Dhaka. Besides the dilatory and cumbersome customs procedure and port operations also significantly delay the movement or release of goods. In Chittagong port it takes about 6 days to unload goods from a ship whereas for the same goods it takes just few hours in Singapore (M. Taheruddin,2004). About port management Mr. Anisul Haque, MD of Mohammadi group and former president of BGMEA stated,“ Unfortunately we are spending 15-20 days to receive our fabrics from sea port to our factory and it is playing the main role to increase lead time”.

Analysis the lead time management of a model Company (Sharmin Group) The company’s some successful and unsuccessful business process with different buyers have been analysed here to have a clear idea about the way to minimisation of lead time. Generally, after getting final order, the company collects fabrics as per buyers' direction from the foreign suppliers. After collection of fabrics they prepare sample as per design. Then after approval of the sample the company goes for mass production and shipment to the buyers. To complete the whole process the company generally takes about 90-120 days but sometimes for some buyers it takes about 110-140 days. There are also some buyers who complete the whole process by only 50-60 days. The company takes 45-50 days in all to approve the sample and finish the production following the sample approval process. We can see the sample approval flow chart in the fig.-1 of Appendix-1. Some buyers like BMB Apparels follows this sample approval flow chart, but most of the buyers even follow shorter processes. The interview was taken very closely with the Managing Director of Sharmin Group. At the time of interview he was found scared for the possible awful situation in the post MFA period. He stated, "we have all but just for want of fabrics we are going to face stiff competition". What he said about the business operations of the company could be summerised as follows. After getting the final order, the company communicates with the suppliers through e-mail and over telephone. For this task the company spend few days. Mr. Hossain said that they were not worried about the information lead time. They generally take 5-7 days for this process. He said, “In the garment business suppliers are not permanent, we had to communicate with one or more suppliers for fabrics in time after getting final order. A good numbers of accessories are procured from the local market. So e-mail and telephonic communication are sufficient for the RMG companies.”

Source of Information: European Journal of Scientific Research ISSN 1450-216X Vol.33 No.4 (2009), pp.617-629

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Achievement/Findings:

The RMG sector of Bangladesh has entered in the quota free market after 2005. From that time this sector is in a very disadvantageous situation due to long lead time which has negative impact on export growth. Through analysis of empirical data it has been found that import dependency is the major bottleneck and it is the main factor for greater lead time. Just due to import of fabrics manufacturers are to count shipment time, unloading time, customs clearance time and transportation time from port to ICD (Inland container depot) at Kamalapur, Dhaka. Import dependency arises out of the absence of sufficient backward linkage industry and for this reason a total additional 55-75 days are spent in the import process of fabrics by RMG sector of Bangladesh. As a result this sector is facing long lead time which is 90 to 130 days on the average.

From the analysis it is clear that the impact of information lead time is very negligible on total lead time. It contributes only 6%. However, order lead-time has a great role to increase the lead time. By the analysis it was found that fabrics manufacturing time, shipping time, unloading time and transportation time are included in the order lead time. In conclusion considering the above analysis it has been found that import dependency is contributing 50% or more in the problem of long lead time and it is the main factor for the problem of long lead time in the RMG sector. Sample approval is another factor contributing for long lead time. The buyer from Italy for ‘Corona’ brand taking 48 days to complete all the process. It is the standard lead time to compete with the other manufacturer and exporter of the world. It becomes possible only for avoiding import of fabrics. For the buyer of Corona, the manufacturer collects fabrics from the local market from their own textile. So, reduction of lead time is possible when the RMG sector ensure the availability of fabrics from the local market by developing backward linkage industry specially in the oven sector and by establishing textile mills by the buyer for their own consumption.

Knowledge Management: Journal