“Wealth comes only from production.” This statement by Professor William Graham Sumner was made in 1883 while delivering a lecture at the Yale University.

More than a century has passed since this statement was recorded and much has been written in favour of these golden, gold producing words.

Result-oriented actions have proved the authenticity and truthfulness of the utility of production. Unfortunately, many individuals and organizations interpret this broad-based term significantly in a very narrow manner and miss out the true benefits of it. They focus only on the manufacturing aspect of production, the activity that converts the basic raw material into the finished product, that is, the process that results in a tangible product. However, the functions that produces intangible products, services, which remain unaccounted, form a considerable part of the production process. These are often hidden from the public and often from the customer. These functions which produce utility supplement the conversion process that produces the tangible product and both form the end product that is vital to the success of any business organization. The production process is therefore being commonly referred to as operation and the management of these production processes is recognized as the operations management.

The operations management’s prime concern is not only to employ different means to increase the production level of their operations but to increase the productivity as well. These two terms are often confused. Productivity is a common measure of how well a business is using its resources and production is the creation of goods and services.

For a restaurant owner, the measure of productivity may be the number of customers served per labour hour whereas the measure of production will be the quantity of food served. Similarly, for a garment stitching facility, the measure of productivity may be the number of garments produced per labour hour whereas the measure of production is the total number of garments stitched in a specified period.

Productivity is not that simple to measure. In many instances substantial measurement problems do exist. These measurement problems are often attributed to changes in quality while the inputs and outputs remain constant. External elements, such as the quality of raw material, may often lead to problems in productivity measurement. Productivity implies effectiveness and efficiency in performance. Efficiency and effectiveness are inter-related. Effectiveness is the achievement of objectives, such as, achieving a certain production level. Efficiency on the other end is the achievement of ends with least amount of resources. Resources being limited require additional effort on operations management part to produce the greatest output for a given input, that is, to operate at highest possible efficiency level.

In order to remain successful in this competitive era, business organizations seek different means to increase the production level of their operations with least utilization of factors of production, which comprises men, material, machine and money. This can usually be achieved by making heavy investment in new and improved plant and equipment. This is an effective way of increasing productivity but requires huge capital investment and the results can be achieved only after the installation and commissioning of the new plant and equipment.

There are, however, other means of increasing the productivity, fruits of which can be reaped quickly as well. These means are covered under the umbrella of better management and consist of reducing the work content of the product and the process and elimination of ineffective time as well. The tools that are utilized under this approach comprise method study, work measurement, value analysis, process planning, production planning and control, quality management, material control, planned maintenance, improved working conditions, operating training and incentive schemes.

The search for better management for effective and efficient running of organizations has made businesses much more technical than one can imagine. The decisions being taken at various managerial levels are based on economic and technical factors involved in these decisions. Need is, therefore, always felt to include in the decision-making process those personnel who can understand the technical factors and contribute to better management by increasing the efficiency of the business operations.

Successful organizations almost always employ the best available factors of production. The best available personnel for better understanding of these technical factors are none other than the ones who apply the systematic knowledge, contributed by the scientists, to particular situations to produce goods and services, both effectively and efficiently.

These personnel, known professionally as engineers are employed by successful organizations knowing that engineering involves the determination of the best combination of materials, forces, and human factors that will yield a desired result.

Engineering as often believed is not a science. It is an application of science. It is an art of adapting knowledge to the uses of humanity. Knowledge is used as the raw material from which an engineer develops structures, systems and processes. These developments are made solely to satisfy human needs.

It is, therefore, essential for an engineer to consider the economic aspect of each and every endeavour. Engineers are, therefore, considerate of not only the technical factors but economic factors as well. They are usually called upon to make technical- economic analyses that lead to recommendations upon which managerial decisions can be made.

The role of engineers in today’s world is, therefore, multi-faceted. An engineer can be seen on the shop floor, modifying production processes, reducing work content of the product and the process and eliminating ineffective time and in the executive lounge combining technical and economic knowledge and analysis to provide sound conclusion and recommendations.

Engineers have been instrumental in success of many businesses. Most technical businesses, such as shipbuilding, automobile, chemical processing, steel-making and metalworking solely depend on engineers and their art to apply the scientific knowledge to produce the finished product. Other businesses, less technical in nature, do without engineers. This is not true for the developed countries but it is an unfortunate fact applicable to an underdeveloped country like Pakistan. **** Here, these businesses conduct their operations without applying the art of engineering and, therefore, suffer by incurring invisible costs. One such business is the production of garments and the myth is that it is highly non-technical in nature. The ready-made garment manufacturing industry of Pakistan is highly unstructured. The majority of garment manufacturers are small household units having no more than 50 machines each. Others have machines ranging from 50 to 300 while a small percentage has 1500 machines or more.

However unstructured the industry be, it is a known fact that being the cotton country and having low-cost of factors of production, the industry has been successful in attracting some of the top of the line buyers to Pakistan. The industry may have been successful in filling their capacity requirements and have been much more successful in generating revenues partly due to the availability of factors of production at much less cost than available elsewhere and partly due to the incentives provided by the government.

It is an established fact that the industry is plagued by certain factors that have been instrumental in driving these buyers out of their factories. The most important factor contributing to the loss of customer is the failure in meeting delivery schedule. The inability to deliver on time is attributable to lack of production planning and control activities. The production managers lack the skill to plan production, schedule activities and control the tasks.

The sole reason for this inability to plan is the fact that most of the persons managing the production function are not aware of the basic production planning and controlling techniques. These are the rankers who joined the industry as machine operators and moved up the ladder to be posted as production managers. Then there are contractors who plan and control the labour supply and are often given the responsibility to manage production activities as well.

Cutting of fabric into parts and assembling of these component parts along with other accessories is a highly technical job and requires technically sound personnel to manage the operations. Right person for the right job requires engineers for this job.

The other factor that has a major share in adding insult to injury is low quality finished product that is often rejected or accepted on LG, the letter of guarantee that ultimately results in heavy claims and discounts. The unification of production and quality function results in low quality products. The responsibility for quality is assigned to individuals with mediocre educational background who are even unaware of the basic quality assurance and control techniques.

The manufacturing units also face heavy cost of rejections. These weaknesses exist even though most of the manufacturing units have certified quality management systems. The presence of mere certificate does not mean that the quality management system is in tact. It is unfortunate that most of the units have these systems that are non-existent. The reason behind this fact is that these units lack educated personnel who can understand and follow the system. Need has been felt for quite some time not only to educate the personnel working in the garment industry but to induct educated personnel particularly engineers to bring the garment industry to the path of success.

The associations comprising garment stitching units, namely, the Pakistan Ready Made Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the Pakistan Cotton and Fashion Apparel Association have taken steps to provide education in garment technology. Educational Institutes have been launched which offer courses in various fields of garment technology. These courses are largely targeted to personnel currently serving the garment industry and having some educational background. These institutes are producing soldiers and not the generals who can think strategically. For strategic thinking and to plan on long-term basis, personnel from engineering universities should be trained either by the universities themselves or by these associations which have taken the responsibility.

The Employment of Engineers Committee of Pakistan Engineering Council should also form a working relationship with the associations of garment manufacturers to identify their precise needs and then formulate courses of studies for engineers focussing on the garment technology.

The Textile Engineering Department of the NED University of Engineering and Technology can also contribute by offering courses in garment technology in their graduate programme. The Center for Continued Engineering Education of the same university can also contribute by organizing advance certificate courses or postgraduate diploma programmes.

Both public and private sector universities can play a vital role in uplifting the garment industry of Pakistan. Not even developed industrialized countries like the United States and England have established educational institutes that provide advance studies in the field of garment technology but an under developed country like Sri Lanka is also far ahead in this area. It is high time that relevant courses of studies were prepared to develop engineers for the garment industry so as to boost the garment industry’s confidence in engineers. This is essential to enable trained engineers to start their job right from the word “go” instead of waiting for some time to know the basics of the industry to get started.

As in ISO-9000 quality management systems, the success of the engineers’ role in garment industry depends on top management’s commitment. Engineers with valid knowledge of garment technology can only be beneficial to the garment industry if and only if the top management inducts them. Resistance from peer and subordinates is definite to be there, as change is always resisted. But top management’s support definitely enables the engineer to overcome this resistance. Success stories are there.

A few garment stitching units have experimented with engineers and have been successful in meeting their targets of meeting their shipment schedules, reducing wastage, planning and controlling production activities, minimizing costs and maximizing profits. Engineers are successfully playing their role as factory and production managers, material controllers and even merchandisers.

Seeking incentives from government and asking benefits from foreigners is not something that the garment manufacturers can obtain single handedly and easily but ease of doing business can be theirs only if they move forward and grasp the opportunity. The opportunity is there; induct educated technical personnel who will plan, implement and control the operations. This is the key to the garment industry’s success in this competitive world.