The global apparel market has been witnessing intense competition, resulting in lower prices for retailers and producers. On the other hand, the input costs like raw material, energy and logistics are going up. Recent, much needed, increase in minimum wages is has also added to the challenges of the garment manufacturers in Bangladesh. There has been a lot of discussion about the need for improving productivity levels to address this issue apart from other measures like better buying practices.

However, unless the industry is able to skill the workers and managers to benchmark levels, the productivity would remain low, and profitability would continue to suffer. The power of skilling, its profound impact on productivity and workers lives were witnessed during a recent event in Dhaka organised by global retailer Primark and Rajesh Bheda Consulting (RBC).  Representatives of leading garment manufacturers, management and workers, had come together to share experiences and celebrate success of Sudokkho Factory Based Training project that aims to create in house need based skills development capabilities in factories and support career progression for women.

The project sponsored by Primark is implemented by RBC in  35 factories from Sept 2021 has resulted in training of 5774  fresh trainees and helpers in to semi-skilled sewing operators in less than two weeks time. In addition, 10106 existing workers have been upskilled resulting in an impressive improvement in their production capacity of 21% contributing to productivity improvement.

The participating factory management teams provided evidence of the productivity improvement achieved through skills development with great pride.  “We have trainers trained under Sudokkho, whom we utilized for line upskilling. These lines have shown remarkable improvements, with efficiency increasing by 30%+.”, shared an industrial engineer. A manager from a knitwear factory mentioned, “Given that our factory is situated more towards the rural side, recruiting fresh operators has been challenging. However, thanks to the trainers trained under Sudokkho by RBC, we were able to efficiently train existing helpers in the factory to become operators.
Additionally, through bottleneck management, we have also saved on workforce. As a result, last month, we successfully increased the total number of lines in the factory from 12 to 14 without needing to recruit any new workers. As a result, our production is expected to increase from 3,60,000 to 4,20,000 per month.” Several other factory teams shared similar results with confidence.The highlight of the event was the interactive session with the sewing workers trained as supervisors, trainers, and operators under the project. The confidence, conviction, and content of the sharing by them was truly inspiring for all. Here is what they said:

“I entered the garment factory as a helper. Everyone around used to look down on me as a helper till I became an operator. Now through women supervisory training under Sudokkho, I have become a supervisor. I am sponsoring my nieces education to become a doctor. Now seeing all this my communitys views have changed a lot. They are more encouraging and respectful towards me!” said Mst. Salma* Khatun of a woven garment factory.

“Sudokkho has given me a lot, whatever is needed to lead a beautiful and comfortable life I have got that from Sudokkho. The joy it gives to turn a helper to operator can be explained in words.” Shared Mst. Taniya* Khatun a trainer trained under Sudokkho program by RBC.

“Everyone in office now value my views and opinions. They call me APA (elder sister). I have had a salary increase post becoming a trainer, due to this at home as well my husband values me more and respects me!” explained Lipi Akhtar*, from one of the factories.

Witnessing the garment workers occupying the stage and speaking with confidence was sight to behold! There was pride in their eyes, twinkling with excitement, successes and strife written all over them.

Though the women constitute around 60% share of garment workers, their share in supervisory roles is restricted to 6 to 10% as per various estimates. Having more women in leadership positions is the need of the hour form creating more inclusive, supportive and productive work environment. Under the Primark-RBC Sudokkho project forty-five women operators from 4 factories have been developed in supervisory capabilities. These women supervisors are performing very well with 6% increase in efficiency level of their production lines and inspiring more women to come forward and aspire for leadership roles in the industry.  

To conclude, the results shared by the factory managers and workers trained under the Primark RBC Sudokkho project clearly show the social and business benefits of investing in the skills training using best practices.

 It not only would support the industry in boosting productivity and competitiveness but also help the factories to attract workers, take the skills to world class level and be employers of choice.

Article published in Daily Observer : https://www.observerbd.com/news.php?id=472363