N. A. Khan, Associate Professor (Technical), Department of Fashion Technology, NIFT, New Delhi; Dinesh Kumar, CEO, Design Innova; and Dr. Prabir Jana, Professor, Department of Fashion Technology, NIFT, New Delhi
A sewing operator requires to be evaluated regularly to update his/her rating in skill matrix chart dynamically. However, current practices refer his/her output quantity and quality as parameter for updating skill, because the sewn output is the only visible proof of the operator’s output. The supervisor has no or very little data about the sewing method; how the exercise was done? Sewn at what average speed? In how many sewing bursts? What was the needle running time and how much was the handling/pivoting time?
Computerized evaluation of sewing operators may herald a new era of remotely distributed testing framework while completely eliminating the subjectivity.
Even in any training setup, only the output quality is evaluated; the evaluator can at best stand in front of one operator and observe the methods. Logistically the evaluator can’t measure all these methods related parameters as these have to be collected while the sewing is being done. This elucidates the need for an operator evaluation system where all important parameters of any sewing operation like average speed, number of sewing bursts, needle running time, handling/pivoting time, etc. are analyzed to evaluate each and every trainee sewing operator. The computerized sewing operator evaluation system can capture data while the operation is being performed, analyze data and calculate rating of the operator objectively. The equipment for real time sewing data capturing contains hall sensor and profibus technology to network the sewing machine with computer.
The two graphs shown below display sewing speed characteristics of pocket mouth hemming and pocket attaching. Sewing speed characteristics for pocket mouth hemming shows short burst of sewing cycles with momentary stoppage between every sewing cycle. The average speed during the sewing cycle was 898 SPM. Sewing speed characteristics of pocket attachment reflect a very interesting result, wherein the average speed is only 60% of the earlier operation at 534 SPM. The analysis of the above two operations also shows the role of a sewing burst in an operational cycle. While 16 cycles of pocket mouth hemming were done in only 18 sewing bursts, six pocket attaching cycles required 67 sewing bursts. As every sewing burst involves acceleration and deceleration, the average speed goes down automatically. Also, stoppage between sewing bursts adds to the time of the sewing cycle. Similarly, all sewing characteristics are incorporated to develop the ultimate skill rating of operators. Various sewing characteristics like speed, sewing burst, quality variance are then calculated as an integral numerical score as rating of the sewing operator.
