DEVELOPMENT OF A SUSTAINABLE QA MODEL TO SUPPORT DIRECT SOURCING FOR CLOTHING IN A REGION MASTER OF SCIENCE IN- TEXTILE & CLOTHING MANAGEMENT P.D.N. FERNANDO UNIVERSITY OF MORATUWA SRI LANKA MAY 2004 DEVELOPMENT OF A SUSTAINABLE QUALIY ASSURANCE MODEL TO SUPPORT DIRECT SOURCING FOR CLOTHING IN A REGION P.D.N.FERNANDO A dissertation submitted to the Department of Textile & Clothing Technology of the University of Moratuwa in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in Textile & Clothing Management Department of Textile & Clothing Technology University of Moratuwa Sri Lanka March 2004 UM TheSi'S coh- University of M o r a t u w a 81621 &4 81621 Declaration No portion of the work referred to in this dissertation has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institution of learning. Abstract Due to the ever changing dynamics in the supply chain management, relocation of garment industry is inevitable. Unlike fifty years ago where some of the well known retailers emphasized the buy British policy in today's context it is no longer a sustainable slogan. Particularly an industry like garment manufacturing that is labor intensive becomes footloose due to cost of production being low in developing countries. Therefore the no of clothing retailers who had gone out on direct sourcing and out of their traditional manufacturing homelands is more in the last two years than the whole of last ten years. However the discerning consumers who patronized these brands do not want any compromise on quality. Therefore various retailers have adopted various quality assurance models to ensure the faulty merchandise do not reach the consumer. The dissertation unravels the study into various QA models in existence and their pitfalls and propose a cost effective, improvement breeding sustainable QA model that will support direct sourcing. The proposed system a drives improvement eliminates non value adding inspection and does not impeded the speed to market as a result of the QA model. 4 Acknowledgement As a partial fulfillment of the degree course in M.Sc in Textile & Clothing Management the undertaking of this project has paid dividends both to me as an individual and to any aspiring retailer whose aspiration is direct sourcing. I am grateful to all those wonderful colleagues who helped me with various business statistics to bring current and correct perspective into this project. Last not the least I am quite thankful to Dr.W.D.G. Lanarole for whose unstinted support and encouragement was a tower of strength all the way through. 5 Table of Contents Declaration 3 Abstract 4 Acknowledgement 5 List of Tables 7 List of Figures 8 Introduction 9 2 Literature Review 11 2.1 Existing system 11 2.2 System 1 12 2.2.1 The disadvantages/ Issues of system 1 17 2.3 System 2 17 2.3.1 The disadvantages/ Issues of system 2 22 2.4 System 3 22 2.4.1 The disadvantages/ Issues of system 3 27 2.5 System 4 27 2.5.1 The disadvantages/ Issues of system 4 32 3 Proposed system 33 3.1 The proposed system 33 4 Methodology & Results 39 5 Conclusions & Recommendations 45 ^,,s -,-h 6 Contents List of Tables Table 4.1- Supplier League Table 40 Table 4.2- Factory League Table 41 7 List of Figures Figure 2.1 shows the inspection process in system 1 13 Figure 2.2 No of Customer Complaints over a period of time under the system 1 14 Figure 2.3 Customer Returns over a period of time under system 1 15 Figure 2.4 - Inspection stages in the process in system 1 16 Figure 2.5- Inspection process under system 18. Figure 2.6. No of Customer Complaints over a period of time under the system 2 19 Figure 2.7 Customer Returns over a period of time under system 2 20 Figure 2.8- Inspection process under system 2 21 Figure 2.9- Inspection process under system 3 23 Figure 2.10 No of Customer Complaints over a period of time under the system 03 24 Figure 2.11 Customer Returns over a period of time under system 3 25 Figure 2.12-Inspection stages in the process in System 3 26 Figure 2.13- Inspection process under system4 28 Figure 2.14 No of Customer Complaints over a period of time under the system04 29 Figure 2.16-Inspection stages in system 4 31 Figure 3.1 Various Inspection stages in the new system 35 I I •\ Figure 4.1 - Quality performance of the supplier base over a period of time under the proposed system 39. Figure 4.2 Customer complaints over a period of time under the new system 43 Figure 4.3 Customer returns over a period of time under the new system 44