More and more women contribute to the cocoon harvesting for Fabric Plus in Assam. Today, over 16,000 women earn additional money for a better living. That number was only 214 when Women on Wings started working with Fabric Plus some years ago. While sales and export grew, and supply of cocoons was sufficiently growing, there are still improvement opportunities for Fabric Plus, such as in the production chain.
Recently, experts Jan Anne Schelling and Ronald van het Hof worked at the Fabric Plus plant near Guwahati, Assam, where silk yarn is being spun and woven into fabrics. Before even going into operational details, it was necessary to discuss some topics with the Fabric Plus’ top management. Some misalignment from the past, some unspoken worries and frustrations challenges were addressed and resolved.
And with this basic trust outcome, the next detailed steps became much easier. They had great training and discussion sessions on ‘lean & 6sigma’, a methodology to improve efficiency in an organization by addressing key questions like: “how can we reduce waste in the process”, waste meaning for instance: too much raw material inventory, misalignment in demand & supply leading to over production, waiting time in the plant, defects and quality issues, etc..
Every session was closed with a “white board speaks”. Dilip Barooah, CEO at Fabric Plus: “I reviewed in these great sessions the major learnings. Jointly, we made a list of follow-up action points. Currently, our team is working on those top 3 winning points with potential to enhance production with more than 50%. Early next year we get together to celebrate the first results, for sure they will come!“
