National Institute of Fashion Technology

Department of Fashion Technology

Professional Practice
(PP)
Weakness of Benchmark Implementation Process in
Ethiopian garment Factories

Prepared by: Aweke Zewdu

Dec. 2013
 Textile and Garment sectors are top priority areas to drive the
economy

Export Income

US$ 23 million US$ one billion

per year (2010) per year (2015)

Benchmarking as instrument to increase the competitiveness .

First phase benchmark in Addis garment and Novastar

garment
 Benchmark study was made on 17 garment companies,

The first phase is held in Addis garment and Novastar

garment,

A survey is required to assess the weakness of benchmark

implementation process so as to be an input for benchmark
implementation on the other garment companies.
 General objective
To study the weakness of benchmark implementation process
in Addis garment and Novastar Garment

Specific Objectives
To study the weakness regarding Benchmark study

To study the weakness regarding TOR Preparation and Consultant Sourcing

To study the weakness regarding Consultants

To study the weakness regarding Benchmark parameters and Action plan

preparation

To study the weakness of Factories commitment in implementing

benchmarking program
Scope of the study

is limited to assess the weakness of overall benchmark

implementation process in Addis garment and Novastar
garment factories.

Methodology

Secondary data are taken from the monthly reports to be

presented for steering committee and descriptive analysis
is done using qualitative data
 Preparing
Benchmark Terms Of Contract Implementation
an action
study Reference agreement
plan
 Benchmark study

Over 17 garment companies

Benchmarked with other four countries (Romania, Turkish,

Bangladesh and Egypt)

The data indicated on the best-practice were old versions

TOR preparation

For sourcing of consultant/experts

pattern & marker making, cutting, sewing, finishing &

quality, merchandizing and production management.

The intervention areas which did not identified in the

terms of reference are raw material sourcing, engineering
and machine maintenance.
 Consultant sourcing

Individual or team approach and institutional

approach.

Individual or team approach is followed

The approach to select the right experts for carrying

out the benchmark implementation was weak.
 Contract Agreement

Has a sense of least accountability and responsibility.

The penalty set is 15 days to replace the expert

This penalty seems to be weak to enforce the consultant to

bring competent experts.
 Consultants

Vision Textile Agency is a company established in 2002

G.C in Turkey

The profile of experts were not properly counter checked.

Almost all deployed experts were purely technical

persons

Replacement of unfit experts.

 The team leader of the consultant is not a technical

The experts were not aware of benchmark implementation

before coming to the factories

There is no system developed by the consultant to sustain

those small changes seen in the company due to they are fully
technical persons
Benchmark parameters

Pattern making

the best practice targets in the implementation parameters

are general

Sewing
the given targets are specific to few styles
 Action plan preparation
The sources of information for setting the existing situations were:-

Internal Reviews

Industry Data Firms

Industry Experts

Company Watches

Customer Feedback

Supplier Feedback

Action plan was made by experts and presented to the steering committee
 The factory had no organized data/information recording
system

The garment type was different from the articles in the

benchmarking parameters

The Action plan preparation team had no common

understanding on the parameters calculation

The factories existing condition assessment activity took

more time due to all the above problems.
Commitment of Benchmark Implementation Factories
Novastar Garment

Management

Reluctant at the start However, as the implementation proceeds the

management became an active participant

Workers

Resisting on accepting changes

Presuming the change will bring overloads

Assuming the change wont bring any change on their income, and so on.
Addis garment
Management

Reluctant on:

Collaboration during data collection

Creation of conducive environment

Cooperation with consultants, as well as

Prejudging the consultant as incapable of handling the implementation

As a result the achievements of the overall benchmarking in this

factory remains to be unsatisfactory.
 Workers

In general the workers remain resistant throughout the

implementation process by:

Resisting on accepting changes

Presuming the change will bring overloads

Assuming the change wont bring any change on their income,

and so on.
 Old
versions
of Data
Less
commitme contract
nt from the
manageme agreemen
nt and t
workers

Weakness

No
awareness of selection
benchmark
implementati of
on from experts
experts
Replace
ment of
unfit
experts
Generally the benchmarking approach has to be reviewed on the
bases of:

Application and completion of intervention parameters

Consultant selection methodology and deployment of

respective experts

Factory selection

Degree of accountability and responsibility of the consultant

during contract
 Implementation planning, simulation and gap analysis

Implementation of action plan

Process monitoring and regulation

Whole process evaluation and documentation

 Warren Jeffries, a Customer Services Benchmarking Manager,
Xerox, in 1999.

UNIDO, Assessing the competitiveness in garment industry,

,2009

Monthly Report of benchmark implementation in Addis

garment and Novastar Garment
Thank You