CONSCIOUS AWARENESS AND SENSIBLE APPLICATION OF THE CONCEPT OF OPERATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY IN THE GARMENT INDUSTRY OF SRI LANKA

Abstract

This Paper attempts to understand the level of conscious awareness and sensible application of the concept of Operational Productivity (also termed as Factory Productivity) and how managers view its relationship with other related performance indicators as a means of developing an ideal framework to improve performance in the Garment Industry. For this purpose, a sample of 30 factory managers from 30 different small and medium garment factories were selected and interviewed with a guided questionnaire. The findings of the study revealed a fairly low level of awareness about the ideal concept of operational productivity and its relationship with other indicators of performance. In general, the managers were ambiguous about the meaning and relationships between operational productivity and other related performance indicators at enterprise level. The approach towards the improvement of operational productivity was found to be reactive in nature, more internal and less strategic-oriented. Recommendations are proposed to carry out a series of awareness-building industry-based productivity training and education programs along with the best practices adopted in the region used as productivity benchmarks. The researcher also introduces a novel normative performance improvement framework, based on the finding of this study.

Keywords: Efficiency, Effectiveness, Productivity, Profitability, Perform ability, Quality

For full Paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac.lk