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Failure Mode and Effect Analysis: An Application in Jeans Production Process

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 Z. BAHADIR ÜNAL, E. ACAR: Failure mode and effect analysis:
30 An application in jeans production process, Tekstil 65 (1-2) 30-34 (2016.)

Failure mode and effect analysis:

An application in jeans production process

Doc. Zümrüt Bahadır Ünal, PhD

Eda Acar, doctoral student
Ege University, Faculty of Engineering, Textile Engineering Department
Bornova, İzmir, Turkey
e-mail: [email protected]
Received December 10, 2015
UDC 687.1:519.28
Professional paper

Apparel production quality is influenced depending upon machine, operator,

material and process. Therefore, production is not possible with zero defect.
The purpose is to prevent the possible defects by taking measures or to min-
imize them. In order to determine and remove the these possible defects dur-
ing production stages, various engineering applications are used for this
purpose. One of them is “Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)” tech-
nique. In this study, defects encountered at the quality control department of
jeans production in apparel firm were observed and analyzed according to
FMEA method.
Key words: apparel sector, jeans production process, quality control, Failure
Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)

1. Introduction our country has important exporter tence, specification of importance

position and makes production in degrees of them, evaluation and tak-
Quality as one of the prior conditions
huge quantities to the big interna- ing necessary actions for preventing
to participate in local and global mar- tional companies; the quality subject the them [1].
kets is an important subject for com- inevitably takes position among our FMEA technique was used widely in
panies to provide a competitive ad- first priorities. When the sector is ex- manufacturing sectors, especially in
vantage. Expectations of the custom- amined with respect to production automotive industry formerly, but
ers from the products they buy has process; different from other sectors, now it is used in all companies active
increased in time and changed to a it continues its labor intensive struc- in production and service sectors ac-
structure so that there is no chance for ture in spite of the increasing automa- cording to their areas of need. Pre-
any defect. The consumer has no tol- tion. In such case, it continues to be a cautions has developed against pos-
erance to a fault even it is very small potential for evolution of man-made sible defects that might happen in
or negligible. As this approach is defects. automotive subsidiary industry plant
valid in other sectors, it is valid in ap- Since FMEA provides systematic with the applicatin of this method [2].
parel sector, too. Actors taking place analysis of technical defects and re- A result oriented method is obtained
in this sector are in cutthroat competi- moval of the defects, it helps to min- assessing defect, dimension of the
tion with each other. Since apparel imize the risks caused by defects, to defect effect and cost of precaution
business in market is active in coun- decrease defect costs, to increase the together [3]. Ready-made clothing
tries with cheap labor power, it has to reliability, and to develop quality sys- company used failure mode and ef-
present the best quality to the cus- tematically. It provides determination fects analysis in terms of worker’s
tomer by considering the materials in of potential defect belongs to system, health and work safety for the risk
agenda and developments in fashion process or product in planning and evaluation of company [4]. A new
with minimum cost. Especially since development stage before the exis- FMEA model based on fuzzy digraph
Z. BAHADIR ÜNAL, E. ACAR: Failure mode and effect analysis:
An application in jeans production process, Tekstil 65 (1-2) 30-34 (2016.) 31

and matrix approach is developed to method is defined as a method pri- Risk Priority Number (RPN); is the
solve the problems and improve the oritizing the types of defects that will value obtained multipliying by defect
effectiveness of the traditional FMEA provide the greatest contribution to occurrence, severity and detection
[5]. Another study proposes an the whole system [9]. [10]. Here “Occurence” is the defect
FMEA which uses Data Envelop- Basic objectives of this technique are frequency, “Severity” is the serious-
ment Analysis (DEA), a well-known listed as predetermining the potential ness of the defect effect and “Detec-
performance measurement tool, to defects that may occur in the product tion” is opportunity to notice the de-
determine the risk priorities of failure or process, taking measures to pre- fect before it reaches to the end user.
modes [6]. In order to achieve a better vent these defects, determining the In order to determine these values,
protection of the environment FMEA degree of impact and criticality of the scale of ten is used.
is utilized as a convenient technique defect type.
for determining, classifying and ana- Applicability of the method depends RPN = Occurrence × Severity ×
lyzing common failures in the mu- on the need for continuous develop- × Detection (1)
nicipal solid waste lifecycle [7]. ment and improvement which is the
As understood from literature study, main objective of the total quality At the last stage, it is decided to bring
besides the use of traditional FMEA management. improvement suggestion and to start
technique in different sectors, it is corrective actions at which stage of
observed that it can be used together 2.2.1. Types of Failure Mode the production process and for which
with different methods by consider- and Effect Analysis types of defects by looking at the cal-
ing some deficiencies of the method. FMEA method is handled in four culated RPN values and degree of
In this study quality control depart- ways basically [8]. severity for each defect.
ment of an apparel firm active in jean System FMEA: It analyzes the sys- RPN values are listed from the high-
production was investigated by tems as main and subsystems and it est to the lowest by considering the
is a method for finding potential de- criteria selected, at this point it is
FMEA method. Defect types, effects
fect types among the elements that natural that highest RPN values rank
and causes, preventive actions to re-
make up the system. in prority with respect to others for
duce or elminate them are identified.
Design FMEA: It is a method for the improvement [11].
evaluating past defect or complaints
2. Material and method
during product design / development 3. Implementation and results
2.1. Material stage occurred before production and
Before starting the study, necessary
This study was realized on a plant for determining and aiming to pre-
feedback has been provided to the
having business on producing outer- vent types of defects that may occur
company executive about the analy-
wear like especially pants, skirts, during new product / technology de-
sis and the benefits that it shall bring
sign or development.
jacket from woven fabrics located in was mentioned. FMEA team was or-
Process FMEA: It serves the objec-
İzmir. ganized; responsible people were se-
tive of removal of defects arising
Possible defects during jean produc- lected with ability to take part at ev-
from production and assembly pro-
tion, impact of these defects and ery stage of the process, to define the
cesses and analyzing them.
causes that may occur according to Service FMEA: It is a method to defect reasons and to review properly.
the workflow and measures to be analyze the service before it reaches Then it was defined that process
taken were studied. Later all of this to the customer. which FMEA would be applied was
issues and control measures to be selected as production process of
taken were determined with FMEA 2.2.2.Application steps of Failure jeans.
team with the help of brainstorming. Mode and Effect Analysis The study carried out between the
FMEA application process basically dates of 05.11.2014 to 18.12.2014
2.2. FMEA methodology and after determining the defects dur-
consists of three stages:
At first FMEA technique was devel- • Preparation, ing this period, five basic classifica-
oped by US Army and this method is • System Analysis, tions were realized.
a reliable technique for evaluation of • Evaluation of Results. Explanations encountered during
system and equipment defects. Pri- A basic FMEA application contains jean production process and defect
marily it was used by Ford Automo- calculation of defect types, reasons, types directly or indirectly have ef-
bile plant [8]. Today it is also used in probabilities, severity and discover- fect on the company were given at
different industries widely. Instead of ability and risk priority number of the Tab.1 [12].
defining FMEA method to be used as functions respectively and listing During the observation period, 5600
planning for making improvement them from higher to smaller and tak- products were controlled in total.
for hundreds of defect types, this ing some measures to decrease risk. 1726 products nearly 30% of them
 Z. BAHADIR ÜNAL, E. ACAR: Failure mode and effect analysis:
32 An application in jeans production process, Tekstil 65 (1-2) 30-34 (2016.)

Tab.1 Types of defects observed during jeans production process a RPN value by multiplying each
Defect code Type of defect three values.
D1 Label defects • Missing label While values were being determined
• Torn washing label it was tried to benefit from past data
• Incorrect seam together of label as far as possible, the resulting weight
• Differential feed of label values and detection values are deter-
D2 Rivet defects • Missing or an extra rivet mined by the experiences of team
• Breaking rivet members. RPN values have given in
D3 Seam defects • Broken thread Tab.4.
• Skip seam It was found that defect types to be
• Burst of the seams improved primarily according to their
• Gathering RPN values are sewing and the rivet
• Curved seam
• Uncomplete seam
defects. It was observed that these
• Sewing process in the wrong direction defects arise basically from machine,
• Seam opening operator and raw material. In this
• Inconvenient stitch length sense it should be provided that per-
• Erros of bartacking sonnel should be trained, that he
D4 Belt loop defects • Broken belt loop should do his work carefully and that
• Unseamed belt loop his work should be controlled. Firm
D5 Other defects • Defectof measurement should spend more time for training
• Meto label stain and provide its continuity.
• Grease stain It should be provided that quality
• Dust welded stain
control during production process
• Glue mark visible at surface
• Embroidery defects must be conducted in a more disci-
plined way since long repair work for
product defect and repeated controls
Tab.2 Amount of defect determined ity product. Specifying the reason by cause time loss. The next operation
in jeans production process FMEA team for the defect that oc- should start after the evaluation of
Amount curred, reasons in the formation pro- quality control process by the person
No Defect type
of Defect cess of the defect types are detailed doing that work. For this reason op-
1 Seam defects 1114 with fishbone analysis. Causes of the erator training is essential. Thus inter-
2 Label defects 153 defects determined are shown clearly mediate and final controls can be
3 Belt loop defects 78 in Tab.3. decreased seriously.
4 Rivet defects 58 Defect type reason was graded by us- If it is desired to work with zero de-
ing ten scale regarding occurrence, fect, RPN values are needed to be
5 Other defects 323
severity and detection and later, pri- lowered down. This can be done by
Total 1726
ority list was obtained by calculating lowering the occurrence probabili-

were processed again due to their de-

fects. Numerical distribution of the 1200 120,00%

defect types encountered was given

1000
in Tab.2. 100,00%

According to Pareto chart in Fig.1,

800 80,00%
65.54% of the defects has originated
from sewing defect. “Other Defects”
600 60,00%
following label defects have impor-
tant percentage as 18.71%. Bridge
400 40,00%
and the rivet defect is calculated as
4.51% and 3.36% respectively with 200 20,00%
values close to each other.
Defective products, as they require 0 0,00%
extra processing often leads to loss of Seam Other Label Belt Rivet
time, in many cases they are not ac- Defects Defects Defects Loop Defects
Defects
cepted by the customer and are re-
leased to the market as a second qual- Fig.1 Pareto analysis relating to defects
Z. BAHADIR ÜNAL, E. ACAR: Failure mode and effect analysis:
An application in jeans production process, Tekstil 65 (1-2) 30-34 (2016.) 33

Tab.3 Determining cause of defect operator and method. In order to re-

Defect type Cause of defect move defects originating from mate-
Seam defects • Machine set up defects rial, it should be taken care of follow-
• Using inconvenient needle thread, presser foot for fabric ing processes and material choice
• Unstable material should be done accordingly.
• Carelessness of workers In order to remove defects originat-
Label defects • Carelessness of workers ing from machine, machine settings
• Using wrong label should be followed and importance
• Using inconvinient needle and threah for label should be given to machine mainte-
• Disusing of label apparatus nance. Technological innovations in
Belt loop defects • Carelessness of workers this field should be followed and cor-
• Lack of motivation rect machine should be selected in the
• Using incorrect scissors
beginning. Necessary apparatus
Rivet defects • Carelessness of workers
should be provided for the standard
• Improper rivet to the model
• Inappropriate machine set up and apparatus for related quality. Apparatus costs are not so
process high, thus it improves the quality se-
Other defects • Poor machine maintenance riously. The most important thing is
• Selecting wrong material to select the most suitable ones for
• File defect the operation.
• Selecting wrong method for the process In order to remove defects originat-
ing from employee, each member
Tab.4 Defects ranking according to RPN values taken to the plant should be passed
from training, primarily. Even train-
No Defect type Occurrence Severity Detection RPN values
ing expenses make up a cost at the
1 Label defects 7 6 2 84
beginning; this cost loses its impor-
2 Rivet defects 6 5 5 150 tance by quality and efficiency in-
3 Seam defects 10 4 5 200 crease afterwards. If the employee
4 Belt loop defects 5 4 3 60 knows his works very well, it serves
5 Other defects 7 3 6 126 to provide possibility to control them
well and thus, interlude controls are
not needed. Besides these, mechanic
ties. For this reason continuity of pre- developed for identification and re-
should be trained in such a way so
ventive and corrective activities are moval of possible defects during pro-
that he can handle and judge the op-
important. cess and for maintaining a high level
erations more than one. Thus busi-
of customer satisfaction.
ness disruption shall not occur when
4. Discussion and conclusion Today jean products are subjected to
high number of chemical and me- there is one person leaving the job.
Objective for apparel companies is to Since this sector with labor circula-
chanical processes until it reaches to
reach the desired quality level by the end consumer. Thus, in these pro- tion is very intense, depending one
continuous improvement. Determin- cess steps, deterioration of the fabric person puts plants in a difficult posi-
ing defect types of the process related forming the garment, the sewing ton. To prevent this to be happen, it
with product to be produced, evaluat- thread and accessories are inevitable. may be provided that operators work
ing the future effects of the defects on Unlike other apparel productions, rotationally. Trainings should not be
the customers, decreasing even re- jean clothing production needs to limited to staff recruitment. In neces-
moving of the defects that may arise know processes of the product after sary places, intermediate trainings
in assembly process and production, the sewing and it is needed that sew- can be organized.
determining and application of con- ing thread, stitch type and accessories Since the company doing application
trol for preventing activities shall to be used in production have to be works as subcontracting, importance
provide a range of benefits. selected as resistant to these process- should be given to selection of out-
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis es. Thus, it would be possible to pre- source business, if it is necessary,
technique is a powerful numerical vent majority of stitch defects that common quality awareness should be
analysis tool oriented to prevention of may happen later. developed. Mutual exchange of in-
defects before appearing. As a result As a result of controls performed in formation with outsourced compa-
of FMEA application on a jean pro- the firm, majority of the defects con- nies provides a healthier working
duction company having activity in sists of stitch defects. Stitch defects condition. Business by directing the
apparel industry; measures have been can originate from material, machine, quality control team to outsources,
 Z. BAHADIR ÜNAL, E. ACAR: Failure mode and effect analysis:
34 An application in jeans production process, Tekstil 65 (1-2) 30-34 (2016.)

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