‘Mangineer’ concept keeps Esquel Group ‘lean’ and ‘agile’

Year 2020 has seen severe impact on apparel business world over due to COVID-19 pandemic which has reduced consumers’ demand and shuddered the profitability of both retailers and manufacturers. However, resilience is something that could be seen in some progressive apparel and textile manufacturing companies’ efforts as they are still innovating in their own way to increase agility and operational efficiency. Esquel Group, Hong Kong-based world’s leading shirt manufacturer, had been facing a problem of finding a cost effective and flexible manufacturing process to produce specialty yarns in Esquel Specialty Spinning (ESS) – a part of the Group’s vertically integrated supply chain that supplies the Group’s global factories and other customers with specialty yarns. The Group found the answer by laying a model of a flexible manufacturing system that is based on three key elements: automated equipment, decentralised management and a team of ‘mangineers’ responsible for various tasks on the shopfloor. The term ‘mangineer’ is a combination of two words – ‘manager’ and ‘engineer’, which welds together the traditional roles of both an engineer and a manager – and is aimed at implementing lean and agile operational concepts even more robustly in the Group’s operations. One key ingredient in the success of ESS’ flagship operation in Guilin, China, is the ‘mangineer’ programme – as Esquel Group says so. To get more insights, click @ Apparel Resources