Employee groups color coding system
The garment industry is very labour intensive. Typically, there are multiple production lines in factories, including many different groups of workers and quality control staff. Therefore, using different coloured hats or uniforms as ...
The garment industry is very labour intensive. Typically, there are multiple production lines in factories, including many different groups of workers and quality control staff. Therefore, using different coloured hats or uniforms as identification for different groups of workers in the factory is good practice in factory management.
Prospective users:
This practice can be applied to garment factories which are labour intensive.
ProblemS addressed
- Difficulty in managing a large number of workers in many different groups
- Difficulty in inter-group communication
- Difficulties quickly finding specific types of workers when they are required, eg. quality control or maintenance workers.
Process
This process involves highlighting different groups of workers and employees in the factories, by using different colored hats or uniforms. It is also possible to distinguish employees of different levels in the same major group, through distinguishing bars or flags on the uniform. The process of implementation is very simple, requiring only the design of a coding system, getting the hats or uniforms made based on the coding system, announcing the coding system on bulletin boards with explanation and encouraging employees to wear the hats or uniforms.
Steps in implementation
- Identify different groups of workers and employees in the factories. The easiest way is to identify the major functions such as production workers, quality control staff, maintenance staff, warehouse staff, etc.
- For each major group, identify sub-groups or levels such as workers, input, sub-section leaders, assistant supervisors and supervisor in the production workers group; quality assurance inspection workers, inspection leaders, inspection assistant supervisors and inspection supervisors.
- Choose different colors to distinguish major groups such as workers and quality control. For example, blue for workers groups and yellow for inspection groups.
- Develop and apply a system of bars or flags to distinguish employees at different level at the same major group (See diagram one). For example, blue hats with 2 short bars for workers, 1 long horizontal bar for sub-section leaders, 2 long bars for assistant supervisor and 3 long bars for supervisor.
- Make the hats or uniform for employees based on the coding system and deliver them to all employees in the factory. Color should be clear and easy to distinguish. Hats or uniforms should be convenient for the employees to wear and take off at the end of the shift.
- Display the coding system on bulletin boards in the factory with explanation of the titles of each employee group. Hold meetings with workers to introduce the system and explain all the different groups.
- Ensure the colors and bars of the actual hats and uniforms are consistent with the instruction board
- Encourage employees to wear the hats or uniforms.
- Make sure all the workers understand the coding system so that they can easily find the relevant person for work coordination or assistance
- Colored hats, or uniforms
- Bulletin board with instructions on coding system
- Factory or group meeting to introduce the system
- Involvement of the line managers, QC and HR department in instructing, encouraging and supervising workers to implement
- Some additional work to establish the system
- Some additional costs to make the uniforms
- Consistent supervision and encouragement required
- Better management
- Better internal communication
- Faster assistance for workers when they need it.
- Coding system developed
- Instruction board set up
- Color hats or uniforms made and delivered to all employees in the factory
- All employees in the factory wear hats or uniforms during working hours
Funding for the Factory Improvement Programme is provided by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and the United States Department of Labor.
