Since female workers dominate the labour force in garment factories, the importance of providing training to the women in supervisory positions cannot be overstated. A new study of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the International Labour Organisation showed that training support for women in supervisory roles leads to higher productivity in the garment factories.

Maintaining optimum productivity level is an imperative in garment manufacturing because buyers demand higher value at lower price. To increase productivity, what factories need most are trained staff and advanced technology. A factory, however, cannot ensure higher productivity only by deploying cutting-edge technology; it needs trained manpower to man those machines.

Despite being the second-largest apparel exporter in the world, Bangladesh’s low labour productivity compared to competing countries is a cause for serious concern. Lack of productivity has a direct bearing on the industry’s low level of product diversity. As a matter of fact, most Bangladeshi factories tend to replicate the design provided by retailers or buyers. It is about time the RMG industry paid more attention to its own product development capacity.

We must not forget that Bangladesh is expected to graduate from the least developed country group (LDCs) by 2026. Once graduated, the RMG sector will no longer enjoy duty-free quota-free (DF-QF) market access in the European market. So, in the face of losing preferential market access and the fourth industrial revolution, the importance of increasing efficiency cannot be emphasized enough to keep up the sector’s growth momentum.

We are pleased to learn that BGMEA with the collaboration of development partners have launched an Innovation Centre which will arrange vocational and on-the-job training for graduates of Industrial and Production Planning Engineering and Textile Engineering. The Centre will facilitate certificate courses for facility mid-level management which would help them to ensure efficiency in the facility production process.

Over the years, the industry has accomplished giant leaps in terms of increasing manufacturing capacity, environmental sustainability, workplace safety and ensuring the wellbeing of the workers. The stakeholders of the industry, however, cannot afford to become complacent because it has to prepare for post-LDC challenges by enhancing capability through product diversification, innovation, and technology upgradation and skills development.

Source: Sun Editorial