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The client: Gokaldas Exports Ltd. (GEX) is India's largest apparel exporter. It is a 'one-stop shop" for the world's most preferred apparel brands, including major casual and sports clothing lines. In 2008, GEX had US $250 million in sales and employed 45,000 people working in 45 factories. The company has the capacity to produce 2.5 million garments a month. The Blackstone Group recently became a partner in GEX, which had been an entirely family-owned business since its founding in 1970.
The challenge | GEX had to improve worker productivity without adding resources to grow profits and remain competitive in the high-volume, low-margin global garment industry. Nike, a major client, strongly suggested that the company implement lean process improvements, but GEX's longtime leadership was skeptical that lean production would work in the garment industry.
The Solution | Reassured by TBM Consulting Group's guarantee of satisfaction and exposure to wide-ranging success stories at a "CEO Boot Camp," Executive Director Dinesh Hinduja invited TBM into the company for an assessment and subsequent productivityimprovement action plan based on the LeanSigma® methodology. This included the training of three COOs - Ashwin Hinduja, Vivek Hinduja and Gaurav D. Hinduja all of whom have undergone four weeks of lean training and have received lean certification.
Everything about India can be described as a paradox: Ancient and modern, Traditional but innovative, Communal yet highly structured.
Such dualism threads the story of manufacturer Gokaldas Exports Ltd. (GEX), India's largest apparel exporter. Founded by the late Jhamandas H. Hinduja in 1970 and - until recently - tightly controlled by his family, GEX has embarked on a plant-by-plant cultural transformation based on lean principles in response to heightened competition and customer expectations. Initially unconvinced that lean principles and practices would work in an Indian apparel company, GEX's leaders have since become converts after initial lean training and teamwork yielded productivity increases of as much as 35 percent (without adding resources).
"Now, everybody is on board," says Gaurav D. Hinduja, COO. "It is the most important thing in the company today, but it has taken almost two years to get to this point. I wouldn't say that we've successfully adopted lean everywhere already, but they know that this is the way forward."
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