Abstract

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The causes, frequency and duration of each type of stoppage during weaving was studied for each loom in a typical medium-scale Textile manufacturing outfit. All operations performed and their duration during repair before the loom was restarted was noted. For 20 weaving machines, a total of 3199 stoppages were recorded in 24hrs which took a whopping 24,244 minutes to rectify. This is the equivalent of 404.07 hrs or 16.84 days. The loss in productivity is similar to stopping one machine for 16.84 days or 17 machines for approximately one day. These stoppages arose mainly from poor quality of raw materials, maintenance habits as well as employees’ attitude to work. A mathematical model for monitoring and control of weaving activities was formulated.

Keywords: machine, stoppage, frequency, duration, maintenance, raw materials, employees