company has a number of factories with a total of 4,000 employees. We were met at the factory by the President, Vice-President and General Secretary of the Union, all three working in the factory, and when these officials are negotiating with the company part of the Union, wages are paid by the firm and the balance is paid by the Union.
All the employees, including the Director, were dressed in light grey overalls which are supplied free by the company.
In this factory the Union has a women's and youths' section. There were 17 officers of the Union, three of whom were women.
In the outerwear section the production was of full fashioned outerwear and there were 12 machines-4 Reading and 8 Bentley-21, 24 and 27 gauge. The Reading machines were 20 and 15 section and the Bentleys were 16 and 12 section. There were no fully automatic machines used in the factory and the majority of the machines were of the hand transfer welt variety. One knitter was responsible for each machine and during the time of our visit the Full Fashioned Outerwear machines were operated by girls or youths, the oldest being in the mid-20's. Power Flat machines were also operated by girls, although we did see some youths working on these machines and the work load was 10 machines to a job.
During the time of our visit we saw very few machines working other than at full capacity, a very small percentage of press-offs and the productivity seemed good from both the knitting and running-on.
All the production from the machines was examined and where necessary, small mending was undertaken. We saw three examiners and menders on the production of the 12 machines. The collars were linked on to the bodies and the sides were then seamed by either cup seaming or Rimoldi type machinery. When we entered the main making-up, packing and boxing department we anticipated a reasonably high degree of productivity having regard to all that we had been told about the intensive effort made by Japanese companies concerning work flow, but this was not so. It was the opinion of the delegation that in this factory the productivity was low, even accepting that the work had been undertaken on a time rate basis. The productivity was much below what would be endured by a manufacturer in the United Kingdom. The type of garments made were of medium quality and we saw no process in this factory which could be utilised with advantage in any of our companies. In fact, it was felt that the management in this particular company could learn a great deal by visiting the United Kingdom.
In the underwear section of the factory 8-10 circular machines was the workload for each knitter. Nearly all girls operated the machines, making plain fabric. There were 140 circular machines and 60 people working on two shifts. This included menders, examiners, yarn loaders, etc. The Bentley circular machines, which were making a patterned underwear fabric-5 machines constituted the workload.
In the Dyeing section the plant was exceptionally well laid out, working at a high rate of efficiency. The conditions in the dye shop were good, with reasonable control of heat and humidity and in fact, the working conditions in this particular section were as good as one could expect, having regard to the operation being undertaken.
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