IMPROVING PERFORMANCE IN ROMANIAN GARMENT INDUSTRY BY USING THE LEAN SIX SIGMA METHODOLOGY

Product quality is essential for textile and garment companies, and product diversity is also a critical concern. The variations in the garments ' production process are unacceptable, contributing to the appearance of defects, higher production costs, lower profit, and unsatisfied customers, respectively. Improving the level of quality for textile and clothing products is steadily increasing at global level. Due to the strength and competition of today's business climate, many major garment companies have been looking for ways to increase product quality. Lean Six Sigma approach can be applied by clothing companies to improve the quality of goods and operations, including production, reducing the number of mistakes and developing new products. Aiming to provide pertinent improvement proposals for the production process of a typical Romanian garment company, a research was conducted by applying the DMAIC process. Subsequent to the analysis of the company history, an evaluation of the production process was carried out and the causes that cause dysfunctionalities in the production cycle were identified. Finally, a series of improvements were proposed that would lead to the improvement of the activity in the company and generate a revival of this sector of activity.