STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING THE PRODUCTION OF READY-TO-WEAR GARMENTS IN CLOTHING INDUSTRIES
ABSTRACT
The major purpose of this study was to identify strategies for improving the production of ready-to-wear garments in clothing industries in Southeast Nigeria. The study answered four research questions while four null hypotheses were tested. The study adopted descriptive survey research design and was carried out in Southeast, Nigeria. The population for the study was made up of 365 workers of the 19 technologically related clothing industries in Abia and Anambra States. Due to the manageable size of the population, there was no sampling. For data collection, two sets of instruments were used namely: Focus Group Discussion (FGD) Guide and 179-item structured questionnaire titled: “Strategi es for Improving the Production of Ready-to-Wear Garments Questionnaire (SIMRWGQ)”. Th e instruments were subjected to face validation by five experts. To determine the reliability of the instrument, Cronbach Alpha reliability co-efficient was used to test the internal consistency of the instrument. Reliability coefficients of 0.78 was obtained for technology-related strategies, 0.82 for skill-related strategies, 0.73 for operational-related strategies and 0.77 for environmental-related strategies while an overall reliability coefficient of 0.79 was obtained for the entire instrument. Data for the study were collected by the researcher with the help of five research assistants. The focus group discussion (FGD) was carried out with 20 discussants. The data collected from the questionnaire administered were analyzed using mean for answering the research questions while t-test statistics was used for testing the hypotheses at p≤0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study identified 75 technology-related, 31 skill-related, 47 operational-related and 26 environmental-related strategies for improving the production of ready-to-wear garments in clothing industries in Southeast Nigeria and the findings on the null hypotheses tested revealed that there were no significant differences in the mean ratings of the responses of supervisors and operators on 152 out of the 179 identified strategies for improving the production of ready-to-wear garment in clothing industries in South East Nigeria while on the remaining 27 strategies, there were significant differences in the mean ratings of the responses of supervisors and operators. The study therefore concluded that the application and adoption of the identified strategies in the production of ready-to-wear garments will improve the quality and competitive advantage of Nigeria made garments. The study among others recommended that the identified technology, skill, operational and environmental strategies for improving the production of ready-to-wear garment be integrated in the curriculum of Home Economics (Clothing and Textile) at all levels in Nigerian education system.
