ANGORA TEXTILE (A)

Abstract

In July 1994, the management at Angora Textile planned to enter the Japanese knitwear market by the mid of 1995. The Japanese buyers offered higher profit margins, but demanded stringent quality and delivery standards. Angora Textile had come a long way in improving its quality and productivity since the recruitment of Khurram Zafar as Director Operations in late 1992. Although the results of his quality and productivity improvement efforts had been encouraging, he was skeptical about the consistency of quality in the company and wondered what quality and productivity improvement steps to take next. The case highlights various issues regarding quality and productivity improvement efforts in a labour intensive manufacturing industry. The case also serves as a basis to evaluate the efficacy of implementation of the quality and productivity improvement philosophies and techniques in a developing country's industrial environment.