Difference between SAM Productivity and Production Productivity

What is the difference between SAM Productivity and Production Productivity? Asked by an OCS reader.
SAM productivity

In the apparel industry, manufacturing productivity is measured in terms of labor productivity, machine productivity and value productivity. The labor productivity and machine productivity is presented as number of garment produced (quantity) per labor per shift and per machine per shift respectively. Normally labor productivity and machine productivity productivity are measured for a production line for the selected products.

SAM productivity and production productivity both are new terminologies. Though this is the first time I come across these productivity terms, I can relate and explain how these productivity can be calculated.

Let me first define these two terms and then I will compare.

SAM productivity

SAM productivity can be defined as total SAM produced by per operator per shift. SAM productivity is measuring the manufacturing productivity of a production line or a factory in terms of standard time produced per operator.

For an example, let's say in a line 40 operators make 400 shirts in a day (8 hours shift time) and SAM of that shirt is 25 minutes. SAM productivity will be (25*400)/40 minutes= 250 minutes per operator per shift

Production productivity

Production productivity is similar to the labor productivity and machine productivity. In these cases, productivity is presented in production quantity.
Labor productivity: Number of garments produced per labor per shift.
Consider the above example, in a production line 40 operators and 5 helpers made 400 garments in a 8 hours shift. Total labor count is 40+5 = 45. Labor productivity of that line will be (400/ (40+5)) = 8.89 pieces per labor per shift.

Machine productivity: Number of garment produced by machine per shift.
Let's say, in a line 40 machine is used to make 400 garments in a 8 hours shift. Machine productivity of that line will be (400/ 40) = 10 pieces per labor per shift.

Difference between SAM productivity and Production Productivity.

Here I have listed few points to compare these two productivity terms.
#1. SAM productivity is presented in standard minutes produced irrespective of product SAM. On the other hand the production productivity is presented as number of garment produced. 

#2. Through SAM productivity you can easily compare performance of two lines or two factories, irrespective of the apparel product types, style.

When you use production productivity (labor productivity / machine productivity), comparison of two line's performance can be done when they make same style and same product. If two lines make two different products having different SAM, performance can not be compared with produced qty.

#3. You can measure production productivity of a factory or a line without having product SAM. But to measure SAM productivity you need to know product SAM. 

Garment factories those don't have IE and don't estimate the standard minutes (SAM) for their styles, can not calculate SAM productivity. But they can easily calculate production productivity.

Read the difference between labor productivity and efficiency

Do you use these measures in your garment factory? Have you seen people using these two types of productivity?

I would be great learning if you can share your understanding on the SAM productivity and Production productivity.

Prasanta Sarkar

Prasanta Sarkar is a textile engineer and a postgraduate in fashion technology from NIFT, New Delhi, India. He has authored 6 books in the field of garment manufacturing technology, garment business setup, and industrial engineering. He loves writing how-to guide articles in the fashion industry niche. He has been working in the apparel manufacturing industry since 2006. He has visited garment factories in many countries and implemented process improvement projects in numerous garment units in different continents including Asia, Europe, and South Africa. He is the founder and editor of the Online Clothing Study Blog.

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