What is the Standard Man to Machine Ratio (MMR) in the Asian Garment Factories?

I have received this question many times from garment industry professionals, industrial engineers, and students. I did not have an answer to this question at that time. Also do not have the answer now.

As per my knowledge, there is no standard man-to-machine ratio. No benchmark is found on MMR data in any research paper or in a book.

But still, we need a number to refer to set-up MMR target for our factories. Many garment factories want to achieve the best in each KPI. For that, they look for the industry benchmark on the Man-to-machine ratio.

As I don't have the answer, I will take the help of a Facebook group discussion on MMR data and try to conclude the industry benchmark on the man-to-machine ratio.

In this post, I will share some data on MMR that I found on a Facebook group discussion - IE Q&A. About 32 industrial engineers from Bangladesh and other countries shared the MMR of their factories.

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Related post: How to calculate Man to Machine Ratio

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Less the ratio better is the factory performance in terms of the factory’s overhead costs. See the MMR ratio provided by  (Note: in the data there was no standard formula used). 

Table: Garment factory's MMR 

Respondents	MMR (Man:Machine)	Comments
Respondent 1	2.20
Respondent 2	1.15	Woven factory
Respondent 3	1.25	Knit factory
Respondent 4	1.38
Respondent 5	1.81
Respondent 6	2.18
Respondent 7	1.20	Marked as World standard MMR by the respondent
Respondent 8	1.80
Respondent 9	2.20
Respondent 10	1.90	Jacket
Respondent 11	2.23
Respondent 12	1.70
Respondent 13	1.70
Respondent 14	1.70
Respondent 15	1.70
Respondent 16	1.81
Respondent 17	2.10
Respondent 18	2.36
Respondent 19	1.29
Respondent 20	1.18
Respondent 21	1.33
Respondent 22	1.40
Respondent 23	1.78
Respondent 24	2.25
Respondent 25	1.80
Respondent 26	1.75
Respondent 27	1.65
Respondent 28	1.40
Respondent 29	1.50
Respondent 30	1.80
Respondent 31	1.39
Respondent 32	1.70
Industry Average	1.71

Credit for this datasheet

I like to say thanks to the Facebook group admin Mr. Mojaharul Hannan for posting this question on Facebook and grateful to each respondent for sharing their factory's MMR KPI (without fearing their management for breaching the data confidentiality clause). I love engineers who share information with the world without any condition – just for helping others to learn more and to achieve more.

Conclusion:

From the above 32 responses, we can say the benchmark MMR of the garment industry is 1.71. We can further improve this Benchmark if we get more data from the industry. So, if you are interested, you can share your factory Man-to-machine ratio. 

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Also read: Why Measure MMR?

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