Research on Balance Optimization of Garment Production Line Based on Industrial Engineering Methods

In the context of the garment manufacturing industry, there has been a continuous improvement in the requirements for production efficiency and resource utilization. Consequently, the optimization of production line balancing has become a key issue for enterprises to enhance their competitiveness. This paper investigates the shirt production line of a sewing workshop of a garment enterprise. It addresses the problems of uneven distribution of work processes, prominent bottleneck stations, and long production cycles. The paper applies the theory and method of traditional industrial engineering to optimize the workforce, production process, equipment management, and so on. Initially, standard working hours are determined through job measurement and time study; Industrial engineering methods are then used to optimize and balance the processes of the production line; and the production line balance rate and smoothness index are introduced to evaluate the improvement effect. The experimental results demonstrate that the optimized production line balance rate increases from 39.5% to 62.8%, and the production imbalance loss rate decreases from 60.5% to 37.2%. The method proposed in this study provides theoretical support and practical tools for the apparel manufacturing industry, and it has a significant reference value for realizing lean production.