Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2012
ABSTRACT: The Ready-made garment (RMG) sector of Bangladesh employs a large number of people who labour in the
production spaces of garments factory buildings throughout the day. The economic viability of this sector largely depends
on the performance of the workers. Demanding compliance standards of buyers from various countries and a challenging
energy supply and demand scenario in the sector poses questions of sustainability and building design. Appropriate
Illumination conditions of these production spaces, quality as well as quantity of lighting suitable for the production
processes, is a major requirement of a proper working environment. Industrial processes in such indoor environments are
becoming highly complex; workers working under poor lighting conditions are usually exposed to a range of visual
problems with operating machines, textile sewing activities, ironing and other activities. Visual comfort for various
illumination levels has impact on total physical comfort condition and any physical discomfort influences the human
behaviour and their work efficiency. The paper focuses on causality to identify the effects of the illumination condition of
production spaces on the work efficiency and to recommend illumination ranges that would facilitate optimum work
efficiency.
Keywords: Illumination condition, Work efficiency, Production space, Visual comfort, Ready-made garments.
INTRODUCTION
The readymade garment (RMG) sector is a fully exportoriented industry [1] and Bangladesh is one of the largest
RMG exporters in the world. It plays a pivotal role in the
economy of Bangladesh by accounting for approximately
76% of the total export earnings and nearly 10% of GDP
[2]. Bangladesh, being a labour-abundant country, started
the process of industrialisation in the sector by
concentrating on labour-intensive products such as
clothing [3]. Hence, the economy of this sector depends
on the production by the workers. However, the
readymade garments have been heavily criticized during
1970 - 2000 for the poor working conditions particularly
in the production spaces. The poor luminous
environment in production spaces was one of the
concerns affecting the workers. Among the
environmental compliance factors Illumination condition
remain an important which
must be ensured by the
factory owners. Illumination condition includes the
quality as well as quantity of the lighting. However, in
the production space (Sewing, Cutting, dyeing and
finishing), where illumination condition is very
important, the total luminous environment usually varies
with the type of lighting sources and location of the
sources. Poorly designed and maintained lighting can
result in glare and flicker that may cause vision
problems. When the lighting meets both quantity and
quality needs, it adds better working performance and
productivity [4]. Therefore, appropriate illumination
PLEA2012 - 28th Conference, Opportunities, Limits & Needs Towards an environmentally responsible architecture Lima, Per 7-9 November 2012
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Total
levels in
the
Factory
Building
Location of
the
Initially
Surveyed
Production
Space
(level)
Locatio
n of the
Effecti
ve
window
s*
Average
Depth of
Active
Area (m)
Floor Area
(sqm)
Ceiling
Height
(m)
Production
Unit 1
Production
Unit 2
Production
Unit 3
45.1
2600
3.66
S-E,
S-W
E, W
41.5
4650
N, S
35.4
2250
6.1~10
.7
3.81
*Effective windows include the windows that are not fully blocked by any
obstructions (i.e. AC, Cooling pad, dark curtains etc.)
PLEA2012 - 28th Conference, Opportunities, Limits & Needs Towards an environmentally responsible architecture Lima, Per 7-9 November 2012
Location or zone
Average
Illumination
level
(Daylight),
Lux
Production
Unit 1
166
3
Average
Illumination
level
(Daylight +
Artificial
Light ), Lux
873
588
532
258
9
953
672
581
287
6
1088
792
696
Production
Unit 2
Production
Unit 3
Uniformity of Luminance:
Diversity of Illuminance:
Production
Space 2
(420/735)=0.57
(1050/420)=2.5
:1
Production
Space 3
(390/805)=0.48
(1490/390)=3.5
:1
Minimum
Illuminatio
n level at
work plane
(lux)
Maximum
Illuminatio
n level at
work plane
(lux)
Internatio
nal
Standards
( IESNA)
Internatio
nal
Standards
(IES
Code)
Local
Standa
rds
(BNBC
2006)
435
420
390
300
600
300
1150
1050
1490
1000
900
1500
PLEA2012 - 28th Conference, Opportunities, Limits & Needs Towards an environmentally responsible architecture Lima, Per 7-9 November 2012
Surveyed unit
Production unit 1
Production unit 2
Production unit 3
Variables
Distance between
Luminaire and
work plane
Product Colour
at work plane
Number of
Errors per hr
Illumination
level (at work
plane)
Lighting
Environment
Distance between
Luminaire and
work plane
Product Colour
at work plane
Number of
Errors per hr
Illumination
level (at work
plane)
Lighting
Environment
Distance between
Luminaire and
work plane
Product Colour
at work plane
Number of
Errors per hr
Illumination
level (at work
plane)
Lighting
Environment
Distance
between
Luminaire
and work
plane
Product
Colour
at work
plane
Number
Illumination
of
level (at work
Errors
plane)
per hr
Lighting
Environm
ent
1.000
0.618
1.000
0.314
0.270
1.000
-0.025
-0.098
-0.611
1.000
0.265
0.074
-0.323
0.450
1.000
1.000
0.116
1.000
0.145
-0.091
1.000
-0.070
0.038
-0.514
1.000
-0.149
-0.162
-0.441
0.680
1.000
1.000
0.035
1.000
-0.264
-0.049
1.000
0.219
0.040
-0.463
1.000
0.047
0.223
-0.476
0.591
1.000
PLEA2012 - 28th Conference, Opportunities, Limits & Needs Towards an environmentally responsible architecture Lima, Per 7-9 November 2012
y = -0.0091x + 10.979
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1100
1200
Percentage of Production
defects per hour (%)
Production
unit 1
10.979
1.154
-0.009
0.002
Production
Intercept
8.157
1.054
unit 2
-0.007
X Variable 1
0.002
Production
7.608
0.992
Intercept
unit 3
-0.005
0.001
X Variable 1
* Independent variable: illumination level and dependent variable:
defects per hours (%)
Mean
Standard
Deviation
Minimum
Maximum
Count
y = -0.0071x + 8.1569
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
9.518
-5.876
7.740
-4.563
7.669
-3.975
production
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Intercept
X Variable 1
Production unit 02
Production unit 03
835.9
159.6
724.8
145.6
898.8
265.9
520.0
1150.0
20.0
425.0
1028.0
35.0
390.0
1490.0
33.0
1100
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
y = -0.0049x + 7.6085
300
500
700
900
1100
1300
1500
Production unit 2
Production unit 3
Regression Statistics
Multiple R
0.611
R Square
0.373
Adjusted R Square
0.362
Standard Error
2.296
Observations (N)
60
Multiple R
0.514
R Square
0.264
Adjusted R Square
0.251
Standard Error
1.982
Observations (N)
60
Multiple R
0.463
R Square
0.214
Adjusted R Square
0.201
Standard Error
2.747
Observations (N)
60
Independent and
Dependent Variables*
Coefficients
(B Value)
Standard
Error
Bin*
Production
unit 01
Production
unit 02
Production
unit 03
Completely Artificial
lighting environment
Mostly Artificial lighting
environment
Partly Natural lighting
environment
-2
13
-1
18
21
22
*Here,-2,-1 and 0 are the dummy variables (bin ranges within -2 ~0) for the
convenience of statistical analysis.
Lighting environment
t Stat
PLEA2012 - 28th Conference, Opportunities, Limits & Needs Towards an environmentally responsible architecture Lima, Per 7-9 November 2012
Linear
relationsh
ip
Ranges
Mean
Standard
deviation
Quality of
light
Number of Sample
workers
Sex
Age group (Years)
Major Activity Name
(Sewing)
Experience of sample
workers
Total work hour
(hours/day)
Causal relationship
between Illumination
level (x) and percentage
of production defects
per hour (y) , equation:
y=mx+c,
Illuminance ranges for
less defects (Lux)
Mean Illuminance for
less defects (Lux)
Standard deviation
(Illuminance for less
defects)
Major Lighting
environment for less
defects
Production
space-1
60
Production
space-2
60
Production
space-3
60
M: 36%, F:
62%
18-25
Operator
(75%)
More than 2
years
9-10
hours/day
M: 60%, F:
40%
18-25
Operator
(45%)
0.1-0.5 years
M: 59%, F:
41%
22-29
Operator
(43%)
0.6-0.9 years
9-10
hours/day
9-10
hours/day
y = -0.0091x
+ 10.98
y = -0.0071x
+ 8.16
y = -0.0049x
+ 7.61
601-800
601-800
801-1000
836
725
899
160
146
266
Partly
Natural light
(21)
Mostly
artificial
light (18)
Partly
Natural light
(22)
CONCLUDING REMARKS:
From this research, the following specific as well as
some general recommendations can be drawn for
production spaces of RMG factories in context of Dhaka
region, Bangladesh, in order to improve the luminous
environment as well as future study:
The illumination level at the work-plane of the workers
should be within 600-800 lux (average 700lux) especially
for Sewing Operators, Sewing Helper, Quality Controller
and others.
As illumination level and production defects have
negative linear correlations, low illumination level at
work plane must be avoided.
From this research it has been found that about
21~37% (0.21~0.373 out of 1) of the illumination
condition has the causal effect on effective production
capacity of the worker. Other aspects like thermal,
psychological, other environmental features should be