Ssovitex Design-Arts
TEXTILE DESIGNING & PRINTING PRODUCTIONS IN SSOVITEX DESIGNARTS SINCE 1991 IN UGANDA.
This above named company has been in the textile, furnishing and finishing industry for a
period of 10 years now and our areas operation are local market area and export market,
among the products we export or sale locally are Textile goods like T-shirts, shirts,
shorts, dresses all screen printed with African motifs, Tie and dye materials being made
in Unique colors, Art and Crafts are also made from our workshop for interior
furnishings.
In this workshop, we employ at a maximum 50 people at boom production and some are
permanent and few are temporary basis. Our workers include males and females
excluding children.
The workshop is at the coverage area of two acres of land. We have several departments
through which products pass in order to get into the market.
Designing studios:- where graphic work is done; Darkroom studios where pre-print
processes are done e.g. using photo-emulsion chemicals to develop screen plates for print
reproductions in other departments.
Print yard where reproductions of the printing on textiles and other materials are done.
This is reasonably big space for work to go on; then the last department is Packing and
dispatching; where all finished work is accumulated too. Then grading, packing and
dispatching of finished products are done here. This is the last part of the workshop work.
Then goods are taken for marketing.
Designing studio employs 4 expert designers in graphic work, dark room takes 2 studio
technicians, print yard goes in for 35 employees while packing and dispatching takes in
14 people. Only five people handle marketing of the goods and services in Ssovitex
Design-Arts.
Within the print –yard studio department we have supervisors who checks out the quality
output of each product, and also sets up the output quantities of products that must be
made in particular time. This helps our company to fulfill orders in time at the required
standards.
It is at this department where workers report all their requirements and queries to the
print yard studio manager. This is the person who helps them to know what kind of work
to be done at a particular period, what capacity of work to be used, what problems
reported during reproduction of work, and many others.
The Manager records all information attained every day and reports it to the overall
manager fo4r action depending to the urgency and solution possibilities on the problems.
The print –yard and Packing and dispatching recruits the biggest number of workers. 2
managers of these departments head the personnel office. This personnel office has setup
its regulations and policies of operations on behalf of the entire company.
Some policies state that: 1. The company doesn’t employ minors.
2. Employment is thro8ugh application and you get a job on merit.
3. The company doesn’t entertain forced labor nor use prisoners
This is a spec liased kind of workshop, therefore employment skills used and type people
differ accordingly. This is why experiences of each is also an essential condition
required.
We realize that since our workshop is manufacturing industry, we produce waste in the
environment to an extent, for example the water that comes from the print yard studio is
contaminated with the dyes, bleaching chemicals (H2O2), caustic soda chemicals etc
But we dispose these chemicals are environmentally friendly, because at our workshop
we made a deep pit of 12 feet circumference and depth of 12 feet as well, filled with hard
core stones. All the running wastewater goes into this pit. This solves problem of any
dangerous waste that might have gone to the neighbors and create a social problem.
In this manufacturing industry of ours, where workers are many, it is inevitable to have
some accident during reproduction. The common accidents - workers splash out print
paste chemicals onto irritating parts of the body e.g. human eyes, skin etc.
The solution we have here is that the accidents are minimized or reduced through regular
internal training of workers and prior training before one joins the workshop.
Workers are taught health and safety conditions during workshop time. For example one
must were protection gloves, but should you get an accident and chemicals get in contact
with your eyes or body, then take the running water (clean and cold) and wash quickly.
If symptoms continue report to the workshop clinic immediately but the incident must
reported to the workshop manger as well through the clinic officer.
Our normal working hours of the workshop is 9 hours, from 8.00 am – 1-00pm, then
2.00pm to 5.00 pm. Any time that is done this outlined schedule is treated as overtime
and it is paid separately with its own rates depending on the departmental work.
Our workers are paid salaries and allowances depending to the level of recruitment and
experience, then paid overtime per hour worked. This depend s on the availability of
excessive work to be handled quickly.
Every end of the month the administration of this company sits with all departmental
heads to report their performances to the general manager all matters that were
experienced and rose in the previous period of the month. From here solutions and targets
are set to be used in the next period, for example questionnaires are given out to workers
every month for filling accordingly. Tabulation of data is got out to help in analyzing the
targets. Secondly a suggestion box is at their disposal for reporting any suggestion,
incident, query or reminders that our workers might be having.
The following is an outline of the company’s policies and management actions:
1. Employment in company is offered on merit irrespective of sex and nationality. The
minimum age employment requirement is 18 years. Experience on work is an added
advantage. Prisoners and forced laborers are not employed despite their qualifications.
2. Procurement policy; this policy helps the company’s departments to organize all the
departmental requirement for purchases of their raw materials and logistics during the
company’s product productions. A budget is made at the end of the year where workers
demands are also put into considerations at this level for facilitation in their conditions of
work.
3. Production policy :
(i) Workers are set with work standards, quality and quantity of productions
(ii) Periodical time framework of productions are set as well by the production manager.
(iii) Work is performed in shifts and normally we have two shifts a day and one hour
lunch space.
(iv) Every worker in the production process should know about the First Aid actions
before recruitment in the work department.
(v) While work is in the progress workers should know proper disposals and the dangers
bad disposals to their lives. (They are made aware through internal workshop training)
Achievements.
There is no problem on labor targets as set up in our employment policy system. Under
age workers are not allowed due to lack of skills, capacity and at the same time not
accepted by ILO (International Labour Organisation) in product productions which
cannot be got at very early ages below 20 years.
Our assessment on pollution of the environment was on disposal of wastewater, which is
contaminated with dyes and soft papers. But the achievement we have here is that we
managed a deep pit of gravel stone (Hardcore) where all this wastewater goes in. This
reduces any surface wastewater run-over which might be toxic to lives of workers and
their neighbors. The pit helps in filtering the wastewater before it finds its way into the
ground.
I have discovered in this company that as you buy raw materials for products
developments parts of raw materials becomes waste which puts a threat on how properly
it should be disposed off in order to help the environment conservation and living the
ecological cycle to continue.
The use of chemicals must be properly managed and therefore technical skills are
necessary whenever there is need of use. Only the real amounts should be used for the
intended purpose. Do not allow any excess of the chemicals as it encourages more waste
to the environment.
Company’s policies must always be in place to regulate its activities.
A company without finances and equipment in the textile industry may find it to difficult
to carryout the implementation progress of its activities earmarked in the policies.
A key lesson is that a system / management actions must be in place in all areas of
commercial human resource, sales and marketing in order to address well the labor and
environmental principals.
CONTACT:
Leonard Mukasa Ssozi
Ugandan
Email: leosozi@hotmail.com