I am also from garment manufacturing sector, wkg as a QA Manager from last 10 yrs, We can see lot of scope in this sector to improve the productivity and to reduce variance. This garment sector is recently came in to field and just now concentrating to learn how to do manufacturing in a professional way. There is great scope for Lean and Six sigma professionals in garment field, because in this field very few research works done. But mind set & support of top level management is very important. 1st they must believe the systems and procedures. Their mantra is only Delivery date at any cost. ( They may afford even for Air shipment but not ready to follow certain systems like Six sigma or 5 S ). They depend only least qualified production managers even some persons may not be passed 8th standard will have full control. Only good professional training at all levels of staff can bring the change in the mind set. then garment manufacturing in India will become competitive with Sri lanka. regds, Babu.A