Unifi turned to management consulting firm QualPro and its MVT process about three years ago to help address its efficiency issues and allow Unifi to accelerate the rate of which the company has been able to bring new products and new processes to the marketplace.
Controlling costs, being efficient, and obtaining good yields has been a tried and true recipe for success for one of the last remaining large man-made fiber producers in the United States.
But Unifi, a producer of multi-filament polyester and nylon textured yarns and related raw materials, found it difficult to compete in an increasingly globalized textile market using the same methodology it has relied on since its founding in the early 1970s.
Simply stated, Unifi needed to do more ensure its standing in the market. The company chose to move to a higher-value product mix, which led to shortened run lengths and increased complexity.
“Obviously, as that happens, your efficiency suffers and your yields suffer,” says Bill Jasper, President/CEO of Unifi.
However, the company found a viable solution to its efficiency issues in management consulting firm QualPro and its MVT (multivariable testing) process. The MVT Process is designed to allow companies to optimize business results by testing numerous improvement ideas simultaneously in a real-world setting to accurately determine bottom-line impact and statistically quantify effects. This allows companies to focus their energies on the actions that improve results and make dramatic improvements quickly. More simply stated, MVT is designed to increase profitability and competitiveness.
Unifi turned to management consulting firm QualPro and its MVT process about three years ago to help address its efficiency issues and allow Unifi to accelerate the rate of which the company has been able to bring new products and new processes to the marketplace.
However, in order for MVT to work, companies like Unifi need to embrace a fast implementation process. QualPro founder Dr. Charles Holland advises any company to put the testing in place in a matter of a month or two in order to maximize its effectiveness.
“Unless there is a pressing need to improve, they will not put the energy and effort in to what needs to be done on the multivariable testing front. If there is a pressing need to get it done, then it can be done quite rapidly,” he says. “You have to be thinking pressing need, fast, harsh, competitive conditions. Those things go together to make a great multivariable testing environment.”
According to Jasper, Unifi followed QualPro’s disciplined eight-step process improvement procedure across three plants with tremendous success. Today, Unifi’s product mix is roughly 50-percent more complex – and less costly – than it was four years ago.
Completing process improvement projects also allowed Unifi to readily identify its important measures and be able to monitor them on a control chart. According to Jasper, he was surprised at how quickly Unifi’s technical people and manufacturing people saw the value behind control charting and better understanding processes.
“You know you are in control and that your process hasn’t shifted, you know you are not having an unusual event occurring,” says Jasper. “We’ve gotten very good at doing that, even on our Lean projects.”
Ultimately, multivariable testing has had a profound effect on the company’s overall operations.
“We’ve got a culture now of just continuously improving every one of our processes and everything that we do,” says Jasper. “MVT’s been a big part of that.”
Visit www.qualproinc.com to learn more.