The Wall Street Journal recently featured QualPro client Unifi Inc. in two articles by Justin Lahart. Unifi managed to turn
their business around and boost productivity during a difficult economic time. Below is an excerpt from the articles.
Boosting Productivity Through Statistical Experiments
By Justin Lahart
GREENSBORO, N.C.—
As the long recession lifts, Ameri-
can businesses are grappling with
a big question: Are we working
smarter, or simply working harder?
The answer will say a lot about
the strength of the economy in the
coming years.
Unifi was pouring cash into new
equipment a decade ago. Unifi’s
capital expenditures in the five
years leading up to the 2001 reces-
sion topped $700 million.
It was quite different this time.
Unifi was generating less cash
and had just $50 million in capital
spending in the five years before
the recession. But the company has
still managed to lift productivity.
The upshot of this is visible at
Unifi’s Yadkinville plant, where
it “textures” yarn—a process that
gives it bulk and strength. The
plant is the size of 16 football fields
and is lined with machines that
stretch and heat the yarn. Scattered
workers dart here and there. Most
of this automation was added years
ago.
“Every piece of equipment we
have here is pre-2000,” says Unifi
Chief Executive William Jasper.
“We have to find out how to be
more efficient with what we have.”
The highly automated Unifi plant
in Yadkinville, N.C., has made a
big push to boost productivity by
minimizing yarn breaks so that
equipment keeps operating and
yarn isn’t wasted. Last year, the
plant focused on reducing how of-
ten yarn breaks during the texturing
process. Each time that happens,
machines are shut down, yarn is
wasted, and workers have to spend
time clearing up the problem. One
way to cut through such problems
is to use statistical methods to tease
out the lines of cause and effect in
complex situations.
Polyester yarn-maker Unifi came
up with 25 things that people there
thought were surefire ways to cut
down on how often yarn broke as
it was being “textured.” A statis-
tical analysis by consulting firm
QualPro found that only five of
those ideas really worked. Some
of them actually hurt, like yanking
on splices in the yarn to make sure
they were sound – something that
some workers routinely did in the
belief that it helped. “Creelers,”
whose job it is to splice strands
of yarn together with a heat gun,
were told to be more vigilant about
removing stray bits of yarn. That
tiny change eliminated many of the
breaks.
The highly automated Unifi plant in Yadkinville, N.C., has made a big push to boost productivity
by minimizing yarn breaks so that equipment keeps operating and yarn isn’t wasted.
For more information on Unifi’s successes or to learn more about QualPro’s statistical methods
for improving any area of business, please contact QualPro at 865-927-0491 or info@qualproinc.com.