QualPro Fuels Process Improvement at Unifi Using Advanced Statistics
Putting Processes To The Test
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.
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For more information call QualPro • 800-500-1722 • www.qualproinc.com