DryDye has revolutinized the " Dyeing " Technology. For the first time in the last many centuries, here is one company, which was not even distantly related to textiles has come out with a Technology which will change the shape of Dyeing Industry forever.
DryDye would mean, no pretreatment , no posttreatment, no drying, no marks, no crease issue, no other hanky panky. At best, it might still need Stenter. However, we hope the maker of this machine also finds a solution to heat set the fabric within the dyeing equipment using microwave technology.
DryDye would use no water, no chemicals, no auxilaries and dyes mixed with carbon dioxide will penetrate the polyester chains or cellulose yarns. After completing the dyes would get extracted automatically as carbondioxide would be turned to gas again.
This means no effluent discharge, no headaches of keeping the Eco System in balance.
This new technology will change the spinning business altogather. Most spinning mills, who have so far been churning out griege yarns will automaticlly go in for dyed yarns as value added solution. The mills dont invest into yarn dyeing , more on account of large infrastructre of steam, effluent, large vessels, small lots etc etc.
Best value would be actually found by the Sewing Thread companies.
Nevertheless, Good Bye Dyeing Machine Makers . Many of my post, I have already written that most machine makers do not invest in technology at all. This is one such case, where a Non Textile Equipment Maker has come and challanged the conventional technology. CO2 Dyeing was well known to the Industry for the last two decades, but none of the dyeing machine maker invested into it and now a Dutch Company has taken the lead.
It is now upto this Dutch company to quickly make a Market Plan and take advantage of its pioneering status. Sell the system as Technology and not an equipment. Otherwise, it will see that as all other machine makers, the Copy cats have been too fast in copying and there is very little left for the Innovaters.
It is about time that they start beating their Drums and position a Global Marketing Organization to captialize on this opportunity.
Interestingly, if you check online on the patents, there are hundreds of very nice tecnologies, which can actually be commercialized by the machine makers. But since they live in their own entrapped world, they dont see Technology and Design as the key Growth engines of the current century.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
Metered Packages
Last time I wrote about " Cone Size Error" and also on Sewing Threads being sold in Metres.
Textile Yarns are all sold in Kgs. Well for want of a better system of controlling the supply the weight units were adapted historically. However, now with Metered Supply packages possible, Textile Industry has still not reoriented itself to the new available Technology.
Almost everything in textiles after yarn stage takes the length unit of measurement. So, logically the supply chain has to automatically fall in line and supply the inputs as units of length.
If a fabric beam is 5000 metres each, then the supply packages have to be multiples of 1000 metres .( Considering that some beams will be of shorter lengths or longer Lengths). Yarn makers have to make exact lengths with a reserve to make the whole system efficient.
Supply packages have to have a label of say 150,000 metres packages. The user automatically then knows the number of beams available to him . The user also orders yarns as meters based on the production program.
Finally some day all yarns will be sold the sewing thread way. Cones of 150,000 metres or 120,000 metres etc .
The other ambiguity in buying yarns in kgs is the percentage of moisture or lubricant on the yarn. Normally 2 to 3% is only water, so the buyer is practically paying yarn prices for water or lubricant.
It therefore makes more sense to order as metres per yarn. However, to control exact supplies would be a big challenge.
In the meantime, atleast those who supply metered packages can always have a premium on their supplies.
Textile Yarns are all sold in Kgs. Well for want of a better system of controlling the supply the weight units were adapted historically. However, now with Metered Supply packages possible, Textile Industry has still not reoriented itself to the new available Technology.
Almost everything in textiles after yarn stage takes the length unit of measurement. So, logically the supply chain has to automatically fall in line and supply the inputs as units of length.
If a fabric beam is 5000 metres each, then the supply packages have to be multiples of 1000 metres .( Considering that some beams will be of shorter lengths or longer Lengths). Yarn makers have to make exact lengths with a reserve to make the whole system efficient.
Supply packages have to have a label of say 150,000 metres packages. The user automatically then knows the number of beams available to him . The user also orders yarns as meters based on the production program.
Finally some day all yarns will be sold the sewing thread way. Cones of 150,000 metres or 120,000 metres etc .
The other ambiguity in buying yarns in kgs is the percentage of moisture or lubricant on the yarn. Normally 2 to 3% is only water, so the buyer is practically paying yarn prices for water or lubricant.
It therefore makes more sense to order as metres per yarn. However, to control exact supplies would be a big challenge.
In the meantime, atleast those who supply metered packages can always have a premium on their supplies.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Cotton Marketing.
Cotton is largely sold as a commodity. Pricing therefore follows the commodity rules of demand and supply.
But so is the same for any other fibre substrate like viscose , polyester, nylon etc etc.
Here is an interesting story of a Brand " Lycra " which though a man made fibre changed from commodity to a " Brand"
Lycra the DuPont brand was long perceived as Spandex and with little Textile Use never found its place in the Textile Domain. Lycra then changed its strategy and got itself related to Fashion with its appeal on stretchibility, drape etc. ( Though none of these features actually had a Fashion appeal, but then that is what is marketing ) found a good market share and is now dominant fibre in many textile applications.
Polyester makers also branded their products like Dulon, Pulon, etc etc. However, never had a marketing genius to make a brand which would not take the commodity route. The reason was the overburden of selling large volumes of production flushing out of the spinneretts and managing cash flows. If only Polyester Makers would have chosen to make Polyester with wool texture or silk texture and taken it as small percentage of the total apparel value, it would have gone the lycra way.
In case of Cotton, the story was still more interesting. Egyptian cotton was the best cotton , but failed to Brand itself as "EgCotton " and got connected to the High Value Fashion Brands, hence only got a commodity price, but with only incremental value.
Unless and Until the fibre substrates and machine makers connect there brands to the Ultimate Fashion or Home Textiles, the value of the offerings would remain subject of speculation and the best money would still only be made by the Hedge Funds.
If Oranges, Apples, Bananas could get Branded and were linked to Farms and got priced higher with their brand perceptions, then Cotton no case could have been left out.
Coca Farmers in Africa complain about the money being made by the Swiss Chocolate makers and the story for cotton farmers is no different. The yarn makers and the Fashion brands finally make the money and the farmer only hopes that the crop would get a better price then last year.
The Organic Cotton has given the best opportunity to many a farmers to come out of this vicious cycle of commodity and now is again a chance to Brand correctly and connect to the Fashion World. Cotton Marketing Organizations have to bring value to the Farmers. Commodity any high school drop out can sell.
The next important thing for cotton marketers is the Blow Room Operations. Time has come , where Farmers need to add a Blow room to their Ginning operations. A clean, uniformed, lapped and baled cotton will directly move to the Carding section of the Textile Mill. This would open up two avenues.
Higher value realization for the Farmer > Does a Apple farmer , not clean up and then nicely pack it in boxes and deliver it to the market.
Higher Value to the Spinner : The spinner gets ready to card cotton.
The best advantage of this delivery would be that now cotton can be used with thousands and thousands of Polyester spinning mills without much change. One small change and a very large market opens up for Cotton Farmers.
The 18th century cotton delivery has to now change. It is about time that the supply chain and the user , both see beyond the obvious practices.
But so is the same for any other fibre substrate like viscose , polyester, nylon etc etc.
Here is an interesting story of a Brand " Lycra " which though a man made fibre changed from commodity to a " Brand"
Lycra the DuPont brand was long perceived as Spandex and with little Textile Use never found its place in the Textile Domain. Lycra then changed its strategy and got itself related to Fashion with its appeal on stretchibility, drape etc. ( Though none of these features actually had a Fashion appeal, but then that is what is marketing ) found a good market share and is now dominant fibre in many textile applications.
Polyester makers also branded their products like Dulon, Pulon, etc etc. However, never had a marketing genius to make a brand which would not take the commodity route. The reason was the overburden of selling large volumes of production flushing out of the spinneretts and managing cash flows. If only Polyester Makers would have chosen to make Polyester with wool texture or silk texture and taken it as small percentage of the total apparel value, it would have gone the lycra way.
In case of Cotton, the story was still more interesting. Egyptian cotton was the best cotton , but failed to Brand itself as "EgCotton " and got connected to the High Value Fashion Brands, hence only got a commodity price, but with only incremental value.
Unless and Until the fibre substrates and machine makers connect there brands to the Ultimate Fashion or Home Textiles, the value of the offerings would remain subject of speculation and the best money would still only be made by the Hedge Funds.
If Oranges, Apples, Bananas could get Branded and were linked to Farms and got priced higher with their brand perceptions, then Cotton no case could have been left out.
Coca Farmers in Africa complain about the money being made by the Swiss Chocolate makers and the story for cotton farmers is no different. The yarn makers and the Fashion brands finally make the money and the farmer only hopes that the crop would get a better price then last year.
The Organic Cotton has given the best opportunity to many a farmers to come out of this vicious cycle of commodity and now is again a chance to Brand correctly and connect to the Fashion World. Cotton Marketing Organizations have to bring value to the Farmers. Commodity any high school drop out can sell.
The next important thing for cotton marketers is the Blow Room Operations. Time has come , where Farmers need to add a Blow room to their Ginning operations. A clean, uniformed, lapped and baled cotton will directly move to the Carding section of the Textile Mill. This would open up two avenues.
Higher value realization for the Farmer > Does a Apple farmer , not clean up and then nicely pack it in boxes and deliver it to the market.
Higher Value to the Spinner : The spinner gets ready to card cotton.
The best advantage of this delivery would be that now cotton can be used with thousands and thousands of Polyester spinning mills without much change. One small change and a very large market opens up for Cotton Farmers.
The 18th century cotton delivery has to now change. It is about time that the supply chain and the user , both see beyond the obvious practices.
Cone Size Error!
The delivery vehicle for the yarn is a " cone " or a " Cheese" . Interestingly the traverse of all the winding machines have been either, 6 inches, 8 inches or maximum of 10 inches. Except for sewing threads.
While the Traverse is only 6 inches, which is say around 155 mm, the cone is 170mm. The reason being the poor quality of drums and winding will take away usually another 5 mm to 10mm . In case of precision winding, this abnormality is much lower.
However, this extra 15 mm provided to the delivery vehicle is a major logistics cost. Practically meaning shipping Thin Air.
It only takes a little ingenuity to Redesign the cone or tube with maximum of 160mm length and have longer adapters on the cradle to take up such a tube or cone.
This would automatically increase the Container Loading by 6%. If a company shipping 50 containers per month @ $2000 per container freight charge. The annual savings automatically makes it $72000. Further, as the cone size shrinks, the cost of cone comes down by the same percentage . Sales Value per container goes up by 6%. Further Intelligence suggest that there is no sanctity of a 1.89 kg package. The package has to be as large as possible and preferably above 2.5kgs. Some things, since time immemorial go on without questioning . Marketing has to impress on its customers to take as large as a package as possible. This not only improves the logistics cost, but also the machine efficiency, inventory efficiency, continuity, consistency and better value for both the user and the maker.
This becomes 15% savings, when using Texturizing Tubes or Carpet yarn tubes or any 10 inches traverse cones of tubes.
It is still an Irony that none of the Textile Mills chooses to use the Pallet as the Branding Space. Pallets are still plastic wrapped. Needless to say, a company can change this to water proof paper wrapping. Plastics are violent abuse of nature.
While the Traverse is only 6 inches, which is say around 155 mm, the cone is 170mm. The reason being the poor quality of drums and winding will take away usually another 5 mm to 10mm . In case of precision winding, this abnormality is much lower.
However, this extra 15 mm provided to the delivery vehicle is a major logistics cost. Practically meaning shipping Thin Air.
It only takes a little ingenuity to Redesign the cone or tube with maximum of 160mm length and have longer adapters on the cradle to take up such a tube or cone.
This would automatically increase the Container Loading by 6%. If a company shipping 50 containers per month @ $2000 per container freight charge. The annual savings automatically makes it $72000. Further, as the cone size shrinks, the cost of cone comes down by the same percentage . Sales Value per container goes up by 6%. Further Intelligence suggest that there is no sanctity of a 1.89 kg package. The package has to be as large as possible and preferably above 2.5kgs. Some things, since time immemorial go on without questioning . Marketing has to impress on its customers to take as large as a package as possible. This not only improves the logistics cost, but also the machine efficiency, inventory efficiency, continuity, consistency and better value for both the user and the maker.
This becomes 15% savings, when using Texturizing Tubes or Carpet yarn tubes or any 10 inches traverse cones of tubes.
It is still an Irony that none of the Textile Mills chooses to use the Pallet as the Branding Space. Pallets are still plastic wrapped. Needless to say, a company can change this to water proof paper wrapping. Plastics are violent abuse of nature.
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