Uster offers best resources for textile quality management

Today’s challenging market environment means quality is a sustainable competitive advantage, and Uster is the unique source of the know-how and systems needed to deliver it.

In textiles, the two extremes of the market are poles apart – from mass-produced commodity products to ‘big-brand’ specialties where only the highest standards of material and styling apply. In between these opposites, of course, there are many layers of complexity. What all these dimensions have in common is clear: a need for consistent quality from yarn and fabric producers. Today’s challenging market environment means quality is a sustainable competitive advantage, and Uster Technologies is the unique source of the know-how and systems needed to deliver it.

CEO Thomas Nasiou explains: “USTER has become a synonym for quality in textiles during the past seven decades. That is not just because of the ‘Think Quality’ slogan. Quality is in everything we do, every day. And that not only includes our engineers and product developers, but the entire staff – more than 600 employees worldwide.”

Quality know-how via mobile app

An example of a really positive experience of this quality know-how comes when USTER’s technologists visit a mill to carry out an audit for USTERIZED re-certification. Mills always appreciate their expertise and advice, which helps them make the best use of their investments, as well as sharpen their processes for consistent and maximum value.

The USTER service technicians also bring a fund of knowledge, and are always glad to pass on maintenance tips, helping customers get the best out of their USTER equipment. Exclusively, USTER customers benefit from a direct line to expert know-how.

Another way – and it’s not only for customers – to access USTER experience and knowledge is through the USTER NEWS BULLETINS – almost like technical textbooks – which have been circulating valuable information for many decades. The USTER NEWS BULLETIN No. 50 (www.uster.com/unb50), for example, focuses on ‘managing a spinning mill with quality in mind’. It takes readers through all the stages of yarn production, with insights and recommendations for process optimisation, as well as providing clear visualisations and lists of key quality indicators and checkpoints.

The latest edition, USTER NEWS BULLETIN No. 51 (www.uster.com/unb51), was published alongside the release of USTER STATISTICS 2018. It highlights the changes since the previous edition of USTER® STATISTICS, with suggested reasons for the changes and trend analyses. Other chapters introduce the new characteristics of USTER STATISTICS 2018 and explain their use, with practical guidance for readers.

Now, USTER know-how is also available via an app for smartphones and mobile devices. The app, called USTER INSIGHTS, gives access to product information, textile knowledge and corporate news, anytime, anywhere. Anyone with an interest in textile quality is recommended to download it free of charge from the usual app stores.

Quality know-how for practical benefits

The inspiration for the first USTER STATISTICS in the early 1950 was the wish by spinners to know about the quality of their own yarns and those of other spinners. Started as a two-page list in 1957, it quickly developed into the unique global benchmarking tool which today is the basis for trading textile products at assured quality levels, across global markets. Any professional in the fibre, yarn and fabric business can benefit, since the benchmarks are excellent indicators of quality throughout the textile chain. The full range of quality levels is covered, as the USTER STATISTICS Percentile (USP) figures indicate parameters for the 5 per cent, 25 per cent, 50 per cent, 75 per cent and 95 per cent level. Knowing the quality level of the yarn is essential for its production, further optimal use and finally its value.

The latest release is available as an app, meeting the industry’s mobile requirements. The app’s knowledge base – in 11 languages – is quickly accessible any time, even if no internet connection is available. USTER NEWS BULLETINS are also translated into several languages, making knowledge as widely accessible as possible.

For anyone wishing to join the USTER STATISTICS community, there are USTER STATISTICS tutorial videos for beginners available on USTER’s YouTube channel.

Starting with the right mindset

Thomas Nasiou emphasises the importance of a shared quality mindset, as USTER engages with customers in their quest for sustainable product and process optimisation: “Uster Technologies is a leading provider of textile quality measurement and management systems and services. That’s our passion. We want the textile world to realise that quality is a success factor,” he says.

For everyone, the starting point to quality-consciousness is knowledge of the many different ways it can be beneficial. USTER makes it easy to get into quality management, with a range of different tools and know-how sources to make the first step on this road – the rest falls into place naturally.

“A good start would be meeting USTER experts at a forthcoming event ITMA,” says Nasiou. “Visitors are welcome to pester us with all the challenges they may have! In the meantime, the different USTER knowledge channels should serve any information requirements.”

Uster Group is the leading high-technology instrument manufacturer of products for quality management for the textile industry. The Group provides testing and monitoring instruments, systems and services that allow optimisation of quality through each individual stage of textile production. This includes raw textile fibres, such as cotton or wool, all staple fibre and filament yarns, as well as downstream services to the final finished fabric. Uster Group provides benchmarks that are a basis for the trading of textile products at assured levels of quality across global markets. The Group’s aim is to forward know-how on quality, productivity and cost to the textile industry.

The Group is headquartered in Uster, Switzerland and operates through a worldwide Market Organization complemented by Technology Centers. It has sales and service subsidiaries in the major textile markets and Technology Centers in Uster (Switzerland), Knoxville (USA), Suzhou (China) and Caesarea (Israel).