Is Gentle Spinning Key to Competitiveness?

The best way to raise competitiveness is to undertake low-cost improvements and innovations to reduce production cost and raise quality

In the current prolonged yarn market recession, spinners worldwide are struggling to stay profitable; many are trying to survive. Though most spinners are aware that improving their competitiveness is the only sustainable way to thrive, they don’t have the resources to invest in new equipment or innovative ideas. This makes them face a Catch-22  situation – one needs to  become more competitive to be profitable but one needs to be profitable first to generate a surplus to invest in competitiveness! So what’s the solution?

The mantra of management is to manage what’s controllable and respond with agility to what’s not controllable. The market demand is not controllable, but competitiveness is. It is said that to grow and thrive, you need resourcefulness, not resources. If you are resourceful, you find a way to come out of your problems with the limited resources at your disposal. Hence, in the current Catch-22 situation, being resourceful may well mean focussing on generating higher productivity, quality and value-added yarns from the existing plant infrastructure by making low-cost, strategic investments having low risk and high chances of success.

This may sound too simplistic or a ‘no brainer’- one that’s easier said than done. But it is not uncommon to see many spinners willing to wait for better times before they do anything innovative that involvessome investment; however low risk it may bemayor low financial outlay it require. Unfortunately, hope is not a strategy and it’s a highly risky bet to take as one doesn’t know how long the market will take to reviveand whether one has enough resources to survive till then.

Suppose the market demand is sharply down 30 per cent. This means there is still 70 per cent demand. Those mills that can match the price and quality requirements of buyers better than others will become the preferred suppliers and will be still able to sell their yarns (will have a share of the 70 per cent), though margins may be lower. Those who choose to cut costs indiscriminately and lower their competitiveness will lose orders (will be amongst the lost 30 per cent) and pile up inventory, thus endangering their survival.

Before we discuss solutions, let’s evaluate the two strategies – one where management decides to cut expenses to bare essentials till the market revives and the other where some strategic small investments are made to improve competitiveness within existing infrastructure.

Option 1: Wait till market improves

The management decides to be on survival mode, cutting out all discretionary expenditure, reducing maintenance to bare essentials and running accessories for extended time beyond normal working life, producing what is selling currently even at low prices or below cost, reducing the cost and quality of fiber mix Efficiency and yarn quality suffers as a consequence, resulting in a power quality product produced at higher cost (due to lower production efficiency). If you sell the yarn, you make a loss. If you add it to inventory, it hurts cash flow and it is quite possible that the yarn so stocked is eventually sold at a lower price later!

Some mills justify this action by saying efficiency doesn’t matter when, due to low demand, we have to shut down some machines anyway. Others say based on market reality, it’s better to make what sells rather than look at profitability – at least some fixed costs are being covered. Still others say, if I don’t lower prices, others will and take away whatever business is available. All these responses are valid to an extent, but do not answer the basic question of whether any better solutions are available that could improve the situation, if not mitigate it fully.

Option 2: Improve competitiveness with low investment

Under this strategy, management thinks about what’s the best possible in the current given reality to minimise or prevent loss. The objective is clear – how can we differentiate from the competition to become the preferred supplier to the customers, how can we add more value to the customers? And how can we reduce costs and improve quality also in order to offer better quality at lower prices? This strategy would definitely require some capital and other operational expenditure to be committed to implement cost reduction measures, quality improvement measures and innovate new yarn qualities.

Such expenditure usually pays back many times over in terms of lower costs, higher capacity utilisation, lower stock levels and lower process waste. It is quite possible that some of the investments will not yield result but the ones that succeed normally make the investment in failed initiatives insignificant. The important factor in this approach is ‘low investment’. Considering the critical situation of the market, mills are obviously not in a position to take big bets, hence taking a number of small, calculated bets is the best way forward. Small bets may be in investing in ow cost high payback improvement solutions such as Gentle Fiber Opening using Pinned rollers.

Such small bets may be measures to reduce power consumption, improve machine efficiency, reduce maintenance costs with superior performing accessories, improve quality by changing the specifications of accessories used or by changing machine settings, etc. One such powerful solution lies in adopting Gentle Fiber Opening, which works with the basic principle of trying to retain the original fiber strength and staple length by preventing fiber rupture. While people may differ in their views of how to achieve this, there can be no question to the primary objective of this principle. Let’s discuss this in more detail.

Benefits of Gentle Fiber Opening

The principle of Gentle Fiber Opening is simple – if fibers can be opened and cleaned without rupture, it provides a phenomenal benefit to the spinning process in terms of better yarn, at higher efficiency and lower process waste.Pins, due their smooth rounded tip profile, prevent fiber rupture, have a superior dedusting action and open fibers better than sawtooth wire which employs a harsh cutting action on the fibers while opening. Ruptured fibers create short fibers, microdust and lower strength sliver. This obviously leads to weaker yarns, more IPI, more ring frame breaks and higher winder cuts. Besides a lower quality product, lower machine efficiencies and lower fiber recovery rates are the result of high rupture.

Yet, for many reasons, many spinners prefer to use wire – it is easy to handle, costs less, is replaced fast, is the conventional way to open fibers, loss is less in case of an accident as wire is easily replaced. Moreover, it is believed that setting machines with wire is relatively easier since to cut open anything is easier compared to detangling.

However, the vital question to ask is whether convenience and lower price of accessories should be preferred over the main objective of reducing process cost and improving quality and consistency? When Pins are compared to sawtooth wire in terms of fiber loss, rupture, yarn properties, quality consistency and machine efficiency, Pins outscore wire in all these parameters; in case of synthetic fibers, natural fibers and blends as well as for all counts of yarns. Below is the list of benefits of using Pins as a Gentle Fiber Opening Clothing as opposed to Sawtooth Wire:

• Pins don’t rupture fibers – this provides a stronger sliver with lower per cent of short fibers (SFC per cent lower. eg. from 27 per cent to 26 per cent) and lower Blowroom & Card waste ( eg. from 10 to 9 per cent) and Comber waste ( eg. from 17 to 16 per cent).
• Pins last longer – the rounded tip of Pins lasts about 10 times longer than the wire knife-edge tips of wire teeth.  This means more consistent quality of sliver and lower maintenance lifetime cost.
• Pins open better – Pins not only open gently but also open better since they penetrate the fiberweband the pins are placed in a staggered pattern instead of the spiral pattern of wire. Better opening means better sliver quality (IPI lower by 10 per cent or more).
• Pins clean better – while the tight settings and harsh action of wire makes the trash disintegrate and generate micro-dust, pins provide a de-dusting action whereby the dust is easily separated from the fibers with help of  the centrifugal force. The rich fiber per cent in the waste is also lower due to this reason.
• Consistent quality – Since pins last much longer than sawtooth wire, the variability in quality is reduced due to 10 times lesser replacement cycles.  
• Fiber yield – improves significantly (eg. by 1-3 per cent) since waste is lower, rich fibers loss is lower, comber noils per cent is lower. Hard waste and pneumafil waste also reduce due to reduction in breaks and cuts (about 10 per cent from current levels).
• Higher production – Lower breaks in ring-frame can lead to efficiency and production increase upto 3 per cent along with lower hard waste. In rotor spinning, production increase can potentially increase up to 15 per cent as achieved by one of our clients!

NOTE: Since the process, machinery, running condition, fiber mix and yarn counts differ from mill to mill, these figures are indicative and will vary from mill to mill. However, it should be noted that these figures are based on actual results at one or more of our clients.

Pinned OE Roller

The above benefits add up to sharply improve competitiveness by improving production and quality while reducing fiber waste. This enables the Mill to sell better yarns at cheaper prices, without incurring high losses. Savings due to lower inventory and higher capacity utilisation also add significantly to profitability.

Basant Fibertek specialises in providing customised Gentle Fiber Opening Solutions using Pinned rollers in Blowroom and Cards. We have proved results in many spinning and waste recycling plants. Many OEMs have been using Pinned Rollers in their machines since many years. Hence it is a proven technology, not a new one.

Our solutions offer the following unique features:

• The investment outlay is low – the solution can be conceptually proven in any mill by spending Rs 5 to 10 lakhs on a pilot project.  Once proven, the mill can make comprehensive changes to all Blowroom lines and Cards.
• The solution is designed carefully after detailed audit at the mill of the process, machine condition, quality and operating parameters.
• The risk of even this minimal investment is fully covered by our money-back guarantee – if there is no improvement achieved, we take back our supplied rollers and refund the amount paid.
• The concept proving can be done in a short span of time – maximum 3-4 months of taking the decision.
• We do complete handholding right from concept to commissioning.

Conclusion

The best way to address market challenges is to raise competitiveness. The best way to raise competitiveness is to undertake low-cost improvements and innovations to reduce production cost and raise quality. This strategy helps in greatly reducing losses and improving sustenance during hard times. BASANT’s Gentle Fiber Opening Solutions offer a proven, no risk, low-cost solution to reap huge benefits with a short payback period.