TW Special Report
It takes a special kind of focus for a company to achieve the status of a recognized industry leader. Maintaining that position is even more challenging, with a constant drive for maximum efficiency, optimized quality and total customer satisfaction. The China-based company Esquel has exactly those attributes. Its commitment to innovative processes and business methods makes it an ideal partner for Uster Technologies, which helps Esquel deliver great quality and productivity through world-class data analysis and transparency.
“During the numerous years of cooperation between Esquel and USTER®, we have learned that both companies have much in common: We share the pursuit of quality,” said Li Guanghai, general manager Xinjiang Esquel Textile Co. Ltd.
This means Esquel aims not only to meet its customers’ quality requirements but also works to improve its processes and guarantee a constant product with optimum use of resources. For example, Esquel benchmarks its yarn production against that of other companies, to control quality with the help of Uster STATISTICS. High quality standards and investments in Uster systems, qualifies Esquel as a certified USTERIZED® mill. This seal of quality proves that a mill passes regular audits and spins yarn of a consistently high quality.
The Future: Connect And Prevent
Esquel uses its collaboration with Uster to stay ahead of the game. Optimizing production by checking the status quo is the present. Combining transparency over the entire production is the future. It integrates real-time information from production with data analysis. In this way, possible errors can be eliminated at earlier production stages, long before machines have to be stopped or the end-product is defective. This preventive action improves the future outcome of an entire production cycle.
Here, Esquel again stands at the forefront of innovation, able to share its positive experience with the Quality Management Platform™. Instead of processing information from unconnected laboratory instruments separately, Uster QUALITY EXPERT combines data. “We can now bundle all data, from raw material to yarns, combining laboratory and in-line tests. This enables us to respond faster, react during running production, and so guarantee consistent quality at the outcome,” says the general manager.
Relief For The Quality Manager
For Hai Yang, deputy quality control & assurance department, working with Uster Quality Expert pays back in time savings for his entire team: “Combining all data in one system, Uster Quality Expert significantly reduces the workload of our laboratory staff. And the recommendations and hints by Assistant Q make my daily work much easier — my workload for data input and evaluation has decreased a lot and I can even identify long-term quality trends.”
This allows Esquel to produce yarn to a consistently high quality level. Additionally, the Management Platform gives peace of mind. “Uster MOBILE ALERTS allow me to solve issues much faster than before. No matter where I am, I can connect to the system and check if everything is running smoothly — or intervene immediately if changes occur,” Yang says. This is a great relief for busy quality managers who are on call 24/7 and often feel they need to be in many different places at the same time.
Higher Productivity, Greater Sustainability
Since its establishment in 1978, Esquel always linked its goal of market leadership with a commitment to care for people and the environment. In Uster Technologies, it found a long-term partner which shared a focus on quality and responsibility.
Esquel aims at productivity gains through preventing quality issues instead of reacting to them, as well as careful use of all resources. But these objectives alone are not the end of the story, since the company places equal priority on improving working conditions for its staff and reducing its overall environmental impact.
Both Esquel managers agree that investing in quality improvement is crucial for the development of textile companies aiming to reach these goals. Says Li: “We want to extend the cooperation between Uster and Esquel, so that we can continue improving our quality management capabilities.”
Posted January 15, 2020
Source: Uster Technologies AG
