During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the American textile industry began experiencing a competitive threat as its customer base started following low-cost labor offshore. As the majority of companies began to “follow the needle” and move their operations overseas, Milliken & Company decided it could remain in the United States and become cost-competitive by modeling the efficiency of successful contemporaries.
“We had to become more efficient in our own operations,” said Craig Long, executive director of Performance Solutions by Milliken.
Milliken began benchmarking world-class manufacturing companies, he said. Representatives visited over 40 Japanese plants in a two-year period and witnessed breakthrough improvements of a level needed at Milliken.
The industry did not require incremental improvements, Long said.
Recommendations were made to Milliken’s leadership to mirror the Japanese model but shape the procedures to suit the American industry and the company’s culture, he said. “We modified and designed the Milliken performance system.”
Milliken subsequently hired Japanese consultants to implement the new process. The consultants worked on one piece of equipment called “a model machine” until it met world-class standards.
The process spread to every machine company-wide and enabled Milliken to make its manufacturing technologies more cost-effective. By improving the efficiency of the existing equipment, Milliken identified another cost advantage to the system.
“The machines did not have to be continuously replaced,” Long said.
The system is also designed to extend beyond the equipment and into the culture of the workforce, influencing how the employees are trained and how they are managed to become more productive.
“We have created problem-solvers out of everyone in the organization, and applying these principles has made the equipment more durable and productive,” Long said.
Milliken is able to offset costs such as energy, labor and benefits with productivity gains, he said. Implementing the performance system allowed operations to remain in the U.S., fundamentally changed the company’s cost structure and outlined a methodology to eradicate defects.
“They taught us how to look at our operations in terms of perfection,” Long said.
Looking at operations in terms of perfection allows a tremendous amount of opportunity, he said. Identifying losses and resolving them will increase the value of the product.
Since 2006, Milliken has experienced 5 percent gains annually in improved manufacturing productivity, 88 percent improvement in breakdowns, 80 percent improvement in defects, 30 percent improvement in process reliability, and 36 percent improvement in safety.
Long said the improvements have resulted in Milliken saving money in a variety of ways.
Company-wide operations are run more efficiently, he said. “If our equipment is not breaking down, if we can make changeovers quicker, if we can improve the quality of our product, the cost implications are significant.”
Long said by teaching the new system to every associate of Milliken, the company no longer needed the amount of managerial supervision used previously.
The company’s manufacturing operations today are run by groups of production associates, he said. “Most of our plant last night ran with no management because they have been repurposed for other valued activities.”
Long said the system has become the backbone of the company and how operations are managed today.
Once the system was put into place, Milliken’s Performance Solutions Team was born, he said. The team now works with Fortune 500 companies to improve the efficiency of their production and is in over 350 client operations in 23 countries around the world.
The Performance Solutions Team has become the fastest-growing business in Milliken & Company.
Long said industries worldwide are experiencing the same type of competitive threat that affected textiles decades ago,
“We have found that we are able to achieve the high-efficiency results whether it is in tire manufacturing, steel manufacturing or packaging,” he said. “Our clients have improved pieces of equipment beyond what they thought was possible.”
