Research and Development |
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Cotton Threads (300x)
Ink Pigment (1500x)
Textile Weave 100x) |
We manufacture textile products (fabric). Putting aside the competition involved in developing high-performance fabrics, in the textile industry low-priced products in general are the key for surviving cutthroat competition. Improving the cost-competitiveness is extremely important. The loom is a machine that uses numerous wear-and-tear items. Because one person cannot manage all of the components by him/herself, the components are managed and maintained by several people. Disassembling a machine and inspecting individual components in detail is a time-consuming and difficult task. Therefore, the timing for replacing the wear-and-tear items was decided depending on the expertise and intuition of experienced staff members. However, maintaining a machine in this manner often lead to overlooking a worn-out component that eventually caused a failure in the long run. A failure occurred once a month on average, and one failure resulted in a loss of $5,000.
With this being the situation, we happened to see a demonstration of the VHX series. It features "Easy focusing," "inspection without disassembling a machine," and "quantification of wearing by on-screen measurement" which made us feel that the system could reduce costs by eliminating faults. By employing the VH series, the wearing status of components is monitored without disassembling the loom, and quantification of the wearing status makes us decide the correct timing for replacing each component. The system allows us to eliminate an expense of $5,000 a month. It also saves up the life of each component, which used to be replaced before the end of its life for safety reasons, reducing costs by $1.400 per month. Thanks to the system, we could successfully increase our cost-competitiveness and contribute to our stable order-taking. The figures of cost reduction may be small, but it is true that we have won a new kind of competitiveness. |
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