| A CreelMT Case Study |
Creeling has been part of carpet manufacturing for so long that its cost is rarely questioned.
Labour, yarn packages, partial cones, machine stoppages, and inventory requirements are generally seen as unavoidable parts of production - not as connected opportunities for improvement.
For one large international carpet manufacturer, looking at creeling differently revealed considerably more value than expected.
The opportunity behind an accepted process
The manufacturer operated 20 advanced patterned tufting machines across ColorPoint and Infinity platforms.
These machines provided the flexibility to produce more complex designs and shorter production runs. However, the traditional package-based creeling process continued to create costs through:
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Yarn purchased in cone counts rather than precise production requirements
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Residual yarn remaining after production runs
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Labour-intensive creel preparation
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Extended pattern-change downtime
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Creeling errors, waste and rework
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Yarn inventory held to maintain production flexibility
Individually, these appeared to be normal operating costs. Together, they represented a substantial commercial opportunity.
Changing how yarn reaches the tufting machine
The manufacturer deployed ten CreelMT systems to support the 20-machine production environment.
CreelMT uses production data to prepare the required yarn length for each needle position. Mobile creel trolleys can be prepared offline, while beam splicing significantly reduce the time required to splice the next creel set.
This changed creeling from a largely manual support process into a more precise, digitally controlled production input.
The assessed commercial impact
Across the production environment, the CreelMT program delivered assessed value through five areas:
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Improved yarn utilisation
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Reduced creeling labour
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Recovered tufting-machine capacity
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Reduced waste and rework
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Lower yarn inventory and carrying costs
The combined result was an assessed annual operating benefit of approximately US$14 million, together with approximately US$4.05 million in released working capital.
The overall program achieved an indicative payback of approximately 22 months.
More than a labour-saving project
The case demonstrates that CreelMT should not be assessed only on the labour involved in loading a creel.
Its larger commercial value can come from reconsidering the complete relationship between yarn purchasing, inventory, preparation, pattern changes and productive machine time.
A process does not need to be recognised as a problem before it can contain a substantial opportunity.
The complete case study explains the customer’s production environment, how CreelMT changed the yarn-preparation process and where the financial value was created.
