Fred had always taken pride in running one of the several carpet factories in town. It wasn’t glamorous work, but it was steady. He had a team that knew the ins and outs of the factory floor and could handle the intricacies of carpet manufacturing, however, things were changing, and not in his favour.
A solar energy components factory had just opened across town, and the buzz around it was electric - literally. The promise of innovation, clean energy, and cutting-edge technology was irresistible, especially for younger workers looking for something meaningful and a modern, clean working environment.
Fred wasn’t surprised when a few employees started murmuring about leaving for the solar factory. It wasn’t just the lure of better pay or working in an air-conditioned factory - it was the promise of working in an industry that felt progressive.
For years, Fred had watched his team manually creel yarn, a time-consuming and laborious task. This relatively low-skilled task could have serious consequences if done incorrectly and it was getting harder and harder to find people willing to take on the task, and then keep them.
He could feel it in the air - the slow drift toward something more exciting. And now, with the solar factory hiring in full swing, Fred knew it was only a matter of time before the floodgates opened.
When two key employees handed in their resignations in the same week, Fred felt the ground shift beneath him. They were the backbone of his crew, they knew the processes inside out. Without them, Fred wasn’t just losing people - he was losing the expertise and knowledge that made his factory tick.
Fred felt the sting of competition, not just in the highly competitive carpet marketplace but within his workforce. Could he keep the rest of his team from jumping ship? Was there any way to make carpet manufacturing appealing enough to hold their interest?
Fred had always resisted automation, seeing it as an unnecessary expense and with uncertain outcomes. But with his team shrinking and his ability to meet production demands faltering, he knew he had to explore new options. That's when he heard about Modra Technology’s CreelMT system - a fully automated yarn creeling solution that promised to revolutionise the way his factory worked.
CreelMT was different. It wasn’t just about making things faster but about simplifying the entire process. Instead of relying on manual creeling and splicing, the CreelMT handled everything with precision. The combination of precision winding, robotic yarn package handling and beam splicing at the mobile creel trolley ensured that the right yarn was always in the right place and that mistakes were reduced to almost nothing.
Fred was intrigued but cautious. Could something like this make enough of a difference to keep his workers engaged? Could it reduce his costs and increase his productivity? Then, there was the solar factory, which was still a major threat to his workforce. Fred needed a way to show his team that their work could be just as innovative and forward-thinking.
After carefully considering and crunching the ROI numbers, Fred decided and ordered a CreelMT. It didn’t take long for Fred to see the impact of CreelMT. What had once been a labour-intensive and long process was now streamlined and efficient. Instead of hours spent creeling, his team could load the system in a fraction of the time. A single person could now handle a task that used to take multiple workers many hours to complete. It was the kind of breakthrough that didn’t just improve productivity - it transformed the way his employees approached their work.
The yarn preparation and creeling process, once viewed as a dreaded necessity, was now a manageable (dare we say, exciting) task that no longer consumed the energy and patience of his crew. Some other unforeseen benefits soon became apparent, such as increased availability of the tufting machine, no longer a need for cardboard cores, and most importantly, the ability to increase their ”make to order” capability rather than “make to stock”.
The introduction of CreelMT showed them that even in an old industry like carpet manufacturing, innovation was possible and was a major step forward - a reason to stay and a reason to join.
SUBSCRIBE TO MODRA TECHNOLOGY NEWS >
Introduction to CreelMT™ and Financial Benefits of the CreelMT™