09 E-textile Quality

8/8/2019 09 E-textile Quality

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Section 9 Product Quality e-efficiency

e-textile toolbox. This document was downloaded from www.e-textile.org 1/23

your on-line toolbox for efficient textile production

Thank you for downloading this document from www.e-textile.org, the on-line toolbox for

efficient textile production. E-textile.org provides a wide range of useful, informative and

sector-specific features, such as benchmarks, success stories, tips for action, regulations,

links and contacts. Key features of e-textile are three tools, namely

e-learning: an on-line course providing background information on efficient textile

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companies overall performance

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This document is part of the e-efficiency tool.

Section 9 Product Quality

Product quality is a very important issue for every company. Sales opportunities, the

reputation of a company in the community and in the market depends on it. Product quality is

influenced by every stage of the product chain, from raw-material production, purchasing,

processing and distribution. Therefore, achieving high quality end products requires having a

look beyond the factory gates, considering influences caused in the whole supply chain. As

shown in the previous sections, an improved quality can decrease time and costs.


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Section 9 Product Quality

Responsible Person:

Date Started:

Date Completed:

Increasing the quality of your products is a key-success factor for your businesses success

and should, therefore, be an overall guiding principle. Your products are the figurehead of

your company, having a significant impact on your companies reputation, in relation to your

business partners and to some extent even to your surrounding community. In various ways,

your product quality is a key determinant for your business success.

The quality management concept employed in this e-efficiency tool goes beyond obvious

quality criteria of a product. Achieving high quality end products requires having a look

beyond the factory gates, considering influences caused by the supply chain. In this context

all life cycle stages, including your supplier, your own procedures and even demands of

customers are of vital importance for the product quality and have to be analysed.

Increasing the product quality requires an integrated, structured and continuous approach,

encompassing various aspects and issues. Your work on the last sections has already made

an important contribution in this respect. For example optimising the materials used in

processing by reducing inefficiencies will reduce downtimes and repairs, leading to

undisturbed material and workflows. This will cut down production and delivery times,

increase the product quality leading to an increasing customer satisfaction and ultimately an

positive result for your profits.

Helping you to work on the objectives mentioned above, this efficiency programme provides

the basis for an integrated management system, ranging from quality-, risk- to environmental

and health and safety management. If available, existing management systems and

approaches should serve as an important information source and are to be included. It can

also be the departure point for acquiring a certified system.

Improving your product quality requires to look beyond the company gates at as many stages

of your products life cycle as possible. Raw material purchase, processing, storage and


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distribution all have an influence [for more information about the life-cycle approach check

the e-learning unit 3]. In this section you will therefore:

Expand the view beyond your company gates

Collect information about your most important raw-material suppliers and assess theproducts they supply to you

Assess the quality demands of your customers [see e-solutions measure 2039]

Have a closer look at the life time and disposal of your product

Step 1 - Identify the quality-related product steps

Before having a closer look on quality, think about your products life cycle. In the past

sections you have focused on efficiency and quality aspects related to your production

processes and other activities. However, since you are part of a bigger system, it is important

to also look at other stages of your product's life cycle. Where do you think the main quality

problems associated with your products occur in stages where you are the main actor or in

other stages such as agricultural production or final disposal? Mark these life cycle stages

with a cross. This will give you a first overview of the importance of this life cycle stage on

your products quality. If you do not have sufficient information to do this, insert a question

mark and try to learn more about that process while workin on this section. Did you know that

the quality of the water you use might has an impact on the quality of your end product?

Learn more about this at e-learning unit 5, section 2, chapter 4.0.


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Table 9.1: The influence of life cycle stages on product quality

Influences on product quality Important Moderate Unimportant Dontknow

How important is the quality of the rawmaterials?

How important is the performance of yoursuppliers? (Condition of product, package [seee-solutions measure 1027], delivery time,storage, failure)

How important is the technical processing inyour company (e.g. your machineries work)?

What influence do your employees have onthe quality?

How important is your storage conditions?

How important is your internal transport?

How important is the transporting anddelivery?

How important is the handling by thepurchasing organisation?

How important is the treatment by the endcustomer?

Step 2 Upstream. Take a closer look at your suppliers

In order to get a detailed overview of your suppliers, first list up each supplying company as

well as the type and amount of purchased materials in the following table. Knowing the

sources of your raw materials will help you to get a better understanding of your products life

cycle. Based on this, you will start to assess quality aspects for your main suppliers.

Special attention should be paid to your main raw materials. High-quality raw materials are

one key factor to produce quality products. Treatment and processing do play their role as

well, but starting with good quality raw materials is a key. E.g. if the cotton you are supplied

with already contains significant amounts of residues from pesticides or other hazardous

substances, it will be almost impossible to reduce their levels in the final product. Therefore,

retailers and customers worldwide increasingly pay attention to these issues, as the large

number of product specifications and labels shows.


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While the product quality should be motivation enough to work on these issues, the

environmental impacts caused by producing the raw materials should not be neglected.

Considering the environmental impacts of cotton farming, such as soil erosion, water

eutrophication and the contamination of the surrounding with pesticides and herbicides to

name a few, your suppliers should be carefully chosen. Understanding the energy

consumption involved in creating synthetic materials may prompt you to experiment with new

materials. These aspects are of relevance when producing for the increasingly important

market of eco-labelled textiles.

To encourage your material suppliers to become more efficient will help to reduce their

operating costs, which will be reflected in the material costs, and thus is in your own interest.

In the following steps you are asked to get to know the source of your raw materials and

consider several questions regarding raw materials.

Step 2.1 - Who are your agricultural raw material suppliers?

For a start, please list all your suppliers with all the agricultural based products (such as yarn

or fibre) you receive from each of them. From a quality management point of view it is

important to have a good overview of your suppliers and to establish good business

relationships. In this regard it might be worthwhile to consider reducing the total number of

suppliers. Being supplied by a smaller number of companies allows you to establish quality

standards, bargain for better prices and establish long lasting business relationships. When

assessing which of the options identified in this section you should go for (step 6), you should

consider reducing the number of suppliers as one option.

Table 9.2: Your agricultural suppliers

Agricultural supplier Type of product Amount


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Fill in forms 9.3 and 9.4 for your main suppliers. If you want to establish fixed quality

standards for your purchased materials, it is easier to bargain with a small amount of

suppliers with whom you have established a personal relationship [see e-solutions measure

2121]. Establish a dialogue with your suppliers to inform them about your quality demands

and to set up quality standards.

Table 9.3: Contact form

Company

Contact Name

Street Address

City/Town

Telephone Number

Distance to company (km): Transportation:

Purchased productPurchasedamount/year

Alternative Supplier

Total purchase:

Now, answer the following questions to the best of your knowledge. The questions answered

with no indicate priorities for action and should therefore be considered. If the answer is

dont know, try to get more information while working on this product quality section so that

you can answer either yes or no.


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Table 9.4: Overview of possible improvements

Agricultural Material Supplier

Name of Supplier:

Yes No Dontknow

Do you know the suppliers and sourcing region of your agriculturallyraw materials?

Do you know which and how much pesticides and other agriculturalchemicals are used in the raw-material production?

Do you encourage your supplier to provide you with raw materialsthat have been produced using only the minimum amount ofpesticides and herbicides necessary to the success of the crop.

Do you encourage your supplier to provide you with raw materialthat have been produced using natural pesticides instead ofsynthetic ones?

Do you encourage your supplier provide you with raw materials that

have been produced using drip irrigation?1

Do you encourage your supplier to not provide you with rawmaterials that have been produced using genetically modified

plants?2

Have you established quality checks (e.g. reception inspections) foryour agricultural raw materials (e.g. the amount of impurities likesand, dust and stalk or the percentage of very short fibres that needto be eliminated in the carding process)?

Can you re-negotiate the contracts with your suppliers?

Are you satisfied with the contract conditions?

Do you regularly assess whether the conditions established in yourcontract need to be re-negotiated?

Do the raw-materials delivered often not match your qualityexpectations/standards?

Are low quality raw-materials taken back by your supplier?

Are low quality raw-materials replaced promptly by your supplier?

Is the exchange of low quality raw-materials for free?

Have you ever considered to receive more products from thissupplier (e.g. to enjoy better contract conditions)?


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Step 2.2 - Who is your synthetic raw material supplier?

Like you have done for your agricultural suppliers, now please list all your suppliers for

synthetic raw material with all the products you receive from each of them. From a quality

management point of view it is important to have a good overview about your suppliers and

to establish good business relationships. In this regard it might be worthwhile to consider

reducing the total number of suppliers. Being supplied by a smaller number of companies

allows you to establish quality standards, bargain for better prices and establish long lasting

business relationships. When assessing which of the options identifies in this section you

should go for (step 6), you should consider reducing the number of your suppliers.

Table 9.5: Your synthetic material suppliers

In this step you should fill in the following forms 9.6 and 9.7 for your main synthetic raw

material suppliers. If you want to establish fixed quality standards for your purchased

materials, it is easier to bargain with a small amount of suppliers to which you can make

personal contact. Strike up a conversation with your suppliers for the possibility to determine

quality specifications and to tell them your demands.

Synthetic material supplier Type of product Amount


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Company

Contact Name

Street Address

City/Town

Telephone Number




Total purchase:

Answer the following questions to the best of your knowledge. The questions answered with

no indicate priorities for action and should therefore be considered. If the answer is dont

know, try to get more information while working on this product quality section so that you

can answer either yes or no.


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Synthetic Material Supplier

Name of Supplier:

Yes No Dontknow

Do you know the suppliers of your synthetic raw materials?

Do you know if your supplier offers alternative materials which are e.g.biodegradable, water solvent?

Have you established reception inspections for your synthetic raw materials(e.g. on the percentage of very short or partially damaged fibres that need tobe eliminated later on)?

Do you encourage your supplier to not use chemicals listed in a negativelist? Table 13.13 of the Appendix provides a number of banned chemicals.



Do you regularly assess whether the conditions established in your contractneed to be re-negotiated?

Do the raw-materials delivered often not match your qualityexpectations/standards?




Have you ever considered to receive more products from this supplier (e.g.to enjoy better contract conditions)?

Step 2.3 - Who is your chemical supplier?

As last action in step 2, list up all your suppliers for chemical substances with a all the

products your receive from them. From a quality management point of view it is important, to

have a good overview about your suppliers and to establish good business relationships. In

this regard it might be worthwhile to consider reducing the total number of suppliers. Being

supplied by a smaller number of companies allows you to establish quality standards,

bargain for better prices and establish long lasting business relationships. When assessing

which of the options identified in this section you should go for (step 6), you should consider

reducing the number of suppliers as one option.


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Table 9.8: Your chemical suppliers

In this step you should fill in the following forms 9.9 and 9.10 for your main chemical

suppliers. If you want to establish fixed quality standards for your purchased materials, it is

easier to bargain with a small amount of suppliers to which you can make personal contact.

Strike up a conversation with your suppliers for the possibility to determine quality

specifications and to tell them your demands.

Chemical supplier Type of product Amount


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Company

Contact Name

Street Address

City/Town

Telephone Number




Total purchase:






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Chemical Material Supplier

Name of Supplier:

Yes No Dontknow

Do you know the suppliers of your chemical inputs?

Have you talked to your supplier about the availability of less hazardouschemicals?

Do you regularly check the quality of the chemicals, e.g. date of expiry orcontamination?

Have you contacted other chemical suppliers to see what greener productlines they offer?

Have you discussed chemicals leasing (service contract) rather thanpurchasing with your supplier?

Are the chemicals packed and labelled in an adequate way?



Do you regularly assess whether the conditions established in your contractneed to be re-negotiated?

Do the raw-materials delivered often not match your quality

expectations/standards?




Do you know how the supplier disposes the complained chemicals?

Have you ever considered to receive more products from this supplier (e.g.to enjoy better contract conditions)?

Step 3 Your company

Processing has a significant influence on your product quality. Treatment and processing of

the materials, storage, maintenance and usage of adequate technology [see e-solutions

case study 161] and not to forget your employees' skills and motivation are key factors.


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During the last sections you have already worked extensively on improving the product

quality within your company. Questions such as:

Is the material optimised for your machinery?

Do you check the quality of semi-manufactured products, of chemicals, raw material ,.. ? Are your employees trained and encouraged to locate and fix malfunctions?

Have you assessed the possibility to avoid or optimise production steps in your

processing? [see e-solutions measure 2021]

have already been answered. Working on this section you will have a closer look at failures3,

where and why they occur and the overall failure rates. With the help of the table below,

determine the most frequent failures. Try to gather as much information as possible and

answer to the best of your knowledge.

Table 9.11: Failure rates

Failure rates

Failure Process area(Spinning, wetprocessing)

Location(e.g.machinery)

Cause Failure /year

Failure /[unit]*

1

Total failure:

Comments

*1Unit needs to be defined. E.g. take failure per 100 or 1000 manufactured products

During the last sections you tried to find improvement options, both in your production

processes as well as in other company activities. Knowing the most common failures is

another important basis to identify improvement possibilities [see e-solutions measure 2204].

Having identified these, it is important to communicate them both to the efficiency team and

company staff. It is essential to inform all people involved in producing your products about


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the necessity of quality. Providing information about the failures and malfunctions that occur

in your business activities is the first step to eliminate these problems. Update them about

your efforts to reduce the number of failures and publicise the results of your efforts to

ensure an ongoing support.

A further indicator for your product quality is your re-processing rate and the quality classes

of your product. Please fill out the following tables to the best of your knowledge.

Comparable to the failure rates it is usefull to determine these rates to get an overview about

the current status of product quality and productivity. Determine the rates for your main

products. Ratio b) overall material output has already been gathered in section 2, table 2.2.

Table9.12: Re-Processing rates

Producta)Re-Processing share(%)

b)Overall materialoutput

c)=a/bRe-processing rate

Now fill out the following table about the quality of your main products. It is common to

categorised it in class 1 (high quality) -3 (low quality) or class A - C. Determine the share (in

%) of the different classes for your products.


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Table 9.13

Product a)Class1 (A) Quality [%]

b)Class2 (B) Quality [%]

c)Class3 (C) Quality [%]

Total:

Step 4 Downstream. Take a closer look at your customers

This step focuses on your companys relationship to its customers, differentiated between

company customers, like other textile manufacturers, retailer or distributors and end

customer. So this step is about those that buy materials or products from you. Also, the final

life-cycle stage, the product disposal, will be looked at.

Step 4.1 - Company customers

To achieve a detailed overview of your company's customers, first list each of them as well

as the amount of delivered materials.

Table 9.14: Your company customers

Customer Product Number of products


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Now go on and collect more information for your main customers. For your main customers

you should try to establish a good business relationship, based on regular personal

communications [see e-solutions measure 2121]. Agreeing on product quality specifications

is a key aspect within this process and should lead to long-term co-operation with your main

customers.

Establishing fixed quality specifications for the delivered products is a possibility for you to

increase your product quality on special demands. If higher standards and quality

specifications are established based on your customers expectations, you can also negotiate

higher product prices or secure long-term business relationships.


Company

Contact Name

Street Address

City/Town

Telephone Number


Delivered product Delivered quantity /year Price per unit Turnover per year

Total Delivery:*

AlternativeCustomer

*This value will be reused in table 9.15 of this section

Answer the following questions for your main customers to the best of your knowledge. The

questions answered with no indicate priorities for action and should therefore be

considered. If the answer is dont know, try to get more information while working on this

product quality section so that you can answer either yes or no.


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Table 9.17: Reclamations

Customer name:

Reclamation Reason a) *1

Reclamations / year

b) *2

Quantity rejected/Total delivery

Total quantity:

Comments

*1Please insert

the number of reclamations per year

*2Please insert the quantity of rejected products. Please reuse the value Total delivery you already gathered in

table 9.13.

Step 4.2 - End customer

Even if your company is not directly in touch with the final customers, you

should nevertheless try to understand their demands and needs.

Expectations in terms of product quality should be considered. One

increasingly important aspect in this respect is the demand for

environmentally friendly produced products. Textiles are worn on the bare skin, which is why

consumer pay special attention to issues such as chemical and heavy metal residuals. An

ever-increasing part of the population is affected by allergies, which will further increase the

importance of this topic in the future. An overview of banned chemicals for the textile industry

can be found in table 13.13 of the Appendix. More information about the effects of chemicals

on human health can be found at e-learning unit 2, section 4.1. The general environmentalsoundness of textile products is closely related to this, which explains the increasing


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importance of eco-labels. E.g. the Otto trading group, one of the largest mail-order

companies world-wide, decided to sell only textiles certified to not contain harmful

substances above certain threshold levels. For further information on textile labels check the

link-section of the e-textile tool available at www.e-textile.org.






End customers

Yes No Dont

know

Do you know where the final customers of your products are located?

Are you aware of special requirements existing in their regions, such ase.g. bans or threshold limits for certain substances?

Are you aware of the most relevant quality- or eco-labels available for yourproducts?

Do you know the exact specifications required to comply with thespecifications of the most relevant textile labels?

Are you able to fulfil these demands?

Are you aware of the latest developments regarding your products andsector in the main exporting areas?

Do you get to know reclamations about your products?

Do you ensure that no special detergents or substances are required toclean and maintain your product?

Is your product designed to be used for a long time?

Is it your product easy to repair?


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Step 4.3 - Disposal

At the end of your products life, it needs to be recycled or disposed of. In section 5, 6 and 7

you already gathered data about the material your product consist of. The following

questions apply to the end product and its disposal. Please answer the questions to the best

of your knowledge. The questions answered with no indicate priorities for action and should

therefore be considered. If the answer is dont know, try to get more informationwhile

working on this section so that you can answer either yes or no.


Product end-of-lifeYes No Dont

know

Is your product biodegradable?

Is your product free of toxic residue?

Is your product recyclable?

Do you try to keep synthetic and natural fibres separate unless absolutelynecessary to the quality or desired performance of the product?

Step 5 Your stakeholders

The relationship to some of your stakeholders, such as clients and suppliers or final

customers, has already been analysed in the previous steps. Now you should have a final

look at further stakeholders, like governments (both in the production and export countries),

non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or banks and insurance companies and their role

within a quality management.

Fill out the following forms to identify the most relevant groups and their relation to your

company. Gather information about the latest laws, directives etc. and assess what this

means to the way you do your business. Being aware of your stakeholders demands is not

only an important risk-minimisation strategy, but could also turn out as good opportunity to be

ahead of your competitors. Answer the questions to the best of your knowledge. The

questions answered with no indicate priorities for action and should therefore be

considered. If the answer is dont know, try to get more information while working on this

product quality section so that you can answer either yes or no.


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Table 9.20: Company stakeholder

Stakeholder Contact person Category (regulatory,financial, insurance,informational )


StakeholderYes No Dont

know

Do you know the relevant laws and directives related to your businessactivities and products both in your production and export countries?

Do you exactly know the contract conditions with your insurance company?

Have you check the possibilities to reduce insurance fees by providingmore information on the efficiency improvements you made?

Are you aware about potential penalties for e.g. pollution?

Do you try to be informed as soon as possible about new stakeholderdemands/directives?

Have you established structures and procedures to promptly react onchanging demands and expectations from your stakeholders?

Do you respond promptly when being contacted by one of the above-mentioned stakeholders?

Do you take issues, brought forward by your stakeholders, seriously?


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Step 6 Prepare an implementation plan and take action

In the previous steps you have identified options to optimise your product quality through

enhancing the processes. The questions you answered with no throughout this section will

show you possibilities how to increase your quality. Now you have to select options that are

easy to implement, are long-time beneficial, and have an acceptable pay-back period. The

rating done in table 9.1 might be of help to identify the life-cycle phase that have the biggest

influence on the product quality. Use tables 9.2, 9.5, 9.8 (suppliers), 9.12 (customers) and

9.18 (stakeholders) to reconsider your relationships with suppliers and customers and decide

if measure can be taken to improve them.

Form 2.5 presented in section 2 can be of help to list the actions you want to take. Assign

responsibilities and set target dates for each action. Do not forget to plan a regular

monitoring, on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis, as appropriate. After completing

this section dont forget to fill out the "date completed" row at the very beginning of this

document.

If it should not be your preferred choice, it is possible to skip the remaining improvement

areas presented in sections 3 8. To successfully complete your activities concerning the

product quality, it is nevertheless recommended to monitor, evaluate and communicate your

measures and your success. For this to happen continue with sections 10-12.

1Drip irrigation uses 30-50% less water than conventional irrigation, saving water and

money.

2 While bred to be more drought tolerant, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are

more costly and could jeopardize the environment. Also, markets such as Europe tend tofavour non-GMO products.

3 Failures are understood in a brought sense, including disruption of operations,

material or product defects, etc.

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09 E-textile Quality