Tom Andel

Are your vendors making the grade?
March 15, 2008

It’s hard to find people who want to work in a textile plant. Not only is this perceived as a dying industry, but it can be physically unpleasant to work in such a plant's environment. It’s dirty and in the summer months down south, it’s downright hot.

Philip Henson should know. He’s project manager of yarn operations for Hanes Brands Inc. in Winston Salem, NC. Mr. Henson was one of the speakers on a panel about automation last week during the Material Handling Industry of America’s (MHIA) spring meeting. Given the constraints he faces, his company is still able to eek out 1-3% sales growth every year. It does this by being smart about how it mixes labor with automation. Worldwide, Hanes Brands employs 50,000 people in 100 facilities dedicated to yarn, textile, cut & sew, and distribution operations.

In his distribution center, Henson says when he can’t find enough labor, automation must pick up the slack. His plant depends on a 30-vehicle fleet of automated guided vehicles (AGVs), as well as overhead conveyor and RFID. Even automation has its limits in such an environment, though. Ensuring uptime is critical. If an automated system in this environment isn’t used and maintained properly, its return on investment is compromised. And Henson can’t live with that.

During this panel discussion, Henson spelled out for his audience of automation suppliers what he expected from vendors when it came to ROI for an automated material handling solution: payback in two years or less. He says the company is looking to upgrade some of its oldest plants, and he expects any potential solution to include intuitive operator interfaces so that the labor he does attract can work easily enough with it.

All that said, Henson admitted that demanding customers like him still need guidance from vendors because “we don’t always know what we want or need.”

There were several nodding heads in this audience of technology vendors. The question is, were they nodding in agreement or were they admitting they needed better understanding of their customers’ wants and needs?

What does your experience with automation vendors tell you? Are they delivering on that promise of a two-year ROI? Give us your feedback on how well the material handling industry’s doing with paybacks.

Posted by Tom Andel on March 15, 2008 | Comments (0)