Spinning yarns with IT

Although textile is a low-tech industry, the use of Information Technology in this field has brought about a revolution of sorts.

And this is evident in Chennai-based SLS Textiles, a 15-year old company, with its manufacturing unit in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, which employs over 160 people, and which has clocked a turnover of Rs 13
crore.

"We started off by using computers for basic functions like payroll and accounting. Our first system was a 486 machine. We also developed inhouse some programs based on D-Base and FoxPro for various functions," said Anand Paranthaman, Director, SLS Textiles Ltd and Sri Paranthaman Textiles Ltd.

SLS Textiles employs Information Technology to derive its production calculations. "Raw cotton comes with a lot of waste material that has be cleaned, in order to get the desired output. We employ technology that takes into consideration the weight of the input and makes accordingly makes production calculations," explains Anand
Paranthaman.

SLS Textiles employs Promise Production Control software, that integrates both hardware and software. Now supervisors are trained to enter data into the terminal, which is counter checked by the factory manager. The information is used to deduce stoppage time and increase worker efficiency. This information is also used to nip pilferage. "When 70 percent of my input is raw material, then every cost counts. If I can tally the input-output ratio, then I can also spot pilferage if that should happen," says Anand
Paranthaman.

In a textile factory, the breakages and speed of the spindle need to be coordinated. Promise software enables supervisors to set the speed of the spindle. What's more, the software can preempt doffing (when a spindle is full and has to replaced with a empty one), so that the speed of spindle can be set to avoid doffing during particular periods, like the lunch hour.

"The best part about Promise software is that it logs in real time. The terminals are networked, password protected, and provides policy management as well," says Anand
Paranthaman.

SLS Textiles has recently launched its site (www.slstextiles.com), in its effort to be more customer centric. "We think we could do better with regards to customer contact, and we're planning to channelize our efforts in that direction," says Anand
Paranthaman.

The company which has so far invested Rs 25 to 30 lakh on Information Technology, plans to spend another Rs 10-15 lakh over the next one year. Today the company has a healthy number of computers, and has recently purchased some Pentium 4s. SLS Textiles recently switched from Novell Network to Windows NT.