SPINNING SECTOR PRODUCTIVITY & BENCHMARKING

Definition:

Spinning in conversion of fibers into yarn. These fibers can be natural fibers (cotton) or manmade fibers (polyester). Spinning also entails production of manmade filament yarn (yarn that is not made from fibers). Final product of spinning is yarn.

Cotton value chain starts from Ginning that adds value to it by separating cotton from seed and impurities. However Spinning can be called as the first process in the chain that adds value to cotton by converting into a new product i.e. conversion of ginned cotton into cotton yarn. Spinning is the foundation process and all the subsequent value additions i.e. Weaving, Knitting, Processing, Garments and Made ups, depend upon it. Any variation in quality of Spinning product directly effects the entire value chain. Spinning Industry in Pakistan1:

Pakistan stands at number four in worlds cotton yarn production with 8% share. Its production has grown at an average rate of 4.9% from 1990 to 1999. This growth figure when compared to global yarn production growth rate of 0.53% is very substantive. Pakistan spinning industry manufactures all counts of yarn but traditionally, the product mix is highly tilted towards low value added yarns. Yarn production for the year 1999 shows about 70% of Pakistans yarn production in coarse (47%) and medium (27%) counts. Fine and super fine accounted only 3% of the total production.

Pakistans Textile Vision 2005, a document prepared by Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA)

Growth of Spinning Units

600 400 200 0 1970 1980 1990 1992 1994 1995 1996 1998 1999

Baluchist an Sindh 26% 2%

High percentage of coarse counts in production is reflected in export mix of

AJK 1%

yarn also which results in very low average unit price realization in international
Punjab 67%

NWFP 4%

markets.

In 1997, Pakistans market share in terms

Count Wise Production of Yarn (1999) 000 tons

Coarse Medium Fine Super Fine Polyester Viscose Polyester Cotton Waste Total 707 368 37 19 115 275 21 1,542

of value was 4.8% in the world and 13.1% in Asia. In terms of quantity, Pakistan is the largest exporter of yarn in the world approximating around 600 million kg but fetching only US$ 1.4bn in exports.. Pakistans market share was 8% in terms of quantity and 5% in terms of value. Pakistan is not utilizing its competitive edge in shape of abundant availability of indigenous cotton.

Causes of Low Unit Price Realization of Pakistani Exports Cotton is an agro-based product highly dependent upon natural factors. This brings a lot of uncertainty for the yarn manufacturing industry that relies on cotton crop. Pakistani spinning industry has suffered in the past due to absence to cotton standards in the country.

Use of contaminated cotton by spinners results in low quality output. Cotton received by spinners for manufacturing yarn contains contamination (as high as 7% by weight). Contaminating agents normally comprise sand, dust, and immature/dry balls. More serious contaminations include human hair, jute fibers, poultry feathers, and pieces of threads and polythene. Since cotton is handpicked, the contamination content should ideally be minimal. Contrary, non lint contents percentage remains higher. Yarn produced from contaminated cotton leads to defective fabrics. These defects become prominent after the fabric is finished. This makes the fabric unfit for production of high value added garments and made ups. Spinning Process Flow (Productivity Bottlenecks)

PROCESS FLOW SPINNING

Raw Cotton

Drawing

Blow Room

Drawing I

Lap Formation

Carding

Drawing II

Combing

Drawing I

Rotor Spinning

Drawing I

Drawing II

Drawing II

Roving

Roving

Ring Spinning

Ring Spinning

Cone Winding

Conditioning

Packing

Blow Room Operations In the first process of spinning, cotton is converted into laps. Cotton bales are opened up and fed into pluckers which open up the cotton fibres through tearing action. From here, it is sent to blow room. In the Blow Room, different lots of opened up cotton are mixed to achieve homogeneity and then passed through different stages of blowing and thrashing to remove trash and open it up further (usually, eight stages are used).If required, blending of fibres is also carried out in the blow room. In the end we get straightened layers of cotton wrapped in the form of rolls called Laps. In chute feed system, lap formation is eliminated and clean and blended cotton fibres pass directly to the carding machine by pneumatic controls. Carding The Laps from Blow Room are fed into the carding machines to get uniform Slivers which are in the form of lose continuous strands of cotton staple. Figure: Carding

Another purpose of carding is to further clean the impurities that are left during the blow room operations. Some short fibres and any other foreign matter is also removed in the process. The slivers are kept in specially made lightweight drums.

Slivers from carding section can go either directly to Finisher Drawing through Breaker Drawing or through Uni Lap/Comber to Finisher Drawing. Drawing Purpose of Drawing is to straighten the fibres and remove any curls. This takes place by passing the slivers through different sets of rollers that are revolving at 4

different speeds. The speeds of the rollers increase as the sliver moves from one stage to the next. Figure: Drawing

The progressive attenuation reduces the size and weight of single sliver that has been fed. The final sliver that comes out of drawing is of the same weight and size as the number of slivers which are fed compensate for the attenuation of the individual slivers.

In the Drawing section, it is first passed through Breaker Drawing process to mix Sliver from different Laps, again to achieve homogeneity. The same process is repeated at the Finisher drawing stage. Combing Combing is a process that is usually required for production of high value-added yarns. This process serves three important purposes. Figure : Combing

Firstly, it separates the short fibers from the long fibers. Secondly, it aligns and straightens the fibers and thirdly, it removes any foreign matter and neps (nep is a small knot of entangled fibers which in case of cotton usually comprises of dead or immature cotton hairs) The resulting product is a smoother, more uniform and stronger yarn.

For combing, Sliver from the carding is passed through Pre-Comber Drawing and then through the Uni Lap to get smaller Laps of cotton. These Laps are then fed to Combers to get Sliver which has 14% to 18% of shorter staples removed from it. Roving Slivers from the drawing stage are passed tot he Roving Frame. The purpose is to further reduce the size of the sliver and to impart a little twist to enable it to withstand the tension in the ring spinning frame. The product from this operation is also called Roving and is spun around big sized bobbins. Ring Spinning Ring Spinning is the stage from which yarn is obtained in its proper count and twist. Four actions take place in this stage. Figure : Ring Frame

First is roving delivery. Second is drafting that is process in which the linear density of the roving is decreased by controlling the surface speeds of the input and output machine components. Thirdly, twist insertion into yarn and final action is winding. All these operations take place continuously in a relative order. The product of ring spinning is the yarn of given count, twist type (S or Z), draft and (TPI) Twists per Inch. 6

Cone winding Yarn from Ring Frame Machines is the input for Cone Winding Machine. Here yarn is wound on Cones, which is the final product to be sold in the market.

Figure : Auto-Cone Winding Machine

Figure: Doubling Machine

If 2-Ply yarn is needed CONES from this section is taken to Doubler Winding Machine that twists two single yarn strands to give 2-Ply yarn on Cones. Conditioning Before packing in polyethylene bags, Conditioning is done by storing the Cones in a controlled moisture environment for 24 hours. This allows the yarn to absorb moisture to a certain level that is necessary for keeping its strength.

BMR Requirements of Pakistani Spinning Industry Balancing, Modernization and Rehabilitation (BMR) is a regular requirement of any industry. Need for BMR arises as a result of any of the following reasons:

a. There is a change in the product features that warrants a newer technology. b. Levels of production need to be enhanced. c. Plant/Machinery needs a thorough refurbishment as a result of wear and tear.

BMR plays a pivotal role in keeping the local industry up to mark and helping it to remain competitive in the international markets. Spinning industry in Pakistan has, in the past 53 years, undergone a number of BMRs on unit to unit basis. The requirements for these have varied from additions and/or up-gradation of the following processes: 1. Back Process 2. Spinning 3. Winding 4. Testing Facilities

The BMR programs result in diversification of the product and production efficiencies, coupled with reduced costs.

General level of technology in the Pakistani spinning industry is satisfactory. Most of the industry is using state-of-the-art machinery. Though spinning industry is old and many of the units are as old as the time of partition, most of them have undergone BMR at successive times in order for them to remain operational in a competitive manner. However, since the industry have suffered due to bad cotton crops in nineties, so the investment going towards BMR has decreased. The result is that currently, BMR requirements in the industry are higher than the previous times and lack of BMR emerges as one of the major problems of Spinning industry. BMR requirements of the spinning industry for the next five years has been assessed a part of the long-term policy on textiles. The exact requirement of BMR varies from one company to another. There is no fixed rule by which an estimate can be made on an industry wide basis. However, BMR requirements have been estimated on the basis of available information and certain assumptions. 8

Methodology: Industry information was collected to calculate the projected investment requirement for BMR. Historical data of 52 textile units was taken as a basis to calculate the BMR cost per spindle. The information was collected and provided by APTMA. Questionnaires were sent to textile units (spinning and composite) to get the information on BMR done by these companies. 52 companies returned the filled questionnaires and 24 respondents reported the investments made by them in BMR. Following assumptions were made:

a. Some of the mills reporting about their BMR passed on the detail of the machinery only and not the costs. For such machinery, prevalent prices of the Japanese makes were considered except for the ring spinning frames which were assumed to be Chinese, as has been the trend of the industry since last many years. b. Composite units allocate more BMR funds for their weaving and processing areas. Inclusion of these would cast a negative trend on the BMR cost figure. Therefore, only stand-alone Spinning units were taken into account. Porters Competitive Platform Government : Support, price controls, subsidies and legal Firm Strategy, Structure & Rivalry: Internationalization of domestic industry together with the consolidation of production capacity positions the industry for future growth and export expansion

Factor Conditions: Significant efficiency gains due to new machinery, decline in unit labor cost and lower prices materials. Shortage of technical skills, lack of international experience and low productivity relative to international competitors are constraints

Demand Conditions: Sophistication of demand leads to quality and design improvement. The high dependence on local market links industrys performance to domestic economic cycle

Related & Supporting Industries : Raw material quality ad supply decline due to international fluctuations. Import dependence for capital goods, services and designs remain a constraint especially during exchange rate fluctuations

Key Productivity Variables to be considered Production: Labour 1. Wages 2. Skills 3. Union activity 4. Trained manpower availability 5. Training initiatives Production: Capital and Technology 6. Age of equipment 7. R&D expenditure 8. Availability of Finance 9. Gearing Production: Raw Material & Services: 10. Availability of material 11. Reliability of suppliers 12. Raw material costs 13. Utilities costs 14. Quality of materials Policy: 15. Trade & industrial policy 16. Participatory management 17. Cluster cooperation 18. Supplier and buyer relationships

10