American Merchant | Optimization and Cost Reduction

Ariyonne Felder, Lukas Jerez, Malek Sbei, Razak (Raz) Dhesi

Throughout the past year, we have been working on a project for American Merchant Inc., aimed at optimizing processes and reducing costs at their towel manufacturing facility in Bristol, Virginia. The project was aimed at finding real-time changes to improve their position in the industry. The goal was to find ways to improve efficiency, increase productivity, and ultimately reduce costs in order to keep production in the United States.

To better understand the project, we began by conducting a thorough process analysis. This involved observing the production process, collecting data on cycle times and other key metrics, and conducting interviews with workers and managers. From this analysis, we were able to identify several areas for improvement.

We used Simio software to understand the current product flow and simulate and test new models for overall layout as well as cut/sew to determine if improvements can help increase throughput and reduce labor costs. Using Simio allowed the team to create accurate dimensions of the factory and test efficiencies, as well as determine if any changes to the production process were viable, before making recommendations. We focused on creating standard operating procedures (SOPs) for every process to improve quality and accountability as well as workflow and operator issues. Creating SOPs would also make it easy to replicate processes, and employees at each location could use the same operating manual to identify how to perform a standard procedure.

Furthermore, our team did a lot of research and provided American Merchant with a detailed comparison list of the top textile and manufacturing ERP systems that would work best for the plant based on their needs as well as an ERP selection checklist and manufacturing ERP requirement template for their future search and implementation. Implementing an ERP system would significantly help optimize business activities and processes for optimal performance.