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Institute President Dr. W. Gilbert O’Neal, with Administrative Manager Patrice Hill, said the alliance with NC State University is working out well. Photos by Devin Steele |
By Devin Steele
RALEIGH, NC — The marriage of two leaders in the world of textile education has been a “good deal” for both parties, according to the head of the Institute of Textile Technology (ITT).
Responding to the challenges of the fast-changing domestic textile industry, the Institute and North Carolina State University’s College of Textiles formed a partnership two years ago in order to better serve the industry.
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First-year Fellow Melinda Satcher, a Macon, GA, native, is earning her master’s degree in textile engineering. |
Under the arrangement, the Institute moved its headquarters from Charlottesville, VA, to NC State’s Centennial Campus to take full advantage of the alliance. The two now share resources, faculty and students, which has allowed the Institute, in a more cost-effective way, to preserve those programs valued by member companies and the broader textile community, said Dr. W. Gilbert O’Neal, president of the Institute.
“The industry is changing, the need for new products is growing, the need for the integration of applied research is expanding,” O’Neal said. “We knew it was time to change. We were making a lot of changes already to try to address some of the evolving needs in the organization.
“Not only that, but the whole idea of this changing time is to streamline things so that resources are more efficiently used,” he added. “It really didn’t make sense with a contracting U.S. textile industry to maintain all of these separate and in some ways competing resources to service the same industry. So we streamlined things to capitalize on the best resources, we think, in the country if not the world and to deliver those much more efficiently.”
With the alliance, Institute graduate students also have gained access to top-of-the-line equipment and facilities and are in close proximity to North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, along with a number of textile and apparel organizations.
NCSU has gained nearly a dozen and a half more graduate students and a closer relationship with some of the industry’s companies that support the Institute. NC State staff also has become more involved in applied research projects than they typically would.
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From an Institute membership standpoint, the partnership allows them to reap the benefits of applied research programs, at a lower level of funding. To that end, the two entities most recently announced the formation of the Institute of Textile Technology/NC State Textile & Material Research Consortium, created to enhance the ability of industry to access and utilize the research and technical resources of the Institute and NC State.
With the change, the Institute has strengthened its commitment to helping industry meet the arduous tasks associated with maintaining global competitiveness, O’Neal said. As such, the Institute continues to be organized into three functional areas: applied research, education and services.
Change was imminent
The move to Raleigh represented the most dramatic in the now-61-year history of the Institute. But, as O’Neal pointed out, the time for change had come.
“As the industry continued to suffer and realign itself, it was increasingly difficult to support that type of overhead, based on a private, member-supported organization,” he said. “We felt like the things we provided for the industry were extremely important and could be used to help those members of the U.S. textile industry that survived and we wanted to make sure we continued to have an organization and provide that type of support to the U.S. textile industry.”
When Institute leaders began looking at ways to align itself to accomplish its objectives, NC State was an easy choice, he added.
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Shawn Hutchinson, a native of Fuquay-Varina, NC, is working on the thesis, ‘Extrusion and Characterization of Amlon Fibers.’ He earned an undergraduate degree in computer science from Duke University. |
“We quickly came to the realization that the NC State College of Textiles is the top textile university in the country, if not internationally, and that was our best course,” O’Neal said. “Most of the other programs are struggling and realigning themselves to get away from basic textile manufacturing. NC State still maintains a very strong program in textile technology and textile manufacturing and we thought that was a very important part of our program and we decided that whoever we realign with should really have a strong basic textile technology and manufacturing program.”
In addition, NC State had capabilities in marketing, business management, communications and apparel activities, which would give Institute students the opportunity to expand into new areas and offer better services to the industry, O’Neal said.
Also, the fact that several organizations — Cotton Incorporated; [TC]2 (Textile/Clothing Technology Corporation); INDA, Association of the Nonwovens Fabric Industry; and the American Association of Textile Chemists & Colorists (AATCC) — are located in the Raleigh area is a bonus, he added.
“We have formed a very strong relationship with those groups since we’ve been here and hopefully in the near future will coordinate more activities together,” he said. “We want to make Raleigh really the source of technology and innovation for the U.S. textile industry by bringing all of these resources together.”
Graduate program
The Institute developed a new graduate program for ITT graduate students to capture the same type of applied, hands-on education it traditionally offered, as well as to focus not only in technical areas but also on business and leadership skills in a way that most technical graduate programs don’t, O’Neal said.
The Institute Fellows Program, a joint effort between the Institute and NCSU, offers educational opportunities for U.S. students desiring leadership roles in management, research and manufacturing.
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Seneca, SC, native Lisa Hartman (Class of 2006) is earning her master’s degree in Textile, Apparel & Technology Management. |
The program, 17 students strong this year, provides full scholarships, competitive stipends and unique opportunities for highly qualified graduate students accepted into the College of Textiles, O’Neal said.
“Our students have to take more contact hours for their master’s degree than the typical NC State master’s student does,” he said. “And they have to do it in a prescribed way so that we can guarantee that they can get the type of background that our members want.”
The program offers three options: traditional textile technology, textile chemistry and textile engineering. Additionally, once a week, fellows are required to attend a seminar, where students hear guest speakers or improve skills, such as those related to communications and business — another plus by being located at NC State, as university faculty conduct these types of workshops. Such skills are beneficial to the students, who twice a year must make presentations of their research results to the Institute’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).
Without the overhead of maintaining facilities and a larger staff in Charlottesville, the Institute realizes a huge cost savings at NC State while still funding tuition and fees, stipends and other educational-related expenses, O’Neal said.
“But we think we still get the same quality of student,” he said. “And, in fact, to be realistic, they have many more options now than they did in Charlottesville. Within the college, they’ve got all the resources for marketing and business as well as traditional technical areas.”
The Institute enrolls two types of students: industrial fellows and graduate students. Industrial fellows are sponsored by companies, who send promising employees to the Institute and pay their tuition and fees.
Graduate students are ones who have earned undergraduate degrees from NC State or other universities.The Institute also arranges for summer internships for its fellows, allowing them to obtain valuable work experience. In addition, Institute fellows are obligated to conduct research projects supported by the Technical Advisory Committee for fulfillment of their degree.
Students earn their degree from NCSU, since the Institute no longer functions as an independent graduate school.
Research programs
Institute fellows are expected to choose a thesis research topic from among ideas contributed by the Institute and its research partners. Through the Textile and Material Research Consortium, a network of industry research advisory committees that are organized and administered by Institute leadership helps generate this list of research suggestions. Additional input is sought from NCSU faculty and other industry contacts.
“What we see as the job of Institute staff is interfacing between industry and NC State University to identify what the research needs and objectives are of the industry and then efficiently manage that research through NC State,” O’Neal said. “The way universities are structured is not really conducive to efficiently managing diverse applied research projects. And our job is to reach within NC State, find the resources that are needed to carry out the research program, and then deliver that research both on time and within budget back to our membership. And that makes the job easy on everybody.”
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Shiqi Li (L) and Lei Qian monitor an ICP (inductivity coupling plasma), used for element analysis of fabric, wastewater or any kind of sample. Li is a staff member and an Ph.d candidate, while Qian works in faculty research for the Institute of Textile Technology. |
Projects are managed by Institute researchers and work is performed by a combination of Institute staff, NCSU faculty, Institute Fellows and, in some cases, subcontractors. Institute Fellows’ thesis research is funded through this process to enhance the student’s exposure to the industry and to provide experience in public speaking and communications. Students must present their research proposals, progress reports and thesis results to the TAC and demonstrate accountability for the results.
The Institute’s Board of Trustees also meets biannually to review budgetary and strategic issues. Implicit in the proposed research efforts between ITT and NCSU is the ability to commercialize research findings through the TAC forum.
Institute members fund this research, so they are able to provide input on applied research projects.
“We’ve negotiated an attractive overhead rate so that we can deliver that research at a much lower cost using the faculty, laboratories and the research facilities at NC State,” O’Neal said. “That’s a deal for NC State because it’s a source of revenue to support their research and it allows their faculty to really get involved with industry at an applied research level in a way that they wouldn’t normally do.”
Membership
Institute membership allows companies to engage in applied research and technical programs designed to enhance their competitiveness, O’Neal said. Institute programs foster product innovation, technological advancement, cost improvements and strategic business insight.
Among benefits are membership in the research consortium, exclusive rights for licensing of consortium intellectual properties, representation on the Board of Trustees and Technical Advisory Committee, access to historical Institute research publications and discounted services and training, among others, he added.
When the Institute moved to Raleigh, it was able to transfer assets to establish a fund that pays for the education program. Membership dues, therefore, go now go primarily toward research and aren’t diluted by having to pay for education.
“And that really helps the research money go a long way, plus it helps isolate the education program with respect to the general membership support of it,” he said. “What I mean is, some of the smaller companies haven’t, in the past, felt that they could really take advantage of the educational program. Now, under this new arrangement, our educational program is funded from our asset account, or our educational fund and membership dues can be used for research.”
ITT Technologies (IT3)
In addition to TAC research, the partnership between the Institute and NCSU allows Institute members to perform proprietary research using ITT Technologies, Inc. (IT3). A for-profit, wholly owned subsidiary of the Institute, IT3 provides companies the opportunity to sponsor advanced research and development projects. Any profits that are generated through IT3 are returned back to the Institute to further its resources, according to O’Neal.
Services include: technical manufacturing performance, textile material analysis, education and training, profitability engineering, energy audits and management and environmental engineering and management.
Also, IT3 is accredited to offer certification to textile companies for Quality (ISO-9000) and in any industry segment for Environmental (ISO-14000) International Standards Organization registration.
“For textile companies that are currently ISO-registered, we’d certainly like to retain their certification, and we think we add additional value to that because of our strong textile experience,” O’Neal said. “We do registration service with a full knowledge of all the textile manufacturing processes and bring a lot of value to that process, as opposed to others who are very competent in ISO registration but may not have the same in-depth knowledge of this industry.”
An important service IT3 offers is energy audits and management, he added. For instance, IT3 staff recently conducted an analysis at a small dyeing and finishing company and found nearly a half million dollars a year in wasted energy that could be corrected with a low capital investment, he said.
“Our strength is not to tell them what they already know. We go in and quantify it,” O’Neal said. “When they know what compressed air leaks mean for them from a dollar standpoint, then all of a sudden it’s justified to focus a maintenance person on fixing air leaks or maintaining steam traps. It’s mainly blocking and tackling. It’s going in and doing things that are straightforward, but quantifying them and helping them make better management decisions and better utilize their resources.”
IT3 representatives also look at newer and more efficient technologies for companies, but always include in their proposals a cost-value analysis.
With its own staff of licensed professional engineers able to design and manage projects, IT3 has a long history of providing environmental services, particularly in water and wastewater treatment areas. IT3 is often contracted to help companies design environmental systems in their offshore operations that meet U.S. standards, O’Neal said.
On the subject of globalization and offshoring, which often comes with negative connotations, O’Neal said the services IT3 provide enable the industry to continue to find ways to be competitive.
“It’s not something we like, it’s not something we’re promoting, but it’s a fact of life and we’re working with companies through ITT Technologies trying to generate revenues that we can bring back to strengthen the U.S. textile industry. None of us like it, but we’ve got to figure out a way to compete with China. Right now we’re faced with no quotas, and the horse is out of the barn, so anything we can do at this point to integrate with other companies and partners in this hemisphere is really one of our best chances to maintain a viable textile industry.”
A need for international partnerships exists, in order to provide more products in a more cost-effective way and help make products at the lowest cost, while at the same time maintaining the quality that the U.S. textile industry is known for, he added.
“And in most cases, they’re also being done in a way to utilize U.S. raw materials,” O’Neal noted. “So it’s not completely going offshore, but it’s really aligning with where the apparel industry already is. That’s what’s driving it.”
There’s some good in it for the U.S., but there’s also a downside in terms of jobs being displaced here, he added. But most companies are trying to find that right mix from an economic standpoint to manufacture as much as possible in the U.S. while being more responsive to the cut-and-sew operations and integrating the supply chain, he added.
“Along that same line, one of the things we want to do in our research program and working with NC State faculty is to focus on supply-chain management in ways in which the U.S. textile industry can be more integrated and more responsive to consumer demands,” he said. “And I think that’s a big factor in terms of what survives and what doesn’t. The only chance we have of surviving is through added value through enhanced services and responsiveness to the consumer.”
Alumni association
With more than 500 Institute graduates, an effort has been made to reorganize the Institute’s alumni association. Dr. Robert Barnhardt, former president of the Institute and former dean of NC State’s College of Textiles, David McAlister of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Barry Leonard of Excel Manufacturing have helped organize this effort.
An Alumni Event, postponed in January due to inclement weather, has been rescheduled for June 11 in Charlotte.
“Many of our graduates are well placed within the industry and still are working in the industry,” O’Neal said. “We really would like to get them more involved in our activities and help the tradition carry on and perhaps give back a little in terms of what the Institute education has meant to them.”
Move shows vision
Creating the alliance with NC State and pulling up stakes has been a challenge, as expected, but making the move speaks volumes about the vision leaders have for the Institute, O’Neal said.
Barnhardt and current College of Textiles Dean Dr. Blanton Godfrey were both instrumental in making the proposed move a reality, he said.
“They’ve been very cooperative and supportive in embracing the Institute’s coming here,” O’Neal said. “That speaks not only of those individuals but also of the vision that they have for making the industry better and the faith that they have in this relationship — that it’s going to be strong and a good ones for both institutions. And of course our board has been very supportive of it and we’re very anxious to expand our membership and get broader participation.”
O’Neal also thanked Patrice Hill, the Institute ’s administrative manager, who previously worked in the provost’s office at NC State.
“She knows all of the ins and outs, the politics of State and how to get things done and she’s taken some very strong leadership roles in the educational program and in managing the membership,” he said.
“We feel like the kinds of things that we offer are essential to companies that are going to succeed in this competitive environment that we’re facing,” O’Neal said. “And we really are anxious to work with companies and give them the benefit of every opportunity that we can.”
By Devin SteeleBy Devin Steele
RALEIGH, NC — Each year, student Fellows at the Institute of Textile Technology conduct master thesis research not only in technical areas, but also in non-traditional areas as well.
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(L-R) Reece Allen, Hope Nowell, ITT President Gilbert O’Neal, Linsey Cesca and Michael Jones meet to discuss the theses on global competitiveness being researched and written by Nowell, Cesca and Jones. Allen, a first-year ITT student, plans to expand the topic in his thesis next year. |
This year, three students of the Class of 2005 are heavily involved in theses specifically focused on economic competitiveness. These students — Lynsey Cesca, Hope Nowell and Michael Jones — are working diligently to research and write their theses and are working closely together to integrate their findings into an industry report and present them, as a group, to the Institute’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).
With the Institute now being aligned with NC State University and being located on the Centennial Campus with NCSU’s College of Textiles, the three have been able to pull together perhaps more in-depth research than would have been possible at the Institute alone, according to Dr. W. Gilbert O’Neal, the Institute’s president.
“Economic competitiveness is an area where we had limited resources in Charlottesville,” he said. “By coming to Raleigh it’s opened up all kinds of possibilities, both within the College of Textiles, in their management department, as well as being able to go to other areas on the campus — business and economics and so on.”
Institute students also are able to tap into a wealth of other resources at NC State, from state-of-the-art facilities to professors, he added.
“Because of NC State and the Institute working together we were able to have a much better experience than I think the average graduate student does because the Institute has its resources and NC State has even more resources,” Cesca said.
The requirements for Institute Fellows also are steeper than those of typical NC State graduate students, Jones added, pointing out that first-year Institute students are obligated to take five classes per semester as opposed to the typical three.
“Being a part of NC State has helped tremendously,” Nowell added. “The professors here have such a large network of contacts. I feel more prepared going into the work force with the diversity of classes that we’ve had to take.”
With cost savings being realized by moving to Raleigh and sharing resources and facilities, the Institute has more money to support its research programs, O’Neal added.
Such support has given the three Fellows opportunities they may not have had previously, he said. For instance, their research has taken them not only throughout the South’s textile and apparel manufacturing regions, but to Miami and New York — not to mention Hong Kong and China, where they spent seven days in January. In mainland China, they toured a manufacturing facility owned by an Institute graduate.
“One of our committee chairs, Nancy Cassill, felt like we really needed to see the pulse of what was going on in Hong Kong and China,” Cesca said. “Seeing the manufacturing facility definitely put a different perspective on what we had heard about them.”
Research objectives
The three students, who will defend their theses to the TAC this week, interviewed 33 executives from 18 companies for their theses. They talked with U.S. manufacturers with production facilities here and abroad, as well as U.S. retailers and sourcing agents.
With a focus on the bed/bath and bottomweights market, their goals included trying to better understand the competitive environment for U.S. textile manufacturers and better grasp retailers’ sourcing strategies, in hopes of helping U.S. companies compete in a global market.
Some of their work evolved around “playing field issues,” such as trade policy, environmental regulations, federal subsidies, employment benefits plans, etc., according to Jones.
“We looked at the difference in using a Western Hemisphere strategy versus going to Asia and how U.S. companies can best use the close proximity of the Latin American and Central American countries to improve their competitiveness to take advantage of those proximities,” said Jones, whose thesis is “Factors Affecting Government/Trade Disparities Among Nations.”
Nowell, meanwhile, has three research objectives with her thesis, “Economic Competitiveness in the Global Supply Chain: Examination of Supply Chain Configurations.”
“The first one being determining why U.S. manufacturers are losing market share in the areas being sourced by U.S. retailers,” she said. “I’m trying to get a perspective from U.S. retailers as to why they’re leaving U.S. manufacturers out of the loop and what they’re lacking in comparison to offshore manufacturers.”
Her second objective is to determine the supply-chain structures of each company examined, with the third being exploring performance measures, mainly the vendor selection criteria that U.S. retailers are using when choosing a supplier.
“Who’s doing a better job in terms of measuring their own performance and the performance of their vendors in comparison to what U.S. retailers are using,” she explained, “and to see if that communication is being streamlined across the entire supply chain, to determine who is working together better to meet the needs of the U.S. retailer.”
Cesca’s thesis, “Economic Competitiveness in the Global Textile Supply Chain: Examination of Logistical Cost Structures,” delves of course into logistics costs across the supply chain and how the different types of companies are utilizing these logistics costs to create competitive advantage.
“So, partially, it was determining all the different types of logistics chains that are used by different manufacturers, the retailers, the sourcing agents and on top of that looking at where the U.S. manufacturer can fit in,” she said. “And then determining what competitive advantages can be a result of these optimizations.”
Findings
One of the most eye-opening revelations coming out of the research is that U.S. retailers do desire to use U.S. manufacturers, Jones said.
They believe that U.S. manufacturers have an important role that they do fill, because of quickness to market, with their location being so close to their distribution centers and market, as far as replenishments and things like that go.
“But there just seems to be a communications barrier between the two.”
Nowell found that, generally, fashion goods are being produced in Asia and basic goods are being made in the Western Hemisphere.
“A lot of people say that one way to keep U.S. manufacturers in business is to partner maybe with companies, the apparel manufacturers, in say, Central America, to offer full-package sourcing,” she said. “Most retailers want to source full package, but most of your full-package providers are in Asia and there aren’t many full-package options in the Western Hemisphere right now.”
Adding to that, Cesca pointed out that Asian manufacturers have a better fabric supply chain than those in this hemisphere.
“They have the ability to create fabric, whereas companies in the Western Hemisphere rely heavily on the U.S. to ship their fabric for cut-and-sew operations,” she said. “And that’s hindering the Western Hemisphere from succeeding because it adds on so much more cost in transport back and forth.
“Proximity does not remain an issue because (Asian companies) have the ability for one shipment of goods coming over to the U.S.”
“Notwithstanding the shipping issue, though,” O’Neal interjected, “all of this falls back to what Michael was saying in terms of communication and responsiveness to the market. And those communication lines just haven’t been established very well between the suppliers and the apparel manufacturers and the retailers. And that’s where much of the focus has to be going forward for the industry.”
Next year, now-first-year Fellow Reece Allen will follow up on the upperclassmen’s research, focusing on niche market strategies with his thesis.
Expanded education
To enhance their education, Institute Fellows also are required to attend a seminar a week. This may be a presentation from a guest speaker, or it may be a workshop on communications given by an NC State professor from the Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences.
“The fact that we have meetings and sit down with people like Roger Milliken or Allen Gant comes and speaks to a class gives you a lot of valuable face time with executives,” Cesca said.
Because Fellows are required to give four presentations to the TAC during their graduate school careers makes communications seminars particularly useful, Jones added.
Other members of the Class of 2005 are Shawn Hutchinson, Kevin Hyde, Jaime Pisczek and Rebecca Berger.
First-year students, in addition to Reece, include Stephannia Williams, Lisa Hartman, Belen Perez, Chris Lauer, David Eskew, Beth Anderson, Paige Kennerly, Riley Jo Carrigg and Melinda Satcher.
