Towel Mill Streamlines Operations For—
Better Customer Service
An efficient manufacturing busi
ness must have facilities and meth
ods for getting its orders filled and
the merchandise shipped on time.
There’s many a step from the
finished goods to the shipped ord
ers. How these steps are taken
makes a lot of difference in the
cost of the operations and the
speed and promptness with which
orders are filled and shipped.
At the Towel Mill in Fieldale, a
streamlined packing and shipping
set-up does just these things: Re
duces the cost of handlmg and
vastly improves customer service.
Work on devising the new order
filling, packing and shipping ar
rangement started about a year
ago and the new system has been
in use since May. Need for the
better facilities and methods grew
out of the greatly increased ac
tivity of the Towel Mill for which
the former system was wholly in
adequate.
Basic innovations were a con
veyor system replacing the former
method under which orders were
filled and packed by individual
orders, and a card voucher system
for all unfilled orders. Construc
tion of a new finished goods ware
house gave the mill additional
storage space which was badly
needed. The recent conversion of
the entire former Hosiery Mill
building into a warehouse provid
ed still more storage for finished
goods.
In devising the improved sys
tem, a major problem was to bring
together physically in a strategic
location all of the various clerical
operations involved in scheduling,
order filling, packing, warehousing
and shipping. The employees
doing these operations were wide
ly scattered, sometimes in badly
cramped quarters and at some dist
ance from the stock rooms and
w'arehouses.
This was overcome by relocation
of the operations convenient to the
work and involved remodeling a
portion of the first floor of the
finishing building adjacent to the
EFFICIENT card voucher system
complete information on unfilled ‘
(
shipping area. Here, all
order and billing operations ,
centralized. Here also was lo j
the office of C. P. Wilson,
tendent of scheduling, ware
ing and shipping for the
Mill.
All operations involved
coordinated into a streamline^ j
tem of handling orders froiw
duction scheduling all the
through to the actual shippi ^,1
the merchandise to the cust
This has accomplished a redu ^
in handling costs and better
tomer service in that orders^j^
shipped oTi the date for whicW
are accepted.
In commenting on the \
up, Mr. Wilson said; “To gi^
type of service expected ,i,
own sales department and our j,
tomers, we must maintain , '
matic control of orders so tn%j
goods flow in an orderly
through the stock room, pac*'.J
storage, and shipping. Such »
tem requires a close tie-in_oi F ^
ing and shipping operations ,
the large amount of clerical
involved in handling custo ^
orders. We feel that we noW
;e!
iH
such a system here and are
position to give outstanding
ice.’
JMr. Wilson praised the att j
and ability of employees in
the change-over to the new s>
“The cooperation shown by
employees, mill and office,
superb, and the apparent j
with which they changed fro^*
old to the new was little sn
remarkable,” Mr. Wilson ded
LDCREST MILL W H I S T L
CONVEYORS ARE A BASIC PART OF NEW PACKING AND SHIPPING SET-UP,
FIE