More quality, more quantity!

Intuitive Quality Management for Textile Mills

Client

Uster Technologies

Industry

Textile Industry

The Problem

Managing quality with minimal know how?

Today's textile markets are highly competitive throughout the value chain, from fibre to fabric. Customers have very precise quality expectations and mills must use their resources efficiently to meet these quality requirements. To meet these challenges, the Swiss company Uster Technologies AG has taken the step from machine manufacturer to service provider with the aim of offering its customers comprehensive quality management and smooth production.

This is where Centigrade came in!

The Solution

Together, we are developing a service framework that uses our many years of experience in user-centred design to enhance the quality data of Uster devices and ensure user-friendly operation.

Easy to use quality management with FiberQ

Uster's machines are capable of measuring the exact quality of the raw material. However, this data needs to be properly analysed in order to make informed decisions. Until now, this has been a time-consuming task with a high risk of error and little potential for optimisation, but with FiberQ, a cloud-based solution has been created to maintain visibility and control at every stage of textile processing.

Automatic data upload instead of manual chaos

To produce a T-shirt of a certain quality, a specific mix of different materials must be used. Even small deviations can lead to unsatisfactory results, so precision is crucial. An algorithm simplifies this process by analysing the data collected by the machines. Previously, the data was transferred manually to large Excel spreadsheets, but thanks to FiberQ, this is now done automatically in the cloud!

From raw data to guided workflow

Complex data requiring specialist knowledge has been replaced by an easy-to-understand, guided process. Factories can now ensure consistent quality and smooth production without the need for in-depth textile knowledge on the part of the operator.

Sustainability & Transparency

Fewer faulty production processes means less production waste. Quality management with FiberQ can reduce quality defects and wastage, which in turn enables more sustainable production. In addition, linking data on the raw material measured, its growing area, fibre type and origin enables better traceability within the mill – from raw material to finished product.

Ready, Set, Done!

The collaboration with Uster Technologies went very well, even though the project started during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is mainly due to our agile working processes. This allowed our Centigrade team to seamlessly integrate into Uster's SAFe-based development process and work within their management framework. SAFe stands for Scaled Agile Framework and coordinates, among other things, the synchronisation when several agile teams work on the same system at the same time.

SAFe and lean collaboration

Another key factor in good collaboration is our shared working philosophy. The processes at Uster Technologies AG are lean, which means that they aim to create real added value for users in line with our way of working, rather than focusing purely on the number of features. In addition, SAFe serves as a common organisational foundation and creates a solid basis for our collaboration.

Maximum flexibility, with micro front ends

For front-end development, we rely heavily on Angular to ensure the most flexible software architecture possible. As Uster uses a variety of applications, we have developed a comprehensive app shell that acts as a framework for integrating different micro front-ends. These are loaded independently, allowing development teams, for example, to work on different software components in parallel. This also makes the software easy and flexible to extend. An example of such micro-frontends are the tabs for mail and calendar in Microsoft Outlook.

Effortless style abstraction with JSON

To make collaboration between design and software engineering seamless, we have developed a plugin that can automatically convert Figma design tokens into CSS style definitions and export them as a JSON file. This means that changes to designers' basic style definitions, such as colour palettes, font definitions and spacing, can be automatically incorporated into applications!

A 360° solution, with the 360Q platform

FiberQ is only the beginning of a comprehensive service system. To provide customers with comprehensive solutions to the complex challenges of cotton processing, Uster is developing the 360Q platform with our support. This cloud-based platform integrates various services, including FiberQ, and forms the basis for our continued close collaboration.

We are proud to be part of such a global project with participants from all over the world that has worked so well despite the challenges of the pandemic!

"It has long been a personal interest of mine to establish a truly user-centred development process at Uster Technologies. With the start of the 360Q project, we were able to seize the opportunity and build the right setup thanks to the great support and guidance from Centigrade. Centigrade now supports us in all areas, from concept to visual design, implementation and user testing, and we would not want to be without their expertise. I have always appreciated the open and transparent communication at eye level, which enables a very efficient and inspiring cooperation and brings us closer to the goal of being able to offer our Uster customers a comprehensive support solution. I am very much looking forward to the next steps in this journey!"

Heike Thomys

Product Manager Mill Management Solutions

Uster Technologies AG

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