Visualization tool for bistretch shrinkage control

Challenge & Selection

I am from Research & Development person in a textile manufacturing plant. We have to face  challenges & resolve by anonymous way. We do not use any design tool to resolve any problem. Now  as I have enrolled in Design thinking course, I started to apply the 1st tool as Visualisation to check its  validity whether it works or bookish knowledge only. We are facing a chronic problem of shrinkage  consistency control in four way stretch fabric. I took this opportunity to resolve this problem by  visualisation tool. So I called all stakeholders associated with this problem in one room & explained  what I have learnt from the visualisation tool. Then I shared the visual video for better understanding  of all the team members.

Application

I took the challenge as research & development person to draw a picture of the existing operation  which includes ready to be processed goods, machine threading. Existing process parameters were  pictured as temperature as thermometers & digits. Pressure points as symbol. Speed as vehicle.  Tension points as stretched elements. Now board looked very interesting. I explained how our  existing process can be visualised in this process. Now problem has been explained to them asked to  refine the pictures they think for better clarity of the process. Now while running the fabric we  started to visualise & imagine each parameter at a time. A dynamic visualisation of the process has  started evolving we had started exploring the possibilities process parameters which can lead to  shrinkage variation in the final fabric. Machine operator has drawn attention some machine parts  which vibrates during machine running. We all got astonished & operator gave us the problem pin  points. Now our maintenance team fixed that problem.

Insight & Approach

This visualisation tool process helped to find very common things which we normally ignore while  thinking for troubleshooting. When we write or draw a picture, small tiny things appear in the  picture. These small details pictures actually lead to complete the picture as a whole for broader  vision. So design tool helped us for a systematic approach to solve the problem by involving all  related stakeholders. The outcome was very encouraging & exciting

