MASCOT enhances efficiency

Tue, 26 Apr 2011

MASCOT’s activities at the company’s facility in Vietnam have been so successful that the number of staff will now be doubled. At the same time, a fully automatic transport system has been installed between the seamstresses and it is expected to significantly optimise the efficiency.

MASCOT with HQ in Denmark is one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of workwear. With the ambition of becoming one of the largest in Europe, it requires continuous adjustment of the company. “In the wake of the global recession we, as many of our colleagues, experienced that it was extremely difficult to locate capacity at the best hire-sewing facilities in Asia”, says Managing Director and owner of MASCOT, Michael Grosbøl. “In that context it was crucial that we had our own sewing facility, where we could plan and control approx. 30% of our total production ourselves.
At the same time, it provided us with a firm belief that our goal is to increase production under our own management”.

Number of staff doubled

MASCOT has consequently inserted a mezzanine in the present sewing facility, which already holds approx. 1,000 operators. This extra floor will be ready for use in June and 300 extra employees have been hired. Furthermore, 6 km from the current sewing facility MASCOT has rented external facilities of approx. 7,000 m2 which will be transformed to a busy sewing facility with 1,000 operators during the summer of 2011.

Greater flexibility and reliability of delivery

So when the new facilities have been fully staffed, MASCOT will be able to produce approx. 70% of the total production. “We will be far more flexible in planning the production, because we can continuously react to seasonal fluctuations and increased sales of individual product types. This means that we will almost always be able to deliver! “, Michael Grosbøl explains. One of the company’s goals is to always promise day-to-day delivery to distributors in Denmark and within 3-5 days in Europe. In order to ensure this, MASCOT continuously has approx. 2 million product items divided on about 17,000 product codes in stock.

Own factories in Vietnam:

Automatic transport system at the sewing facilities

Another method of ensuring a high output is by making the production lines more efficient. MASCOT has therefore spent the last couple of months implementing a fully automatic transport system, which basically automatically transports the products from one seamstress to the next. The Eton-system is a Swedish product, and MASCOT is the first facility in Vietnam to implement such a system. However, the company’s Danish Production Manager, Morgan Dietrich knows about it in detail from many years of experience around the world. He has no doubt that it will be a valuable acquisition for both MASCOT as a company as well as for the employees.

Both the company and the employees will see the effect

“Eton is an excellent management tool, which can measure the efficiency of the individual Sub-operation in the sewing line. It means that you can react quickly if any sub-operations do not function optimally. At the same time, MASCOT will continuously receive a real-time image of the process, whereas previously we were not aware of how things had progressed until the end of the day. You can even follow each order through the production line sitting at your desk in Silkeborg”, says Morgan. Eton also creates better terms for the employees. The seamstresses do not have to lift, stretch or work in un-ergonomic work positions, when the fabric parts are transported directly to the sewing machine. The seamstresses will also go from a team-piecework to individual piecework calculation, giving the efficient and hardworking employees a good opportunity to earn an extra good salary. This makes MASCOT’s sewing facilities an attractive workplace for skillful and efficient employees, who are paid accordingly.

Factory - Press 2011

Important tool for the recruitment

This is certainly important in Vietnam, where already there is a cut-throat competition for the best employees. So Eton will also be used as an important tool for the recruitment of employees. The country has become a magnet for foreign investments, especially during the last 10 years. Just in the Hai Doung province where MASCOT has built a facility, foreign investments have passed GBP£2 billion.