Posted May 31, 2017

 

By Devin Steele (DSteele@eTextileCommunications.com)

 

CLEMSON, S.C. – About 90 industry professionals heard some good news about manufacturing in South Carolina and learned ways to improve their businesses during the Southern Textile Association’s (STA’s) Southern Division Spring Meeting here last month.

 

“South Carolina has one of the fastest-growing economies in the U.S. and one of the fastest-growing manufacturing sectors in the region and nation,” reported Nelson Lindsay, director of Global Business Development with the S.C. Department of Commerce. “Companies – large and small, new and existing – find the Palmetto State is just right for growth and development, and just right for success.”

 

The state experienced record exports last year, at $31.3 billion, he added.

 

Calling the last few years a “manufacturing renaissance,” Lindsay reported that South Carolina has announced more than 47,273 manufacturing jobs throughout the state since 2011. And, he added, 500 manufacturing expansions and openings have been announced in the timeframe. In addition, 11.7 percent of the state’s workforce is employed in manufacturing – more than three percentage points higher than the national rate of 8.5 percent, he noted.

 

“We’re a manufacturing state with a rich tradition, so people know how to make things here,” Lindsay said. “We’re a state people are moving to. We can talk about skill gaps, but we’re just like everyone else – not only are the hard skills a challenge, but the soft skills, too. We also have a world-class training program in the state. Before BMW, we didn’t make cars. But we do now. Before Boeing, we didn’t make planes. But we do now. We can make the most complex products in the world.”

 

Last year, the textile industry announced projects totaling $81 million in capital expenditures and 232 jobs in the state, Lindsay said. Companies in the textile industry directly and indirectly employ more than 60,000 people in the state, with an estimated annual economic impact of more than $20 billion, he added.

 

“Obviously, South Carolina has a rich tradition in textiles,” Lindsay said. “It’s different today than it was in the past, however. We have a more highly mechanized textile industry. And there is a larger R&D component to today’s textile industry. The supply chain is also changing; it’s much more complex and specialized.”

 

In 2016, carbon fiber producer Toray broke ground on a $1.4 billion global facility in S.C., and is expected to create about 500 jobs in Spartanburg County, he said.

 

“Companies like Toray Carbon Fiber are changing the way people think about textiles,” he said. “With all of these advancements, we need to make sure we’re effectively preparing the next generation of textile employees.”

 

Last year, it was announced that Clemson University researchers will be part of a $317 million overhaul of the U.S. textile industry, the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) initiative that aims to further transform the industry into a high-tech business, he pointed out.

 

Grandma’s Famous GDP Recipe

 

Meanwhile, Dr. Bruce Yandle, dean emeritus at Clemson University’s College of Business & Behavioral Science, gave his always entertaining look at the economy. He mentioned President Trump’s plan to get the economy back on track, interjecting what he calls “Grandma’s Famous GDP Recipe” as the solution: Mix together Labor Force Growth and Growth in Labor Productivity as found raw in the economy, then stir in a mixing bowl. Then bake at 4.6 percent unemployment for nine months.”

 

Yandle cautioned of two clouds on the horizon that may slow down growth: inflation and the debt limit.

 

“Inflation is not a big, dark cloud, but it’s showing up,” he said. “It’s just been in the last two or three months that we broke through 2 percent inflation. The Feds have already moved up interest rates twice in last six months. The debt limit is dark and it’s on the immediate horizon.”

 

Another economic indicator for the Carolinas is the “migration patterns of United Van Lines’ customers,” he said, only partially in jest. The top three states for new residents, in order, are Oregon, South Carolina and North Carolina, he said.

 

“I can sit on my porch and, if I stay awake for 24 hours, I’d see 20 trains roll by a day,” Yandle said. “(My wife) Dot and I love trains. I love to look at the length of the trains. I can get a good feel for exports and imports. I’m here to tell you that exports are rising. Those trains are getting longer. That’s a sign of strength in the economy.”

 

Another “unofficial sign” of economic times?

 

“The people who fill up their trucks and vans at 6 a.m. are the real people who go to work,” he said. “The carpenters, the construction workers, the laborers. You can tell how the economy is doing by how many white vans were being filled up each morning.”

 

But there’s more …

 

“Then, there is the lengths of women’s dresses,” Yandle said. “Since 1917, economists have looked at the length of hemlines and the movement of the stock market. They don’t know what the correlation is, but they know it’s there. When hemlines go up, the market goes up. Today, there’s every length in the world. In other words, there’s great policy uncertainty. I would say the biggest indicator is the help wanted sign. That’s a sign of coming inflation.”

 

On-the-job training

 

Ryan Skinner, business services specialist for the Upstate Region, South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation (VR), noted that his company is working with Inman Mills on on-the-job training and called up Tyler Clark, Inman’s assistant director of H.C., for a personal testimonial. Skinner engaged Clark in a Q&A on how the program is working.

 

“We use three or four hiring agencies,” Clark said. “Besides having no time to train, we had no skin in the game. VR trains these folks for us, and we are making progress with these employees.”

 

Added Skinner: “We want to bring them along, so we coach and encourage them along the way.”

 

Asked if there have been hiccups along the way – with the understanding that Inman Mills can try out a candidate without hiring them, at no cost – Clark answered that there have been none. Clark then added that, in addition to the training model, Inman works with VR on a job retention program.

 

“One example of the job retention service is to help individuals with diabetes,” Clark said. “Some individuals have had trouble with their feet, and we have provided shoes for them through VR. We also help them deal with depression, financial issues, or whatever keeps them from being 100 percent on the job.”

 

Specs and standards

 

Alberto J. Cassola of XSB, Inc. and Dr. Christine Cole, professor emerita, MSE, at Clemson University, introduced a new specs and standards program called TexSpecs.

 

Specs and standards are authored and maintained by many separate organizations, including Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs), industry and the government, they noted. Over time, they said, they have learned that those responsible for producing and maintaining products are challenged to get their hands on the most recent version of documents containing the requirements, let alone be aware of what may have changed within the standard and the impact of that change.

 

“The basic premise is that the current process is often time consuming and challenging,” Cole said. “Through our TexSpecs platform, we are looking to improve accessibility and usability of this information.”

 

“Whether you are involved in supporting military products or are mainly focused on the private sector, the question is, how does a consumer of this information collect the requirements that he or she needs for a given task, and how is the information put to use?” she continued. “When we have stand-alone documents to work with, it is necessary to collect all the documents that contain relevant requirements, whether in paper form or as PDF files.”

 

Whenever an item is purchased, manufactured, tested or used as a component in a larger item, the technical requirements for that item must be communicated, they said. In almost all cases, the requirements are spread out over a web of documents, with requirements from one document referencing requirements from another.

 

“We’re looking at a knowledge-based approach to have all of this content be available on a single platform – not necessarily in a single place,” Cassola said. “And we would like that to be a force multiplier in that one person can create more productivity than before.”

 

TexSpecs was created to provide seamless integration; easy integration into apps, docs and enterprise software systems; and tools to build composite documents from internal standards and external industry standards, he said. Plus, documents are always up to date, he added.

 

“The foundation is a technology known as SWISS, which was created by XSB based on the semantic web W3C standards,” Cassola said. “SWISS is an open standard for document interoperability and sharing.”

 

He went on to explain the platform and encouraged attendees to schedule a demo for their teams.

 

Trade and legislative update

 

Sara Beatty, senior vice president of the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), provided an update on trade and legislative matters as well as the council’s #WeMakeAmazing public relations campaign.

 

With the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) now on the back burner – if not off the stove for the U.S. – the NCTO is focused on several other items, including the potential renegotiation of NAFTA. She noted that a renegotiation is welcomed by the council, but not a full repeal.

 

Last year, the U.S. ran a $3.4 billion trade surplus in textile and apparel products with NAFTA partners, Beatty said. The U.S. exported $5.9 billion in textile and apparel products to Mexico and $5.2 billion to Canada, and U.S. textile and apparel imports from Mexico were $5.7 billion and $2.0 billion from Canada, she noted.

 

Beatty pointed out that NAFTA includes a number of exceptions to the yarn-forward rule, including four tariff preference levels (TPLs) and single transformation of certain apparel. Thus, a renegotiation could be useful, she said.

 

“The renegotiation of harmful NAFTA provisions could serve as a template for fixes to CAFTA-DR, Korea and other U.S. FTAs,” she said.

 

She also discussed the WTO Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA) and legislative matters the NCTO is tracking this year, including the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), tax reform, infrastructure and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB).