The Company
Hilden America, Inc. is a South Boston, VA, cut-and-sew operation that makes fine damask table linens for the restaurant and hotel trade.

The Situation
Hilden's management wanted to enhance the company's ability to respond to special orders. Like all U.S. textile and apparel firms, Hilden has to compete against low-wage foreign producers with a combination of superior quality and service. Fine table linens come in a virtually infinite number of colors and styles, so only a few items can be produced for inventory. Hence, the lion's share of the business is custom work.

The Response
VPMEP project managers John Hudson and Mark Oakes performed an operations assessment and recommended some modern but simple technology and management techniques to shorten order cycle time. Hudson and Oakes developed a production and dispatch planning system to help track orders, emphasizing the relationship between Hilden's fabric suppliers and its cycle time. In addition, they did an analysis using the Theory of Constraints - the modern management technique that seeks to maximize productivity by targeting bottlenecks. Hudson and Oakes determined that staffing levels in the sewing room should be increased. A slight increase in capacity would eliminate a bottleneck and could more than pay for itself in short turnaround time and increased customer satisfaction.

The Results
According to company president David Nicoll, Hilden has slashed its average order turnaround time from three weeks to three days. Orders are now filled according to the urgency of the customer's need, rather than first-in, first-out. The tracking system is used daily to keep urgent orders moving through the system.

Management's Comment
"Initially, we structured our staffing level in the sewing room so that everybody would have something to do all day long," Nicoll said. "Now, we're beginning to realize how beneficial it is to eliminate constraints. December was a record month for us in terms of product shipped, and we expect this to improve further because of our ability to offer customers a fast turnaround on their orders.

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