Software development has been globally intensifying to facilitate communication between life color designs on fabric and those made up of light spots by CAD.

Ever since the birth of inkjet printing, faster color communication has been a major issue. The same indication has also been made for auto flat or rotary screen printing.

Faster and more accurate production to conform with QR will lead to considerable enhancement of throughput. Enterprises have increasingly been placing stress on throughput evaluation to secure SCM (Supply Chain Management), which directly reflects CRM (Customer Relationship Management). In short, many companies now aim at improving the proportion of non-defective items produced in the total production within the cycle of QR (from the distribution of raw materials in the production line to product delivery to consumers). Correspondingly, the development of software to facilitate P2P color matching is on the increase worldwide. AVA (UK), for example, has recently been preparing for the distribution of new software in Japan.

Analysis into 3 elements for reconstruction by throughput evaluation

QR, if by traditional methods, increases expenditure. Overtime work to achieve a faster order-delivery cycle only raises production cost.

More and more companies in all manufacturing industries are swiftly switching their management style over to a more cash-flow-orientated one (EVA; Economic Value Added), accelerated by the recent fixture of deflation, the diversification of products, shrinking demand and the attitude of financial institutions reluctant to make loans to small and medium-sized enterprises. The concept of management with much weight on throughput evaluation anchors such an idea.

Among the increasing number of reports on management accounting that covers the idea of throughput, an evaluation system introduced by Cheatham (1990) is one that draws attention.

Cheatham points out that the employment of a classification into three basic concepts; 1) productive capacity, 2) productive processing time and 3) yield rate, along with the rationalization of each and a total calculation measure will be effective.

By analyzing those three elements of throughput, managers may achieve the restructuring of their operations through the enhancement of each constituent factor.

The following shows how to work out the basic elements.

'Productive capacity' is worked out by dividing total production by processing time.

Then, to find 'productive processing time', actual processing time is divided by the total number of hours spent for manufacturing.

Then, to learn the proportion of non-defective products out of the total amount of raw material thrown in, 'yield rate' should be worked out. The yield rate during a definite duration of time can be calculated by dividing non-defective production by total production.

Non-defective production rate in total production can be found with the formula below.

The evaluation of throughput above also includes time spent for product inspection.

In all manufacturing industries, including textile manufacture, considerable hours are spent on product planning and related meetings, long enough for the time unit to be days rather than hours.

With such a low level of intellectual productivity, a delay is frequently found in manufacture as well as delivery, which strains and shortens the manufacturing cycle, leading to more faulty products. That is the largest factor in destabilizing the QR cycle.

P2P color matching for better intellectual productivity

IT innovation in the cycle of order, manufacture and delivery will rationalize and facilitate calculations for throughput evaluation. The necessity of special software development has been pointed out by the parties concerned.

Color communication for apparel and textile dyeing, for example, will in practice require P2P style with the intensification of QR competition.

Correspondingly, software to facilitate color data transmission and color display by luminance has been introduced by Datacolor, Kurabo and the Textile Technology Center, the Kyoto Municipal Industrial Research Institute.

AVA(UK)'s promotion in Japan
Accordance between colors on monitors and those printed out

AVA (UK)'s method for accurate 3-D color definition on Mac display

AVA(UK) is another to introduce software in Japan, a Mac-compatible, for the planning, creation, transmission and communication of accurate 3-D color data.

According to AVA, the unique feature of its CCM software AVA Colour is that it can be used with a special calibrator to produce color accordance between those colors on the Mac screen and those printed out.

Serving as the contact in Japan, Corvet Japan (President: Mr. S. Matsushima, Oka Bldg., 3-17-12, Toyosaki, Kita-ku, Osaka) is now preparing for the promotion of the software, targeted for the furnishing industry. Mr. Matsushima says, 'The main feature of the AVA software is that it produces an image of color composition with accuracy, which can be viewed from every angle. By extending the AVA Colour potentiality from CAD studios to production sites, the color of the final product can be managed at the same level as the one created at the CAD studio.'

Mr. Matsushima also refers to the software as being as capable of transferring two-dimensional color data into the X, Y and Z view, as other companies'.

What is significant is that colors defined by the AVA software can be printed out with an extremely high quality and delicacy, with the use of Epson's widely-available, compact color printers. According to Mr. Matsushima, 'Color designs as fresh and vivid as of those by high-cost color printing can be produced on paper by inkjet.'

Kensaikan's view

Booklet-type SCOTDIC, developed by Kensaikan International, provides a base for computer color processing

Textile color charts, as the base for color communication, will be essential in the age of QR intensification.

A color chart is something that gives color communicators such irresistible fascination.

In Japan, Kensaikan International has developed and been distributing a color chart (with numberings) SCOTDIC Quick View (with 2,300 colors compiled), as shown in the picture, in a fashion suitable for the generation of laptop computers.

The use of this color chart facilitates color communication between companies, exchanging the indicated numbers. Kensaikan aims to put forward the SCOTDIC colors to be the base for CCM.

Nisshinbo Industries, with its CCM software, is also to plunge a scalpel into international data communication from a new angle.

Color data on display in P2P style, currently under development at the Textile Technology Center, the Kyoto Municipal Industrial Research Institute, and base color chart on left

The chain of such developments illustrates the fact that color communicators, targeting the functional extension of color database, are now turning their eyes to the competition of a cross-shaped constitution (QR as warp, database as weft axis), with the eventual replacement of the conventional stand-alone type CCM by color management networks.

The more globally widespread the color communicators who place stress on throughput evaluation, the higher the speed of competition is expected to become in the development of the more solid, better cross shape for color processing software.