Established in 1931 as a family business, Marton Mills are weavers of high quality apparel and furnishings with a focus on wool and tartan in their bespoke designs. The mill, nestled by the River Wharfe near Otley in West Yorkshire is home to a weaving operation that has seen further investment in the latest high-speed looms, providing a higher output from the same floor space in the weave room. For the sales, manufacturing and design team at Marton Mills, such an operation lends itself to having real-time information to assist with scheduling customer orders, forecasting deliveries and keeping logistics on the most efficient track.
Managing Director Laura Watts explains: “Whilst our larger customers tend to buy in bulk, we can also weave orders for as little as 13 metres, so the ability to see progress in real-time will be invaluable.”
Laura added: “Following an initial trial with another system, we decided to go with WeaveMaster from BMSvision (formerly Barco). WeaveMaster is a proven solution able to connect directly to our latest Dornier looms via a simple Ethernet connection. For our existing machines BMSvision also has suitable hardware designed specifically for the job, so we only have to plug in each loom and information will be received on screen in the office.”
In addition to the PC based production reporting, Marton Mills have selected a web based management dashboard which can provide live information for picks, metres, efficiency and planning on a large display in the weave room. This can also be used with mobile devices such as tablets & smart phones connected to the company network.
“BMSvision can support us from their local office nearby which is important for us as a busy family business. As well as providing installation advice and user training, BMSvision can connect remotely so there are no delays if we need to ask for support.” said Laura.
WeaveMaster will also be linked with the TMS manufacturing system at Marton Mills to receive works orders for planning each loom and timely updates to forecast the end of each job, providing faster responses to customer enquiries.