Capstone Project For My Degree

[mrhmatt]

Hi everyone,

I'm working on my capstone project for my degree in Operations and Supply Chain Management. For this class I have to create a company from cradle to grave, that manufactures a "Simple" product. Knowing nothing about leather, I ended up with leather shoe laces. After researching the product, I've realized how much goes into the creating this product, so I have a ton of questions I'm hoping someone can assist me with. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

I've decided that I will receive the leather from a supplier as wet-blue, to reduce the manufacturing processes. I will do 1/8" by 32" strings and one color. I think I'm going to produce somewhere around 250,000 to 5000,000 pairs of strings a week. I've been researching but information is limited for the short amount of time I have.

Now for the questions:

Where is a supplier that I can regularly order wet blue from?

Should shoe lace be split leather or unsplit?

Is there any certification for person inspecting the wet-blue or a special name for the person that inspects it?

What is the name of the dye tumbling machine and is there a link?

What cutting, shaving, sammying, vacuum drying, staking, dynasec, trimming, buffing, dry splitting, milling machine should be used for this size production?

How long does the dyeing, drying, cutting take?

How much leather can fit in a tumbler?

What employees are crucial for the manufacturing process?

Thanks again for any help.

[Tree Reaper]

You would buy your leather from a tannery, laces would be split then cut on a lace cutter, no certification required,the tumbling machine is normally just a drum with baffles in it, the machinery would be subject to your factory and production, re doing it at home or industrial site.

Employees would be governed by the size of your business and how much capital you have.

This is a veg tan process but chrome tanning is the similar but uses different chemicals.

http://www.hermannoa...nery-tour-video

You will need to know how to dispose of these chemicals which could be a big expense.

Kevin

Edited April 14, 2013 by Tree Reaper

[mrhmatt]

Thank Kevin. I've been able to locate all of the machinery and the associated costs. I think my model is starting to look like the Auburn Leather Company.

If I buy the leather already blued I won't need the chromium, will I?

How much dye does a load of leather need in a drum?

How long does the leather need to be dyed for? I just put 60 mins in a drum because I couldn't locate the information.

How long does leather hang dry for? I put 12 hours for this because I couldn't find this information either.

I haven't addressed how much water I'm going to need either.

[Tree Reaper]

If I was doing this I would be buying predyed chrome tanned leather and concentrating on splitting and cutting the laces myself.

Is this an option?

Companies are already set up to do the tanning and dye.

If you were making laces for family and friends I would say dye them yourself, it wouldn't be feasible to dye them for large quantities in my opinion.

[mrhmatt]

This project is about generating revenue as a company. I'm looking at getting the leather pre-chromed and dyeing, processing, and cutting at the manufacturing facility to the specs of the customer. The target customer would be a boat shoe manufacturer (Sperry Shoe Company). The capacity for the company I'm designing is about 900,000 pairs of laces per 10.4 days.

[Tree Reaper]

This project is about generating revenue

That's the problem as I see it, not enough diversity, if you get into the dye process that's a business in itself and I don't think you'll pay for operating costs let alone make a profit with just one product.

The way to beat that is let someone already in the business do the dye work and then claim it as an expense to your business.

The only other option is have several different leather products to manufacture using the same facility.

You will also need more than one client to stay alive.

[mrhmatt]

This is theoretical. I only have 4 more weeks to develop the plan. I'm guaranteed the customers because the project is mostly about operations. If I introduce new products I have to explain the machinery, electricity, hiring of employees, different processes, linear programming for man hours... I'm supposed to pick one product, setup a process, and run numbers. If it were a real business what you're saying would make sense but I would also have more than myself working on it and more than 6 weeks to do everything.

[Tree Reaper]

I'll take a stab at some of these.

If I buy the leather already blued I won't need the chromium, will I?

Blue is just the color of chrome tanned leather.

How much dye does a load of leather need in a drum?

That would depend on the drum size, I would refer to a dye producer for that information.

How long does the leather need to be dyed for? I just put 60 mins in a drum because I couldn't locate the information.

For a complete hide I would guess several hours for total penetration, again back to the dye producer.

How long does leather hang dry for? I put 12 hours for this because I couldn't find this information either.

It would be more like 18-24 hours for a large hide.

A company like Herman would be more specific with the times and process involved.

[mrhmatt]

Thanks tree reaper

[mrhmatt]

Ok, this week is about quality control. I've found the tools for measuring thickness and the color cabinets but is there a grading system for leather color?