One of the keys to having stable production is having your raw materials on hand. That’s a point that has been made clear during the past two years when logistics caused long, and often unpredictable, delays.
To ensure that they are always able to produce and deliver their products on time, S.R. Spinning Co. Ltd. keeps a sizable inventory of cotton on hand. It’s a huge commitment for the company, especially these days when cotton prices are so high. Between the carrying cost and the risk of a sudden price shift, S.R. Spinning is doing what few mills dare to do.
“We always keep high levels of cotton in our inventory as a buffer against delivery delays.”
However the benefit for their customers is the assurance that S.R. Spinning, which produces around one million pounds of yarn per month, will be able to supply them with the yarn they need, when they need it.
“We always keep high levels of cotton in our inventory. The shipment arrival is very unpredictable right now. But we are having less of a problem with that, due to our high buffer of cotton inventory in the warehouse. We can provide a good quality yarn with quite good, consistent, and reliable delivery,” said Chalat Buranatrakul.
Sustainability Can Mean Cost Savings
Amongst the many challenges facing mills these days is finding ways to increase the sustainability of their products.
S.R. Spinning is now installing solar panels, which they estimate will save them 10 percent of the total amount of electricity consumed during their production. The near term goal is to have 10-15 percent of their production run using solar power, however they believe that could be scaled up to nearly 70 percent in the next few years.
Selecting the right raw materials also plays a key role in both reducing costs and supporting greater sustainability.
“About 15 years ago Cotton Council International invited us to visit the actual cotton farms so that we could see how the cotton is grown, how it’s graded, what system they put in place in training facilities and so forth. It gave us a lot of confidence in how consistent the quality is going to be from year to year. Also, the grading of the cotton is of course done by the USDA.
Other cotton is grade privately so we don’t know what kinds of machines they are using. The USDA grades every bale of cotton so we have confidence that the information shown on the sheet that comes with each bale is very accurate,” said Mr. Buranatrakul.
Because U.S. cotton is very consistent, the mill doesn’t have to adjust its machines as frequently, which takes a lot of time and drives up production costs.
S.R. Spinning has recently raised their commitment to both sustainability and transparency by becoming a member of the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol® (the Trust Protocol).
“People talk a lot about sustainability lately, but nothing much is done in a way that we can quantify. So it’s difficult to prove to the customer that we are implementing sustainable practices.
“With the Trust Protocol it’s quite clear that what we are doing is sustainable and transparent. It makes it easy to show the customer that we are part of the sustainable world,” he said.
Email. chalat@sr-spinning.com | Tel. +662 6838722-6 | sr-spinning.com
Certified Sustainable
The Trust Protocol is aligned with existing sustainability programs including the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. It brings quantifiable and verifiable goals and measurement to sustainable cotton production, and drives continuous improvement in six key sustainability metrics – land use, soil carbon, water management, soil loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy efficiency. The Trust Protocol is designed from the ground up to address the unique regulatory and larger farm growing environment in the United States.
How the Trust Protocol Works
The Protocol Consumption Management Solution (PCMS) starts at the gin when the participating producer’s cotton is ginned and each unique Permanent Bale Identification number (PBI) is attached. At this point we know the exact gin weight and can create an exact amount of Protocol Cotton Consumption Units, where one Protocol Cotton Consumption Unit is created for each kilogram of Protocol Verified Cotton. This important step provides absolute authentication of U.S. cotton origin, verifying against the USDA database.
Supply Chain Transparency
The PCMS harnesses blockchain technology through a powerful combination of the Trust Protocol platform and TextileGenesis™ system to deliver full supply chain transparency by recording and verifying the movement of U.S. cotton along the entire supply chain. This creates article-specific transparency for finished products that was not previously accessible to brands and retailers.
Trusted Third Party Certification
The Trust Protocol incorporates a comprehensive program of verification against Trust Protocol benchmarks, in the form of both second-party and independent third-party audits of grower performance through Control Union Certifications—the latter through allocated on-site visits.
Control Union Certifications has certified over 150 industry standards programs worldwide, including working as a key partner in the early development and piloting phases of Impact Claim Verification Protocol.
Learn More https://trustuscotton.org
The COTTON USA Advantage
- Family growers who are committed to working their fields sustainably and leaving them better for future generations.
- A long history of innovative harvesting and ginning technologies resulting in higher-quality cotton.
- One of the highest rates of adoption in the world for Precision Agriculture, which minimizes water and pesticide usage.
- U.S. farmers operate under voluminous, stringent, and enforceable regulations.
- A commitment to transparent partnership that is unmatched anywhere.
- One of the most comprehensive systems for monitoring and measuring all the key metrics involved in sustainability.
U.S. Cotton Facts
- 2/3 of U.S. cotton land uses only rain water
- U.S. cotton water use efficiency has improved by 79% over the past 35 years
- Cotton is carbon footprint neutral, meaning the plants remove more greenhouse gasses than production produces.
Sustainability Goals
The U.S. cotton industry is building upon the strong environmental gains already achieved over the past 35 years. The aim is to help members meet their current needs while making the world a better place for future generations.
Specific goals include:
- Reducing by 13 percent the amount of land needed to produce a pound of cotton fiber
- Reducing soil loss by 50 percent, in balance with new soil formation
- Increasing water use efficiency (more fiber per gallon) by 18 percent
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 39 percent
- Increasing soil carbon in fields by 30 percent
- Reducing energy to produce seed cotton and ginned lint by 15 percent
Learn More www.cotton.org
