Arville Textiles, a Wetherby-based business that makes high-tech protective and safety fabrics, has secured £9,000 of funding from a government-backed programme that will help it boost its digital technology.
The £10m turnover textiles manufacturer, which was established in 1954 and employs 100 people in the UK.
Arville Textiles specialises in performance fabrics that are used to make bullet-proof and fire-proof clothing as well as bomb disposal suits, emergency flotation systems for aircraft, life rafts and aircraft escape slides.
The money from the Digital Enterprise programme will enable the firm to grow and create new jobs, by funding new digital systems that will streamline Arville’s internal communications systems and increase efficiencies.
Investment in new barcode system
Speaking exclusively to The Manufacturer about the company’s new investmnent, a spokesperson for Arville Textiles said: “We invested in a barcode scanning system to track and trace finished stock and work in progress within the factory – giving real time information on order progress and stock availability.
“It’s intended to speed up response times for customers, assist with production planning and improve traceability for ISO procedures.”
Andy Smith, group head of marketing at the business, said: “We’re proud of our heritage as a Yorkshire manufacturer, having started out over 60 years ago weaving woollen textiles for public transport staff uniforms.
“Over time we’ve evolved into a specialist in our field, working with extremely advanced industry sectors that are among the most challenging and demanding in the world, and we need our business processes to reflect that.”
He added: “Thanks to the Digital Enterprise funding we will be able to invest in a factory-wide wi-fi system which will enable us to operate a new barcoding scheme in our production management system and to make informed decisions based on the data captured.
“Our new technology is already leading to growth, with a 15% increase in turnover expected for the current financial year, and we plan to be making new hires during 2018.”
Asking about possible obstacles regarding implementing the new technology, the Arville Textiles’ spokesperson said: “The project is still in its infancy, long term it will be integrated with other systems to increase information flow within the business.”
