Browsing by Author "William Oxenham, Committee Member"

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Co-Presence of Durable Flame Retardant and Repellent Nano-Finishes.
(2010-05-13) Halbur, Jonathan; Xiangwu Zhang, Committee Chair; Jeffrey Joines, Committee Member; Henry Boyter, Committee Member; William Oxenham, Committee Member; Peter Hauser, Committee Member
Customized International Investment Decisions:An Exploration into the Textile and Apparel Decision-making Process
(2003-09-03) Uncu, Sedef; William Oxenham, Committee Member; Nancy L. Cassill, Committee Member; Michael Kay, Committee Member; George L. Hodge, Committee Co-Chair; Michelle R. Jones, Committee Co-Chair
As textile and apparel companies operate in an interconnected world economy, the new challenge for these companies is to manufacture and market innovative products while considering the entire world as the playing field. Today, the ideal global corporation exploits every new opportunity in the environment, controls every threat that may occur, and creates effective strategies to stay competitive. Often, competitive advantages are established by using by comparative advantages, however, this process requires a vast amount of decision-making and capital. Although companies are investing their time and money, there always exists the possibility of ultimate failure due to long term and short term uncertainty in the environment. Many companies fail to realize the full potential of their foreign investments because they lacked a structured decision-making methodology for international investments. The complexity of the global environment is evolutionary due to new laws and regulations such as WTO, NAFTA, CBI, ANDEAN and AGOA. For example, several major US textile companies experienced investment failures in Mexico, while taking advantage of the NAFTA regulations. Although failures were experienced when investments were made outside of the home country, it is also clear that staying in one's home country is not automatically the right decision for all types of the textile companies. Failures in international investment decisions have shown that there is an absence of a dimension to address the qualitative aspects of the decision-making process. Therefore, an examination is needed to identify a comprehensive methodology for international investment decisions. The purposes of this research are to develop: • A taxonomy of existing methodologies for plant location investment decisions. • A comprehensive instrument for investment decisions considering the strategy of the company, the organizational culture of the company, the sector where the company operates, and the role of external environment. • A structured decision-making model for customized international investment decisions, considering companies in different sectors, which pursue different strategies and have different organizational cultures. • A decision support tool based on the above conceptual model, which incorporates both the quantitative and the qualitative factors to provide an all-inclusive model to the decision maker. Data for the research was collected in three parts, the literature review, questionnaire and case studies. The sample for survey implementation comprised 17 companies from fiber, textile, apparel and nonwovens sectors. To support the limited survey results, case studies were conducted with 5 of these 17 companies. One additional fiber company outside the survey sample was also included for a total of 6 case studies. Findings from the study include: a) published document listing the methodologies for plant location decisions including include scaling, scoring, ranking methods, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology, mathematical programming methods, heuristic algorithms and simulation methods. b) a Customized Investment Decision-making Instrument to guide the companies in using an effective combination of location factors according to their priorities and specific needs. c) the conceptual framework for international investment analysis. Data that come from the literature review (Part II & Part III) and the empirical analysis (Part V) were analyzed and a conceptual model was developed for customized international investment decisions. d) a decision support tool was developed using the conceptual model (Part VI). Microsoft Access® is used as the software for this tool. International Data Sources are found during the development stage of this decision support tool. Results from this study will assist to the US textile and apparel companies in a way that they will be able to analyze the projected investment locations effectively, considering all characteristics of international investment decisions.
Functional Textiles via Self-assembled Nanolayers and Atomic Layer Deposition
(2008-07-16) Hyde, Gary Kevin; Pamela Banks-Lee, Committee Member; William Oxenham, Committee Member; Gregory N. Parsons, Committee Co-Chair; Behnam Pourdeyhimi, Committee Co-Chair
Improving the Competitiveness of North Carolina Textile Manufacturers with E-business Initiatives
(2006-05-10) Cagle, Christine Michelle; Timothy Clapp, Committee Member; William Oxenham, Committee Member; Nancy Cassill, Committee Member; George Hodge, Committee Chair
The purpose of this research was to improve the decision making process of textile manufacturers by providing information on how the North Carolina textile manufacturing industry is using e-business. This study reveals what e-business initiatives North Carolina textile manufacturers are currently using, the initiatives that they are planning to invest in next, the benefits experienced, the challenges faced, and in what business areas they expect to see the greatest future benefits from e-business for the textile industry. It is important to note that the focus of this study is on business-to-business e-business in textile mills and does not include textile product mills or apparel manufacturers. The methodology used in this study consisted of two phases. Phase I was an analysis of secondary sources. A database of textile manufacturing companies in North Carolina with a primary NAICS code of 313 was compiled. The resultant database was used to develop the sample for Phase II-A, the questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed by the researcher based on information collected from the literature review and the analysis of similar studies performed abroad. Phase II of the study consisted of two parts. Phase II-A was the distribution and analysis of the questionnaire. The resulting response rate was 38.1%, with 117 total usable responses. Phase II-B utilized case study methodology and built on the results of the questionnaire to gain a more in-depth understanding of the subject. The sample for the case studies consisted of 7 companies in North Carolina and 2 companies in South Carolina. The results indicate a limited degree of implementation of e-business in the textile mill sector of the North Carolina textile industry. While websites were used by 67% of the survey respondents, few are using e-business to its full potential. Telephone, fax, and email still seem to be the prevalent methods of communication with business partners, especially for small and medium sized firms. A conceptual model was developed indicating the current and potential implementation of e-business in the textile industry.
Improving the Thermal Stability of Textile Fiber Finishes
(2004-09-27) Mousavi, Paria; Peter J. Hauser, Committee Co-Chair; Christine S. Grant, Committee Co-Chair; William Oxenham, Committee Member; Keith R. Beck, Committee Member; Jagannadham Kasichainula, Committee Member
The objective of this research is to study the behavior of fiber finish components at high temperatures used in real-world textile processes in order to understand the mechanism of degradation and oxidation of fiber finishes, which helps to develop finishes with premium thermal stability. Thermal degradation of polyol ester lubricants used as the main component of textile fiber finishes at high temperature (i.e. 220°C) has been studied to model the real world degradation of finishes on fiber manufacturing equipment. An experimental system was developed to subject finish components to high temperatures and prepare samples of gas, liquid and solid phase. Different chemical and analytical techniques were used to measure degradation in the lubricant. The amount of degradation products during the long-term thermal stressing of lubricants have been measured. Also, possible mechanisms of degradation, chemical oxidation and formation of degradation products of the polyol ester lubricant have been explained. The effects of several antioxidants used in fiber industry and turbine engine oil industry on thermal stability of the lubricants have been investigated. Furthermore, the behavior of other component of finishes (antistatic agents and emulsifiers) at high temperature independently and in mixtures has been researched. The results were discussed and some suggestions have been made that can help fiber industry with more thermally stable finishes.
A Longitudinal Retail Price Analysis of Intra-Channel and Inter-Channel Competitors
(2008-05-02) Fratto, Genessa Marie; Kimberly Weems, Committee Member; Mark Messura, Committee Member; Michelle Jones, Committee Co-Chair; Nancy Cassill, Committee Co-Chair; William Oxenham, Committee Member
Retail pricing is a timely issue fueled by apparel price deflation, intense inter-channel retail competition, and increased presence of retail brands. Focused on the competitive dynamics of the apparel retail industry, this research investigated price as a key driver of competition for apparel retailers, and its role, or lack thereof, as a definitive construct of retail channel definition. Today, retail competition extends beyond the scope of a firm's intra-channel competition (within own channel) to increasingly inter-channel (between channel) competition. The central hypothesis of this research is that increased pressure from discounters has over time shifted the price distributions of other, non discount retailers (discounters inter-channel competitors), thus causing less price differentiation among retailers and forcing an industry wide convergence among a small range of price frequencies. For apparel retailers, this time period was significant due in part to the birth and growth of mass discounters, increased off shore sourcing of apparel, growth of private branding, and the birth of new retail formats including online shopping. The overall purpose of the study was to understand the movement of price distributions of apparel for retailers in the mass discount, national chain, specialty and department channels from 1990 to 2005. This research first looked at price broadly, from a retail channel perspective, and then narrowed to present a case study of denim jean pricing at competing retailers. Two consumer purchase data sources, NPD Fashionworld American Shopper's Panel (1990-1999), and NPD Fashionworld AccuPanelSM (2001-2005), were provided to the author by Cotton Incorporated. Analysis of this data provided insight into the competitive environment of retailers from a unit sales and price perspective. Within Research Objective I, there were two phases of analysis. The purpose of Phase I was to provide an overview of apparel retailers from 1990 to 2005 focusing on entry and exiting of firms, share of unit sales and aspects of intra-channel and inter-channel competition. In Phase II, the dynamics of retail competition were explored with a content analysis of 1990 to 2005 10-K SEC filings of select retailers. Insights were gained in terms of retailer's key competitors, competitive advantage and competitive risk factors. Each phase fed into the next and determined the scope of Research Objective II. Using the results of Research Objective I, Phases I and II, Research Objective II took the analysis a step further by applying statistical analysis tools to understand the differences in price at retailers from 2001 to 2005. Unique to this research was the creation of inventory maps. Inventory maps provided a visual depiction of the price distribution of a channel or retailer and were analyzed to understand the overall pricing strategy and longitudinal aspects of price competition. Additionally descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were used to evaluate differences in price between competing retailers.
Stress Relaxation of Tufted Carpets and Carpet Components
(2002-10-28) Phillips, Kristie Jo; Tushar K. Ghosh, Committee Chair; William Oxenham, Committee Member; Samuel C. Winchester, Committee Member; David A. Dickey, Committee Member
Dimensional stability of tufted carpets has been a continuing problem in the industry for years. When a tufted carpet is installed by the stretch method, it experiences stress relaxation over time which can cause the carpet to buckle, wrinkle and become loose with the only option being a costly re-stretching of the carpet. Since woven carpets seldom require re-stretching, the carpet buckling problem seems to be linked primarily to the tufted construction. This research seeks to analyze the various components of the tufted carpet composite structure and identify the role each component plays in the phenomenon of stress relaxation. Since a carpet is always stretched in both dimensions simultaneously during installation, understanding its biaxial stress decay is important. To this end, a biaxial loading system has been used to test various samples of the primary backing alone (before tufting), primary backing after tufting (with tufts), the secondary backing alone, and the finished carpet after attaching the backings with various binder weights per area. The four variables under consideration include: primary and secondary backing constructions, tufting density, and latex weight, with the secondary backing and latex weight expected to have the greatest effects on stress decay. In order to collect the most information, the biaxial test system was connected to a computer-based data acquisition system to continuously monitor stress levels and generate stress relaxation curves over a 20-hour testing period. A viscoelastic model that included representations of each component in the carpet structure was used to analyze and understand the influence of the components on the stress relaxation of carpets.
Warp Breaks Detection in Jacquard Weaving using MEMS
(2005-04-27) Lee, Jin Ho; George Hodge, Committee Co-Chair; William Oxenham, Committee Member; Peter Bloomfield, Committee Member; Abdel-Fattah M. Seyam, Committee Co-Chair
Microelectromechanical systems or MEMS technology has gone from an interesting academic exercise to an integral part of many applications in several industries. However, little work has been done in researching applications for MEMS in textiles. Research related to warp breaks has been limited to monitoring break frequency and the reason associated with breaks in order to improve warp yarn quality. While this approach led to improvement in weaving efficiency, warp breaks still represent a major problem, especially for today's high-speed weaving machines. Researchers have been trying to develop commercial automated systems to repair warp breaks with no success. The goal of this study is to explore inexpensive methods to detect warp breaks using nontraditional technique that would pave the way to automate warp break repair. To achieve the goal, a system that can detect warp breaks using MEMS accelerometers as sensors was developed for Jacquard weaving. The MEMS accelerometers were mounted on harness cords of a Jacquard tie. MEMS output acceleration signals components in the vertical and horizontal directions were analyzed using time and frequency domains. The signals were acquired while warp ends are running and at the moment of intentional breaks. The analysis led to a successful detection of warp breaks especially using the horizontal acceleration component that is mainly due to harness cord vibration. Three experimental designs were conducted to investigate the effect of weave design, warp yarn type, and warp yarn tension on the output signal strength which is measured by amplitude in time domain. It was found that warp break for weave with longer floats showed (shedding motion operates in open shed principal) stronger output signal as compared to plain weave. Increasing warp tension caused an increase of the output signal strength. The output signal increased with increase in yarn modulus.