BOXARR expands deployment in textile industry

We are all consumers of finished goods from the textile industry. But have you ever considered the immensely complex processes required to develop the raw materials which create the products you’re wearing? Textile production requires a scientifically driven process to meet critical performance requirements such as sub-zero temperatures; weather resistance; flexibility; and weight reduction in thread types and finished fabrics. All are supported by a highly specialised and distributed global supply chain. Indeed, few industries have such an important level of collaboration between raw material developers and finished goods suppliers. A leading global textile developer and producer, have been grappling with this challenge for some years, and recently embraced BOXARR software to unravel the complex interdependencies involved in supplying materials to brands such Nike and North Face. BOXARR software is enabling people across the client to collaboratively build digital twin models of their complex organisational challenges; capturing human knowledge & expertise through the intuitive medium of Boxes and Arrows. These BOXARR models can readily scale up to reflect the ‘real world’ breadth, depth, and fidelity of inter-dependencies involved – with the ability to incorporate hundreds of thousands of ‘Boxes’ and millions of data objects. The client is using BOXARR to combine process mapping with data ingested from disparate information systems across their business; rapidly generating a model incorporating the various aspects of their development and production operations. The model maps the web of inter-dependencies between the plethora of material types (threads and fabrics) and the permutations of individual processes required to produce, treat, test, and deliver them. This is further combined with contextual information relating to the global supply network of raw material producers, labs, and production plants. Stakeholders across the client can now visualise and analyse the holistic system-of-systems across their business to help solve problems and optimise outcomes; quickly and effectively. BOXARR’s powerful filtering capabilities enable any selected aspect of the model to be isolated and then display the ‘contributing aspects’ upstream and ‘affected aspects’ downstream of it - a true digital thread within a digital tapestry of inter-dependencies. BOXARR software incorporates a powerful Functions Framework, which enables users to create, save and apply simple or sophisticated analyses to their models. These Functions are akin to writing formulas in spreadsheets but can leverage the additional dimensions in BOXARR to process data along and between paths; apply contextual filters; and heat map or format objects. In addition, BOXARR enables users to switch between representations of the model on demand: as a network system-of-systems; as tables of data; as pivot reports; as Gantt chart schedules; as swim lanes; as dependency matrices; as overlays on geographical maps; and as interactive dashboards of charts & graphs. Now the client can effectively minimise risk by simulating and evaluating the propagated effects of proposed decisions/changes in product design or product developments before they are implemented. Informed decisions can now be made to expand or terminate new development cycles or create production plans using globally available facilities. All done while exposing true cost and resource requirements stemming from these decisions. Likewise, diverse impacts of unforeseen events can be readily visualised, enabling the timely deployment of remedial actions. BOXARR was originally developed to support complexity management in the aerospace & defence sectors; utilised by organisations such as Airbus, Boeing, BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Raytheon, Safran, and Babcock; along with the UK, the US, and Australian militaries. The challenges of complexity are universal and burgeoning. BOXARR’s capabilities are now rapidly being adopted by other sectors, such as manufacturing, automotive, technology, healthcare, enterprise, government, and consultancy. To learn more about how BOXARR can help optimise your operational performance, contact us.