THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 15, 1996 TAG: 9610150249
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SCOTLAND NECK LENGTH: 35 lines
A new garment-making method that will more than double the number of sewing specialists employed in a local factory will be demonstrated today.
A modular sewing concept that uses teams to produce complete garments every three minutes instead of traditional assembly line piecework where workers perform the same task continuously will be displayed at the Paul Bruce Manufacturing company.
Paul Bruce is now staffed by 24 employees who manufacture children's and women's sleepwear and took up the new system earlier in the year. Success of the modular teams led officials of Paul Bruce to announce this month that 30 more workers will be hired in 1997 to operate 10 more modules.
L.V. Myles Inc., parent company of Paul Bruce Manufacturing, has invited textile engineers and other executives in the garment industry to study the modular operation.
Jimmy Dixon, chairman of the Northeast North Carolina Partnership, an Albemarle economic development group, will escort a business delegation to Scotland Neck today to tour the Paul Bruce factory.
``This is the kind of innovative approach to jobs and production that guarantees the future growth of our northeast,'' said Dixon, an Elizabeth City bottling company executive.
Dixon added that the modular system used at the Scotland Neck textile operation would help keep textile manufacturing in the United States.
``American workers are comfortable with teamwork and that's what this is all about,'' he said.
Rocky Lane, executive director of the Halifax County Development Commission, will join Dixon on the tour today. Lane worked to get a North Carolina state grant to assist in the Paul Bruce expansion. by CNB