1987: Fabrics Of The FutureElsewhere in this issue, ATIs continuing love affair with the rich and
varied history of textiles has been well documented.But what about the future What new fabrics,
trends in raw materials, machinery, business structure and textile end uses will we be reporting on
10 or 20 years from nowCapital Intensive MillsOur first prediction is that the textile business
will survive and even prosper. Except for a few craft products, which may include hand weaving and
hand screen printing, textile plants of all sizes will be highly capital intensive.We see an
industry developing which will have both large, highly efficient commodity plants and many
relatively small plants with highly unique products aimed at specific markets.The large plants will
have extremely close ties to their major customers through shared computer inventory programs. They
will have enough machinery capacity to turn out large volumes in short times. The financial burden
of downtime will be shared with their major customers.Decreasing Labor ContentAmerican fiber will
continue to be competitive with any in the world. Labor content in fabric making and finishing will
steadily decrease and the impact of imports on these large plants will decline steadily during the
90s and into the next century.The specialty plants will concentrate on developing always newer and
better products by following closely or sometimes leading the product requirements in their
customers industry.Downstream IntegrationThe very large companies will have both kinds of plants.
They will constantly seek by acquisition, joint venture and codevelopment projects to get further
downstream in the distribution chain taking goods from the large plants, but they will avoid
forward integration in the industries served by the specialty plants.Small boutique conglomerates
may assemble a cadre of specialty plants serving various high-tech industries and obtain a
competitive advantage by investing heavily in broad market research and product development.Some
middle sized companies will own one or two of the high volume plants and, when managed carefully,
will earn excellent returns on their investments.Two Counter TrendsWeaving, knitting and nonwoven
technologies will see two counter trends. For the volume applications there will be a steady
convergence of fabric appearance and performance. Warp knitting and spunbond nonwovens will
experience remarkable product development and growth as this trend works its self out.For the
specialty applications, the fabrication techniques and product performance will become increasingly
unique and distinct. Three dimensional weaving, flat bed knitting with presser foot capabilities,
specialty braiding and many other techniques will be developed commercially.Both volume and
specialty plants will be greatly influenced by many new finishing and surface modifying operations
and probably will eventually integrate these operations into their systems.Evolution And
RevolutionDr. Albin Turbak, director and professor in the School of Textile Engineering at Georgia
Tech, feels that the textile industry can grow almost as rapidly as it wants to if it will
concentrate on filling the needs of its potential customers.Growth can come through evolutionary or
revolutionary changes. Dr. Turbak characterizies evolutionary changes as doing the same thing, only
better, and he likes what he sees happening as mills upgrade all departments.Revolutionary changes
are those that will probably come from outside the textile industry. This might be the application
of technology, raw materials, or a new need for a textile product.A revolutionary change in the
making, says Dr. Turbak, may be the accelerating growth of fiber reinforced plastics, or more
fundamentally the technology dealing with the surface interaction between textile and matrix or
coating.If the textile industry is to capitalize on these revolutionary changes, we will require a
different way of discovering what our products can do and of presenting them to nontraditional
customers.NTI To Ensure The FutureNow is the time to develop a National Textile Institute that
would insure that the US industry has the right priorities and research capabilities to develop the
products and processes that will help us capitalize on both the evolutionary and revolutionary
possibilities of our industry.In our conception, NTI should focus on things that are over the
horizon and which would not normally be the subject for current R and D efforts by even the most
progressive companies.NTI should have both a technology section and a market section since these
are the two forces that alternately drive new developments. But to achieve revolutionary changes,
we think the major emphasis should be on current and future requirements of potential customer
industries.A Seven-Step ProgramWe see the following steps that should be taken after NTI is
organized:1. Choose target industries from among the largest, fastest growing, most rapidly
changing and/or those of greatest importance to the economic life of the country.2. Create industry
teams to define development objectives.3. Advertise, award, and supervise R and D projects by
academic or other institutions toward these objectives.4. Plan, finance, and supervise
demonstration projects.5. Publish appropriate technical and market reports.6. Administer
patent/licensing activities.7. Develop royalty and license arrangements to permit future funding of
NTI projects.Industry Funds For The NTIThe initial funding of NTI during the organizational period
would probably have to come from grants from major textile, machinery, and raw material companies.
After the institute is created, the Federal government through the National Science Foundation or
Commerce Department grants could be called upon for support for several years. Also, the major
textile states would probably recognize the potential value to them of the NTI.The US textile
industry is a great resource. It will survive and prosper based on its own hard work and
creativity, but it could be even stronger by consciously striving to build its own technology and
market scope on a national basis.

MillikenandCo.Seth M. Milliken was 20 years old when he opened a country store in Minot, Me. Five
years later, he moved to Portland to go into business with his brother-in-law, and four years after
that, when he was 29, he and William Deering started a general store under the name Deering
Milliken. The firm soon became sales agent for Earnsworth Mill of Lisbon Center, Me.Fire destroyed
the store. While it was being rebuilt in 1869, Milliken found himself saddled with a big inventory
of potatoes, a surplus product in the potato state. He loaded a ship with the bags of potatoes and
set out for Boston, to find prices there too low. On to New York, a good market and a decision to
move to New York where, within a few years, he was selling the production of five woolen mills in
addition to that of Farnsworth. The number of mills represented grew to 16 before 1900.William
Deering, who had moved to New York with Milliken, soon resigned from the company, moved to Chicago,
and began manufacturing a harvester; his company later became part of International
Harvester.Milliken soon expanded from woolens into cotton, becoming selling agent in 1884 for
Pacolet Manufacturing Company near Spartanburg, S.C. Other mills were added to the list of clients
and Milliken assisted in financing others being organized in the South. He acquired an interest in
more than 40 mills.Seth Milliken was succeeded by his son, Gerrish, who guided the firm during the
World War I years when he also directed the textile industrys wartime effort. He was a leader in
the introduction of rayon fabrics in the early years of that fiber.In the 1930s, many of the mills
represented by Deering Milliken went broke, heavily in debt to their selling agent. The firm became
majority stockholder in many of them.In 1944, the firm helped the Army meet a critical need for
tire cord, constructing the firzst textile plant designed to process the new man-made fibersa one
story, air-conditioned building without windows on the Seneca River across from Clemson College.In
1945, the Deering Milliken Research Trust was organized by DM, and the mills it represented
starting work in a house near the tire cord plant with six employees and a spinning lab in the
kitchen. The project was to grow into the giant complex off Interstate 85 at Spartanburg.Geerrish
Milliken died in 1947, to be succeeded by his son, Roger Milliken, one of the most forceful
personalities in the history of U.S. industry. He concentrated on manufacturing, moved to
Spartanburg and began the consolidation of the Milliken Mills. These were approximately 35 separate
companies, many with outside shareholders.By 1960, Roger Milliken had consolidated them into a
single corporation, had built new plants and was on of the Big Three of textiles. In 1963, he
bought Amerotron Co., the textile division of Textron, Inc., seven more mills for his group.In
1976, after 111 years of growth, Deering Milliken officially became Milliken and Co., producing
textiles, chemicals and packaging. Sales figures are not released but have been estimated to be in
the $2 billion range.The firm operates two plants in North Carolina, 29 in South Carolina, and 16
in Georgia, not counting support facilities such as Milliken Research Corp., the Management
Information Center or the Customer Center.Milliken has been marketing oriented since the days of
the Portland potato sale. For many years, t he Milliken Breakfast Show introduced fabrics to retail
merchandisers in New York, giving way more recently to television and print advertising, both to
consumers and the trade.Roger Milliken has a rare mystique. Business Week magazine said of him in a
1981 article: He wields an influence in textiles that is probably unparalleled by an individual in
any other industry.He is said to pay infinite attention to detail, and to work as hard as any of
the thousands of associates, as Milliken employees are called.His penchant for personally examining
new machinery is notorious in the industry, and he is said to have stood for hours watching a
multi-shed loom until he understood the mechanisms.The Milliken training program, which recruits
top college talent, is regarded in the industry as one of the better business schools; since not
all who enter can win their way to the Milliken top ranks, many are lured to other textile firms,
to banking and other lines of business.The Greenville-Spartanburg Airport is a monument to his
acting on observed need. He and the late Charles E. Daniel led the airport to completion in 1962,
and he continues as airport commission chairman, overseeing a new expansion program.A principal
interest of his continues to be the legislative fight against imports, and the Crafted With Pride
in U.S.A. movement.

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