Protecting Jobs for a Better Future

USAID yarn spinning consultant Kevin Lordan works to calibrate equipment at Covoare-Ungheni factory Ungheni - Losing its only client would have been a serious blow for Covoare-Ungheni, a producer of wool carpet yarn.  Most critically, it would have placed several hundred jobs at the factory in jeopardy.  This possibility was very real for Covoare-Ungheni, which was experiencing yarn production problems that were impairing the quality of the yarn it supplied to Moldabella, a Moldovan carpet manufacturer.  The faulty yarns were damaging Moldabella’s finished carpets, and customers had begun to complain.  Moldabella had already put Covoare-Ungheni on notice: fix the problems or risk losing Moldabella’s business. USAID’s CEED project, working to improve competitiveness in the textile industry, provided Covoare-Ungheni with access to international professionals with decades of experience in the wool carpet business.  First USAID sent an expert to examine dye house operations, believing that was the source of the problem.  When it was determined that the dyeing process was fine, with only minor improvements needed, USAID brought in a spinning consultant to assess that process.  Working with Co-voare-Ungheni technical staff, the consultant found that the es-sential yarn quality problems could be solved with minor changes to existing spinning machinery, including proper cali-bration, and with investment in critical ancillary equipment.  The consultant calibrated the equipment and trained Covoare-Ungheni staff to do it themselves in the future. Yarn quality has improved significantly, helping to eliminate the defects that Moldabella was experiencing in its finished carpets and protecting Covoare-Ungheni’s position as Moldabella’s sole supplier of woolen yarns.  Most importantly, this has protected hundreds of jobs.  Moreover, USAID saved Covoare-Ungheni from unnecessarily spending an estimated $1.5 million in changes to its dye house procedure, and an estimated addi-tional $1.4 million through process changes in the spinning line.

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