Internship at Yunus Textile Mill Part-1

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Last month I had my semester and decided to do an internship instead of wasting it on FIFA and Movies. So I applied to Yunus Textile Mills, a textile factory which exports bed sheets, curtains and table cloths to mainly IKEA, SEARS, Wall Mart and Bed and Bath and other international brands. As Pakistan is a top cotton producing nation the textile industry here is booming. This was a reputable industry for me and the experience would be valuable. Hence I sent them my resume and within a week got the acceptance by their HR department.

I reached the company which was a 40 minute drive and had to pass through a very strict security check before getting permission to enter the factory premesis. I met the HR Manager and he gave me a form to fill and submit the required documents and get my company card made from the administration. I was asked in which department my internship would be based upon and my answer was the Utility department, their main purpose was to produce the electricity required to run the company and produce the steam required for different processes within the production of the cloth. I went to the concerned department and made my temporary card made this was an acheivment of it’s own.

The company was vastly spread within the area and what I didn’t know was that some of it’s units were in different factories. Like YTM (Yunus Textile Mills) main factory was YTM-1 which handled the storage of parts and cloths, also the finalized product was kept their ready to be shipped, there were also a couple of processes being done to the cloth their. I had a brief visit on the main factory as it wasn’t really related to my field. YTM-2 was setup to sterilize and refine water for different usage, we cannot use water full of minerals and salts for industrial processes such as in boilers to produce steam. So RO plants and filters were there to clean and purify water for proper usage. Now YTM-3 had engines that produced electricity and boilers producing steam as per the requirement.

The day was already almost over and I was told to report to Mr. Ali and start my regular internship from the next day onwards. I went to YTM-3 and there found Mr. Ali in the control room. To my astonishment two of my friends were also there, they had just joined the company the day before. This was a relief because I wouldn’t get bored during my time there. Mr. Ali was also a graduate of NED University from the Mechanical department, so basically he was 4 years senior to our batch. He was a genuine and nice guy giving us the information needed regarding the operation of the department.

The first thing he told us were the processes related to the production of cloth making as it was a textile industry we must know the basic knowledge behind these processes.

Spinning Department: Spinning is the twisting together of drawn-out strands of drawn-out strands of fiber to form yarn, and is a major part of the textile industry. Recently 15,000 spindles have been added to the YTM factory to perform the Spinning process.

Weaving Department: It is the process within the textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The focus in the process is on the quality, function and durability of the cloth produced.

Processing Department: The process in which yarn is transformed into fibers, this was a manual work in the past but now machinery are used making the process fully automated.

Stitching Department: It is the process whereby fabric is fashioned into a finished product by means of different sewing techniques. The stitching stage holds extreme significance to ensure that the product takes its shape according to requirements.

Also he told us briefly about the engines and boilers, that I will explain in details later on. He told us that the utility department is concerned with the production of,

• Power
• Steam
• Water
• Chilling
• Compressed Air

And there are three sectors involed within the Utility department related to the production of these commodities,

Project Sector:
The Project department deals with the precautions and brain storming done before installing or removing any machinery within the factory premises related to power and steam generation.

Operation Sector:
The main purpose of this sector is to ensure that the running of the engines and boilers are smooth by observing the relevant parameters such as gas consumption, exhaust transmission and power production, if a problem occurs the maintenance sector is notified.

Maintenance Sector:
The maintenance sector deals with any type of problem during the running of engines and boilers during production, they are notified by the operation sector and act accordingly to successfully resume normal operations in the most cost effective and time saving work.

The first thing we noticed about the control room was that everything was labelled and every object had a specific place to be kept on and our curiosity kept on growing until one of my friends asked as to why was this, the microwave, seats, dispenser, led even the stapler was labelled. Mr. Ali explained that this is an efficient way to remember and take out the properly place items when needed. Known as the 5s methodology. It is a method that uses a list of five Japanese words: seiri, seiton, seisō, seiketsu, and shitsuke. These have been translated as "Sort", "Set In order", "Shine", "Standardize" and "Sustain". This incorporates the ease with which the office environment is organized and made use of.
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We were excited to begin our new venture into the industry and expand our theoretical knowledge into practical work. From the next day we would start our journey, a step towards our careers. I'll explain the details of the internship and our experiences in the next part so stay tuned.