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Johnson’s automotive know-how boosts apparel production for the homeless

04/12/2015
An automotive seating group has applied its processes to coat-making, and has reported a 51% increase in production and 20% reduction in fabric per coat.

Johnson Controls Automotive Seating teamed up with The Empowerment Plan, a Detroit-based nonprofit that employs and trains homeless women to create coats that transform into sleeping bags for the homeless, to improve training, temperature ratings and testing.

"What began with a financial donation from our company earlier this year has developed into so much more," said Eric Michalak, chief engineer in the Advanced Product Development department for Johnson. "It's been amazing to see how in just a few short months, our expertise in engineering, manufacturing and supply chain could be applied to coat and have such an impact."

Johnson also repurposed its international shipping boxes to support the nonprofit and persuaded a logistics company to provide lower shipping rates, while another supplier has provided free bags to ship the coats in for a year.

Related stories:

Nike partners automotive design firm to ‘revolutionise' footwear manufacturing 15/10/2015
Adidas’ Speedfactory project aims to move manufacturing to next level 22/07/2014

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