Corran Knitwear

A Borders mill where every order waited eleven weeks for its yarn.

Service

Operations

Sector

Knitwear

Location

Hawick

Year

2025

Cones of mustard, rust and teal yarn on a creel in a knitwear mill

Result

from order to dispatch

11 wk

5 wk

The challenge

Corran knits 180 styles in 40 colours, and every order waited for its yarn. Lead times had doubled in three years and two stockists had left.

What we did

We counted what actually sold: twelve yarns covered seven orders in ten. We rebuilt the production plan around those twelve, kept them in stock, moved two machines next to finishing and put the weekly plan on a board the floor could see.

What changed

Order to dispatch fell from eleven weeks to five. Both stockists came back for the autumn season.

A woman folding lambswool jumpers in mustard, teal and rust in a mill finishing room

A young man taping boxes onto a trolley at a mill's open loading door

The plan fits on one board now, and everyone on the floor can read it.

Ewan Laidlaw, operations director

Worked on this:

Callum Reid, partner. Nadia Hussain, consultant.

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