Over the decades, Uster Technologies has evolved from manufacturing quality testing instruments into a trusted partner shaping the future of textile production. Moving forward, Uster can be compared to a ‘family doctor’ with strategic advice and end-to-end solutions optimizing mill performance. With its ‘Think Quality – Next Level’ vision, Uster empowers customers beyond just data and devices towards intelligent decision-making. This transition sets the course for a more sustainable, efficient, and impactful textile industry.
Reaching 150 years is an achievement for any company, especially in the modern era of rapidly changing business conditions. For Uster Technologies, it has been a process of continuous development, shifting its core competence from the origins manufacturing telegraphy equipment to its 21st Century role as global leader in textile quality systems and solutions. Today, that progression sees Uster taking on a new mission – customer-focused, with a business model offering end-to-end solutions for quality management and business profitability.
Uster considered the family doctor, one said by a customer, as a powerful metaphor. It suggests that Uster should go further than being a provider of instruments such as yarn clearers and evenness testers. Excellent as these are for measuring and controlling quality, their role typically ends at that point – comparable with the medic’s simple thermometer.
Taking the family doctor analogy further, Uster wants to understand in detail the context of each spinning mill – its operations, goals, and market environment – to advance from simply delivering data towards actively helping mills improve. In this way, Uster is evolving to make a much bigger impact, as a trusted partner – like the family doctor, who monitors health but also provides insights, guidance, and long-term care.
From product supplier to strategic partner
This concept of family doctor opens the door to a new level of value creation. Rather than offering isolated instruments, Uster can empower mills to achieve more, by providing integrated, end-to-end solutions. This requires understanding the mill’s entire production chain, identifying opportunities for improvement, and aligning quality management with the mill’s broader business goals.
‘Think Quality – Next Level’ is Uster’s shift from product supplier to strategic partner. It’s about helping customers move from reactive quality control to proactive quality assurance and optimization. This approach allows mills to unlock higher efficiency, better performance, and increased profitability.
The value chain manager
The ultimate goal is satisfaction for the customer’s customer, in a way that is profitable for the spinning mill. Uster has the preconditions available, with what’s called the ‘solution stack’. That means Uster has the sensing points connecting hardware and managing parameters across the spinning mill and along the value chain. These cloud-connected instruments feed data to the Uster 360Q platform. This is where the problem-solving happens, the ultimate enabler for decision-making, action and optimization with a comprehensive mill overview. Applying AI here, the result is greater automation and performance, uniquely combined with the support of top Uster textile advisors to integrate all the key data for the outcome the spinner wants. Superior sensors, intelligent analysis and unrivaled human expertise create the Uster magic that is greatly valued but rarely matched.
The Uster FiberQ raw material management solution has already been proven in practice – and another new solution will be introduced at ITMA Asia + CITME 2025. The full impact of ‘Think Quality – Next Level’ might be found in a mill in the year 2035, when a mill can correlate data from the bale laydown with fabric quality parameters. Collating all this information and even connecting the data with mills across the world, can be massively influential, giving spinners early optimization potential with a clear view of the ultimate quality impact.
Technologies aligned with ecological trends
A sustainable textile industry should be part of a better planet for all. Stakeholders today expect Uster to take on the kind of pioneering role it had when launching the first evenness tester in 1948. While textile recycling is still in its infancy, there is a clear call for Uster to lead the way in developing innovative quality management approaches quality management approaches that support and accelerate recycling efforts in collaboration with stakeholders. The adoption and scale-up in use of recycled fibers will see this segment evolve from a 1% niche of production to something notably bigger. In that sense, sustainability is very important, so Uster is currently developing many technologies to fit with ongoing ecological trends.
As with all Uster policies, this goal is aligned with the company’s purpose statement: “We empower people to create a better future for the textile industry through quality and innovative end-to-end solutions.” A purpose is of universal importance, driving and directing the company and focusing on the basic principles – especially in tough times. It’s the way to build resilience for the company and for its people, and is the foundation for the optimism that Uster will continue to achieve significant milestones into the next 150 years.