Un-Manufacturer

There is a lot of green decisions that we made at Nood that get a lot of sizzle points. We only offer eco-preferable products and are committed to changing or upgrading the minute something better comes along. We only make carpet and samples when someone actually wants it. The natural progression was to encourage the designer to stop shopping and start designing which allows us to minimize multiple waste streams because we are making exactly what the client wants instead of trying to predict something as shifting as fashion. What does not get a lot of attention is the un-manufacturing philosophy that defines Nood behind the scenes.

When we proclaim that less is more, there are truly no boundaries. When we started Nood, it became clear that there was already way to much capacity to make carpet in the industry. Designers were not complaining about the availability of carpet, mills or the reps that visit their firms by the hour. The problem was that they all started to run together and that the experience often left a little bit to be desired when all the mud-slinging and price cutting was over. Nood did not set out to be another company that made carpet and then tried to sell it. Our goal was to completely rethink the process with the intention of being a green company that helped designers make the carpet that they actually wanted. The shift from supply to demand became clear early on, and it significantly impacted our fundamental building blocks from day one.

Un-manufacturing is a term that really holds two meanings. One is strategically descriptive and simply means that we want to avoid adding any fixed manufacturing assets when there are existing companies we can partner with to provide that service. This is a completely acceptable practice in the industry for all mills especially for specialty backing or branded fiber systems. There was a time when being vertically integrated was a competitive advantage but times have changed. Nood prides itself in outsourcing almost all individual processes and will prominently herald the quality companies that we are partnered with. Some people make the mistake of assuming that we are simply re-branding finished products from other mills. That is absolutely not the case. Nood controls every aspect of manufacturing from product development to shipping. We choose to buy fiber like Ultron from Ascend instead of extruding it ourself. We choose to have the fiber converted by one of many companies that specialize in creating yarn. We choose to partner with existing commission tufters instead of creating excess competition. We aligned with a proven dye house called Chem-Tech to provide all piece and continuous dyeing. We choose to have UTT apply our high performance broadloom backings instead of trying to do something ourself that would cost way more. Finally, we partnered with Beaulieu to provide our new proven tile backing system called Nexterra. This is about being smart, lean, green and nimble. It does not make sense to invest in fixed assets when those assets are readily available at a fraction of the costs variably. Beyond the costs, technology and chemistry is changing at an incredible pace and Nood wants to be free to support any viable new ideas instead of justifying antiquated ones because we are financially strapped to them indefinitely. The entire premise of Nood is based on change, and we are beholden to support it whenever and however it manifests itself in a viable form that is attractive to our clients.

Un-manufacturing also holds a very tactical meaning when it comes to the daily grind of making carpet once the designer as done their part. We proclaim to be made-to-order and that is true in every aspect. I like to draw a correlation between Nood and a short-order cook at an all-night diner. We keep all the ingredients in their raw form and simply build any combination from scratch once an order is placed. This is a huge philosophical differentiator that usually takes people a while to get their arms around. From the beginning, Nood realized that one of the most wasteful practices in the industry was the habit of forecasting trends and then designing beautiful products and then finally figuring out how to make them. At Nood, we began with the simple idea of developing a tool box if you will, a basic set of yarns that feed varying thread-ups on different tufting machines. By coordinating simple and routine schedules, we can create a vast collection of products and patterns that can be dyed to any color with no minimums or up-charges. The more volume demanded actually increases the efficiency of the overall system because it is based on a simple concept of leverage. While we offer and will continue to introduce products that fall outside of this system. The vast majority will continue to grow out of this basic tenet. One simple guide is that any patterns found in the basic or dynamic collections fall into this system. There will be more to come on the collections.

Everything about Nood is founded in a belief that there is a growing demand for new and progressive thinking that dismantles the long-standing and misguided philosophy of MAKE-BORROW-BUY-SELL-DISCARD that has dominated our society recently. Nood represents change but also requires change. Salespeople, designers and endusers have to change the way they think and act. I would argue that a growing majority have already changed or are very receptive but need to have their hands held early on. We have developed many processes intended to act as training wheels but nothing replaces outstanding service and attention from a knowledgeable representative. Hopefully, this dissertation will help you understand how to position Nood and respond to some of those pesky questions that come out of left field.