The true Colwell advantage

The core of our business (and the success of yours) rests on accurate, non-metameric colour reproduction. This is what sets us apart from colour produced by print (ink-based) or any other method. Colwell doesn’t deal in “close enough” or “almost.” In our business fractions truly mean the difference between a precise colour representation and a product that could disappoint consumers and cost them thousands of dollars.

Doing it right because it’s the right thing to do.

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.”
– Alan Lakein

Production planning meetings are some of the most creative meetings at Colwell. Held both prior to estimating and prior to production, these meetings gather talented people from manufacturing, engineering, estimating, finance, scheduling, customer service and sales to freshly consider each job and determine how it could be run more efficiently and/or delivered faster while maintaining our exceptional quality standards.

Colwell’s value engineering process includes a multi-disciplined team with experience and expertise relative to the type of project to be studied. The systematic and structural approach comes from the value engineering job plan, consisting of multiple phases:

1. Information. Gather information to better understand the project
2. Functional Analysis. Analyze the project to understand and clarify the required functions
3. Creative. Generate ideas on all the possible ways to accomplish the required functions
4. Evaluation. Review ideas and concepts to select feasible ideas for development into specific value improvement
5. Development. Select and prepare the “best” alternative(s) for improving value
6. Presentation. Present the value recommendation to the project stakeholders

While an individual production run might involve millions of pieces, each job we take on is unique to some degree. Whether it involves sizing, configuration or materials, nothing is boilerplate at Colwell. And, by incorporating “flexible factory” principles, nearly every piece of equipment on our floor can be moved and incorporated into new configurations and work cells to maximize efficiency for a job. These flexible factory innovations have lead to significant improvements in two-sided chip mounting, large-format colour-card production and take-home card bagging.

Value engineering is extremely important. It allows us to optimize raw materials, reduce setup times and increase run speeds. It also is another way for Colwell to pass quality – and savings – on to our customers.

A continuing commitment.

Since first introducing colour cards to the paint industry, Colwell has been focused on how to do it better. We’re proud to say our entire organization is committed to a continuing and continuous effort to improve our products, services and processes. We believe it’s about more than just industrial practices…it’s about doing what’s right…for our Customers, our company and our communities. Our efforts seek both ‘incremental’ and ‘breakthrough’ improvements, acknowledging that these are generally co-dependent versus mutually exclusive. We’ve built our approach on a foundation consisting of three key measures: Efficiency, Effectiveness and Flexibility. You’ll see it in our approach…and in your end product.

Fanatic discipline…flexible solutions.

Plan the work, work the plan. This phrase serves us (and ultimately, our customers) well. Our Customer service and scheduling groups operate on a simple premise: “How a project starts is how it goes.”

Following intensive production planning, Colwell manufacturing and customer service teams are supported by an information technology infrastructure that facilitates robust production reporting. This ‘dashboard’ supports real-time changes while it tracks the job, start to finish. Experienced analysts monitor all facets of daily production, quickly identifying any potential problems and when necessary, pulling specialized teams together to develop and implement resolutions with little or no schedule disruption.

Colwell’s Customer service team is the glue that keeps the Colwell machine working, actively coordinating the many moving parts of a production run with our Customers and internal resources to ensure on-time and in-full delivery at quality levels that exceed our Customers’ expectations.

Reliable performance.

Let’s say your colour system has 2,500 different SKUs, is distributed through multiple distribution centers to hundreds (if not thousands) of stores and will be pulled at different rates by hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of customers. Add in new store openings, seasonal usage fluctuation, inventory adjustments and potential out-of-stock penalties, and the prospect of staying on top of take-home card production could make a grown man (or two VPs) cry. That’s where Colwell can step in.

As tinted paint sales have accelerated over the past two decades, Colwell has coupled usage reporting with predictive systems and analyses to create nearly flawless inventory management processes. Our efforts have significantly reduced our customers’ on-hand inventories, reducing investment in inventory by as much as 75 percent and ensuring that their DCs and stores have stock available 365 days a year.

The right products at the right time.

Colwell has been warehousing and distributing goods for our customers for more than 25 years. We offer a full-service call center; 55,000 square feet of climate-controlled, random-access, on-site warehousing; and 15,000 square feet dedicated to daily fulfillment service. A robust IT infrastructure helps us manage fulfillment programs and create custom reporting that best serves each client. Fulfillment services are offered as a stand-alone option, but they are often integrated with Colwell’s comprehensive inventory management programs, dramatically reducing overall program costs and inventory levels.

Fulfillment programs include:

• Direct-to-consumer sampling programs, typically supporting a Web-based ordering interface.
• Direct-to-professional sampling and sample replenishment programs for architects and designers.
• Direct-to-store sample replenishment.
• Bulk shipments of goods to distribution centers.

Truly sustainable solutions.

Like many companies, in keeping with major environmental initiatives, sustainability has become integrated in the fabric of our business, impacting even small, day-to-day choices. Colwell considers sustainability along four planks: toxicity, energy impact, sustainability and efficiency. We have made considerable strides in all four areas. In 2011, we were pleased to be awarded FSC Certification (Forest Stewardship Council), allowing us to reassure our Customers and their end-users that the paper used for their colour merchandising program is from responsibly managed forests.