1 location in California
Signage and identity solutions
500+ employees
The Background
As a national manufacturer of branded signs, SignResource was required to meet exacting quality control standards set by their customers, and also develop ways to stay competitive when bidding for new projects.
We’re the largest signage manufacturer on the west coast, running a 24/6 production schedule and producing anywhere between 40,000 to 50,000 signs per year. We make signs for national companies like Shell, Burger King, Best Western, FedEx, Rite Aid and ExxonMobil, just to name a few.
When these national organizations go through a rebrand process, they need new signage for all of their retail locations. This means we have to bid and compete to be an approved sign manufacturing vendor. Once we become an approved vendor, we have to manufacturer to spec exactly what has been requested of us.
The Problem
SignResource promises their customers high quality signs. However, a busy manufacturing facility meant it was difficult to keep their eyes on the signs during all parts of the production process.
Our customers invest anywhere from $1,000 to $20,000 on a single sign. Part of that investment is an expectation that they will receive a sign that is perfect. As a result, quality control is extremely important to us.
We had our work cut out for us given how busy our facility is. We originally had only visual inspections in place during certain parts of the production process. It helped, but we knew it meant certain issues could fall through the cracks. That wasn’t going to help us keep up with customer expectations. We then tried using pictures to keep tabs on the signs and their condition, but it was inefficient and there wasn’t a convenient way to store all of the images.
Also, we rely on long haul trucks to get our signs to their final destination. That means a sign could travel up to 3,000 miles before it gets to our customers. That’s a large distance during which something could happen to the sign. Again, it was one more touch point where quality could have suffered and we wouldn’t be meeting customer expectations.
Implementing Record360 has nearly eliminated damage disputes throughout the manufacturing and distribution process. Additionally, the tool has helped build the company’s quality control credibility when bidding on new projects.
Since we started using Record360, we have drastically decreased our damage disputes. We have about eight or nine plant supervisors and quality control personnel using Record360 to document a sign’s condition throughout the manufacturing process. That means we can easily keep digital records of the sign’s condition and make sure that we’re shipping out a perfect product. It also lets us share images with our customers in case there are any concerns about the sign’s damage.
We’ve also partnered with our long haul trucking team to regularly photograph and video record the sign while in transit and at drop off. We want to show our customers that we’re invested in the sign’s condition even while it’s in transit. By taking photos and videos when the sign is dropped off at individual sites, we can show that we dropped off a sign that met our customer’s specs.
Every bid (RFI’s and RFP’s) has very specific questions about quality control, and now we can point to a specific tool, Record360, that we use to keep quality standards high. Just the fact that we have this type of quality control gives us credibility with customers.
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