Color Accuracy and Supply Chain Certification are the Keys to a Strong Brand
As retailers strive to provide the best value to their customers, some industry leading brands are now requiring their suppliers to follow tighter quality and sustainability guidelines. Part of meeting those requirements includes the use of color specification and color measurement technology throughout supply chains. By specifying these technologies, companies aim to not only reduce the environmental impact caused by waste-producing color mistakes that can occur during manufacturing, but also provide universal color consistency to their customers.
Many brands have been utilizing color management technology in their own facilities for years, but now, the requirement is being extended to current or would-be suppliers and mandating the implementation of a verified color management program. The reasons are well justified. Color management systems can help reduce waste, save time and money, provide consistent color quality control across multiple locations, and improve communication between brands and their suppliers.
Verifying The Supply Chain
For any brand who wishes to ensure that a supplier’s color program and processes meet specified standards, a verification and certification process where each supplier is assessed by a representative from an approved color management vendor, like Datacolor via their Certify program, is recommended. The approved vendor will check for conditions within the manufacturing environment that can affect color quality, such as:
- Humidity, temperature, and other environmental factors
- Operator expertise, skill, knowledge, and ability to use color management software and technology properly
- Overall equipment performance, condition, calibration, and maintenance
When a Certify assessment is performed, there is a combination of off-site and on-site inspections that the assessor will conduct. This can be done annually to ensure that proper color development procedures are being followed. A re-certification is awarded annually to satisfactory facilities so they can continue to work with the brand as an official partner and supplier.
“Datacolor Certify is a good service for brands. It should be 100% mandatory. Brands in the program have seen a huge decrease in out-of-tolerance submissions from their certified suppliers,” says Basto Wong, head of assessment services at Datacolor.
Achieving Objectives
By implementing a service like this across supply chains, brands can achieve several goals:
- Reduce overall number of lab dips or samples
- Eliminate or reduce shipment of physical color samples for approval
- Ease some environmental impact of repeat production due to errors
- Ensure consistent quality to customers
Benefits of a Color Program
In such a verification program, suppliers are the main beneficiaries in terms of cost savings. For one Datacolor Certify customer in the apparel sector, a color approval process that used to involve as many as six lab-dip submissions was streamlined to only one or two. That kind of savings adds up quickly, as a single lab dip alone can cost over $100. Furthermore, when you consider that samples produced from lab dips must be ferried back and forth between brands and suppliers – incurring additional costs and unnecessary carbon emissions – the effort of verifying your color program is worth the savings.
The benefit to the brand in this case is not only money saved, but time saved as well. With the implementation of a color program across suppliers, several weeks can be shaved off the color development and production process, meaning brands can respond to market demands more quickly and know that the color quality will meet their expectations.
Success Through Collaboration
Through partnership with a verification service, companies are not only working to improve the consistency and quality of their products, but also support the sustainability of its supply chain. This commitment to sustainability aligns with broader corporate responsibility efforts that exist within many organizations.
The Datacolor Advantage
Why work with Datacolor to achieve your color formulation, measurement, and quality control goals?
Our instruments have some of the color industry’s tightest color tolerance range, high inter-instrument agreement and 100% backwards compatibility. That means with proper usage, our instruments can prevent suppliers from accidentally shipping products with off shades. And when it’s time to upgrade in the future, you can rest assured that the valuable color data you’ve curated over the years won’t be lost due to incompatibility with newer instruments.
While it’s true that our products are some of the most relied upon in the market today, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention our most valuable asset – our people.
Our world-class products are supported by experts who have worked for many years in the industries they serve before joining Datacolor. This means that not only are they proficient in Datacolor products and services, but they have a deep understanding of our customers’ unique needs and pain points.
When you invest in a Datacolor solution, you’re not only backed by someone who will guide you every step of the way – from choosing the right solutions through final installation – you’ll also have access to a dedicated local support team that speaks the local language and is ready to help should problems arise.
Connect with a Datacolor expert today and learn more about how you can conquer your color challenges!
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