As I strolled past the food court of our local mall, tempted by the smell of pretzels and bad Chinese food, I noticed a tall black witch standing in the window of one of the stores. Her arm was propped up by a wire and she was pointing in my direction with an ugly grin on her face. She held a sign in the other hand that read, “Lowest Prices on Halloween Costumes”.
Halloween? It’s August and last time I checked Halloween was at the end of October. I peered in the window and noticed a handful of shoppers sifting through costumes and decorations. The whole scene just didn’t seem right. I was standing there in shorts, a t-shirt and flip-flops, staring at Halloween junk. I guess these store owners need to order their inventory months in advance. That means the suppliers are cranking our fake wax lips and rubber masks while holiday music is still playing on the radio.
It got me thinking that even with all of the technology at our disposal, lead times are still pretty long. Information can travel instantly around the globe. Packages can travel in a day or so to any corner of the Earth. Even with digital printing, electronic proofs and email, things still take time.
A couple of years ago Structural Graphics initiated a major review of its workflow. Every department and process was evaluated with the goal of improving our customer’s experience. We talked to our vendors, or customers and our employees to come up with better processes and new ways of doing things. The result was better communication with our customers, a smoother production process and of course, shorter lead times. But that’s not all we did.
We’re in a unique business. All of our dimensional projects are different in some way. Perhaps a customer needs a fairly standard box, but hey, can it whistle when someone opens it? Or maybe they’re just doing a nice magazine insert, but need an actual video to play right on the flat page! Yeah, we can do that. Then there is the client that needs all the bells and whistles, but needed it yesterday. Extremely tight deadlines are the reality of today’s world so we had to find a way to service these clients too.
This past year we launched RocketShip Solutions™. It was the culmination of months of effort trying to create a streamlined production process for our most popular designs. As a result we can now offer a large variety of high-impact dimensional solutions that can be produced and shipped in as little as a week! Furthermore, you have many different fulfillment and mailing options so you won’t be squeezed into a one-size-fits-all solution. We’re really excited about the launch of this program and it has already proven to be a success for our customers.
Not everything needs to take a lot of time. You can have your high-impact cake and eat it too. Oh, and of course, you can also get your kids their Halloween costumes three months early.
