Tough economic times often mean having to make do with fewer resources to handle the workload. The same workload for developing new colors, adjusting production batches, and approving colors is spread over fewer people. Staff become stressed and can easily overlook color shifts they might otherwise have caught.

And, as you know, color shifts take time to correct. They result in product that either has to be reprocessed or worse, discarded, let alone the time and labor required to make the corrections.

Sometimes, it's the more experienced staff-the more expensive staff-that had to be let go, and along with them, went years of knowledge of how to work the color matching system or operate older, more finicky equipment.

But, just like a painter who switches from brush to roller and roller to spray gun, an investment in the right industrial color matching or color quality control technology can help ease the burden while increasing productivity and reducing costs.

Don't paint yourself into a corner

Investing in technology is one way to keep up with demand while keeping payrolls lean. 

Consider these advantages from a new, up-to-date, industrial color matching system:

Fewer production adjustments: The software can automatically calculate and add colorant to bring production back on track.

• Optimized adds: Color matching software can find the one, optimal colorant to add to correct a batch.
• Batch size variation adjustments: Color quality control software automatically calculates accurate adjustments by weight or volume, or even when the batch amounts are not known.
• Faster estimating: Detailed production costing lets you provide estimates faster, beating the competition to the bid.
• Wider color range: Today's sophisticated industrial color matching software databases help you reduce the number of colorants in inventory while broadening the range of colors you can produce.

This recession will end someday (or so they keep telling us). In the meantime, consider how technology can increase productivity, lower inventory, and keep staffing costs in check. Then, focus on the future, one with a bright, sunny, yellow outlook.