Print Solutions Magazine, March 2005 -- Case Study: Tags

Creativity, communication and a cooperative manufacturer relationship helped Michael Bolingbroke rush an order of 2-part inventory tags to a customer quickly. When a carpet installation company requested a special tag order for inventory auditing purposes, Bolingbroke realized the customer’s needs were specific and driven by a critical deadline most manufacturers couldn’t meet.

“I took the order on November 29, and the customer needed me to deliver by December 9,” says Bolingbroke, president of Design Printing 2000, Los Angeles. “The company hadn’t used a tag like this before to prepare inventory for an audit, so there was no example.”

The carpet company’s previous tags identified carpet rolls only, leaving no indication of remaining yardage. This lax recording method lacked detail necessary for accurate audits. Enter the 2-part tag request. The carpet company asked Bolingbroke to produce a tag with four features: space for employees to mark initial and remaining carpet yardage; a tear-off portion for auditors; a reinforced hole to fasten tags to rolls; and two inventory numbers, one for the company and one for auditors. In addition, the customer requested green tags for easy identification and a turnaround time that limited Bolingbroke’s sourcing options.

“When I called inventory tag companies to give me prices on a stock 2-part inventory tag, they were pushing me out two to four weeks,” Bolingbroke says. “I needed the order in December, at the end of the year when everyone’s equipment is jammed with other orders in production. No one I called had time.”

A relationship saved the sale. Bolingbroke relied on long-time vendor Kathy Bazzell at manufacturer ProDocumentSolutions, Paso Robles, Calif. Because he works with Bazzell regularly and is familiar with her equipment, the pair devised creative solutions to ensure the customer’s tag order included necessary specifications and still met the deadline.

“The trust that you develop with a plant is critical,” Bolingbroke says. Because of the tight delivery time, he knew ProDocumentSolutions’ rotary printing equipment could handle the job if the customer was willing to make a few amendments. The customer agreed to tags with square corners rather than die cut, diagonal ones.

“Because we moved from a traditional inventory tag to a 2-part unit set with a hard copy in the back—something we use every day—that cut down on delivery time,” Bolingbroke says. ProDocumentSolutions produced the job in five days. “We don’t do reinforcement holes here, but we made our own,” Bazzell says. A clean-stick adhesive strip added muscle to the tag top, where a hole was punched. That way, the carpet company could remove the tape and stick the tag on the carpet roles. Tag color concerns were corrected when Bazzell suggested flooding the face of the card with the pigment. This saved days required to source green paper stock. And to satisfy demand for two numbers on the tag, Bazzell plugged in the specification during production.

Bolingbroke provided its customer with a 2-part tag that included the features necessary for detailed inventory checks. “Kathy and I have a fun relationship, and because of her outlook and willingness to help the customer, she is never too hurried not to focus on what I need,” he says.

—Kristen Hampshire