Decorator Profile
‘What can be digital, should be digital’
Colours International is very much a traditional screen printer and embroiderer at heart. However, three years ago the team took the decision to invest heavily in its technology to streamline internal processes. Here P&P editor Melanie Attlesey speaks to Ian Bolton, owner of the Dublin-based company, to find out more.
I
an and the team at Colours International live very much by the mantra that ‘what can be digital, should be digital’. In order to streamline internal processes to enable the production staff to become more autonomous and to create frictionless flow throughout the company, three years ago Colours International began to design its own software in-house.
Taking the way production team worked online was no easy task. Making light of the work involved, Ian jokes that the CASE (copy and steal everything) method was utilised during the development phase. Colours International’s in-house designers looked at software being used by other decorators and took what they thought to be the best bits and improved upon other aspects to create their own in-house software for production staff to use. Gone were the production sheets and instead an online system was launched.
The result was the creation of COMPTS (Colours Online Manufacturing, Planning and Tracking System).
Taking control
Now the small team of printers and embroiderers are able to plan ahead for the week by seeing what jobs are scheduled to take place when and on what machine, meaning they can take control of their own production. With three screen printing carousels and three embroidery machines, Colours International may not be the biggest decorator around, but it certainly is one of the more efficient ones and runs like a well-oiled machine thanks to the software.
For example, the software is able to calculate exactly how long it will take to print a four-colour job, or a two-colour sleeve, a one-colour back and a five-colour front. It takes all the guess work out of the production planning.
| 42 | September 2021
This picture shows a week’s planning for print. This is what the staff see
“Psychologically the production staff can now feel they can get ahead, because they know if there is a spare moment and there is a job ready for next week, they can bring it forward themselves. They don’t need to double- check with anyone,” explains Ian. Printer Tanya McDerrmot, who uses the software, provides her thoughts: “The system makes everything a lot easier. I can see at glance what is ready to go. I don’t need to check with other
people on stock screens, I have all the information in front of me!” The plan was to always extend the software for customers’ use, to allow customers to be kept in the loop at every step of the ordering process. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 accelerated Colours International’s plans to do this. Ian says: “We have transferred our complete production system online with automated access granted to each
This picture shows the artwork which has been approved by a customer
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