“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.”
~ Henry Ford
The holiday season is upon us. Here in upstate New York we even have some snow on the ground! While everyone was out fighting the Black Friday crowds, we were in full swing working to produce and ship all of your keepsake products to you in time for the holidays. In fact, we have been so busy that we had to have UPS bring in a tractor trailer to store all of the completed orders!
Last time, I visited with our teams in the Make area, learning how the images are transformed into the many keepsake products we offer. From there, the finished products are sorted by school and sent to the “Match” department.
Our Match department is supervised by Nancy Stevens. Nancy and her team are the final stop before the finished products are shipped back to our schools.
Working in teams of three, each trio serves as our quality control. Products are matched with the original artwork to ensure that the artwork looks as good on the products as it does in its original form. Team members also verify the order forms to ensure that all products are accounted for. Once this process is complete, the orders are packed and prepared for shipping.
Elaine, Carmen & Debbie work at one of our Match stations
If our Match team finds an issue with a product, then it is immediately sent to Kathy in our “Redo” area. Kathy works tirelessly to resolve the issue, which often involves having the images reprinted and the product redone. This extra step helps to ensure that the products meet our high quality standards before being sent out to the school.
Kathy works to get correct products sent to our schools
Before heading out our doors, the packages are sent to our shipping department. Our shippers, Steven & JR, are busy guys these days. They are responsible for making sure that all the packages are sent to the correct locations on a timely basis.
Next week, I’ll be checking in with my friends in Customer Service to see how things are going there.