Specialty Launches Aggressive
Quality Initiative
Niles, IL, March, 2008
Specialty Print Communications, a national, full-service printing company, has implemented a quality-control initiative that is the most rigorous in its history and among the most comprehensive in the industry.
According to Dustin LeFebvre, Executive Vice President Strategic Initiatives, the program will turn a solid quality performance into a stellar one.
“We’re very excited about and committed to this program. It will help make us exceptionally responsive to our clients' needs and ensure optimal quality in every phase of the project life cycle. It also dovetails perfectly with our new “built to respond” positioning. In this case, quality is built right into every step of our process,” LeFebvre said.
Specialty has created a dedicated department headed by Sandy Cook, who spent 17 years in quality control at RR Donnelly before joining Specialty. She will supervise four inspectors who will provide 24/7 coverage, continuously evaluating press pulls on the half-hour and assigning a quality grade in one of four levels ranging from “exceptional” to “out of tolerance.” Areas of consideration include color matching, registration, fold integrity, image clarity, and perforations.
The quality department, which is distinct from the production department, reports directly to LeFebvre and will generate a daily report for his review that lists the number of exceptions and how long it took to correct them. Key objectives of the QC team are lowering response time and eliminating quality issues before they arise.
“We’re certain our clients will really benefit from this program. We will, too. Already, we all feel very energized undertaking this challenge,” LeFebvre concluded.
