Almost a year ago, a consultant we work with said we would definitely improve our paint shop efficiency over time by creating a library of spray-out cards. It was something we had done in the past, but like a lot of great ideas, in the rush of day-to-day business, we hadn't kept it up. Our current painter didn't have a spray-out card system in place, but concurred that it was a good idea.
I agreed to create the written standard operating procedure (SOP) for the process with his input. Because he did not have much personal experience with creating or using a library of spray-out cards, I also spoke with two former painters who now work for our paint company in order to get their ideas on how to best make it work.
Essentially, our SOP calls for the spray-out card to include the same number of coats of base and clear that are applied to the vehicle.
We print from our paint mixing system a label that we attach to the back of the spray-out card. It includes our paint formula as mixed, which also gets stored within our color database in the computer system.
We add any notes to the back of the card that could be helpful the next time we use that color. We note, for example, if the color is one with low opacity and thus how many coats of base were necessary for coverage.
The outside painters I spoke with also provided their recommendations on how to organize the spray-out cards. We created a library of 10 three-ring binders. There's one binder for the nine automakers whose vehicles we most often see in the shop. The 10th binder is for all the other less commonly seen makes of vehicles. Each binder has a different color label on the spine to help us quickly find the one we need.
Within each binder, tabs separate the vehicle colors. This means that in the Toyota binder, for example, all the reds, greens, blues, golds, silvers, whites and blacks are each in their own section (with a last section containing any other colors).
While the process of creating and organizing the spray-out cards initially takes a little time, our painter has found that it was soon saving him time in the mixing and color-matching processes. It's a process he is really glad that we have implemented.
That same consultant also told us about a chance we had to save a little on our paint bill by helping provide our paint manufacturer with vehicle test panels. By sending in 6-inch square samples cut from damaged vehicle panels, we're helping the paint manufacturer increase and improve its paint formulas and variants based on actual colors from vehicles.
Our paint manufacturer provides us with a list of vehicles (six years old or newer) for which they are looking for samples. They have some specific information they need included on the label (which they provide) on the back of each sample. For most samples we submit, we receive $10 each in credit toward our paint bill; for some "most wanted" colors on the list they pay more.
We created a template (with magnets so that it can be attached to the panel) to trace around in order to cut out the size of sample that the paint company requires. Now that the step has been integrated into the paint shop's day-to-day process, it takes very little time. In just a couple months we were able to effectively create and submit about 30 test panels.
Neither of these ideas is revolutionary. Many painters have relied on their own spray-out card library for years. But we've now made these processes part of our company's SOPs, so they will continue even if we have changes in our paint department personnel.
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