A van full of brackets in eleven colours
Friday's van to the powder coater carries parts from nine jobs: RAL 9005 matt black enclosures, RAL 7016 anthracite panels, some zinc primer and 9010 white, and a handful of brackets in a customer's own colour code. The delivery note is written by hand and lists jobs, roughly. The coater batches their own ovens by colour, so the parts come back over the next week and a half in several loads.
On Wednesday, assembly is waiting for four black panels that the coater says were never on the van. Or they were, and they came back in gloss rather than matt.
Why coating is where parts get lost
Finishing is the most mixed up stage of a fabricator's flow. Parts from many jobs leave together, get split by colour at the coater, and return in a different grouping. Without a detailed record of what went, nobody can check what came back.
- Delivery notes to the coater list jobs, not individual parts and colours.
- Colour and finish details, such as matt, satin, texture or primer, are on the drawing only.
- Parts are sent out as soon as they are ready, not grouped by colour.
- Expected return dates are not recorded.
- Returns are checked against memory rather than a list.
What finishing delays cost
Assembly and dispatch waiting on a few coated parts. Parts recoated at your cost because the wrong finish was applied, when the instruction was ambiguous. Arguments with the coater about what was sent. And sometimes a whole job's delivery date missed because one colour sat at the coater waiting for enough work to justify an oven run.
The finishing tracking we build
- Each part carries its finish from the drawing or job: coating type, RAL or colour reference, gloss level, texture, pre-treatment and any masking.
- Parts ready for finishing are shown grouped by colour and finish, so you can see what is waiting for each coater run and plan a van accordingly.
- The delivery note lists every part, quantity, colour, finish and masking note, with job numbers and your reference. It can be emailed to the coater ahead of the van.
- Each dispatch records the expected return date from the coater's usual turnaround for that finish.
- Returns are scanned against the list. Missing parts, wrong finishes and damage are flagged with photos, and a query goes to the coater the same day.
- Jobs waiting on coating show on the planner's view with their due date, so a colour that is holding up an assembly can be chased.
| Recorded per part | Why |
|---|---|
| Colour reference and gloss | Avoid wrong finish returns |
| Texture and pre-treatment | Clear instruction to the coater |
| Masking notes | Threads, earth points and mating faces protected |
| Quantity sent | Check against quantity returned |
| Expected return | Chase before assembly is waiting |
What changes in the finishing area
The coater gets a clear list with every colour and finish spelled out, which leaves less room for a wrong guess. You can see which parts are away, which are late, and which jobs they are holding up. Short returns are found when the van unloads, not when an assembler goes looking. And you have a record of the coater's turnaround and error rate by finish, which is useful when you review who you use.
Planning improves too. Seeing parts waiting by colour lets you hold a small job for a day to join a bigger batch in the same colour, where that suits the customer's date.
Is finishing your black hole?
- Delivery notes to the coater are handwritten.
- Parts come back in the wrong colour or finish.
- Assembly waits for coated parts that nobody can locate.
- Returns are checked from memory.
- You do not know how long each coater usually takes.