Video: National Marker Company Sign Muscle Technology

I spend a lot of time talking about Sign Muscle. I love Sign Muscle because it's an exclusive proprietary coating that's on all our signs for free and it guarantees our sign the message for life.

The MSC Supplier Profile Series, sharing innovations in safety today.

Today, MSC is here at National Marker Company to take a look at their innovative manufacturing process to create the highest quality signs at the fastest speed possible.

This process with all of our signage that goes through in a day-in and a day-out basis, we continue to try to protect our signage and in hearing that MSC has the very best product available today.

National Marker Company manufactures custom signs coated with Sign Muscle at the fastest speeds possible. The most important thing to us at MSC and with our partners and other manufacturing partners is making sure we have the right product for the right application. Being able to customize signs is really just an example of that.

Custom signage or identification is about protecting. Right? It's about protecting and making sure mom and dad come home safely. The customization of our signage brings the personal message. That personal message makes people more aware to basically save lives.

When we first started the customization was taking 10 to 12 days. Yesterday alone we produced 54% of the product of custom shipped the exact same day. We have the staff, the graphic artist we purposely place them all in the same room so that message is tight, so we can deliver it by the next day.

This is great for customization if a customer has a specific need or message they want to get across they can go to mscdirect.com, they can customize exactly what they want to say on the sign, get a proof back, and then from here go straight to the manufacturing floor.

As soon as our customer places that order, that product goes directly to our printers. We can take and create the conception and idea manufacture the product and to have it in your hands the next day.

From the time that in order is placed on mscdirect.com the National Marker Custom Sign Portal, to the time that is actually in that customer's facility, it's turn around have about three days.

In the six years that I've been here we've replaced almost every piece of equipment in here with the latest technology. We stay on top of it constantly. So we're about to buy a whole new level of technology that will produce signs that roughly six times the speed we can produce them now.

The other day we had a job that we needed to do a quick fix for somebody, that they made a mistake on their own their proof, and by the time I walked from the art room out to the printer was actually already printing it. Took about 12 minutes to get out and done.

And we're always trying to push the envelope to make things better for our customers.

Sign Muscle is proprietary technology that we don't see anywhere else in the marketplace. It allows signs to stand up to UV rays, high heats, different elements, and all those kinds of things.

Our technology just doesn't protect the top part, but it encapsulates the whole entire sign.

Laminates that go over signs can yellow, they peel and crack, with Sign Muscle your sign is guaranteed against graffiti, it's guaranteed against all the elements, it's guaranteed against harsh UV rays and it's protected for life.

When our competitor sign goes out, it starts degrading on the first day. The great thing about Sign Muscle is that product is not going to be its very best until 12-18 months later because of the curing process from the sun and the UV rays.

I got a phone call from the customer the other day and there was a graffiti artist that marked up three different signs, and he called me up and said hey listen Sign Muscle worked on two but it didn't work on the other one. So I asked the customer to take that picture in that right-hand corner and recognize that there was no NMC wave, it was our competitor’s sign.

We have the same sort of passion when it comes to making sure the end user is safe, making sure that it's a customer-first approach. We innovate with partners like National Marker all the time, one of the things that we're really focusing on for the next couple of months is our new initiative and shadow boards.

So shadow board is just a tool to use for 5S methodologies. The 5S methodology essentially is around keeping your workspace clean and keeping things that you use to get your job done in the right place. So shadow boards really help us to make sure that everything is in its right place when you come in in the morning and when you need things to get your job done.

The shadow board is completely customizable so we make each one kind of an individual and then we have things that go with the stock product, but you could always create your brand and specific products or any ancillary products that you want to put on your board.

This puts the tools available where it's needed. So for the fact that they don't have something here, there's a level of responsibility that goes back to that person. That's a big part about NMC on this floor, we don't have any supervisors this floor, we don't tell people what to do. Our process is kind of redirect.

The key thing from my standpoint is we need to give them the tools to be successful. It's really really exciting when you get to come to partners like NMC, and get to see their home manufacturing process from beginning to the end. The kinds of machines they use, the kind of tool they use, processes, and really understand how they may affect the items that eventually go to our end-users.

Some things really impressed me with just walking around the facility, and I'm talking to Michael today, but really just the amount of investment they make in technology, the amount investment they make in their machinery, and also always the relationship he has with the people on the plant floor.

The best moment of owning this organization is probably winning that third time Best Company to Work For in the state of Rhode Island. That's the people, they enjoy coming to work every day, they see that we're constantly trying to improve it, and we share with them our success.

We have a passion to be a great identification company. We invest. We not only invest in the new equipment, but we invest in our processes—the lean and the 5S—but most importantly we invest in our people. When you put those three things together, also with Sign Muscle being one of the very best products in our custom signage, and being able to drive customer solutions, that is the total win for both of our organizations.

Connect, optimize and innovate at mscdirect.com/bettermro.