PPB August 2018

Shepenco makes a brilliant mark with brightly finished custom writing instruments. by Jen Alexander Shepenco F rom square-barreled pencils to spring-loaded ballpoint pens, Shepenco has been the writing on the wall for clients seeking quality writing instruments since 1933. The Shelbyville, Tennessee-based supplier finishes pencils and pens with custom flair and with an eye on exceeding customer expectations. But how hard can that be? They’re just pencils, right? And yet, says Shepenco President Dan Townes, “The most challenging area for us is trying to manage or anticipate customer and end-user expectations. We make efforts to effectively and accurately communicate with our customers to provide information they need to understand what the end product or result will be. But this is much easier to say than do.” Shepenco’s primary operations involve pencil decorating and finishing, which includes assembly. Pencils are purchased finished or unfinished, and they are bought as parts of the whole: barrel, ferrule and eraser. For the pens, Townes says, all but one style are acquired as finished product. Townes says customers who order products with a specific PMS color in mind often believe the finished item will look exactly as it does in a coated- stock book. But, he says, “It ain’t gonna happen, and we do our best to advise this. One can specify the same PMS color on several different products and the color on each product will vary slightly. This happens due to the absorbency or porosity of the particular material.” To help mitigate any surprises, Shepenco teammembers are quick to mention the variation early in the conversation. “We also advise that we mix our imprinting inks (lacquers) with the PMS formulas stated. The colors are measured to the stated specs, weighed for accuracy and mixed properly. And we remind folks that the manner a color appears on a computer screen is determined by the resolution of the device’s screen.” Townes gives credit to education offered by industry groups such as PPAI and ASI for helping distributors understand the color process. With any color issue essentially resolved, Townes says the supplier’s greatest asset for distributors is its ability to assemble pencils onsite, allowing Shepenco greater flexibility to assist with customstyle needs. “This also allows us greater inventory flexibility during busy seasons andwith rush orders,” he says. “We discovered that, with many orders, the orders were spending more time on the administrative floor than the shop floor. When you want to use speed as a competitive advantage, spending two and a half days handling the paper while leaving two and a half days to produce, print and fulfill the order presents a challenge.” Townes says the teamhas alleviated the issue by using different software for order processing and by outsourcing some order-entry and art needs. “With the combination of these two efforts, plus the greatest of our assets—our people and their abilities—we now have four to four and a half days with orders on the shop floor; we can have an order on our shop floor ready to be produced in less than 100minutes. “This is the mode of the bell curve, not the mean,” adds Townes. “Yet, our next goal is to have every order on the shop floor in half a day or less. This appears to be realistic and attainable without riots and polysyllabic profanities in our office. …Well, without riots anyway.” The Point Of Promotions 74 | AUGUST 2018 | CONNECT