Real-Life Decision Making
The dye house manager is off on vacation and you, the head dyer, are in
charge. So far today, all the colors you have matched have been on shade within
industry standards. All your machines are running at maximum capacity. And
most of your crew showed up for work. Unfortunately, things are about to change.
As you sit in the office recording last night's dye lots and entering
production figures into the computer, one of your machine operators comes
into the office with a shade he is concerned about.
This operator is working on an order for one of your biggest customers.
It's a rush job. He's right to be concerned. The fabric he is dyeing
is not quite on shade and he doesn't want to make the call as to whether
the color he is seeing is acceptable. The color you are going for is supposed
to be aqua. But it's a little too bright, just outside of industry standards.
"An aqua that's too bright can be flattened by the addition of another
color of dye. You would know that from experience," says Liz Hodgkinson. She
is a dye house manager. "The decision you make is going to affect production
time."
Your operator insists he did everything exactly the same way as last time.
It's the same fabric, the same amount of water and he used the same dye
recipe. The color should be the same.
Now your investigative skills have to come into play. You can't just
assume your operator did something wrong. It may be that the water in your
machine had too much of another chemical left over from the last batch. Or
you could have a seal that is going that is preventing you from getting proper
flow into the machine. It could be anything.
Textile color chemists deal with situations like this all the time. Matching
colors is not an exact science. As hard as you may try to replicate the situation
under which the perfect color was created last time, it may not work the same
this time.
From experience, you know that when the product has been completely dyed
and finished, the color will look different. Just like the color in the paint
can looks different from the finished product on your bedroom walls. The sample
your operator has brought in is a preliminary example. It may turn out all
right if you let it go, or it may not.
What do you do?