Storefront Recolor

CASE STUDY

A retailer changed the appearance of its storefronts nationwide which included the remove of awnings and brackets from all exterior and interior stores. Total store count was in excess of 200 stores. The rollout needed to be completed within 3 months and including repairing and refinishing wood and metal mullions, where the awnings where secured. 

SCOPE
The scope of work needed to complete this rollout:

1. Notify mall or building management about change of apperance to storefront and fill out all necesary forms and permits.
2. Do a field survey to determine the height of the awnings and type of mullions.
3. Remove and dispose of awing supports and brackets and as well as awnings themselves. All material need to be destroyed in order to ensure that awnings could not be used by other parties.
4. Patch and repair holes left from awing support brackets. On wood mullions the entire storefront needed to be stained to match new louvers. On metal mullions the entire storefront needed to be painted to match new louvers.
5. Before and after photos needed to be submitted to clients home office.

CHALLENGES
The constraints of this project included:

1. All work needed to be completed overnight.
2. Work was to be completed during Fall which introduce weather related issues with the exterior stores.
3. Awing sections where on average 15 to 20 ft long and had to be cut down onsite for proper dispose.
4. The patching of both the wood and metal mullions had to be perfect as to not show any evidence of discoloration or damage.
5. The staining and painting products that were to be used where highly violate and not accessible nationwide.

SOLUTION
We understood that this entire rollout was being performed on the storefront, which is the most important area for this retailer. The work had to be completed in a short amount of time, but with the highest level quality. Complete and up to date communication with mall and building management was must, due to the location of work being performed. Our solution for this project included:

1. Notifying all mall and building management with a exact scope of work which sometime included a before and after rendering of the storefront.
2. During the field survey notes and photos where taken to ensure that the proper equipment was sent out to be able to perform work. Some locations need a scissor lift, while other needed a boom, while other could be completed with extension and A-frame ladders.
3. Completing all the exterior northern location first was paramount in order to ensure that the rollout could be completed. Daily and weekly forecast were used to determine the most opportune time to complete the work at all exterior locations.
4. Awning supports where deemed to be made of a recyclable material that was sawed down onsite to workable 5 ft sections and brought the next morning to the local recyclable center.
5. Specified stain and paint was shipped to store locations on both coast to insure that the product was accessible to crew when they arrived.
6. Extension training was complete prior to the execution of the project to insure that all crew had a familiarity and expertise with both the stain and paint products being used.
7. Daily updates with crews to insure that no factors included the weather required schedule changes .
8. Certain store where selected for site visits by management team throughout the country to ensure the quality and consistency that client demanded.

SUMMARY
Completing an exterior project in the fall is not ideal, however, the client needs had to be meet. With proper planning and accurate communication with all management parties, we were able to prevent any delays in the execution of the project. Proper training of crew with the unfamiliar products was a must in order to keep the schedule and maintain quality. Realistic expectations regarding weather in Northern cities was needed to ensure no down time for any of the crews. As a result of all the planning all the locations were completed prior to holiday shopping season .