It’s all in the details

Imagine a sales-focused group of individuals with engineering inclinations and manufacturing savvy. That’s the nature of the Special-Lite detailing team. With a dozen professionals on staff, this team translates the customer order into precise work instructions as well and 2D and 3D drawings. With this kind of information in hand, various Special-Lite production teams can transform your vision into a made-to-order product.

Such orders could be for individual interior doors or complete building entrance systems with sidelites and transoms.

The detailing team also creates the shop drawings that Special-Lite customers deliver to the building owner or owner representative as part of the overall submittal package.

Such work requires, not only the right tools, but a broad knowledge of openings and construction trends as well as in-depth familiarity with Special-Lite customers and the extensive line of Special-Lite products.

Our detailing team is up for this challenge.

“Our real focus,” says detailing manager, Alan Smith, “is on the end use of the product. For example, we work closely with the Special-Lite customer service department which is responsible for problem resolution. My goal is to make their lives easier by ensuring the customer gets what they wanted and that it performs as promised.”

“So, we look all along the product pathway,” Alan continues, “from how and where it will be used, to ensuring that production knows how to make it such that quality remains our hallmark.”

In these efforts, details matter. “I tell my team to start with the fundamentals,” says Alan. “We have to get three things right: color, swing, and size. And sometimes the customer has mistakenly provided information so we verify these fundamentals. Then, we move on to the size, position, and style of the lites. Then, there are numerous hardware preps that have to be incorporated into our drawing and instructions.”

Beyond standard doors and frames, Alan’s team also has to know about specialty products such as fire doors, ballistic and blast-rated doors, and hurricane-rated doors. Such products have their own caveats related to lites and hardware.