The combination of years of low inflation in pricing and a mounting number of low-wage manufacturing workers in other countries is a major challenge to manufacturers in developed countries to be more productive than ever before. We are now seeing improvement in the manufacturing sector, driven largely by productivity gains. In the coating industry, like other businesses, gains in productivity come from process improvement and adoption of new technology. Process improvements can be found in almost any system. Materials handling, scheduling, color-change habits and maintenance are examples of areas that are commonly not maximized.