I offer a somewhat bias view, because printing companies contact and hire us for help when they are already interested in implementing continuous improvement or what we call “Lean Printing Office”.
The printers that we work with understand the value of a continuous improvement or lean printing office project. They know if they invest xx dollars on implementing lean, the ROI could be at least 3 times the implementation and training investment cost.
I agree that most companies are in “survival” mode and have reduced staff and expenditures. Because there are fewer employees, they are doing more work and do not have the time outside of their daily production responsibilities to implement learn or continuous improvements.
Laying off employees does not necessarily reduce costs because overworked staff can lead to more overtime costs, more production problems and downtime, more spoilage and waste costs, degradation in customer services, and lost customers or business.
But if you take the time to improve processes and eliminate non-value added activities (waste), then you could process the same or more work, more efficiently and with the same or less staff. It’s a catch-22.
I remind you (not you David) that the 2008 survey conducted by PIA/GATF and Point Balance concluded that more than 77 percent of North American printing company managers have heard or read about Lean Manufacturing. And about 40 percent of printing companies are using Lean Manufacturing.
To survive this down economy, printers must do everything they can to reduce costs including cutting UNNECESSARY expenses and improving efficiencies with lean and continuous improvement. They cannot afford not to!
I think more case studies and examples would increase the value of this forum.
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Craig L Press, President
Profectus Printing Industry Business Consultants
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