Preproduction Work Cells

[David Dodd]

Several days ago, a participant in one of the PrePress and Workflow forums here at PrintPlanet asked for advice on this idea: "My company would like to combine the prepress function with client services thus creating pods per client." This idea is very relevant to lean, so I wanted to restart the discussion in this forum.

Work cells are used extensively by lean organizations. In manufacturing, a work cell consists of all of the equipment, people and other resources that are required to produce a particular family of products from start to finish. The equipment and other work centers in a cell are arranged sequentially and in close proximity to each other. A work cell is, in essence, a mini-production line that is dedicated to a single product or a family of similar products.

Lean organizations also use work cells for non-manufacturing functions. Many printing companies have taken a step in this direction by "assigning" CSR's to particular salespeople. Why not expand this idea to include prepress personnel? DGornick mentioned something like this in one of his posts in "The War on Waste" thread. The basic objective would be to create a preproduction team that is dedicated to the jobs received from a defined group of customers. The team (cell) would be responsible for performing all preproduction activites and processes relating to jobs ordered by those customers. Team members would be located in close proximity, and they would be cross-trained to the extent practicable. A cellular organization improves communication among team members and the flow of work through the cell.

Any thoughts or ideas about using preproduction work cells?

[rich apollo]

I've observed the successful assignation of CSRs to Salespeople. With prepress the dividing up of jobs seems to be based more on timing or specific job requirements.

If a job consistently arrives at 8:00 pm then someone on second shift is gonna' get it. If it requires color corrections, then obviously "Color-blind Bobby" isn't the best operator. I think, though, that it's important that everyone in the department be able to handle the jobs from all of the shop's clients. Someone may be the best at what they do, but they're gonna' want a vacation at some point. And what if they take another position or step in front of a bus?

Your question confuses me. Typically folks are talking about combining prepress and customer service and preflight and whatever else. Here you talk about further subdividing a department.

[prepress-mdwest]

Doing the same thing day in and day out will just bore most people out of their skull. Though it's probably more efficient to begin with to use "cells", after a while, most folks will want to do something else. People need challenge and enlightenment. If that is gone, then production WILL suffer. People lose interest and hate what they are doing. Happy employees = better production.

[gordo]

The only time I've seen what might be referred to as "work cells" in print shops was not for Lean purposes, but instead for niche type applications. For example, limited edition art prints production within a general commercial print shop. That was because that particular market has special concerns with their jobs, the customers, use different terminology to express their expectations, and have different needs at press approval time. A dedicated Fine Art reproduction team was tailored to meet the unique needs of this particular clientele. In fact art of the print shop (customer waiting/lounge areas) was designed and decorated to make this stream of customer more comfortable when at the printer doing press/color approvals.

gordo

[J.Graham]

I'd echo the concern Prepress-mdwest raised. At my previous employer, I was assigned to focus on a particular client and found that it made my job a lot less interesting. I missed the variety of applications and jobs that I encountered before the change. It's one reason I would be hesitant to return to that company.

That said, I do think that the company made the right move in assigning some of us to focus on that client. They were picky and demanding, but they also had (and continue to have) a whole lot of potential work. While I don't think the company gained much as far as our communication was concerned, those of us assigned to this client did achieve the skills and knowledge needed to satisfy the customer.