advice needed please!

[leetaylor]

Hi Everyone!
In the next couple of weeks I will be taking over responsibility for running/scheduling the print production in our company.

I currently run the pre-press department but will be taking over the task of scheduling the work for the presses too.

The guy who I will be taking over from currently plans the workflow in his head and "makes it up as he goes along" for want of a better phrase!

I would really appreciate feedback from you guys as to what the method is within your companies.

I am thinking of installing a "T-Card" board whereby each job is written on a card and placed into the pre-press section on a board. When the plates are ready the card will then get moved to the "press" section on the board.

Is this the sort of thing you guys have in place, or am I way off the mark here?

We also have a very sophisticated MIS System (optimus 2020) in palce, but I have not yet been trained to use this).

Your input would be most appreciated guys.

[Bondmaster]

I last used a T Card type system 30 odd years ago in the flexo trade where I kept track of a plant involving 400 workers on 24 hour output - maybe 50-60 machines. I'm therefore a bit of a dinasaur in this field ( have my own businesses since 1980). Still believe its one of the best way for all staff to gain a fast visual on whats going on , including pushy sales people and bosses like me who try to jump the line. Only thing different we did was to have cards that started out at x width that were then cut to represent hours on each type of machine. Reason being a flexo laminate could be going thru 4 depts and 5 machines one after another over aq week. Or you can leave the cards the same size , but space them along a grid representing time lines. I'm saying all this with no knowledge of systems since the 70's or how bgig the dept is. Just its Sunday here - your Saturday - and its pouring down outside in what's supposed to be our summer. I see T-Cards now have a computer software that visually looks the same. Not as user prominant than the old boards "in the face" tho. Just remember to put outwork finishing like laminating and foiling into the line. As a contact laminator for 30 years it always bugged me outwork occupied a slot in "no mans land" so when it was sent out to the contractor he was given anywhere from zero to urgent/urgent/and more urgent to do the job. Good luck from me in NZ

[leetaylor]

Thanks Bondmaster!

The weather here is freezing so we are no better off!

Thanks for the reply and the good wishes.

Out of interest, how was your T-Card Board planned up? For example, did you have the days of the week down the left hand side, from top to bottom - and the different processes/machines across the top, from left to right?

Did you have a different colour card for when the job was booked into the factory?

Thanks in advance.

Lee.

[Bondmaster]

Hi leetaylor. Not sure it matters , but I went6 day ax top as the eye tends to scan ahead rather than down. Also others could gauge easily when free time came available into the future ( the right) rather than down which most time lines avoid. Maybe I'm wrong on it these days.Go to a web site like T-Cards and it may give you an update on the latest way to go. Only different card colour I used was red priority ones. These days , unless policed, would mean the whole board ends up red. We could run up to 16 weeks late 30 years ago (talking big runs of tonnes of materials tho)-- thankfully big buyers in the food & packging industry new this and tracked us on their own card system.

[dgraves@wendlingprinting.net]

We don't have the time to put jobs on boards. A typical job is in prepress for 1-2 hours, out on proof and then plated in 3o minutes, printed then to bindery. I personally have been trying to find a quick and easy scheduling software for plants that move jobs quickly. It would seem to me that you would spend more time moving things on the board. We are currently doing scheduling in an Excel spreadsheet. Works pretty well by moving jobs to and from.

Any one have a good scheduling program???

[leetaylor]

We don't have the time to put jobs on boards. A typical job is in prepress for 1-2 hours, out on proof and then plated in 3o minutes, printed then to bindery. I personally have been trying to find a quick and easy scheduling software for plants that move jobs quickly. It would seem to me that you would spend more time moving things on the board. We are currently doing scheduling in an Excel spreadsheet. Works pretty well by moving jobs to and from.

Any one have a good scheduling program???

Did you make the spreadsheet yourself - would love a copy?!!?

[dgraves@wendlingprinting.net]

Pretty basic.....No, our production mgr. made it.

[Bondmaster]

I agree that at times jobs move thru so fast the old card system sounds slow. But you'd be surprised how fast it is compared with even input to computer. Put it this way ., if you literally are talking speed production , taking on 5 - 8 jobs a day with no pre awareness, then you need a one man copyshop mentality-- a bod who keeps on the pulse daily and goes to the grave early. We take on one off laminations that take 6 minutes to input a job sheet, 30 minutes to get to production, more than likely 30 minutes to produce and so on etc etc. I still insist on paperwork - right? So when you generate the job bag, the pick slip, the order or what ever -- why not generate a planning card? Once on the board it can take seconds for it to be juggled about by more than one staff to suite what's going on. You can get all hi tech and use a computer, and there are good systems out there, but it still needs input time , and rearangement time if things don't go according to plan.
So again ,I'd say , you need to look at the size of workflow , before you decide. To nhot plan is a disaster -- or as I said earlier -- a way to a short life.

[leetaylor]

Thanks for the replies so far, come on guys what do the rest of you use in your companies to show the progress of a job through the various process ie: Pre-Press, Machine, finishing etc?

[rsands]

I built our own custom printing website. Jobs get entered onto a database and the status is selected. When it moves department the status or department field is updated. So we have things for being proofed, proofed, approved, pre-press, press, finishing, waiting dispatch, shippied.

There is an overview page that you can just click tabs and see the overview instantly. Everyone has their own username and a full log is kept on every job as to who and when it was updated. we enter job numbers and there is a search bar our staff can just quickly search for it. System can also email customers for updates along the way if needed.

works very well and keeps us on top of jobs.