Lean Office

[craiglpress]

Lean Manufacturing principles can also be applied to the office or administrative environment rather then the manufacturing environment. This is called “Lean Office”.

Approximately 32% of a printing company’s value added is administrative costs. Most of these administrative costs are labor including sales, estimating, customer services, order entry, purchasing, invoicing, accounting, and other activities that support production.

By implementing “Lean Office” principles, printing organizations can significantly reduce overhead costs, eliminate administrative wastes, increase office efficiencies, streamline business processes and workflow, and improve the ability to meet customer demands.

Let’s open up this forum to “Lean Office” as well.

Craig L Press,
Printing Industry Business Consultant
Profectus, Inc. Profectus Printing Industry Business Consultants specializing in best practices, lean, and information technology

 

[David Dodd]

Although the name of the forum is "Lean Manufacturing," I hope that our discussions will encompass the use of lean principles and techniques in all areas of business. Over the years, I've seen many cases in which the costs of performing administrative and other "support" activities account for close to 50 percent of a printing company's total operating expenses. Lean methods can easily be used to dramatically improve the efficiency and effectiveness of these "non-manufacturing" processes. To ignore the potential for improving these support activities and processes would be a huge mistake.

 

[KetMoyJim]

CSR & LEAN Coordinator

CSR & LEAN Coordinator

We also are trying to bring LEAN into the front office especially in the areas of complete and correct information for cost estimates and job entry.
We have made good progress in the production areas but wrong or missing information can really effect efficiency, productivity, and waste. Would like to know how other companies are dealing with this issue.
Thanks,
Jim Martin
Ket-Moy Printing, Inc.

 

[craiglpress]

There are 2 key Lean Office or pre-production functions that companies have successfully implemented to improve the accuracy and completeness of job information and instructions going into production:

1) Implementing Planning as part of the order entry process
Before production touches a job, each job should have a “blueprint” or plan for how production will produce it. A plan consists of the estimated time, materials, and costs, and detail instructions for producing the job. The planner should carefully review each job and determines how the job will best flow through your plant based on the order specifications, the customer’s expectations, your equipment capabilities, and schedules. This typically means creating a revised estimate that matches how the order has actual come in, and then converting the revised estimate to the order in your MIS system.

2) Implementing Level 1 Preflighting as part of the order entry process
Level I Preflight is the process of checking a customer’s files to determine if or how you can proceed with the job. This is a very important prerequisite to properly planning and entering an order into a MIS system and production. Level I Preflighting is checking the files prior to production and Level II Preflighting is fixing the files in production. The primary goals of a Level I Preflight are:
- to determine what the actual job is all about
- check the files for errors that may prevent further production
- check the files for missing components (fonts, images, etc)
- determine if the customer’s files are consistent with the job sold
- provide input for planning the job which will lead to a correct job ticket

 

[David Dodd]

Understanding the Current State

Understanding the Current State

One of the key principles of lean is that you must understand a process before you try to improve it. This principle applies whether you are using lean for manufacturing processes or "office" processes. I certainly have no quarrel with Craig's suggestions, but before you implement any new procedure, you need to understand AND describe your existing processes. By far, the best tool for describing a process is a process map. Mapping a process makes the process "visible" and a good process map will often disclose the specific parts of the process that need improvement. To gain the benefits of process mapping, you have to map the process AS IT IS ACTUALLY BEING PERFORMED, not what should be happening. Trying to improve a process before understanding the current state of the process is a little like trying to give someone driving directions to your house without knowing where he or she is starting from.

 

[rich apollo]

Craig,
1) You can't revise the estimate when you get the job, unless the job is way off spec. Once you've passed that estimate/bid to the client you've kinda' locked yourself in.

2) Wouldn't it be LEAN-er to just perform one preflight?

 

[craiglpress]

Revised estimates from order and Level 1 Preflight

Revised estimates from order and Level 1 Preflight

By creating a new or revised estimate at time of order, that reflects how the order and files came in has many benefits:

1) You will be able to forecast how much time, material, and costs it will take your company to product the job, regardless of what was quoted.

2) The job ticket will be more accurate once the new estimate is converted to an order.

3) Your purchase orders, material requisitions, and inventory allocations will be more accurate if you're using an integrated purchasing and inventory MIS program.

4) Your scheduled hours will be more accurate if you're using an integrated scheduling MIS program.

5) If the specs, size, paper prices, file expectations, etc. did change - Puts you in a better position to determine if you want to proceed with the job as originally quoted or need to go back to the customer with a new price. In other words, who will eat the additional costs, your company or the customer, this may be a marketing decision but at least you will know how much money is a stake.

Performing a level I preflight to check files does not take long using preflight software. Based on studies, many printing companies still have issues with 50% to 75% of their customer’s supplied files. The issues may be a combination of file problems, missing elements, or inconsistencies with the order specs. Most of these issues will create costly delays in your prepress or digital production process. The little effort and costs to catch these issues prior to production will have significant time and costs savings in production downtime and non-value added activities. It can also save the embarrassment of having to go back to the customer the day of production or delivery, possibly days after they have submitted their files.

 

[rich apollo]

So, are you saying that 50%-75% of the time you'd kick the file back to the client?

 

[craiglpress]

Dealing with customer file issues

Dealing with customer file issues

So, are you saying that 50%-75% of the time you'd kick the file back to the client?

Not always. There are at least 4 scenarios, depending on the files issues discovered during order entry Level I preflight…

Scenario 1) The files are different then the customer’s specs or purchase order. --- In this case you need to contact the customer to determine which is correct; the files or the specs. For example, the specs and original quote may be for a 5 color job, but the files have a 6th pms color…Is this a 6 color job or should the 6th pms color be a color build?? Or the size may be different…do you reduce the size or trim it off??

Scenario 2) You know it’s a 5 color job and the 6th pms color is a color build. --- There’s no need to kick the files back to the customer because most prepress workflow software can automatically correct this at no additional time or cost to you or the customer.

Scenario 3) There are problems with the customer’s files that you can fix, but it will take additional time and costs. --- The customer should be provided with the option of either; (a) you fixing their files for a quoted price or (b) the customer can fix the files themselves and resend them. The CSR would contact the customer and say something like this “The files you sent us are the wrong size (or whatever). We can fix your files for $2,000 or you may correct them yourself and resend us the corrected files.”

Rather then just fixing the problems and maybe never billing the customer for your production time and costs, you are recovering your costs and getting approval for the additional charges that will appear on the customer’s invoice.

Scenario 4) There are problems with the customer’s files that you can NOT fix. --- These files would have to be kicked back to the customer.