What Waste/Cost Have You Reduced/Eliminated?

[Hopkins Printing]

Hello all,

Just curious what sorts of waste and cost you have managed to either reduce or eliminate?

Thanks to all!
Jon

 

[craiglpress]

Reduced/elimated administrative waste and costs

Reduced/elimated administrative waste and costs

Here are some of the 8 areas companies have reduced/elimated administrative waste and costs using the Lean Printing Office (c) methodology
www.lean-printing-office.com

1) Overproduction
Producing reports no one reads or needs
Making extra copies of jobs tickets
Printing, e-mailing, sending, or faxing the same document multiple times

2) Waiting Waste
Excessive signatures or approvals
Delays in receiving information and order specifications
Computer program inadequacies and problems

3) Motion Waste
Searching for work documents
Hand-carrying paperwork to another department or process
Chasing down obsolete job tickets because of customer changes

4) Transport Waste
Delivering documents that are not required
Excessive filing of work documents
E-mail distribution lists that are not up-to-date

5) Over-processing Waste
Duplicating reports or information
Repetitive data entry into nonintegrated software applications
Constantly revising documents

6) Inventory Waste
Files awaiting signatures or approvals
Purchasing excessive inventory materials
Obsolete office equipment or management software

7) Defect Waste
Data entry errors
Pricing and quoting errors
Incomplete or incorrect information on job tickets or purchase orders

8) Underutilized People
Over staffed or poor distribution of work
Employees in the wrong position
Lack of employee input or participation

 

[HKafeman]

Jon

Are you interested in answers about the Printing Process itself or just the Office and Administrative aspects?

Henry

 

[mattf]

Hello all,

Just curious what sorts of waste and cost you have managed to either reduce or eliminate?

Thanks to all!
Jon

I would suppose he is interested in any sort of reduction in waste. Granted, I just started 5S so I don't have much to show as of yet, still in the planning stages.

 

[HKafeman]

Printing Process

Printing Process

All

Okay here are my thoughts from my experience of working on the Software, Systems and Automation of Printing Presses (Newspaper and Commercial) for over 25 years.

Most plants invest in major projects for extensions, updates, etc. every 5 to 10 years.

However, in between these major capital projects the focus is very much on day to day Production.

The actual performance of the Systems and ways to reduce waste are not looked at (unless there is obviously a big issue with a particular run, press, etc.) because of production requirements and a lack of time knowledge and understadning of the personnel.

I know directly from my own experience that, wrongly or badly configured Pre-Press or Press Systems can cause large amounts of waste (time, paper, ink, etc.) due to Ink Presetting and Compensator Presetting in particular not working properly.

I do not know the relative figures, but I suspect that such "Printing Process" waste is potentially an order or two of magnitude greater than anything that could be saved in the
"Printing Office".

I would be very interested if anyone out there has any figures they can share for savings that could or have been achieved.

Again from my experience, I know that if the Data is available (in for example the Printing Press Control System or Management Information System) that it would be well worth getting it professionally Analysed in detail. This would highlight any wrong settings or bad calibration and would give recommendations for improved settings. Such Analysis should be repeated regularly and particularly after any changes in operation (such as web widths, ink supplier, plates, blankets, calibration of press, etc.).

The potential Return on Investment (ROI) for such work is great with very quick payback periods.

Regards

Henry

 

[Hopkins Printing]

I am interested in ANY waste or cost that has been reduced or eliminated. For example, our costing system uses a lot of paper when generating cost sheets. To reduce cost/waste, we have invoked duplexed printing to print the cost sheet on both sides of a sheet of paper.

Cheers,
JM