Articles

Perfect Binding Technology Follows the Digital Flow

August 21, 2009

by: James Tressler, C.P. Bourg, Inc.

Nothing has changed the face of perfect binding technology faster or more completely than the digital technologies used to create, prepare and print pages.

Page layout and text editing software, digital photography and image editing, Internet distribution, job prep, and short-run digital printing – all are powerful forces pushing the limits of what can be perfect bound. In turn, perfect binding technology has risen to meet these market challenges with advances in products, processes and adhesives that will spur the market to bind more – and more kinds – of books better, faster and less expensively than ever before.

The technologies underlying these changes have been at work since the 1980s. But it is only recently that we have reached a tipping point, where market forces spurred by the convergence of multiple digital technologies all of a sudden seem to have quickly and conclusively leapfrogged traditional binding methods.

The Commoditization of Print

For example, the market for on demand book publishing is soaring. Bowker¹, the official International Standard Book Number (ISBN) agency for the U.S., recently projected that 285,394 titles were produced in the U.S. in 2008 on demand, a “staggering” 132 percent increase over the 2007 total of 123,276 titles. Equally startling, the 2008 level reflected the second consecutive year of triple-digit growth in the on demand segment, rising 462 percent above 2006 levels.

Based on the preliminary figures from U.S. publishers, Bowker said 2008 could prove to be a “watershed year” in which titles produced on-demand and short-run – which it defines as print runs of less than 100 – exceeded the number of traditional book titles entering the marketplace. And that’s before adding consumer and corporate titles that often escape ISBN classification.

Data gathered for the Printing Industries of America Digital Printing Council² bear this trend out:

Between 1980 and 2007, the number of commercial publishers mushroomed from 10,000 to nearly 95,000.
During that time, the average number of books per order dropped from 18,963 to 3,055.
By 2007, 30 percent of all books published were printed digitally.
From 2000 to 2007 the publishing market grew almost 50 percent, from $21 billion to nearly $33 billion.

Clearly, book run lengths are collapsing while the number of titles – and the overall market – is expanding, if not exploding. Consider the experience of Tennessee book manufacturer Lightning Source, Inc., which claims that from its inception in 1997 to 2008 it delivered more than 50 million books on demand with an average run length of 1.8 copies.³

This evidence is not surprising when you consider that books printed digitally don’t need to be inventoried or warehoused, never go out of print, can be produced on demand in whatever quantity needed, and can be requested, sold, and distributed through more channels.

Digital Impact

The trend toward digital is reflected in diverse ways – from the business habits of corporate enterprises looking for ways to showcase their image or streamline their operations, to the increasing numbers of “micro publishers” and vanity press, to average consumers flooding printing e-tailers with requests for a few photo books of the family vacation.

Digital printing has unique characteristics that significantly affect binding and finishing technology:

Dramatically shorter runs. Although average run length is between 100 and 300 copies, books of one are commonplace, as evidenced by the experience of companies like Lightning Source, Shutterfly, Snapfish and Lulu.
Different processes. Unlike offset inks, which are absorbed into the paper’s fibers, digital inks and toners in effect are less durable coatings placed or fused onto the surface of the paper.
Different papers. Digital production increasingly involves color ink or toner printed on coated, double-sided (C2S) covers and coated text stocks of varying weights.
Different sizes. Even though digital formats are smaller than offset (at max 14.33 x 22.5 inches), their range is optimal for one-up page production and adequate for 2-up and 4-up production of longer-run, smaller format documents.
Collated output. The bindery needs to keep digital output in sequence or risk ruining an entire output stack.
Variety. Digital printing is able to print any number of books and pages one after another on demand for almost any purpose imaginable – from college course packs to corporate histories, product manuals to weekly in-store shopping guides, and photo books to family genealogies.

The Internet also is exerting influence by making it possible to sell, accept, track, arrange to ship, and bill jobs electronically. Meanwhile, the more challenging economics of the past decade have translated into generally higher costs for everything from labor and energy to storage and shipping – everything except for printing, which has become a commodity.

Finishing Just in Time

So, what do these trends have to do with binding and finishing in general, and with perfect binding in particular?

For print buyers, print on demand is more efficient, less costly, and lower risk. With digital printing, economies of scale are largely irrelevant so there’s little reason to produce more copies than needed – a boon for companies trying to eliminate storage costs. The resulting phenomenon of smaller runs and just-in-time manufacturing to avoid overstocks and remainders is being repeated at publishers, retailers, and corporations across the country.

Meanwhile, consumers as comfortable handling computers and digital cameras as they are a perfect bound copy of National Geographic or a John Grisham paperback now see the practicality of instant self expression in self-publishing photo books and family genealogies.

With the commoditization of digital printing and consumer demand on a collision course, the bindery is emerging as a “value added” service – whether it’s found in a corporate, commercial, or trade setting. The bindery able to offer “finishing on demand” offers something they never had or needed before: opportunity.

Within this context, perfect binding has emerged as a familiar, quick-turnaround, professional-looking bookbinding method that has a future as bright as a camera’s flash.

Nimble Equipment and Automated Processes

What’s new in perfect binding technology to meet these market challenges?

The fast pace and individuality of digital printing technology demands equally nimble binding and finishing technology. The biggest beneficiaries are systems able to bind or finish documents efficiently in short runs from one copy to several hundred.

On-line variations following the debut of the Xerox DocuTech actually emerged before off-line units. The first on-line signature booklet maker (the C.P. Bourg SBM-1) was introduced in 1990; the first single-clamp perfect binder (Bourg’s BBF2005) appeared in 1995. On-line systems are matched to the output from the digital printer and by definition are fully automated to allow a single person to operate the print and finishing operation. Since then, a number of off-line single-clamp systems have appeared.

With print run lengths tumbling and experienced help harder to find, automated job setup and changeovers are important features for any binder, but they’re critically important for systems used for producing short-runs, and especially books of one.

On these systems, computer technology married with advanced mechanical engineering techniques have produced systems capable of automatic operation such as milling and jogging, and measuring the thickness and length of each book block both to determine glue application and automatically center covers of different sizes one after another. Touch-screen terminals with icon-driven operating menus for fast and easy job setup are now the norm, and job changeovers have evolved beyond the need for adjustment tools.

Rounding out the equipment advances are closer attention to operator ergonomics and safety features that keep hands safely away.

Aggressive Adhesives

Polyurethane reactive (PUR) adhesive is the big story here. A tenacious, hot-melt, solvent-free adhesive that reacts to moisture in the air, PUR is resistant to a wide variety of inks, varnishes, oils, and solvents, as well as temperature extremes, and handles lay -flat applications with ease.

Although PUR was developed in the 1980s, the technology was recently reformulated, making it better suited to quickly and aggressively bind the coated stocks and delicate inks and toners used in color digital printing. Reformulated PUR pull-strength and flexibility is superior to other adhesives. And even though full strength is reached in eight to 24 hours, books bound with the new PUR formulation can be trimmed within two minutes and shipped the same day. In short, PUR is perfect for binding longer-life books that use heavier weight, larger size, or specialty papers and have heavier ink or toner coverage.

The more aggressive PUR adhesive requires a sealed glue tank to prevent unwanted contact with moisture in the air and a tightly controlled precision delivery system, both to prevent premature curing and to avoid waste and cleanup associated with misapplication.

PUR also is more expensive than other adhesives. Pound for pound, polyvinyl acetate (PVA) or ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) can bind almost twice as many books as PUR. However, because PUR is more effective for binding color digital printing smothered with toner, inks, or fuser oil and “knits” much better to the fibers of coated papers, it allows the bindery to charge considerably more per bind.

What’s in Store for the Future?

With short runs increasing, look for automation to affect every aspect of binding and finishing equipment, as well as binding and finishing workflow. For off-line production, content and cover-driven workflows will gain prominence. And with demand for PUR on the rise, look for fully automated in-line PUR perfect binders with the ability to handle larger page formats and thicker spines than those currently available.

With digital production driving nearly every aspect of binding and finishing today, it’s a good time to ask where your customers are headed and how you plan to track them. Now more than ever, binderies need to be looking to non-traditional suppliers, markets, and approaches to find the binding edge.

James Tressler is director of branch operations and Mid-Atlantic regional sales manager at C.P. Bourg, Inc., a leading technology developer and supplier of in-line and near-line document feeding, binding, and finishing equipment. His career in the binding industry spans nearly 20 years. C.P. Bourg can be found on the web at www.cpbourg.com.

References

Bowker Reports U.S. Book Production Declines 3% in 2008, but On Demand Publishing More than Doubles – (http://www.bowker.com/index.php/press-releases).
PIA Digital Printing Council “Marketing 4 Digital” Report on Book Publishing, 2007.
See Case Study at oceusa.com.

Financial Metrics for Managers

August 21, 2009

by: Gerry A. Michael, CPA, CMA, MBA

It’s pretty clear that this is not a “happy time” in the graphic arts industry. We’ve seen the economic climate this bad before, but knowing that things have been worse before is little consolation to a company in the midst of the battle now. The simple fact is that in the next few years, a lot of companies in the industry are likely to be gone. And as my company sees it, the bindery and finishing sectors of the industry will be hit even harder than the rest of the industry. That’s not being alarmist or pessimistic. It’s simply a fact.

Surviving in a Difficult Economy

The difficult economy, combined with the changes in the marketplace that the industry has been struggling to respond to for decades, means that the number of firms in the industry is likely to contract. Some firms are probably not going to make it. But in previous downturns, once the economic storm clouds clear, the firms that have weathered the storm enter a period of robust growth and strong profits. Difficult business times seem to produce stronger companies. But is it really that simple? Probably not.

What’s the difference between those that survive, and those that don’t? Obviously, the answer to that is complex. Success or failure can’t be attributed to just one thing, and in my experience, sometimes it comes down to simple luck. But one thing I have observed over the years is this: Successful firms know a great deal about themselves, they understand the keys to their own success, and they are able to react quickly to change.

Basically, they know what’s important, and they measure it, monitor it, and react to it with speed and confidence. What is it that gives these firms an apparent advantage over others? They tend to use relevant, timely, and accurate information about themselves and the environment in which they operate to improve the quality of decision making, to provide early warning of impending difficulties, and to find and take advantage of opportunities for improvement. Put another way, they know what “metrics” are important, and they use them in their business.

The Problem with Financial Statements

So which metrics are most important to owners and managers? That’s a trickier question to answer. One of the biggest reasons is that my own profession, public accounting, has hijacked the entire accounting world! Simply put, CPAs don’t try to produce information for the use of management. The approach of all Certified Public Accountants is the maintenance of an accounting system and reporting philosophy designed to meet the needs of the public, not management. And practically every accounting system in existence today has been developed based on these principles. Where did we go wrong?

The answer requires a long and detailed review of how accounting evolved in the business world, from its origins over 5,000 years ago in ancient Sumeria. In fact, some scholars actually believe that the oldest known writing was developed to help ancient bookkeepers communicate commercial matters! Accounting has evolved to meet the needs of the time, focusing first on simple merchant (“retail”) accounting systems, often using barter, then adapting over time as the economies of the world changed and became more sophisticated. But then, about 200 years ago, something quite dramatic happened. Business entities began to seek investors and lenders to supplement the capital of the owners, as businesses became both larger and more complex. These investors and lenders began to impose reporting requirements on the businesses, requirements that would enable them to compare one investment opportunity to another. Enter the profession of Public Accounting.

Now, understand that I’m proud of my profession and I have great respect for the work that we do. The profession imposes very challenging and demanding requirements on its practitioners. It’s just that I also realize that there is nothing about being a CPA that qualifies a person to advise management. Actually, that’s the arena of Management Accounting, and it is best done by a Certified Management Accountant, or CMA. Even the accounting profession acknowledges that there is a difference!

What this means for an owner or manager is that financial statements are inadequate tools for managing any business by themselves. While it’s important to have statements that are both accurate and timely, they don’t provide what is needed for managers. What traditional statements (income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows) do help to determine is how the organization performed as a whole over a certain period of time. What they don’t do is help management understand why the performance was what it was and how it can be changed. The entire focus of financial statements in public accounting is the “fair presentation” of the results of operation for the company in total. Little analytical or diagnostic information is presented, nor is it intended.

Choosing the Right Metrics

So what type of metrics should be used? Forgive the classic consultant’s answer, but “It depends.” However, there are criteria for management information that can definitely be stated as relevant in all cases.

Timeliness – is the information current? This should mean a matter of days, not weeks. What data is reviewed each week?
Relevance – does it measure things that count? Labor dollars are hard to manage, but not labor hours. Which is being looking at?
Usefulness – does it serve a purpose going forward? For instance, what good is looking at gross profit margin when it includes both fixed costs (rent) and allocated costs?
Action-focused – does it support a plan of action? In other words, can the results be changed through management action?
Repeatable – often overlooked – can the metric be measured at different times with the same qualitative values? Only then can the effects of change be monitored.
Reliability – sometimes thought of as “accuracy” – does it really measure what it purports to measure?

Based on those criteria, what are some of the things I think every manager should look at on a regular, consistent basis? Examples might include the following:

Planned Capacity Utilization – What percentage of bought (i.e., paid for) direct labor hours are actually charged to a job, not including time on reruns or above estimates? This is critical in any manufacturing company, and especially for firms in all phases of graphic arts. A company has to sell the capacity it is paying for to succeed. When it doesn’t, the company has excess capacity and needs to react to it, either by reducing capacity (layoffs) or by pricing more aggressively.

Price Realization – This is calculated as actual job prices divided by “target” price for the same jobs. Management has to price to the market, but also should track the cumulative effect of market pricing, to be able to predict the financial results.

Estimate Turnaround Time – How much time elapses between a customer’s request for an estimate or quote and the company providing one? This should be in hours, not days, and it can be tracked more easily than management might think.

Job Turnaround Time – Perhaps more obvious, but how much time elapses between the order and job shipment?

On Time Rate – This may be the most important metric for managers. What percentage of jobs are shipped on or before the original promised date (rather than the date the client accepted after the first deadline was missed)?

The above can be powerful tools in the hands of managers who are willing to use them. They address some of the most critical issues in the industry today:

How well does the company serve its customers?
How well does the company use its resources?
How well is the company pricing its product or service?

Notice that not a single one of these metrics can be found in traditional financial statements. But the data should all be available with minimal extra work, and it should be generated internally.

One final note: Sometimes when I present this to clients, their response is disappointment. They seem to want a longer list of things to watch, as if the more information a manager looks at, the better the company will do. I disagree. Looking at a large number of reports is not only a waste of time in my experience, but can provide conflicting information, thereby eroding the value of the whole process. Focus on a small number of metrics, make sure they are understandable, and stay with them.

These are just examples and should only be used in conjunction with more traditional reports, since understanding the effects on the company as a whole remains important. But a change in those reports only occurs when management metrics such as these are employed, and that should be everyone’s goal.

Gerry Michael, CPA, CMA, MBA, is president and co-founder of GA Michael & Company, PS, a Seattle-based CPA and consulting firm specializing in the graphic arts industry for over 25 years. Michael has been a frequent speaker at industry meetings, including the recent BIA Mid Management Conference in Las Vegas, and is author of numerous articles on industry financial issues. In addition to public accounting services, his practice provides merger/acquisition, valuation, and strategic planning services to its clients in Washington, Oregon, and California. His firm’s website, www.gamichael.com, includes many of his past articles, and he can be reached at gerrym@gamichael.com.

Diecrafters, Inc.: Common Sense Leadership, Steady Growth

May 1, 2009

by: Bob Windler

Editor’s Note: Diecrafters, Inc. is located in Cicero, Illinois. The company identifies itself primarily as a finisher, providing diecutting, foil stamping and embossing, and specialty folding/gluing. Approximately 15 percent of its annual sales come from bindery services. A member of the Binding Industries Association (BIA) for more than twenty years, owner and president Bob Windler has served in a variety of positions for the association, including a term as president from 2005-2007.

The story lies in the company’s people, rather than the company itself. The seeds of success were planted by Jack Windler in 1956, and the vine has been tended by his son, Bob, since 1985. With a no-nonsense operating philosophy, an old fashioned work ethic, and a steady hand on the plow, Diecrafters continues to grow despite a shrinking economy.

With a true love of the industry and a knack for systematic business investing, the story of the Windlers is one where the lessons learned apply to far more than just the family. In this narration lies the history of an industry, a pragmatic business philosophy, and an optimistic outlook. Here, Bob Windler tells the tale.

When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.
– William Wrigley, Jr.

Diecrafters incorporated in 1947, although old records indicate the founder, Walt Hahn, started as far back as 1936. Hahn worked out of the proverbial “garage” while moonlighting from his day job at Barrett Bindery, one of the oldest known binderies with diecutting services in Chicagoland. My familys history with Diecrafters started in 1956 when, after nine tumultuous years, Walt decided to sell the business. My father, John “Jack” H. Windler, saw an ad in the Chicago Tribune about a diecutting company for sale for $7,000. My father had worked his way up in the folding carton business as a bookkeeper, accountant, and production manager.

Dad learned that Walt had never achieved a level of sustained profitability, but after studying the situation my Dad decided that he could make a go of it. He estimated that if he could “stop the bleeding,” draw a small salary, and break even his first year, then he would have a good chance of survival. To line up the necessary working capital, he took his savings and borrowed some money from his father, purchasing Diecrafters, Inc. in June 1956. This was quite a gamble for a 36-year-old father of three, with number four (me!) just around the corner. After his first six-month period, ending December 31, 1956, he was able to pay all expenses, plus draw his salary and generate an additional $10,000 profit. Dad never lost money in any year he owned the company.

Dad owned the controlling interest in the company from day one. In 1961, his brother Bob came to work at Diecrafters and purchased a minority interest. The two brothers made great partners. As the saying goes, “If two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary” – they argued often, had very different viewpoints, and always seemed to reach a decision whether they agreed or not. Bob was the “people person,” while Dad was all about the numbers. They were quite a team until Bob sold his shares back and retired in 1978.

When Dad bought Diecrafters, the company rented 2,000 square feet on the 4th floor of a five-story building in Chicago. I heard stories about how the tanks of developing fluid on the 5th floor “sloshed” back and forth from the bed motion when Diecrafters’ cylinder diecutting press was in operation. In 1961, Dad bought a 4,300-square-foot building next door to the original site. In 1963, he doubled the size to 8,600 square feet, and then added another 1,500 square feet in 1968, which was as much as the city would allow for the lot size.

In 1980, one of our competitors wanted out and it was too good of a fit to pass up. Dad bought out Belman Die Cutting & Finishing in October of 1980, which provided the company’s first automatic-feed presses, as well as high-speed folding and gluing capabilities. In 1989, Diecrafters acquired a 70,000-square-foot plant and consolidated operations in Cicero, Ill., which is our current location.

The problem with owners is they hang around after they’re useless.
– Jack Windler

I started working there as a kid in the summer of 1973, jumping down crates of waste paper and stripping waste off the diecut forms at the end of the presses. Around 1976, I started doing payroll and a few other accounting functions, and by 1979, I had become heavily involved in the management of the business. With the next generation in place, Dad began a five-year phase out into retirement beginning in 1980. His exit strategy put a vice president/general manager in charge and developed a lead pressman into the senior production manager.

In March of 1983, Vice President/General Manager Forbes Lange had a very serious heart attack that left him incapacitated. Forbes had been a close friend of my Dad’s for 40 years, so this not only had an impact on the business, but also was very hard personally. The heart attack happened on a Sunday, so the production manager and I came to work on Monday expecting my Dad to come back in and take charge. Finally at about 9:30 a.m, I called the house and asked Mom, “Where is Dad?” She replied, “Right here,” and handed him the phone. When I asked Dad who was going to take over and run things, he simply replied, “Sink or swim” – and then hung up! We began treading water frantically – and eventually we swam. Ten years later, I was talking to my dad and said, “I couldn’t believe you did that!” Dad acknowledged a little trepidation. Actually, what he said was, “I was scared to death” “I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get my retirement money, but I had faith.”

On January 2, 1985, Dad sold Diecrafters to me and I remain the sole shareholder today. I was still young and green then, but he surrounded me with talent and a management team with many good years ahead of them.

Once Dad retired, he wanted to stay out of the business. I used to go over to ask his opinion, but he would say, “I’m out!” He often said that the problem with owners is they hang around after they’re useless. He did love investing, so he acted as the fund manager for our profit sharing plan, which he started in 1966. A portion of the profits are distributed to the employees each year we make a profit, giving the employees a stake in our success. He outperformed the Dow and S&P consistently.

Just because I said it, doesnt make it right.
– Bob Windler

We’ve expanded over the years, and our reinvestment into equipment has been steady and measured, with a long-established plan for reinvestment of profits into both our equipment and our people. All the iron in the world is merely iron without the talent to maximize what it can do. The real difference in any business is its people and Diecrafters’ employees are the best! Our staff is structured with a core group of 40 employees who have been with us for some time – many since the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. We recruit and develop new talent through a cross of bringing in new blood and drawing top performers from our extensive part-time staff.

Our business is not a happy-go-lucky, fun-filled adventure every day. It’s certainly not without its challenges. But I think people enjoy their jobs more when they’re being pushed. And I expect my employees to push me, as well. Just because I said it, doesn’t make it right. “Yes men” don’t cut it in my organization. I don’t need that. And I hate to hear anyone say, “That’s the way we’ve always done it.” Recently, I was talking to one of my supervisors and asked him why we were doing something a certain way, and he got this extremely guilty look on his face. He knew I wasn’t going to like the answer! Finding ways to be more efficient is critical. What differentiates us is that what is good enough for everybody else isn’t good enough for us.

That doesn’t mean we can’t make mistakes. I would love to claim that we are perfect but, of course, we have had our share of problems. How we handle problems is what sets us apart. I have always felt that making mistakes is a natural part of growth and development, but making the same mistakes over and over again is the definition of failure. As long as we learn from our mistakes, and are making new and “better” mistakes, then we are progressing.

If you don’t get any value out of it, don’t pay me.
– Jim Niesen

One way to keep learning is to stay involved with the industry. In the late 1980s, we joined our local PIA affiliate, Printing Industry of IL/IN Association, and learned of the BIA through this affiliation. Jim Niesen was the head of BIA for many years, and he worked out of Chicago. He came in one day and wanted to know why we weren’t a member. He gave me the big sales pitch and wouldnt take no for an answer. He said he was enrolling me, and he said, “If you don’t get any value out of it, don’t pay me.” It was a great sales technique!

Jim made a point of engaging me every time an event came up, making sure I stayed involved. Very quickly, I found that networking with companies from across the nation was valuable – what my local competitors wouldnt tell me, a similar company from the other side of the United States would happily share and vice versa.

The BIA used to put on bind-a-thons once or twice a year. The BIA would pick a host, and the attendees would fly in, get a hotel, and then hop on a bus to do four or five plant tours per day. It was a two-day event that exposed us to eight or nine companies. The real value was talking to industry peers who had a different perspective. We would sit on those buses and we’d ask each other questions – what are you paying for insurance, what are your benefits – information you couldn’t get from a local group because of the worries of competition. Some of the binderies we toured also had finishing and other integrated services, some being done successfully and some, unsuccessfully. There was a true value in sitting down with industry leaders after those tours to discuss what worked and what didn’t work.

Well, I was hooked. Diecrafters has been involved in the BIA for twenty years. I’m a past chairman of BIA and I’ve held other positions, too. I think the hardest thing about any trade association is to recognize and quantify what your return on investment is, but I have learned that there’s a direct correlation between what you put in and what you get out. The time that I’ve spent going on bind-a-thons, the depth of information that I’ve shared with allies in the industry – that stuff is invaluable. It’s a key part of identifying the opportunities that will avail themselves as your business grows and as the industry grows. We are involved not only with the BIA, but also the FSEA (Foil & Specialty Effects Association) and the PIA. All of them give me a direct line, a way of tapping into the various views of the future. Today many views are quite pessimistic but there are little gold nuggets of ideas. Not having exposure to those people and those ideas would be like bowling with your eyes closed.

If everybody else is doing it, it’s probably wrong.
– Jack Windler

We certainly don’t approach things the way everybody else does. It’s both a strength and a weakness. My dad used to say, “If everybody else is doing it, it’s probably wrong.” He taught me to challenge the traditional view. He’d look at the same situation I was looking at, the same facts I was looking at, and he’d burst my bubble with an obvious point that I just didn’t see.

Obviously, with the market right now, the masses are looking at the industry from a survival standpoint. Binders and finishers are in a waiting game. They’re lowering prices as far as they can to get work in the door, but I think that’s a never-ending downward spiral.

Diecrafters is in a very unique position in that we have financed ourselves through the investing and saving of profits, so we don’t have outside debt to hold us back. The market has taken big hits, and the future is in question, but we’re not panicking. I think the reality is that big changes don’t just happen, they unfold. A business plan has to be a living, breathing document that evolves, and Diecrafters is in a good position to evolve as the market does.

Even now we’re moving ahead – we’re forging alliances. We’re exploring and focusing our energies on developing the business, which is what we have always done.

We’ve always added services to support our clients’ needs. Often, this coincides with an opportunity to reduce costs and increase turnaround times with new equipment purchases. Several years ago, I told my wife the market was changing and the climate was getting tough. I needed to make a decision – all in or all out. We went all in. We bought a number of additional Bobst machines, an Eagle foil stamping unit – over about three or four years, we did some pretty heavy expansion. We bought material handling equipment in order to reduce payroll costs and improve service. Slower diecutters were been replaced with faster machines, and the foil unit that I mentioned delivered cost reductions with faster makeready times and run rates, as well as providing more efficient foil utilization. We have expanded affixing capabilities and integrated many of our services to run in-line with other functions. None of those efficiencies would have been implemented if our clients didn’t have a need; if they didnt ask us to provide a service knowing that we would do it better than the other guy.

My kids have asked me if I hold on to the business because of my Dad’s association with it; if I’m emotionally tied to Diecrafters, rather than evaluating it from a purely business perspective. If I’m honest here, I’ve probably given it a little more slack than I should have. My decisions have definitely been influenced by my love for the industry. It’s been good to me for a number of years. I’ve been doing this longer than my Dad did. And I guess I’ll be at it for a while longer.

John “Jack” Windler, age 89, died peacefully on February 15, 2009.

Folding Gets Futuristic: Embracing Technology for Ultimate Efficiency

May 1, 2009

by: Trish Witkowski, Finishing Experts Group, Inc.

Just about every step in the print production process has been modernized – but the one real holdout is folding. Yes, programmable folding machinery has been around for several years, and there are automated folding systems that can do incredible things. However, until folding itself goes digital, automation alone will not be enough to truly maximize production efficiencies.

Now, I want to be clear – I’m reaching for the stars here. We’re talking about the Holy Grail of print production – end-to-end total process automation. In my opinion, it’s an attainable goal, but we have work to do to get there. Before we get started, if by some chance you aren’t convinced that we even need to “go there,” here are a few compelling reasons to aggressively pursue total process automation for folded materials.

Demand for “lights-out” automation is growing with the steady increase in digital short run printing, web-to-print, and print-on-demand business models. The technology exists to achieve this goal. However, implementing a fully automated end-to-end workflow is not a plug-and-play endeavor.
Shorter run lengths and faster turnaround times require frequent makereadies, so manual tasks waste a lot of time that we don’t have. Build in the likelihood of human error, and things can get backed up, costly, and off schedule very quickly.
There is a growing need to automate folding because skilled bindery operators are getting harder to find – folding as an “art” has become a thing of the past as a generation of trained bindery experts is slowly phasing out of the industry.
A downturn in the economy, the commoditization of print, international competition, and pricing pressures demand a more efficient and cost-effective process.
Fold placement is math, and because of this, standardizing the file set-up process for folded material is a real possibility. We cannot automate a process that has not been standardized, and therefore without a standardized file submission process for folded materials, we cannot even hope for total process automation.

Assessing the Scenario

Turning folding into the streamlined, standardized, computerized process it should be is a fairly ambitious task. Here’s the problem as it stands:

Currently, there is absolutely no control over the digital document creation process. A printer basically has to work with whatever file he gets from a client. And since file set-up for folding can be a fairly complex task, who knows what you’ll actually get from the client, and how long it will take the print provider to fix the file. Thats problem number one.
Problem number two is that once you have a press-ready file, and that file can be sent through to the MIS system as a PDF in a digital workflow, that file does not currently carry the information necessary to communicate with the system to tell it what the folding style is, the placement of the folds, etc. which leads to problem number three.
Even if the folding machinery is a whiz-bang programmable JDF-compliant monster, it will still require some degree of manual adjustment because the file does not hold JDF folding intent information. Without the JDF data, the MIS cannot send precise settings to the automated folding machine. The file stops at the bindery and waits for (fancy, motorized) machine set-up.

Looking at the problems laid out above, the path to fully automated folding can be boiled down to two major issues – the need to control the file submission process upstream at the design stage, and the need to embed JDF folding intent into the file to enable communication downstream to finishing.

Assessing Current Technologies

Let’s take a look at existing technologies as they relate to the two major issues we’ve identified:

JDF folding intent – There have been dramatic improvements in the folding section of the latest iteration of the JDF specification. Previously, there was a library of set folding styles, which really limited the scope of JDF for folding. Folding is varied and broad in its spectrum, so a more flexible solution is required to accommodate for this. The JDF 1.4 specification has expanded to not only offer the standard set of folding styles from the previous version, but also offers the ability to define your own folding settings. This is a huge step forward.

Control over the file submission process – By now, we’ve realized that there will never be a day when all designers understand how to manually set up a file correctly for a folded product. As a matter of fact, we won’t see a day when 20 percent of all designers do it right. It’s not their fault – file set-up for folding is a precise process that is not currently taught in any graphic arts program anywhere, and manual file set-up (by the designer or print production person) almost welcomes human error. With that said, the only viable solution is through widespread use of custom automated folding templates.

The template is critical, since it virtually eliminates human error, and offers a file that is set up precisely for the folded process – the designer can just start designing. However, the file also must accomplish another goal: it must carry JDF folding intent, and this data must be populated at document creation. There must be no manual data entry, and it must work in the background. Designers do not know, nor do they care to know, anything about JDF. If we can embed it in the file under the hood, the file can talk, and we can understand it.

A Call to Action

For folding to truly go digital, making way for “lights-out” automation, it will take an aggressive, industry-wide push to make it happen. Collaboration is key, the tools are sitting in our laps, and the time is right.

Trish Witkowski is the president of Finishing Experts Group, Inc. She is the creator of the FOLDRite™ software system, a 2004 GATF InterTech™ Technology Award winner that builds dynamic custom digital templates that are mathematically adjusted for the folding process. These templates also have been proven to populate and embed JDF folding intent, standardizing the file submission process for folded materials. Witkowski holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in graphic design and a master of science degree in graphic arts publishing from Rochester Institute of Technology’s School of Printing Management and Sciences (now the School of Print Media). Current publications include: A Field Guide to Folding, Folding for the Graphic Arts: A Teacher’s Handbook, and FOLD: The Professional’s Guide to Folding. For these publications, and for custom digital folding templates, videos, and more, visit her online folding community at www.foldfactory.com. For more information, email trish@foldfactory.com.

CASE STUDY: JDF Works! Print Shop Live, Graph Expo 2008

At Graph Expo this past October, FOLDRite participated in the first-ever end-to-end live JDF workflow collaboration at a show between multiple vendors. Other participants included Adobe, Avanti, Kodak, Xerox, Duplo, EFI, Canon, Heidelberg, and CIP4.

The product produced was a folded brochure, created with a FOLDRite template in Adobe InDesign. The challenge was figuring out how to embed custom XMP data tags into the Adobe InDesign template that was generated. These tags would indicate fold placement and would communicate this information downstream to the automated folding machine. The brochure layout was exported as a PDF, and the XMP data stayed with the file. JDF data also was built in from the other vendors by request, including trim, etc. There was a web portal to upload the PDF, and upon upload it exported a JDF file that could then be absorbed by the MIS system. After that, it was up to the MIS system to communicate the information to the workflow software, the digital color printer, and ultimately to send the folding intent and related information to the automated folding machine.

How did we do it? There was a lot of back-and-forth in building and testing the JDF file, since different systems process JDF differently, so a lot of adjustments were made to make the file palatable for all systems. Valid JDF files were passed back and forth, but just because the file is technically correct does not mean that it works on all machines. Further testing was provided with files to support this process and collaborate across the workflow requirements for communicating the job intent and job messaging.

The end result was a success. The collaboration demonstrated that it was possible to embed JDF data into a custom digital folding template and to pass the data through the entire workflow to ultimately control the set-up of an automated Duplo cutter/slitter/creaser machine for end-to-end automation.

Five Strategies for Guaranteeing Customer Loyalty

May 1, 2009

by Robert W. Lucas, Creative Presentation Resources

Customer retention has always been one of the most cost-effective ways to increase business revenue. According to the international consulting firm Bain & Company, you can increase profits by as much as 95 percent through increasing retention by as little as 5 percent. If organizations fail to focus their efforts on servicing current customers while spending excessive amounts on acquiring new ones, they are wasting their efforts and much of their revenue.

Most customers are looking for good value for their money, especially in hard economic times. They also are attuned to product and service pricing. Even so, many customers are likely to pay a bit more to organizations that demonstrate a true concern for customer needs and a willingness to go out of their way to provide quality service levels. Certainly, providing service that differentiates your organization from others requires effort, training, and staffing, but the return on investment is well worth it long term. You cannot expect to approach service with a “fix it and move on” mentality. Service is a process, not an event. It requires dedication of time, money, and resources and a commitment to provide whatever it takes to satisfy your customers.

Here are five strategies that you can use to enhance your organization’s customer retention:

1. Create brand recognition. The most successful companies and those that stay in business for decades or longer are the ones that spend time and effort planning and executing strategies to acquire and sustain brand recognition. This means creating a market presence where customers know who they are and what they provide. Think about organizations such as Sears, JC Penney’s, AARP, Firestone, Ford, AAA, Maytag and Macy’s. When you hear those names, you know what they do and what to expect from them.

To establish your brand recognition, you must first identify what it is that you want to be known for, to whom you will market it, how you will market it, and ways to offer quality products and services at a competitive price. Once you establish these criteria, you can set out to spread the word through advertising, product and service sampling, strategic partnerships, customer acquisition, and effective service.

2. Get regular feedback from your customers. You cannot address customer needs if you do not know what your customers want. A big mistake that many service providers make is that they look at articles and other sources that say “Customers want…” and go on to list what all customers want. While such resources can be a good indicator, unless you ask your customers what they expect and want regularly, you likely are spending time and money providing the wrong thing to your customers.

For example, in good economic times competitive pricing may not get people in your door or to your website. However, when money gets tight, cost may become more important to your customers. Additionally, depending on the type of products or services that you provide, customer needs may be different. For instance, for customers looking to buy construction equipment, safety might be an important concern. For someone buying women’s clothing, that is not likely a big issue. Take your customer’s service pulse regularly in order to keep up with their changing and specific needs. (For sample questions to ask customers, see this article in its entirety at www.thebindingedge.com.)

3. Make it easy for customers to provide feedback. Do not forget to ask for feedback following a sale or service encounter – that is a big mistake. If you do not ask, most customers will not tell you. Some studies show that if customers are disappointed, they will not tell you. They will simply go away and then tell others about their negative experience. This can lead to the loss of that disgruntled customer while missing the opportunity to serve those who heard their story. You need to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly related to how well customers perceive your service efforts.

Many organizations say that they welcome customer feedback, but they hide behind technology and make providing feedback difficult. Make it easy for people to give you feedback or voice concerns. On your website, have a link that says “Customer Feedback.” When customers click the tab, they should get a form to complete and see your organization name, address, phone number, and email address at the bottom, in case they want that information. On your automated phone system, offer an extension in your outgoing message that says, “To leave feedback for us, punch extension #___.” Ensure that someone checks these sources daily and responds in less than 24 hours. Contact the customers to let them know that you received their feedback and to thank them. (For more ways to collect customer feedback, see this article in its entirety at www.thebindingedge.com.)

4. Listen to your customers. It does no good to gather input from your customers if you ignore it. This will only lead to frustrated customers and lost business. If nothing else, thank your customers for taking the time to share their opinions with you.

No matter whether the feedback that you receive is positive or negative, you should receive it enthusiastically and give it immediate attention. Instead of looking at negative feedback or complaints as a bad thing, recognize that the customer took the time to share it with you and ask yourself the following questions:

Why would this customer feel this way?
What did we do/say that created this impression with the customer?
Is the customer’s reaction reasonable? Why or why not?
Have we heard similar things from other customers?
If necessary, what can we do to prevent similar reactions by other customers?
Gather all customer feedback and examine it periodically. Look to see if there are trends or patterns that you need to address – for example, if a number of customers have complained about long wait times on the telephone or that they failed to receive a product or service when promised.

5. Act on feedback immediately. Do not file away customer feedback for discussion later or to have a committee review it; act on it right away. If you fail to examine the cause of customers’ dissatisfaction or to acknowledge feedback received from them, they will likely stop giving it. If customers are complaining, they also will likely escalate the issue higher in the organization or take their business elsewhere.

If someone is unhappy with your organization because of a policy, procedure, or the way he or she was treated, you should deal with that issue immediately. Examine and change the process that created the problem or counsel or discipline any employee, as appropriate. Failure to act can lead to additional complaints by other customers.

The key in guaranteeing customer loyalty is to treat customers not as you would like to be treated but as they would like to be treated. Strive to provide exceptional service in every service encounter, and the name of your organization will potentially become a household word.

Robert Lucas is president of Creative Presentation Resources and managing partner of Global Performance Strategies. He has over three decades of experience in the customer service, human resources, training, and management fields. He has written hundreds of articles and contributed to 28 books, including Customer Service: Building Successful Skills for the Twenty-First Century. You can reach him at www.globalperformancestrategies.com or email him at blucas@globalperformancestrategies.com.

The ‘Green’ Direction: Binding and Loose Leaf Companies Weigh in on Sustainability

May 1, 2009

by: Renée Varella

Although the “green” phenomenon has not swept binderies or loose leaf manufacturers like it has other industries, several authorities in the field say it is just a matter of time. Reasons for both types of companies to address the sustainability issue range from “It’s the right thing to do for the environment” and “Customers are demanding green options” to “A commitment to sustainability will differentiate your business from the competition” and “It’s an excellent opportunity to find ways to reduce costs and increase productivity.”

“A focus on sustainability equals a focus on social responsibility, the environment, and the economics of operating our businesses,” noted Kris Bovay, general manager of Pacific Bindery in Vancouver, British Columbia, and board member of the Sustainable Green Printing (SGP) Partnership. “Our customers and our markets are, or soon will be, demanding sustainability commitments. For example, in the province of British Columbia, there is a Sustainability Purchasing Network (www.buysmartbc.com) of large corporate buyers who want to deal only or primarily with sustainable printers and binderies.” Bovay also is a board member and vice chair of the Binding Industries of America (BIA) board of directors.

Another industry colleague believes sustainability is all about consumers: “The motivating factor for going green is the fact that it’s a customer-driven phenomenon,” said Gary Jones, director of environmental, health, and safety affairs for Printing Industries of America (PIA) in Sewickley, Pa. “We’re in the midst of a fundamental change – and I don’t think it’s going to go away, although it is hard to predict exactly where it’s going. Business has always been about price, quality, and service, but now you have to add what youre doing to protect the environment.”

Jeff Hunter, president of Federal Looseleaf in Minneapolis, Minn., considers recycling and other green initiatives a customer-driven solution – and a good way for a business to be Lean. “I’ve had customers ask us whether we use electrical- or gas-powered pallet jacks,” he said. (For the record, the company uses human-powered pallet jacks.) “We don’t let any equipment ‘hum and run,’ and we turn off lights and reuse and recycle ring mechanisms, chip board, and vinyl. It just makes good business sense to salvage over-runs, recycle at the curb, and be energy-efficient.”

Richard Senior, president of Duraweld Limited in Scarborough, England, and BIA chairman, noted that the industry needs to embrace environmental stewardship for its own sake: “It is becoming increasingly important that companies become green not just to get orders or get on recommended supplier lists but because they actually care how they affect the planet,” he said. And while Senior said the current economic situation has shown a slippage of green initiatives in favor of the cheapest price, he’s confident that the sustainability movement is here to stay.

Knowing the Lingo

For starters, companies considering green initiatives must understand widely used environmental terms. Below are several definitions from the SGP Partnership, a certification organization that recognizes facilities that have met sustainable manufacturing and business practices. (For more on SGP – plus a study on the recyclability of foil-decorated paper – see the box on page 25.)

Carbon footprint: The total set of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event, or product, commonly measured in metric equivalent units of carbon dioxide (CO2e). It is meant to be a useful metric for individuals and organizations as they conceptualize their personal (or organizational) impact on global warming.
Carbon neutral/Carbon neutrality: Refers to a net zero carbon release, brought about by balancing the amount of carbon released with the amount prevented, sequestered, or offset.
Carbon offset: The mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions by offsetting emissions generated in one location with emissions reductions or displacements in another where it is technically and/or economically more feasible to achieve those reductions. Carbon offsets are measured in metric equivalent units of carbon dioxide (CO2e). Carbon offsets can be purchased and traded through financial instruments representing greenhouse gas emission reductions.
Cradle-to-cradle: A system by which materials are maintained in closed loops from creation to final fate to maximize material value without damaging ecosystems. Cradle-to-cradle protocols minimize waste through recycling and reuse, rather than disposal.
Greenwashing: The unjustified appropriation of environmental virtue by a company, industry, government, politician, or even non-government organization to create a pro-environmental image or sell a product or a policy (definition attributed to Sourcewatch).
Sustainability: Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (definition attributed to World Commission on Environment and Development).

Industry Challenges – and Payoffs

If implementing sustainable practices in a formal, organized manner was easy, every binding or loose leaf business would already be on board. “The most important challenge a company faces is making everybody internally, from top to bottom, agree on the environmental policy and then carry it out in practice,” Senior said. “We’re trying to steer customers in a green direction but, believe it or not, our customer service staff still has a knee-jerk reaction to quote what the customer wants rather than suggest what might be better.” He noted that other challenges include how to cut energy consumption, reduce waste, and recycle – not just send items for recycling.

Bovay noted some additional challenges, including customers who don’t want to pay the price of more environmentally friendly products – particularly in these cost-conscious times – and developing cost and production efficiencies to make sustainability practices affordable. Other issues include developing systems and processes to assess reductions in material costs, utilities, and waste disposal costs as well as cost improvements and efficiencies in health and safety, operating, maintenance and replacement, and legal and insurance.

“Socially responsible binderies are at a cost disadvantage from those that keep labor costs down and pay the least they can,” Bovay added. “And you need to consider that binderies compete not only with other binderies but with their own customers – i.e., printers, most of whom have their own in-house bindery services and can spread that cost amongst more people and more processes.”

The good news is that companies implementing sustainability goals are seeing positive results. For example, Duraweld has invested in recycling, including recycling equipment, and in energy-saving machines, lights, etc. Plus, the company soon will attempt to recycle rainwater through its toilets. “As a result, we’ve reduced energy consumption, reduced what we send to the landfill by about 30 percent, and realized an income stream from our surplus segregated polypropylene, PVC, and card waste,” Senior said. “And, although it took us nearly a year, we were the first in Europe to create our own 100 percent recycled clear polypropylene from production waste.”

According to Hunter, Federal Looseleaf has had success producing 100 percent recycled binders – a polyplastic version and one with recycled wood products. “Our binders are close to closing the loop environmentally – a customer can recycle the binder case at the curb with his cereal boxes and the ring mechanism with his metal cans,” he said.

Pacific Bindery has invested in lowering its energy costs and has optimized its closed waste paper handling system. “In an average year, we recycle 1,300 tons of waste paper,” Bovay said. “We also have reduced our use of plastic containers, solvents, rags, strapping and wrapping, and recycle what we do use – sending less waste to landfills.” And although the economic downturn has hurt recycling revenue, Pacific Bindery’s environmental initiatives return approximately $70,000 to the bottom line in an average year.

What’s Right for You?

Industry leaders agree that not every bindery or loose leaf operation will go in the green direction. The key, they said, is to assess your customer base to determine how important an environmental focus is to the markets you serve. A good way to begin, Jones said, is to talk with your top customers and learn whether customers are making environmental commitments, and one good place to start is to review their websites. That said, Jones acknowledged that an environmental focus requires a business to undergo a “culture change” – where everyone in the workforce becomes involved in the process – and that some companies will determine, for a variety of reasons, that such change is not necessary.

If you decide to forgo green initiatives, Jones still recommends putting in place an effective energy management system, citing the price of fossil fuels and the push by various levels of government to reduce greenhouse gases. Efficiency ideas include buying Energy Star-compliant appliances and equipment when replacing old models; installing motion detectors in low-traffic areas; eliminating screen savers on computers; and installing more energy-efficient lighting. He also encourages companies to think of the energy-management and green plan as a continuous-improvement project. “Go through each department and think about how to reduce waste and cut costs,” he said. “Start with the easiest to implement you don’t have to spend a lot of money.”

Of course, keeping up with environmental issues and figuring out how to respond to them given your market is no easy task. But industry leaders note that taking the first few steps can make a big difference. “The companies that are enjoying the greatest success from a business-retention, business-generation, and cost-savings perspective are those that are making the transition to green,” Jones said. “They’re harnessing the power of their workforce to reduce operating costs, cut energy consumption and waste, and finding recycling opportunities.”

On the Forefront

If your company is ready to take on sustainability, Bovay has this advice: 1) Start the dialogue with your suppliers. “Begin to apply some pressure on them to look at developing more environmentally friendly alternatives that work,” she said. 2) Take one small step at a time. “You don’t need certification to do the right things. However, a certification process will help to guide you and hold you accountable.” 3) Reduce waste and work with environmentally safe (or safer) materials. “Develop socially responsible policies and practices, and focus on a differentiation strategy that includes a commitment to sustainability.”

“Most environmental care is common sense and starts by looking at yourself and how wasteful you are – and then going forward from there,” Senior added. “Do not be afraid to stick your neck out, and do not be afraid to challenge normal unethical practices.”

Industry Update: Sustainability Certification, Recyclability Study of Foil-Decorated Product
To promote green initiatives in the print and graphic communications industry, the Sustainable Green Printing (SGP) Partnership was founded as an independent certification organization in 2007. According to Gary Jones, director of environmental, health, and safety affairs for Printing Industries of America in Sewickley, Pa., printers can apply to become a “Sustainable Green Printer” – and now the SGP is working on creating certification criteria for binderies and finishers, including loose leaf companies.”When SGP circulated its draft document two years ago, I expressed interest in offering input on the ‘bindery version’ of the policy,” said Kris Bovay, general manager of Pacific Bindery in Vancouver, British Columbia, and SGP board member. Bovay and other members of an SGP technical advisory committee met for the first time in April to begin developing certification standards for binderies and finishers. “Understand that certification only offers a unique differentiation in the early days of the program – so don’t ‘do certification’ just for the marketing benefit; do it because it’s the right thing to do,” Bovay added. “The businesses that are best, and honest and ethical in their sustainability commitment and approach, are recognized as leaders.”

Another issue for binderies concerns the recyclability of foil-decorated projects from printing customers. Last fall the Foil & Specialty Effects Association (FSEA) commissioned a study by Pira International, an independent research firm in Surrey, England, to evaluate the repulpability of foil-decorated paper/board. The evaluation included foil-decorated product that represented 25 to 100 percent post consumer waste and that was utilized from both hot foil stamping and cold foil processes. The study concluded that neither hot nor cold foil-decorated products would yield the kinds of problems found in other decorating processes that might render them unsuitable for recycling. To obtain a copy of the 14-page study, call the FSEA at (785) 271-5816 or email jeff@fsea.com. For more on the SGP certification program, visit www.sgppartnership.org.

Investing in Energy-Saving Improvements

May 1, 2009

by Ryan Thompson, Murphy Company

As more corporations respond to an anemic world economy by putting capital improvement programs on a starvation diet, the age-old question asked in every cyclical downturn surfaces anew – “Is cutting capital improvements the right decision?”

In some industries, the answer is “yes,” but for many, it is not. There is a strong case to be made that 2009 is an optimal year for corporations to invest in energy-saving improvements.

The reasons? One is the certainty that the investment will cut a major operating expense – the cost of energy – immediately and long-term. And, cutting operating cost is one sure way to offset slowing sales. Second, the pay-back period for energy-saving initiatives is typically very short. In fact, many are cash-flow positive in the first month. Third, today’s business landscape is flush with federal-, state-, municipal- and utility-sponsored incentive programs that make it even better for your bottom line to invest in energy-saving improvements now.

Energy Use Is an Increasingly Significant Subject

Historically, utility costs (natural gas, water, and electric) have been viewed simply as a “cost” of doing business. Little significance was attached to them. That’s no longer the case. In today’s era of lean manufacturing, the drive to be competitive makes it imperative to find savings wherever possible. In the same vein, energy projects are now seen as a worthy pursuit of companies trying to attain ” practice” status. Finally, many customers (Wal-Mart among them) are requiring vendors to demonstrate their commitment to being responsible global citizens by becoming more “green.”

No Hiding From Higher Prices

While every industry suffered from the skyrocketing price of oil in 2008, the publishing and binding industries have been further affected by increasing internet use and diminished readerships, which have resulted in lagging sales. Initiating an energy project within your manufacturing facility has many significant returns on your investment. The ability to cut annual utility- and maintenance-related expenses by 10 to 30 percent also provides a solid foundation for future pricing flexibility and profit margin defense. The true beauty of investing in an energy-saving project is that once it is complete, the return-on-investment compounds automatically year after year.

Best Practices

Energy-saving opportunities are found in every faction of a production facility.

Lighting
Upgrading lighting systems is a popular energy investment right now. While the concept is admirable, there is more to it than simply installing new fixtures or bulbs. Does the lighting design supply enough foot candles to maintain quality and safety? Does the design meet the criteria required for incentive programs? How is the new system to be controlled – with motion sensors? bi-level switching? Will the new set-up negatively impact heating and cooling loads?

Compressor
Is your compressed air system properly maintained? Are there leaks? Has your compressor exceeded its life expectancy? Does your system have isolation valves to shut off zones when not in use? Would adding a staging compressor actually be a money-saving solution?

Motors
Are your motors designed to properly control power factor and avoid costly correction charges from your utility provider? Are you aware of your VFDs, VSDs, or capacitors?

HVAC
Since many publishers and binders operate HVAC equipment year-round to control humidity in production areas, big savings could result when the system is properly commissioned. Are you controlling humidity most efficiently? Are you over- or under-cooling? (Not only is over- and under-cooling costly, it can be detrimental to product quality.)

Questions to Ask an Energy Consultant

While some companies offer energy audits and energy upgrade services, their experience, capabilities, and scope of service vary greatly. Before you choose an energy consultant, find out:

1. Are they charging for a stand alone audit? Even though that sounds like a logical first step, audits can be costly and not always focused on opportunities that are feasible or make financial sense to the owner. Select a partner who will help you think through your financial and operational goals prior to purchasing an audit.

2. Do they have the expertise to analyze all systems within a facility, including mechanical, electrical, process, controls, and building envelope? A consultant that is only focused on one system may miss some of the best opportunities in your facility. It would be unfortunate to undertake a lighting project only to find out afterward that a controls project could have cost less money and resulted in greater savings.

3. Can they help to implement the savings strategies identified? Your partner should either be able to self-perform the project or be capable of serving as your construction manager. In the case of the former, his ability to do the work should be supported by an experienced and diverse group of in-house engineers and construction specialists. If you choose to use your partner as construction manager, he should provide you with single-source accountability as he specifies and procures bids from qualified service providers, selects the project team, and manages the project to a successful completion. These projects should unfold with minimal disruption to operations.

4. Is the consultant experienced in your industry? An expert who knows your specific industry can help reduce the time and cost of the audit by quickly identifying the most promising opportunities based on past experience. Make sure your partner is cognizant of the special requirements for your process and facility. Energy savings should never compromise safety or quality of the product.

5. Is your advisor affiliated with a specific manufacturer or product line? Will the equipment recommendations be unbiased? More and more companies are positioning themselves as “energy consultants” as a way of selling their product. An independent energy consultant will evaluate multiple products to determine the most cost- and energy-effective solution.

6. Is the consultant knowledgeable of and able to qualify your project for all applicable federal-, state-, and utility-sponsored incentive programs? These programs can be very complex and cumbersome, with stringent requirements. Your partner should have in-depth knowledge of the specific standards, calculations, and paperwork required for each of the various existing energy-efficiency incentive programs. A misinterpretation of the program could result in loss of incentives.

With “green” and “energy” the buzz words of the day, many consultants who claim to have specialized, comprehensive expertise, in reality, do not. Do your homework to ensure your trusted advisor brings value to your unique energy project.

Incentives Can Cover Costs of an Energy Improvement Program

As noted, federal-, state-, municipal-, and utility-sponsored incentive programs are abundant and can offset a portion of the cost of an energy improvement project. At the federal level, the rapid depreciation schedule in force in 2008 is expected to be renewed in 2009. Additionally, many projects qualify for a federal tax deduction of up to $1.80/SF for boosting the energy efficiency of an existing commercial facility or building a highly efficient new one. Many states and utilities offer separate incentive plans, ranging from low-interest loans to cash rebates that reward companies that invest in energy-wise equipment.

Founded in 1907, Murphy Company is an integrated mechanical contracting firm with an in-house staff of more than 40 engineers that serves a national clientele from offices in St. Louis, Mo., Southern Illinois, and Denver, Colo. Its Energy Solutions Division, staffed by Certified Energy Managers (CEM) and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Existing Building (LEED EB)-certified energy engineers, delivers turnkey solutions from design and engineering through installation and maintenance. As an Energy Star partner, Murphy Energy Solutions can help binding and publishing companies optimize energy savings and significantly reduce maintenance-related expenses. To find out more, contact Ryan Thompson at rthompson@murphy-stl.com or (314) 692-1555.

Stability and Service at Vulcan Information Packaging

February 1, 2009

by: Dianna Brodine

Since 1947, Vulcan Information Packaging has been a force in loose leaf binder and packaging industries. Beginning as Vulcan Binder & Cover (the name was changed in 1997), the company was christened for the 55-foot-tall statue of Vulcan – the Roman god of the forge – that stands tall at the top of Red Mountain in Birmingham. Its reputation as a premier provider of custom information packaging is only enhanced by a customer service department that boasts more than 30 staff members ready to ensure that every customer’s product goes out the door as ordered, on time.

“Having a parent company that supports us has been good for us and for our customers.”

Vulcan Information Packaging was the brainchild of Elton B. Stephens, who sold magazine subscriptions while he attended college. After his graduation from law school, Stephens determined that his career path led away from the legal field and started a company to produce clear magazine covers for medical waiting rooms. Sixty years later, Vulcan still produces more than 200,000 of the clear magazine covers each year.

Stephens continued to build upon his business success, diversifying into publishing, real estate, and manufacturing. Now Vulcan is a division of EBSCO (Elton B. Stephens Corporation) Industries, the largest privately held corporation in Alabama. Barry N. Franklin, general manager for Vulcan, believes that Vulcan’s position as an EBSCO subsidiary is a strong advantage when talking to customers. “We sell EBSCO when we talk to our customer base. It’s our financial stability, it’s the reason we have the facilities and updated equipment that we have,” said Franklin. “Having a parent company that supports us has been good for us and for our customers.”

Serving primarily commercial printers, Vulcan’s business mix is approximately 55 percent custom manufacturing of packaging systems and 45 percent ready-to-ship product. In addition to ring binders, Vulcan designs, manufactures, and imprints many types of information packaging, including custom packages like slipcases, boxes, marketing kits, and casemade binders. Binders may include index tabs, CD/DVD holders, or clear sleeves. Packaging for software, audio/video products, and CD/DVDs can be produced to order using customer-specific layouts.

Adding new equipment or updating existing equipment to improve production techniques and stay current with industry demands has led to recent purchases of an Emmeci casemaker; a Durst 4-color process digital printer for short-run printing on the companys three main substrates (vinyl, poly, and casemade materials); and a Widmann tab machine, an index tab machine with 142 cycles per minute that prints on mylar, applies the mylar, and cuts it into collated sets as an in-line process for making tabs. The casemaker was brought in mainly to focus on a growing trend – green packaging.

“We hear every day from customers who want us to make products that are environmentally friendly.”

For many of Vulcan’s customers, identifying materials that can be labeled as environmentally friendly is a top priority, and the best way to do that is through paper packaging. “We hear every day from customers who want us to make products that are environmentally friendly,” said Franklin. “We brought in a high-speed Emmeci casemaker, manufactured in Italy, specifically to address that need.” Casemade products are naturally more environmentally friendly than vinyl. “We’re not in any way downplaying vinyl, but we are reacting to our customer. At the moment, we manufacture more vinyl products than casemade, but we think casemade is where the growth will be.”

Since its previous casemaking equipment had been purchased in the mid-1990s, Vulcan purchased the Emmeci casemaker with speed and ease of set-up in mind. “We wanted to remain highly efficient, and the speed on the old Crathern equipment just didn’t match up to the volume we needed to run,” Franklin continued.

Even if an entire project is not certified as green, Vulcan can work with a customer to ensure that the majority of elements in a project are environmentally friendly. “The board we use in both vinyl and casemade binders is recycled from corrugated boxes and newspapers,” explained Franklin. Vulcan also works with several companies that produce ecologically safe cover materials, including Ecological Fibers. Ecological Fibers has a process of producing forest-certified paper, coating it, and dying it in an environmentally friendly, water-based process. Vulcan also has run index tabs on a heavier craft paper that is “greener” than other materials. Franklin said, “What we try to do is educate our customers about the options. Definitely, most of what we produce here has loose leaf ring metals it’s still the most versatile option for most packaging needs. But boxes and slip cases can be “green” as well, so there are always options for the customer who is environmentally conscious.”

“Being lean has helped us be a healthy company.”

Lean manufacturing, a process of reviewing facility practices to eliminate waste of human and material resources, was introduced at Vulcan Information Packaging five years ago. “We had the opportunity to obtain funding from the state of Alabama to implement lean manufacturing,” explained Franklin. Vulcan received a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, administered through Alabama’s Workforce Development Center, which paid for on-site lean manufacturing training for its employees. “It’s not inexpensive to hire consultants and put together a program like that,” said Franklin, “so the initial offer to have assistance from the state was one of the reasons for implementing lean.”

Using the lean principles, Vulcan has focused on getting more product out the door with fewer people, better communication, and better understanding between departments. Key to making it work is setting up work cells in a manner that reduces the steps necessary in every process. Is floor space utilized efficiently? Are people being deployed in a way that allows them to create more product? Have the right tools and the right equipment been provided at each step? “We document our process more than we did in the past,” said Franklin. “A lot of that is driven toward giving more information to the customers, but being lean has helped us be a healthy company.”

“We think our customer service department is a vital part of serving our customers and helping get products out the door on time and done right.”

Vulcan sets itself apart from the competition by providing high-quality, imaginatively designed products. With an in-house art department and a product development department, Vulcan is prepared to take a customers project from concept to completion. “Our product development department is critical, because our staff directly assists the salespeople in creating packaging for the customer, engineering a custom-designed product to fit their needs,” Franklin stated. “The customers bring products to us and say,” Give us some ideas.” Right now, we’re doing a project for a customer who has several different styles of cups, and we’ve created a display box. Our guys did that! Our product development department started on the product from the beginning, the art department worked with the salesperson to create the samples, and now we’re running the job.

Art departments and graphic designers are standard tools in the custom loose leaf manufacturer’s toolbox, but the area where Vulcan stands above the crowd? Customer service. There are 31 people in the Vulcan Information Packaging building serving in telesales and customer service who can help get a project through the plant.

Vulcan employs field sales staff and telesales staff. The field sales team is supported by a nine-person service department that acts as the liaison to get orders logged into the plant and completed correctly. “The customer service staff keeps our customers and our outside salespeople informed,” Franklin explained. “They serve as more than just customer service – they watch the proper detailing of the products being made and inspect the quality of the product.” The telesales staff acts as its own customer service representatives. Telesales staff members walk around the plant to consult with the art department and visit the floor to see their products running.

“A lot of companies get rid of the customer service department,” Franklin said. “But we chose to stay with it, because we think it is a vital part of serving our customers and helping get products out the door on time and done right.”

“We’re set up to help printers complete projects for their customers.”

Vulcan Information Packaging recognizes that, as a custom manufacturer, the call for its services will slow during the current economic recession. “Anytime you have a recession, companies will start to cut back on their advertising dollars,” stated Franklin. “When that happens, it’s going to affect not just us, but all loose leaf manufacturers. At the same time, we are fortunate to have the financial stability of our parent company backing our efforts.”

When the economy begins to stabilize, Franklin thinks his company has an advantage to offer its printing customers – by providing options for loose leaf packaging that includes vinyl, poly, turned edge, and board, when many of Vulcan’s competitors focus on only one of those options. The company’s diverse capabilities also are a benefit. “We’re purposefully set up to help printers complete projects for their customers,” explained Franklin. “Quite often, purchasing managers in big companies want to go to one company to complete a project and, frankly, it’s not normally the binder company that makes the choice – it’s the printer. We designed our operations to make the choice easy for printers.” Vulcan becomes the behind-the-scenes partner for its printing customers, helping them to provide their customers with a completed project, using Vulcan as the packaging manufacturer.

With a strong parent company ready to invest in its future, and a staff ready to partner with its printing customers to create custom packaging solutions, Vulcan Information Packaging looks forward to many more years at the forefront of the loose lead binder and packaging industries.

Using Electrostatics to Increase Speed and Quality in the Bindery – Providing solid magazine and catalog bundles without slowing down your line

February 1, 2009

by: By Ken Troemel, Andy Grzesik, and Mark Blitshteyn, MKS Ion Industrial

The newest saddlestitchers and perfect binding machines are capable of high production speeds. Yet a common problem faced in the bindery department is not being able to run their lines at the rated speed.

Incline Stack Tacking Challenges

One of the bottlenecks in the bindery is compensating stackers. There, the magazines are conveyed by the belts up the stacker and dropped into the compensator where they are stacked to varying heights to meet postal routing specifications.

To keep up with the high speed of upstream equipment, the magazines have to be pushed out of the compensator quickly. This process causes some magazines and catalogs to shift, resulting in uneven stacks of shrink-wrapped books. The USPS can reject the defective stacks, which forces the bindery to separate and re-run the magazines off-line. While many outstanding innovations have been introduced to assemble neat square stacks, when the stack is pushed out to be transported through the shrink wrap tunnel or other packaging, the mechanical forces that kept the stack straight are no longer present.

Oval strappers are sometimes utilized after the stack is pushed out of the stacker. The strapper has become less desirable as the post office needs to route individual magazines to their destinations. Additional detractors are strapper maintenance and downtime.

Magazines with UV-coated covers, either perfect bound or saddlestitched, have very glossy slippery surfaces, which make them vulnerable to shifting when stacked. High page count saddlestitched magazines create challenges because the spine side is thicker than the open side. This could cause the books to slide over to the open side and potentially shingle as they exit the compensator.

If the stacker does not produce neat, true stacks, either the entire line will have to slow down, regardless of faster bindery equipment upstream, or operators will need to be added at the output of the line to manually straighten the stacks.

Electrostatic Stack-Tacking

What is difficult to accomplish by mechanical means could be done with electrostatics. Electrostatic forces of attraction can hold magazines in the stack, preserving the perfect shape achieved by advanced compensating stackers.

There are two practical electrostatic system configurations that could be employed in the stackers. One arrangement is known as cross-tacking. It employs three charging bars inside a compensating stacker. When a stack is assembled, two separate plates hold the stack from each side and the third plate comes down and squeezes the top of the stack. The charging bars in each plate are energized; the electrostatic field and ionization tack the magazines together and keep them from shifting. Cross-tacking is the only electrostatic option for magazines conveyed by the belts up the stacker in a shingled stream.

Cross-tacking systems cannot be retrofit in existing stackers; they have to be designed in by the manufacturer of the stacker. The cross-tacking systems are complex and expensive, requiring three charging bars, special insulating plates to hold charging bars in place, and other special design features. Since cross-tacking systems usually come installed and properly engineered, binders do not need to do much to have them provide solid stacks.

Compensating stackers not designed for cross-tacking systems and which receive the magazines singly, can be retrofit with an electrostatic system in the incline feeder section. These are known as incline-tacking systems. Since different types of equipment can be utilized for incline electrostatic tacking systems, a printer needs to know how the system functions, how to select the charging equipment, and how to maintain it.

Electrostatic Tacking in the Incline Feeder

Incline tacking systems typically use a pair of charging bars, one placed above the magazine’s path into the stacker, the other below. The ionizing pin electrodes of the two bars are generally aligned against each other. The positive polarity voltage is applied to one bar and the negative to the other from a pair of high-voltage charging generators or from a single generator with dual-polarity outputs. The distance between the bars should generally be 2″ or less. The smaller the bar gap, the lower the voltage required to generate a sufficient tacking effect.

When the bars are energized with no magazines in the incline feeder, the opposite-polarity air ions produced by the opposed bars will stream toward each other, completing the electrical circuit. When magazines are being fed up the incline, they interrupt the flow of ions between the bars. The ions deposit on both sides of the magazines, charging each surface opposite in polarity, as shown in Figure 1 (page 22). Magazines carry these charges away, in the form of a “convection” electrical current, again completing the electrical circuit.

The immediate effect of the charging is that the magazines “tighten up” and are held closed shut by the electrostatic force between the front and back cover pages. The air gets squeezed out from between the pages. While that certainly contributes to forming a neat integral stack, it is the secondary effect that is most important. When a charged magazine is dropped into the stacker, it lands with its back cover on the front cover of the previous magazine. Opposing charges on the back and cover pages of the two magazines create an attraction between them, causing the books to adhere to each other, as shown in Figure 2 (above). That attraction will keep the magazines from shifting when the stack is in motion.

Selecting and Using Electrostatic Systems in the Incline Feeders

Step 1. Install nonconductive belts to avoid arcing from the bars to the belts.

Step 2. Install charging bars with the effective lengths 1″ shorter than the most common height of the magazines you run on the stacker.

The ions from the correctly sized bars deposit on both sides of the book, charging its surfaces, as shown in Figure 3 (page 26), without the problematic discharge around the side edges of the magazines.

IMPORTANT: If the bars are too long, extending beyond the edges of the magazine, a high portion of the charging current is flowing through the air between the bars at both ends. The ends of the bar could overheat, causing the bars to burn out.

Step 3. Adjust the output of the charging generator to achieve optimal tacking confirmed by the square bundles coming out of the shrink-wrap tunnel. Notice the charging current value, because the electrostatic pinning force is determined primarily by the value of the charging current, not the voltage.

Because the magazine surface can carry only a limited amount of charge, the total current between the bars drops down to one-third of the current between the unobstructed bars (the actual value depends on the magazines size and thickness, and the type of paper, the coating, and the ink). For example, if the current between two unobstructed charging bars is 1 milliampere, the current would drop to 0.3-0.4 milliampere when a magazine is passing between the bars.

Such current fluctuations repeat with the current going up after the magazine passes through, and going down after the next book comes in between the bars. While it’s possible to see some fluctuations in the current meter, charging generators are not capable of showing such fast changes, as the current goes up, down and up again in 0.1 second’s time on the fastest stackers.

The most effective operation can be obtained with charging generators featuring a constant current (CC) mode. In the constant current mode, the generator automatically adjusts the voltage to maintain the preset current. In this mode, the system maintains stable and strong pinning power adjusting output down when there is open space between the magazines, and also offsetting changes in the line speeds, ambient conditions, or paper dust buildup on the ionizing electrodes.

IMPORTANT: Effective control of the pinning process is possible only when the bars do not extend beyond the edges of the magazines – see Step 2. With long bars, the current flowing directly between the bars is not contributing to the tacking process. Under such conditions the monitored current value is nearly meaningless.

Step 4. Keep the ionizing electrodes sharp.

Electrodes of the positive charging bars wear out 3-4 times faster than the electrodes of the negative bars. There are three methods for keeping electrodes sharp:

Use tungsten pin electrodes.
Use replaceable pin electrodes.
Increase the number of pin electrodes to spread the current over a larger number of electrodes and reduce the current density for each electrode.

Step 5. Keep the ionizing electrodes clean.

Paper dust should not be allowed to build up or cover the electrodes. Clean the charging bars often. Use a metal brush to scrub through the electrode channel during makeready. That especially becomes a problem with overly long bars, because the ends of the bars will be collecting excessive amounts of paper dust falling on the electrodes from the sides of the magazines.

Ken Troemel, Andy Grzesik, and Mark Blitshteyn of MKS Ion Industrial share a two-part series with readers. They explain how to create effective electrostatic solutions for various printing and converting problems. The authors have many years of combined experience in creating effective electrostatic solutions for various printing and converting applications, working for Tantec Inc. and later for MKS Ion Industrial. In 2006, Tantec USA became a part of the Ion Industrial product group formed to service the paper and film converting and plastics industries in 1997. For additional information on MKS Ion Industrial, visit www.mksinst.com/ion-industrial.

Binders Gone Wild: What Do Custom Loose Leaf Manufacturers Do When Good Binders Go Bad?

February 1, 2009

by: Jeff Hunter, Federal Looseleaf

The world of custom-made ring binders is a world where the smallest detail, if overlooked, can come back at a manufacturer faster than your employees run for the parking lot on a sunny Friday afternoon. And in Minnesota, the land of nine-month winters, that’s pretty fast. “Binders Gone Wild” has happened to all of us to one degree or another, and will continue to happen because, unfortunately, those who make them are human and so are those who buy them – our customers. With each email we send and each phone conversation we engage in, every time we jump out of bed in the middle of the night wondering if we included a special customer spec on the job ticket, each and every time we update a customer on a project’s progress, we are open to the stress of oversight and error. And of course, expanding our stress expands our ability to make a mistake.

Houston, We Have a Problem

I well remember processing a heat-sealed vinyl binder order, manufactured to a customer’s exacting specifications. The 3-color screenprinting had been press checked and approved, the special clear vinyl pockets made to hold specially sized brochures were neatly sealed into place, and we happily sent them through our beautiful new high-speed riveting machine for ring mechanism fastening. We shrink-wrapped the colorfully printed sets of text and tabs, and inserted them between the covers (never in the rings!), and then individually boxed them for eventual UPS drop shipping by our customer. We palletized the order and trucked them to our customer’s mailing company, which dutifully shipped them to the final recipients.

The phone call came one week later.

One of the two rivets we used to secure the ring mechanism to the binder spine with our beautiful new high-speed riveting machine did not turn over the ring eyelet properly, and we did not catch it. This left some recipients with a spiffy new ring binder that had a unique “swing-away-style” ring mechanism. Oh joy.

We produced these binders for one of our biggest customers – a customer who, thank you very much, trusted us completely. We had always produced a quality binder product we were proud of, and liked to think that this level of quality alone kept them coming back. To put it bluntly, I was in a pickle. I felt that I couldn’t address this failure in quality control, or our future with this customer, until I had addressed the current problem. And I couldn’t sit back and chew on a nice clean solution to the current problem, because there was a desperate need for our customer to employ these binders right away. Did I mention that they had already been drop shipped to individual users? I thought so.

This is when I uncovered an interesting phenomenon… our customer didn’t think like we did.

It seems they were less worried about the current situation and who caused it than they were about what happened as a next step. We immediately offered to rerun the binders and get them shipped to the final recipients at our expense. This would mean a sharp shift toward the negative in our monthly profit and loss statement, but maybe – just maybe – a shift to the positive in the eternal struggle between loyal customers and lost customers. Our customer agreed and in an unbelievable stroke of good fortune, thanked us for our rush to customer service and for solving the problem for them. My nightmare turned into a dream when the customer added, “Just get them to our mailing company by Friday, and we’ll take care of the postage.”

You’re Only as Good as the Last Problem You’ve Solved

Fortunately, and I mean this in a good way, Federal Looseleaf is not the only custom house to travel down this road, nor are we the first to discover that promptly solving a problem after delivery might trump the fine service you bring to the project on the front end. Promptly responding to a problem, and letting your customer see how fast you can make it go away, can lead the customer to respect you on a much deeper level.

Essentially, a customer likes and trusts you because you bring an atmosphere of professionalism to its binder project. Yes, there are customers who are “call ins” – they’re only buying on price and they don’t care who you are or which unicorn you rode in on. But when you build a quality, long-term relationship – I’m talking about good customers who buy from you even though they have a nephew in the business who sells it cheaper – now THAT’S a customer.

Pat Rainey, president and owner of Academy Looseleaf in Nashville, Tenn., agrees. He’s been in the loose leaf business since 1981 and has had his share of “oops” projects.

It’s Always “Binders 101”

“Several years ago, one of our customers reordered some ring binders he had redesigned with a fresh new look,” said Rainey. “Part of the new look was a simple request for us to mount the rings on the back cover, instead of on the spines. I wrote the order up correctly, went over the project with the foreman, shipped and billed the job, and then got the phone call.”

I think I can see what’s coming.

Rainey continued, “Well, our guys were so used to mounting the rings in the spines, they didn’t notice the new instructions on the ticket. The foreman didn’t double-check because he was busy with something else, and the binders went out with rings on the spine. I apologized to my customer and asked what I could do to make him happy. He just asked me, as nice as you please, to watch it next time.”

Naturally, when the reorder came in Rainey was on top of the issue, had a long talk with everyone, and swore he’d get out in the shop to double-check the binders before they went out to the customer. Rainey then started working on the pile of stuff on his desk, billed the order after it was shipped, and got another phone call.

“Yup, we did it again,” Rainey admitted. “Seems that the crew was so overly worried about the order, they forgot to double-check the new guy in riveting. This time I offered the customer a discount, he accepted, and I thought that was the end of our relationship. Funny thing, though – this customer called me just last week for re-run of the same darn binder. The only thing he requested was that we mount the ring on the back cover this time!”

Rainey found a customer who admired his handling of the problem more then the failure that the original problem presented. The customer wasn’t angry, because Rainey handled the problem right away, with no delays piling onto the customer’s frustration level, no runaround about who was responsible for making it right, and a promise to fix it in the future.

The difference between my product failure (a ring actually loosening from the binder case) and Rainey’s product failure (to place the ring in the requested location) might appear great to those of us in the production end of the business. After all, my binders could not be used and Rainey’s could since the binder product still did what it was supposed to do. To the customer, however, a mistake is a mistake and the customer expects someone to own it.

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

This new world we find ourselves in is unforgiving. Customer orders have slowed, cash flow has slowed, customer demographics are shifting, and binders are still going to go wild. The only thing we, as custom loose leaf manufacturers, can do is stay in front of our customers and be available when they finally figure out that they still need to make quality presentations. If our customers trust us enough to make that happen, they’ll trust us enough when we show our humanity by shipping an order that has a misfired rivet or misplaced ring in it…because we’ll be there, standing behind them, especially in this new world.

Jeff Hunter is a regular contributor to The Binding Edge, and is the president and owner of Federal Looseleaf, a custom binder manufacturer in Minneapolis, Minn.

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