Business Strategy

7 Keys to Creating a Customer-Focused Culture – Walking the Talk of Your Mission Statement

November 21, 2008

by Jeff Mowatt

“I’m just doing this until something better comes along – like retirement!” If that sums up the attitude held by some of your employees, then imagine the negative impact on teamwork, productivity and especially customer loyalty. Chances are that you, as a business manager or owner, are committed to satisfying customers. But what are you doing about employees who see their jobs merely as “fillers”? Business leaders need to create an environment that motivates employees to want to take care of customers. Unfortunately, the conventional methods to create a customer-focused culture through mission statements have often fallen short.

In the late 1980s and early ’90s, a lot of managers and business gurus seemed to think that if companies just had a corporate mission statement, all of their customer service and teamwork problems would be magically solved. These mission statements almost always touted the organization’s undying – “commitment to satisfying customers”- Blah, blah, blah. If only it were that simple. A mission statement is a good idea – provided there’s ongoing real-world implementation of the principles and values it conveys.

Managers need a fresh approach to ensuring that customers are satisfied and that employees are personally committed to making it happen. After working with dozens of corporations over the years that have been faced with this challenge, I developed the concept of CAST Meetings© (Customer Service Team Meetings). Think of it as a way to breathe new life into your corporate mission.

At CAST Meetings, managers and employees gather for a couple of hours once a month to focus on enhancing customer satisfaction. You may think you already do something similar in your organization. Perhaps you call it a “staff meeting”. The problem is that staff meetings end up focusing on workers’ needs and managers’ needs – not on those of customers. So, erase the notion that CAST Meetings have any connection to your current staff meeting. Everyone attending CAST – front-line employees, support staff, and managers of all levels – will focus on the most important person, the customer. When introducing CAST Meetings to our clients, we include these seven key elements.

1. Spread Your Customers’ Words. At CAST Meetings, everyone learns the latest results of your customer surveys, letters, and comments. One of the most useful, least expensive ways to collect customer feedback that we teach in our seminars is to ensure that employees directly ask customers a magic question, “What can we do to improve our service?” Asking that question and bringing the responses to CAST Meetings not only provides valuable information, it also reminds front-line employees of one of their most valuable roles – being the eyes and ears of the company.

2. Get People Thinking. Prior to introducing the first CAST Meeting, we conduct training sessions for our client’s management and staff on ways to enhance customer satisfaction – without working harder. As part of these seminars, we brainstorm ways to boost customer satisfaction at each Point of Perception©. Here we generate a list of ways we might enhance customers’ experience at every point where they form an impression of the company – on the web site, when they phone in, as they enter the parking lot, while waiting on site, and so on. Later we bring those ideas to CAST Meetings. We’ve found that employees share ideas that are often realistic, innovative, and create tremendous value for customers. As Sam Walton said, “Listen to everyone in your company, especially the ones who actually talk to customers. They really know what’s going on out there.” The bonus is that since front-line employees are the ones coming up with the ideas, they are more committed to implementing them.

3. Sift to Find the Nuggets. At the monthly CAST Meetings, we sift through the feedback generated by both the customers and the employees. Just because we’ve collected a list of ideas from these groups, doesn’t necessarily mean that we can or should act on each suggestion. At the CAST Meetings we use two primary tools to evaluate the suggestions. One way is using a feedback grid that we discuss in our management training seminars. This grid reveals how your customers rate the various services you provide and how important those services are to them.

Another approach to evaluating the suggestions put forth is simply to ask all CAST Meeting participants to come up with as many pros and cons of the idea as possible. The result is everyone – not just managers – does a preliminary assessment of the suggestion. That way, when ideas are rejected, it’s not just managers rejecting the concepts (which is demoralizing for everyone). Instead, everyone understands why certain ideas won’t be acted upon. This goes a long way to eliminating the “them vs. us” attitude between managers and front-line staff thats so prevalent in many organizations.

4. Implement Now – Perfect Later. Pilot. Pilot. Pilot. When you identify an idea that on the surface looks like it has merit, the next step is to launch a preliminary test run, or “pilot”. So, let’s say for a 30-day trial basis you are going to give several front-line employees in a specific department the authority to make a decision that typically requires management approval. Those same employees volunteer to try the program, monitor the results, and report their findings at the next CAST Meeting. If they indicate that the pilot went well, then at the CAST Meeting it can be fine-tuned and expanded to other areas within the organization.

One of the great hidden benefits of conducting a monthly CAST Meeting is that those participants who agree to test a pilot project suddenly have a deadline. Moreover, they’ve committed to present their findings to their peers and supervisors. Giving a public report of what they’ve done serves as a tremendous incentive to actually get something done without pleading, nagging, or cajoling.

5. Replace Policies with Parables. Perhaps the most critical element of any CAST Meeting is “story-time.” During this part of the agenda, managers call upon selected front-line employees, who recently provided exceptional service, to share a specific on-the-job incident, and explain why they did what they did. These stories become your organization’s parables – living examples of your beliefs. Parables have been used to teach history and values since before the creation of the written word. They endure because they are interesting, teach us lessons, and are easily remembered. These stories become your “code” – the way you do business. In other words, these real-life stories not only reflect your organization’s mission, vision, and values – they become its living and breathing embodiment.

6. Coach Instead of Fighting Fires. We often hear one of the roles of the manager is to act as a mentor or coach. Yet managers get so busy that the only time they “coach” people is when a subordinate fouls up. Worse still, only one person at a time learns from the mistake. That’s not our idea of being a mentor. An effective coach is more proactive.

One of my colleagues, fellow professional speaker Joe Bonura, told me, “Spaced repetition is the mother of memory.” At CAST Meetings, one of the roles of the manager is to take one of the customer service ideas that we’ve shared in the training seminar and reinforce its application. That way, simple vital customer service tips are repeated and are more likely to be remembered and applied. So rather than reacting to individual crises, managers help all employees to prevent customer service problems before they occur.

7. Celebrate Service – Not Seniority. In a study of Fortune 500 corporations, researchers found that the number one motivator of employees is recognition – knowing that they are appreciated. CAST Meetings give managers a forum to provide recognition that’s not based on seniority – but on exemplary customer service. Perhaps even more important is that the recognition doesn’t just come from management – it comes from the workers’ peers. That means you’re creating a shift in culture right at the grass roots. Add to that a few words of open praise from the senior manager to the team, and everyone feels like they are part of a greater good. Combine it with pizza, snacks, or lunch and you’ve created a customer-focused event that employees look forward to.

Bottom Line – It Gets Results.

It’s easy for corporate leaders to pay lip service to the importance of customers. Mission statements may play well for advertising purposes and look good on the boardroom wall. But employees see beneath the veil of slogans. They need to know that you as a leader actually mean what you say – and that you’re willing to back statements with action. Simple logic dictates that if that kind of integrity is missing, even the best employee will eventually become de-motivated and start marking time.

With CAST Meetings employees discover that the company indeed practices what it preaches. That’s the kind of trust that translates into improved performance for everyone. One of our clients found that within six months of using CAST, morale had noticeably improved and employee productivity increased by 34 percent. Meanwhile, the client reported that the number of customer complaints plummeted fourfold. That’s a corporate culture where all the stakeholders benefit. After all, ensuring that everyone wins is very likely what your mission statement is all about.

This article is based on the critically acclaimed book Becoming a Service Icon in 90 Minutes a Month by customer service strategist and professional speaker Jeff Mowatt. To obtain a copy of his book or to inquire about engaging Mowatt for your team, visit www.jeffmowatt.com or call (800) 566-9288.

Making the Decision: Is Adding Services Right for You?

May 1, 2008

by Dianna Brodine

You’ve heard it all before – either in this magazine, from another industry source, or on the financial newscasts. Money is tight, the value of the dollar is falling, and the economy is in a “slowdown.” As a wise business owner, you’ve evaluated your financial situation, taken a look at income vs. expenses, reviewed new equipment that might bring efficiencies, cut a few customers whose business wasn’t bringing in the expected return, but a wise business owner doesn’t stop there. A look to the future is the next step, and perhaps adding services is the right answer for growth. New services could bring new customers or, at the very least, add value to existing customers. And there are natural tie-ins with the bindery business that seem to make the decision a slam-dunk. But not all additions are wise, and not all change is good. How do you decide what is right for your business?

Industry Trends Tighten Profit Margin

Shorter runs, consolidation, and a reduction in the numbers of graphic arts firms all have an effect on the flow of business into binderies. Anna Massey, sales and marketing manager with Gateway Bookbinding Services, noted that, “Today’s trade bindery is very different than that of a decade ago. Printers have become far more efficient and the runs have become smaller so the days of doing 100,000+ books with 5 percent spoilage are long gone.”

Jack Rickard, president of Rickard Bindery, has noted a trend toward one-stop shopping. “People who do the purchasing really like to get the project off their back, so one-stop shopping is attractive. I happen to disagree with that mind-set because I think you want to go where core competencies are.”

Agree or disagree, the reality exists that customers looking for one partner to fulfill all of a project’s needs can apply pressure to printers, or in turn their bindery partners, to offer more services. This leads to another trend – the inclination of printers to add bindery services to the printing shop – but Rickard will point out that the trend is not a new one: “I can remember my grandfather ranting about printers putting in their own equipment back in 1945. But here we are, going right along, and the reason is that we’re good at what we do. We’re better at what we do than our printer customers, who dabble with what we do.”

In fact, Rickard explained that knowing and understanding core competencies can provide opportunities to work with other bindery service providers when trying to meet the needs of a customer: “There are things which we do that I know somebody else does better. When we get one of those jobs in, we will take it over to the guy who does it better. In Chicago, for years and years, we have dealt with each other’s core competencies. We work very hard with each other so that the printers don’t get the feeling that they’ve got to put the equipment in themselves.”

Know Your Business Model

Business models define the parameters in which your company operates, including what you do, why you do it, and what you hope the results are once you’ve added your fair share of hard work. Part of that process is determining core competencies – the things you and your staff do better than the competition. When evaluating the addition of services, one of the first questions you should ask is whether or not the new service can be done as well as your existing core competencies.

Rickard Bindery have explored a lot of avenues over its decades of existence and Jack Rickard is open about some of its mistakes. “We stuck our nose into a lot of places and found out that 90 percent of the time, we got our fingers slapped. In 1980, I brilliantly got some labeling machines and we jumped in. I found out in a matter of two months that one, the mail houses hired cheaper people than we had; and two, they knew what they were doing. I managed to get back out of the business in four months,” Rickard laughed.

That and other “missteps” have made Rickard a firm believer in knowing the business model in which your company operates. In the case of Rickard Bindery, the company could easily slip into mechanical binding, laminating, diecutting, or perfect binding. In order to succeed in the new ventures, the only thing Rickard employees would have to learn in those fields would be the technical expertise. The essential business model would not change.

“In binding, we take paper and we mechanically cut it, chop it, fold it – we physically alter the stock,” said Rickard, explaining that adding services that alter the stock in similar ways makes good business sense, while some things fall outside of the company’s core competencies. “Fulfillment is a computer game with inventory. You’ve got to have the computer horsepower and the inventory mind-set to manage inventories of various products in order to do fulfillment. And it, just like mailing, is a different mind-set business.”

Adding Services

So, with the cautionary tales and words of advice, why add services? The answer, in some cases, is increasing responsiveness to customer needs. “Today’s trade bindery needs to be poised and ready to respond to their customer’s needs,” said Massey. “They need to go beyond just being a final step for their customers. They need to become a partner with the printers to bring added value to the relationship.” Another answer is that the more services you provide, the more you “control” your customer accounts.

Once you’ve made the decision to expand your bindery’s services, there are many directions to go. Three are discussed here: string tying, mechanical binding, and mailing. Future issues of The Binding Edge will feature a series on fulfillment services.

– String Tying
Rickard Bindery added string tying to its services in 2006. According to Jack Rickard, it was a logical step for the trade bindery. “String tying is the same business, the same customers, the same quoting process, and the same schedules,” he said.

String tying is one of many ways to promote products at point of purchase. There are a variety of shelved products that have a physical shape that lends itself to having a string-tied piece attached. Well-conceived string-tied promotional pieces attract attention and provide useful information right at the point of purchase. If your customer’s product is a bottle, or has a button or a hook, then string-tied tags might be exactly what’s needed to boost unit sales. Products could include grocery items like liquor, hair care products, condiments, spices and flavorings (i.e., soy sauces or olive oils), or cosmetics.

String tying applications have size limitations and stock weight requirements. A hole must be punched in one corner. And the pieces must be stitched, glued, and folded in such a way to be attractive and functional. Further enhancements through foil stamping and diecutting are possible. Strings can range from plastic options to cotton in a variety of thicknesses and colors.

The work came about for Rickard Bindery because of an existing customer relationship. “We were doing a lot of string tying work and we really didn’t want to mess with their turf, but we were operating three shifts and they were operating one shift. We could bring something to the table that they couldn’t,” said Rickard. Despite the very real possibility of offending their string tying customers, the company is still doing work for the string tying companies, providing material and occasionally sending very difficult jobs to them. “We’ve drawn our market from areas our string tying customers weren’t drawing from.”

– Mechanical Binding
Mechanical binding is another service that makes sense as a vertical move in a bindery’s business plan. According to Massey, mechanical binding offers ease of use, quick start-up with minimal training time needed for operators, and affordability of implementation. “Most binderies will already have some sort of punching equipment so often all they require is a punch tool with the correct hole pattern for coil,” explained Massey. “Once they have their punching requirements figured out, they then need some type of coil inserting equipment.” Massey explained that there are a number of options, depending upon the volume of work the bindery foresees and the complexity of the projects. Possibilities include belt drive coil inserters, dual roller coil inserters, and automated coil inserters. Equipments investments can range from as little as $795 up to $20,000 for an automated machine.

The plastic spiral itself is readily available, but according to Massey, a lot of binderies take it one step further with in-house coil manufacturing. “By producing their own coil from spooled filament, the bindery not only positions itself to be able to respond much more quickly to its customers needs, but it also sees a 50 percent savings in material costs. Interline the coil forming process with automated coil insertion (with production speeds anywhere from 700 to 1,400 books per hour), and that bindery becomes not only fast but highly efficient.”

Adding to the appeal is the fact that plastic spiral binding is suitable for a variety of projects. With a variety of color options and lay flat capabilities, mechanical binding could provide flexibility not only to your bindery business but to the customers you serve.

– Mailing Services
According to John Gracey, co-owner of Mail Right, Inc., 65 percent of printed material ends up in the mail but only 10 percent of printers have an in-house mailing system. Gracey points out that the mailing business is a natural move for binders, since they’re already involved at the end of the process – right before mailing occurs.

Mail Right specializes in setting new companies up in the mailing business, offering the equipment, software, and resources needed to be successful. “We focus on the how-to,” said Gracey. “We’ve done it, so we can teach exactly how to do it. We can walk new mailing organizations through pricing mailing jobs, getting your salespeople to sell mailing jobs, teaching the production people how to produce jobs, all the way to taking them to the post office to teach them how to introduce jobs into the system.”

Continued compliance and changes in the mailing standards and prices are a concern. Mail Right holds advertised phone seminars and schedules phone calls to discuss compliance issues. One change coming up in November is NCOA (National Change of Address). At this time, when an automated mailing is done, mailers have to verify that the address and zip code are valid. NCOA goes a step further to require that mailers verify that the person the mailing is directed to actually lives at that address. “Mailers are going to have to access the USPS change of address database to verify that the person actually lives there,” said Gracey. “It’s always been required for first class mail, but now it’s going to transfer to standard mail, which is the majority of the stuff in the system. All of the lists are going to have to be run through a list verification service.” Another change in the works is a new barcode system that allows more information to be imprinted, offering increased ability to track your mail through the system.

Getting into the mailing business from bindery is less of a vertical move and more of a horizontal change in business strategy. No longer are you physically altering the state of the paper stock. It can be, however, another way of securing your customer relationships.

Jack Rickard has a simple standard for evaluating expansion possibilities: “It’s looking at what’s going through your shop and saying ‘What else is being done with this, and how can I help out with what’s being done?’ If it’s really outside of your competency, I’d recommend you take a long, hard look before committing any resources.”

Special thanks to Jack Rickard of Rickard Bindery for his insights and experience. String tying information reprinted with permission from Rickard Bindery. Additional recognition to Anna Massey, Gateway Bookbinding Services, and John Gracey, Mail Right, Inc.

Estimating and Selling Are Two Different Functions

November 21, 2007

by Mark Porter, Dienamic MIS

There are many reasons to automate the estimating function within your bindery.

Faster, more consistent estimates.
Re-quotes are much faster.
Allows you to spend more time planning the job then crunching numbers.
Letter of Confirmation faxed or e-mailed provides a more professional image.
Estimate history allows you to find and analyze estimates quickly.
Single entry of data eliminates mistakes because estimate is automatically converted to a Ticket.
Ability to download common or simple estimates to a junior estimator.

…and there are many more reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is the fact that estimating and selling are two different functions.

Estimating vs. Selling: Not Every Job Equals Profit

We have installed our software in 70-80 post press companies and have talked to many more binderies and print finishers over the years and very few, if any, operate their business using this concept. Most binderies estimate by calculating numbers and adding them up. They then present this price to the customer. There is no addition of markup at the bottom of the estimate. This signifies that these binderies do not practice the concepts of cost accounting that are vital to any job-oriented manufacturing industry.

When I bring up the concept that estimating and selling are two different functions, most binderies respond by saying that the market dictates the selling price. This is 100 percent true, but the market does not dictate your costs to produce the job. It certainly doesn’t stop you from evaluating if this job, at the market price, covers your costs and provides the desired return.

A good estimating system should use the production standards that you have determined through a variety of different methods that will be discussed shortly. The standards then can be multiplied by hourly cost rates that accurately reflect the cost of running the machine on a hourly basis. These rates are called Budgeted Hourly Rates (BHR) and they encompass financing charges, labor costs, benefits, miscellaneous materials, and overhead. Information as to the number of shifts and levels of productivity are entered and the software can determine accurate hourly rates for each piece of equipment.

When these hourly rates are applied to the production standards that you determined, you will have an accurate representation of how much the proposed job will cost to produce. You can now evaluate the risk, the desired return and the markup of the quote to determine the selling price.

If the market will not bear your desired price, you now have all of the data required to evaluate at what price you are unable or unwilling to bid on the job. There may be times you will bid on work below your cost – BUT YOU WILL KNOW THAT YOU ARE BELOW COST.

Once time standards and BHRs are established, it is vital that you constantly monitor your production processes to ensure they are consistent with the standards used when estimating. For example, if we have our estimating system calculating the speed of the binder at 5,000 per hour and we are only obtaining 4,000 out on the shop floor, it means we are losing money on the job as soon as we win it. Conversely, if we are estimating at 4,000 per hour and actually obtaining 5,000 per hour out in production, it means we are losing jobs that we could be producing profitably. This monitoring can be done through software that measures productivity and compares estimate vs. actual values for every estimate.

These concepts of cost accounting and management information systems are vital to any job-oriented manufacturing businesses (such as binderies) no matter how big or small. The results will provide more data, allowing you to manage your business in a more profitable manner.

Budgeted Hourly Rates (BHRs)

BHRs are determined by simply identifying all of the costs for each cost center in your plant. The purpose is to recover all costs incurred in the production, sales, and administration of your bindery products. You have to be careful not to include costs that are not part of a production process and conversely, not miss costs associated with a production process. Either error will cause your hourly rate to adversely affect your profitability.

The process of determining BHRs begins with identifying the processes you perform in your plant. You must then determine and collect the related data. Just because ABC Bindery and DEF Bindery have the same folder does not mean they will have the same hourly rate. ABC Bindery may have paid cash for its folder, its facility rent may be less expensive, and it hires less skilled employees. This will all lead to a lesser cost per hour for ABC Bindery.

A sample BHR sheet for a folder is included to demonstrate the type of information that is required for the BHR calculation.

The Manufacturing Cost per Chargeable Hour is not the Budgeted Hourly Rate. It is useful if you must charge back house errors to the company.

The BHR reflects all costs incurred to produce the product, as well as the Sales and Administrative overhead. BHRs are not the prices. The calculation of the BHR multiplied by the time estimate should reflect the true cost to produce a product with no profit.

One note regarding overtime and multiple shifts. If a cost center is reaching 40 percent overtime, a second shift should be considered. The advantages of the second shift are the reduction of overtime and the ability to spread the fixed costs over a larger time block. This can result in substantial savings.

Software is available to easily calculate your BHRs based on industry-specific guidelines.

Production Standards The estimating system now has accurate hourly cost rates. The second piece of the puzzle is accurate production standards. Production standards are a measurement of the output that you achieve on a certain machine under a certain set of circumstances.

A bindery company can determine its production standards in six ways.

Data collection
Intuition
Published results
Competition
Manufacturer
Time and motion studies

Methods 2-5 use outside information that does not reflect your actual conditions and therefore is of very little benefit. Method 6 is accurate but very expensive and is not on-going. Method 1 represents the best method, as it uses your own historical data and is gathered in a continuous process that constantly reflects changes in your output. Shop floor data collection devices are used to constantly send data to Job Costing Software where the data can be sorted and analyzed by different jobs, machines, and employees.

Production standards are used by the estimating system to provide the time element of the quote. Production standards must be constantly monitored to ensure the estimating department is using standards that accurately reflect the production capabilities on the shop floor.

Both components of the estimating system, BHRs and production standards, can constantly change. Equipment gets old, new employees with less skill start working, and other factors change the production we achieve. BHRs change with rent increase, purchasing new equipment, and adding shifts.

A good system will allow you to monitor both components of the estimating system with an Actual vs. Estimate report for each job. This report will allow you to see at a glance how you estimated the job compared to how it actually was produced. Any variations should be examined. Weekly and monthly production analysis reports both of processes and employees will allow you to spot changes in production standards. This will ensure that your estimating system is always using the most accurate data and allow you to obtain the type of work that can be produced most profitably.

This is a good policy in good times and slow times. In good times, when there are never enough hours in the day, why work overtime to produce jobs that don’t provide you with a good return? In slow times, it is vital that you know your exact profit position when customers demand price cuts.

Again, software is available to help you easily perform all these functions, leaving more time to manage your bindery business in a way that is both well-informed and profitable.

Mark Porter is the president of Dienamic MIS Software. Dienamic develops and markets software solutions specifically for the post press industries of trade binderies and print finishers. Dienamic offers estimating software, management information systems (order entry, shipping, data collection, scheduling, etc.), and e-commerce software designed to meet the specific needs of binders and finishers. Dienamic offers stand-alone modules for BHRs, die management, and receiving goods as well. For more information, call (800) 461-8114 or e-mail mark@dienamicmis.com.

Trade Show Exhibiting: How to Be a Star Performer

May 1, 2007

by Dana King

It’s show time, and you would love to give an encore performance. You want to attract the attention that will keep the calls coming for months. By choosing to exhibit at a trade show, you have an outstanding opportunity to give your company positive exposure, build your client base, or announce your new product to the industry world. Yet, trying to stand out in an exhibitor’s hall can be daunting. Here are some tips to help you plan, implement, and follow-up your days in the spotlight.

Before the Show

1. Decide where to exhibit. If your company has little experience exhibiting at trade shows, do your homework up front to get the most out of your investment. Contact the company or association that is organizing the show and ask for data about attendees and exhibitors. Often, you can find exhibitor lists on the show’s web site. You also may be able to find former exhibitors on the web site. Contact some of these people and ask about their experience at the previous show.

If you are an experienced exhibitor, evaluate whether or not the trade show you have been attending has met your objectives. It can be easy to settle into a pattern of attending the same trade show every year. That’s fine, as long as you are growing your business. A consistent presence can certainly work to your advantage, promoting name recognition and providing a convenient opportunity for customers to speak with you each year.

However, if you have not achieved the results you desired, the first thing to assess is whether or not the show best meets your needs. Could there be a show that better targets your market? Or, then again, could it be that you are not achieving your objectives because you haven’t assessed those objectives?

2. Define measurable objectives. The obvious question to start with is simply: “Why are we exhibiting at this trade show?” This may seem like a ridiculous question, at first glance. But, if you pinpoint your primary and secondary reasons for attending, it will help focus your planning process. The company whose main objective is to increase sales will exhibit differently than the one who wants to use the event to launch a new product, or the one who primarily wants to work on positioning or image building.

“We start months in advance and have brainstorming sessions as to what may attract attendees, what machines we should exhibit, and what machine capabilities we should showcase,” said Jennie Stevens, director of advertising for Vijuk Equipment, Inc. “Sometimes we attend industry workshops or contact a marketing company for new ideas on trade show selling, show promotion, or booth exhibit displays.”

Make sure your objectives are in-line with the company’s strategic or marketing plan. Then, write down a quantifiable, attainable objective to measure the success of your exhibit. An example of a measurable objective would be adding 30 prospective customers to the database each day. If your primary goal is sales, track how many prospects you talk with before making a sale. This will help you set your objectives the next year, as you will know how many prospects you want to meet with per day to achieve your sales objective. (Remember to track sales information over the months after the show so your figures can be accurate.)

3. Take advantage of free publicity. Promote your company before the show so attendees will plan to visit your booth. There are several low-cost or no-cost ways to do this, including the following:

Press releases: Ask the show manager for a media list, and send newsworthy press releases to those publications which are putting out a special show edition or new product guides. New or improved products or services, expanded product lines, and new product applications are all good topics.
Your web site: Check to see if the trade show web site has free or low-cost links to exhibitor sites. Then, when people click to your site, offer an incentive to visit your booth (and list your booth number or location).
VIP passes: Check to see if the show you are attending has free or discounted VIP passes. You can give away VIP passes through your web site, or send mailings to your current customers and prospects. Along with the pass, why not offer a chance to win something if the recipient stops by and registers at your booth?
E-mail and faxes: Use these avenues to promote your booth by offering a reason to visit (a new product, an incentive, etc.). Keep in mind that conference attendees can be inundated with competing messages, so don’t send e-mails often enough to cause annoyance.

4. Don’t neglect traditional advertisement. Direct mail can still be a very effective advertising medium. Be aware, though, that attendees may be swamped with mailings. Make the best use of your advertising dollars by sending to the people you most want to visit your booth-your list of customers and prospects. Then, design a piece that is customer-benefit focused. Don’t forget those incentives!

“We use our allotment of free admission passes by sending them out in direct mail letters to preferred customers and prospects, letting them know what we will be exhibiting and inviting them to our booth – sometimes offering show “specials” or a premium,” said Stevens.

There are many advertising opportunities, including advertising in trade publications, co-sponsoring the trade show, paid advertising on show web sites, or sponsoring a conference break or giveaway (such as conference notepads or lanyards). Look around for opportunities, then choose what best fits your company’s marketing plan and budget.

At the Show

1. Draw them to your booth. It’s show time-and your booth has approximately three seconds to catch and hold attendees’ attention. How do you capitalize on this brief opportunity?

Remember your objectives! Focus your efforts on what you want to achieve (brand recognition, introduction of a new product, etc.). Choose large graphics and pictures that make your point. Avoid lots of words – people won’t stop to read.
Design a booth that is as roomy as possible and that allows access to you. People probably won’t stand in line to see what you have or to speak with you.
Make it memorable by using demonstrations or presentations. People learn in various ways, but the more ways you present your information, the more likely people will remember.
Address the attendees’ needs. They aren’t as interested in your company as they are in what your company can do for them (i.e. lower production costs, increase quality, provide an innovative feature to their market, etc.). And, of course, don’t forget those giveaways or incentives. Just be sure that your giveaway is something that clearly promotes your company and product – and try to choose something people can use again and again.

2. Track your objectives. Keep track of statistics that will help evaluate whether or not you are meeting your objectives for the conference. If the conference is three days, have you met one-third of your goal by the first day? If not, are your objectives realistic? If the objectives still seem reasonable, reassess and determine if there are changes you can make in the booth. Are booth workers spending too much time speaking with weaker potential customers while those who are most interested in your product wait – and move on? Is there something going on at the next booth that is distracting from yours? Perhaps you could rearrange so your information or demonstration is at the opposite side of your booth. Try to pinpoint potential problems and brainstorm creative solutions, or give your booth staff some additional quick training tips.

“An obvious way to track objectives is booth attendance, number of qualified leads, and number of sales,” said Stevens. “We rent the lead recording device to record the attendee’s interest and purchase intentions. We also have direct communication with our home office so we are able to provide any information or service required for sales.”

3. Seek publicity at the trade show. There are several ways you can improve your visibility and name recognition at trade shows.

Try putting your press kit in the press room. Editors look through the press kits and may use the information during and after the show.
Find out if there is a daily trade show newspaper or e-newsletter. If there is, ask the manager who is producing the newspaper. If you have an idea for an article on a product or news item, you should actually contact the editor several weeks before the show. If the editor likes your idea, he might include an interview with a representative from your company.
Be involved in the show. Considering reading a paper at the trade show, being a speaker, or paying to enter your company in an awards competition. All these things give your company’s name exposure. Plus, attendees have another chance to ask you questions or meet you outside of your booth.

After the Show

1. Follow-up promptly! The curtain is down and the show is over. But, the week after the trade show is not the time to relax. This is the best time to follow-up on the leads you obtained at the show. It’s important to talk to people when their interest and enthusiasm is high. Plus, this is a wonderful opportunity to showcase your company’s prompt, thorough customer service.

“During the week following the show, we will send out letters with literature per the attendee’s interest, thanking them for their interest in Vijuk, and letting them know that within the next few days one of our bindery consultants will be in touch with them. It is required of our bindery consultants,” commented Stevens.

You will have a head-start on the competition if you organize a system for follow-up before you go to the trade show. Decide who will follow-up on leads and set a timetable.

2. Take another look at those objectives. Spend time looking at the results of the show. Have an employee meeting to garner feedback. Did you meet your objectives? Don’t forget to continue tracking and adding data through the coming months. Use the data you accumulated to adjust and/or redefine your objectives for your next exhibit.

If you met or exceeded your objectives, you deserve a standing ovation for your careful planning, wise implementation, and great follow-up. If you fell short of your objectives, start planning now to present a show-stopping exhibit when it’s time for the curtain to rise on the next show.

Bindery Layout Advantages and Benefits

February 1, 2007

by Brad Emerson

Creating layout concepts for bindery shop floors is one of the greatest opportunities for improving quality, operator efficiency, changeover time and planning for future machine expansions or upgrades.

Advantages to Efficient Shop Floor Layouts

1. Improving Quality

How many times has a bindery manager brainstormed ways to increase the frequency with which personnel perform quality control checks? New floor layouts are the perfect opportunity to reduce the footsteps/effort required to QC products while keeping key personnel at or near their primary workstations. As an extra benefit, a positive morale windfall can occur when key personnel realize their managers are considering the footsteps/effort required in a given shift to make as many good books as possible.

2. Operator Efficiency

Revising machine-manning requirements by looking at the current product mix also can be factored into new floor layouts. A bindery that does short runs may benefit from having an operator that can change over a three knife trimmer/mailtable while another operator is changing the binder or stitcher over to the next job. A shop that does very long runs, or has been able to schedule similar size work to lines, can bring primary operator work stations to within a few steps of each other to reduce redundant personnel.

3. Changeover Time

Once the personnel who work in a layout are taken into consideration, the next advantage can be found in the number of pallets or carts/modules of material that can be staged for subsequent machine changeovers. It did not take long after the installation and start-up of the first automated servo perfect binder in the USA to know that material handling would still play a major role in quick changeovers. While a non-automated machine’s mechanical makeready can be eliminated if scheduling permits the same or similar format jobs to be scheduled behind one another, the physics of moving loads in and out does not go away, even with servo motors, JDF, CIP4, streamfeeders, or bundle loaders. Many efficient binderies take material staging to another level by planning for enough space to keep material near the machine for 16-24 hours of production. This additional product staging can protect a bindery’s overall production backlog when job problems occur and a subsequent job on the schedule can be moved up and made ready quickly.

4. Planning for Expansion

Planning for future machine expansions and upgrades can pay huge dividends when the time is taken to factor in floor space. A quick survey of the customers’ wish lists, bindery personnel input, sales reps, and CSRs for future services such as drilling, inkjet addressing, poly wrapping, semi or fully automatic cartoning, and palletizing also can help bring the bindery’s future into focus.

Considering Layout Concepts

In each layout, it must be determined where the unfinished product enters the bindery and where finished products leave. Machine configuration comes next. Typically, the greatest layout opportunity/variable is the conveyor transfer between the adhesive binder, three-knife trimmer, buffer system, inline hardcover, and poly or cartoning equipment, so careful consideration should be given to this capital expense. The all-inclusive packages from new equipment manufacturers will typically include a conveyor transfer with proprietary components and electrical cabinets that local electricians and mechanics cannot easily troubleshoot. End users considering a domestic conveyor solution with domestic components can benefit with reduced capital expense and gain the ability to service (fix your own bindery) with local mechanics or electricians.

Do your homework when tower conveyors have been placed into a layout concept. While the mesmerizing spiral of books can catch people’s attention, often the initial cost is higher, while tower floorspace savings over waterfall and multi-tier concepts is minimal. In addition, the increased maintenance downtime required for removing stretched chain, the high-end speed limitations, the difficulty with book shingling, and the lack of book access with required OSHA or CE guarding in place can make strong arguments for staying with conventional conveyor components.

Buffer systems technology has evolved quite well in recent years. In the last 50 years, the only technology available to keep a line producing books with feeder faults has been the reject gate (or escape gate) on stitchers, gatherers, and inserters. Now, the buffer system has opened up a whole new profit center, depending on a given plant’s product mix and unit cost. With plc logic, book diversion, stacker, slip torque conveyors, and bookblock feeders, upstream and downstream equipment can continue to run for a few minutes while faults are addressed.

New equipment manufacturers may provide layout assistance with no initial cost. The downside is that these layout concepts can be focused narrowly on the manufacturer’s interest to market complete equipment packages, rather than making end users as competitive as possible with minimal capital expense, and proper consideration for an end user’s product mix.

While in the end bindery personnel can always live with the layout constraints and limitations of less imaginative or motivated bindery man-agers, the technology to make proper layouts and “fight the good fight” against foreign competition is more simple than ever. With proper use of today’s web meeting Internet sites, end users can review numerous layout concepts online, and even exchange mouse control to completely interact with layout specialists.

Brad Emerson is the general manager of fixyourownbindery.com, a company specializing in consultation, turnkey used equipment, automation, equipment fabrication, and training. Emerson’s bindery background includes bindery supervision, as well as marketing and consultation with a global bindery equipment leader. For more information, comments, questions, or criticism, please e-mail brad@fixyourownbindery.com.

Automating Your Bindery: What Equipment Do You Need to Drive Your 2007 Business Goals?

November 21, 2006

by: Nancy Lowther

“The first red flag in any manufacturing operation indicating there is a need to automate is when there is a domino effect occurring, where one operation is affecting another in a negative way – a bottleneck, a slow process that impedes the next” says Douglas Kelly, editor and chief of APICS magazine and director of industry content.

As well as identifying bottlenecks, there are questions to address that will help binderies when conducting resource planning.

What jobs are your sales personnel turning away or losing? Is it because production cannot meet the job deadline (your bindery productivity is too low)?
What jobs are you accepting and then farming out?
How have current customers’ needs and products changed? What new customers have located in your area?
What automation (new bindery equipment) has your competitors incorporated and do you have comparable equipment?

Kelly also suggests that “a good consultant can come in and scrutinize your process and workflow. They question such things as legacy actions – doing things a certain way because ‘Bob’ used to do it that way.”

Bindery Automation in Action

Anna Massey, sales and marketing manager at Plastikoil, says that plastic spiral mechanical binding has been construed as labor intensive for a long time. How the operator held the crimping pliers and the experience and speed of the operator affected the output. In the past, coil inserters had belt-driven inserters – dozens of these lined up and dozens of operators. Consequently, productivity suffered. “So for me, automation means hands-off and higher productivity. It provides consistency. Automating this process with the Plastikoil Interline system means the operator places pre-punched books in place and the machine does the rest. It forms the coil, cuts it to length, drives it through the punch holes, and simultaneously cuts and crimps both ends,” states Massey.

Other than consistency, “There’s a 50 percent savings in material costs,” continues Massey. With this system, users can purchase spools of raw material and produce the exact length of coil needed for each job, versus making-do with pre-formed lengths from an outside supplier. These spools are half the cost of the equivalent amount of pre-made coils and there also is less waste (from cutting down pre-made coil to the exact size needed). Additionally, this system reduces the number of operators required because of the automatic inserters. “Companies may suddenly have a huge job available to them and this is often the catalyst for automating.”

When considering automating Massey says, “companies really should do their homework and research what is available.” Ask manufacturers for references – but not just the standard prepared list of names. Ask for the customer who has most recently installed the equipment. Ask that customer what made them choose it. Go to trade shows and see equipment in operation. Meet the sales reps and the service staff and see if you feel comfortable with them, if you feel they are credible, and if they can help you with your decision-making process without skewing the facts. Do they truly understand your business and the industry?

Mark Rasch, vice president of marketing at Rasch Graphics, a trade bindery in Houston, Texas, says “technology has changed and we changed with it. Today we’re faster. One of the beliefs we have is if we can replace people with machines, we do because the machine is there every day, on time, and if well maintained, is never sick.” Rasch Graphics automated by purchasing a Polar guillotine cutter since its old machine “just cut paper.. Now the company only requires one operator versus three because the cutter output has doubled. A photoelectric eye automatically brings the pallet of stock up to feed the cutter. A scale keeps the lifts in specific sheet counts and also jogs them. After the stock is cut, it is automatically jogged and packed perfectly on a skid.

The company’s old plastic coil equipment with its cloth belts and manual insertion of the coil produced 80 books per hour. Over a six month period, Rasch did an in-depth investigation of all the plastic coil equipment that was available. Now its new Plastikoil Concept QS2 system spins the coil through the book, forms it in-line, and produces 1,000 to 1,200 books per hour. For this company, automation was driven by its reputation for high quality work. When Rasch bid on several large projects and won, it needed to automate the bindery in order to deliver on time. “Automation means quicker turnaround, a lower price for the customer, and not only keeping up with the competition, but being a leader.”

“Automation means different things to different people. It can be anything from a fully automated JDF workflow to the automation of a single piece of equipment, an island of automation,” says Mark Hunt, director of marketing at Standard Finishing Systems. “To us it’s not an ‘all or nothing’ proposition. There are steps depending on how deeply and quickly a company wants to go.” With the margin and pricing pressure in the printing industry, companies are looking for ways to drive the labor cost down and stay profitably engaged. With shorter runs and thus more job set-ups per day, this means automated equipment. Related to that is the need to not compromise the quality of the final product, to maintain reliability, and thus make customers happier.

Another way a company can decide what equipment to automate is to analyze the lifecycle management (maintenance) reports for each piece of equipment. If it has been well maintained and has had few or no break-downs, then Hunt says to look at how much product is coming off it and check to see if this matches the specs in the manual. What is the actual spoilage, true productivity from that equipment versus any perceptions that exist? There was not a lot of measurement in the past. “The Horizon i2i bindery control system supplies visibility by capturing job statistics, actual productivity, and jams that occurred so these measurements can be compiled and then analyzed. And a CSR then can go into the system to see how much of the job is complete and if there are any problems in order to answer customer questions instantly. Binderies now need to automate just as prepress, press, and distribution have automated.”

Acculink Inc. is primarily a digital company with some offset, a bindery and a mail shop. President Tom O’Brien says that it is difficult finding skilled employees, so automating with devices that aid in set-up and changeover are necessary. “At Graph Expo, we plan to particularly spend a lot of time looking at all the bindery equipment.” Recently, the bindery purchased an M2 booklet maker and an Easy Crease machine from Standard Finishing in order to increase its productivity. “Productivity is one of the best indicators of how a company is doing and the sales per employee is how we measure that. In the last five years, there’s been little industry growth, resulting in fewer printing companies. But last year we grew 15 percent and are on track for seven more percent this year,” states O’Brien. Companies that want to survive will automate so they can deliver better than average quality and do it quickly.

As well as doing a ROI when planning on purchasing more automated equipment, the management at Acculink Inc. looks to see if there are specific customers with specific products, and if this is a sustainable market. The company checks to see if its operators have the skill set required and if the equipment can be serviced in-house and if not, what services are available outside. Acculink studies how to improve what it does so as to position itself as the vendor of choice.

At Globus Printing, the company has been actively automating its bindery. Globus added a STI hopper loader on its Kolbus perfect binder. This takes a lift from the press and places it on a conveyor, automatically feeding the perfect binder. Prior to this automation, the company had four to five people loading the pockets. Now only one person is required. Denny Schmiesing, president, says that “when this was done manually, it was easy to pick-up a signature and put it in the wrong pocket.”

Last year the company purchased a Baum folder and it has just added a Baum ifold, which is a set-up tool. The operator clicks on “fold” and a list of steps to set-up the machine appears on screen. “Recently an operator on night shift started running the folder that had been set-up on day shift but there was a problem. He checked on the ifold screen and found that the job hadn’t been set-up correctly and was then able to fix the problem and continue the job,” says Schmiesing.

By automating, the quality at Globus Printing has risen and the company better competes with other companies. Schmiesing summarizes by saying, “Automation is a necessity. If a company hasn’t automated, it probably isn’t there anymore.”

Nancy Lowther is owner of Lowther Training and Development and can be reached at (416) 282-1890.

Disasters: Be Prepared

November 21, 2006

by Richard Ensman

Natural and man-made disasters can strike businesses of any size, anyplace, anytime. These disasters are not limited to earthquakes, floods, and tornadoes. Fire, blizzards, explosions, power outages, and even acts of vandalism or terrorism can strike at the health of businesses. Without adequate preparation for disasters, many businesses will find their operations seriously crippled; some will shut their doors forever.

While emergency planning precautions vary from business to business, every enterprise can guard against the effects of disasters through a five-step planning process. This process involves a clear assessment of potential emergencies; prevention; development of clear emergency procedures; development of safety precautions; and steps for continuation of the enterprise.

Assessing Emergencies: What Can Happen?

You can’t identify every possible disaster that might befall your enterprise, but you can identify some.

Visualize the worst scenarios other area firms have faced. Given your location, are you prone to flooding? Earthquakes? Acts of crime? Make a list of the three, five, or ten worst disasters you could face.

Check the durability of your building. If you lease your facilities, the landlord or building manager can help answer questions about the structural integrity of your building and mechanical systems. If you own your own building, ask a trusted contractor or engineer for assistance.

Assess the economic consequences of a sudden emergency. What costs would be involved in remedying damage to your building? Disruption of sales? Downed machinery? Identify the costs as closely as possible and decide what risks you can bear — and what risks you can’t afford. Then, consult your insurance carrier about coverage for at least the most serious risks. Keep detailed records about the condition of your facilities and equipment, and take photos if necessary.

An Ounce of Prevention

You can’t prevent catastrophes, but you can minimize their impact on your business operations.

Keep equipment out of harm’s way. What common sense steps can you take to prevent disaster loss? If you’re in heavy wind country, for instance, keep computers and other electronic equipment away from windows. If your facility is prone to flooding, keep inventory out of the basement. By all means, store combustible materials in a fireproof place.

Consult with outside agencies. Make a list of agencies that can help treat injuries, disseminate information, and protect property. It should include the names and telephone numbers of law enforcement and fire protection contacts, hospitals and clinics, local media, and private companies – such as transportation companies, temporary help agencies, and contractors – that could help you maintain operations after a disaster.

Identify and safeguard critical records. These might include accounts receivable data, telephone lists, insurance policies, key contracts and agreements, building and mechanical system plans, and the like. Store them in a fire-proof vault or a secure location off-site.

Develop a computer backup system. Back up your system regularly – weekly or daily depending on transaction volume. Transport all backup disks and tapes to a location miles away. Or contract with a commercial data storage center. Be prepared to run your business with backup “paper procedures” if electronic systems go down.

When Disaster Strikes

The real test of your ability to respond to an emergency often lies in the procedures you develop. At minimum, here’s what those procedures should help you do:

React to weather predictions. Information about severe storms is available from the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center. These agencies issue “advisories” when potentially harmful weather is possible, and upgrade these notices as the danger becomes more acute. As official warnings are upgraded, employees should be sent home, your property secured, and your emergency staff mobilized.

Designate emergency leaders. One person should have overall responsibility for crisis management. As part of this individual’s team, one person should be responsible for communications and another for building security. Be sure alternate leaders are designated as well; a sudden emergency could leave key personnel absent or even injured.

Prepare an emergency telephone directory. This should contain both office and home telephone numbers of all employees, as well as key customers and vendors. Key people should keep this directory at home, in the car or in some other highly accessible place.

Develop a plan to secure facilities. If your business location is damaged, you’ll need to know how to secure it quickly against theft or further deterioration. Designate an individual to be responsible for inspecting the facility, boarding up doors and windows, turning utilities off, and arranging guard service.

Prepare emergency communication procedures. Identify an off-premises source of communication: a friend’s office across town, a cellular telephone network, even your home telephone. Next, build a “telephone tree” that can systematically bring information to employees and others. Use it when an emergency hits.

Write it all down. Develop a simple, but thorough, emergency procedure plan. A things-to-do list is fine as long it spells out the specific steps you must take to deal with the problem. Be sure you – and key people around you – keep the plan handy at home and at the office.

Although you should be vitally concerned about the health and survival of your business after a disaster, you also must be concerned about the well-being of your employees and their families. Employees may need assistance getting home or, if the emergency is critical, may need to safely remain at your facility until the danger subsides. Some tips:

Designate an inside “safe zone.” The safest part of your building might be a sturdy rear wing or the basement. Employees should gather in the designated safe zone if they’re present when disaster strikes.

Provide emergency directions. The first set of directions should be internal, and should guide employees to your safe zone. The second set of directions should designate emergency fire exits. And the third set should spell out the safest escape roads from the area. Keep in mind that natural disasters can wash out roads, damage bridges, and block intersections, so be sure to identify several routes out.

Prepare to provide emergency health care. Your safe zone should contain a fully stocked first aid kit, which you can use to treat minor injuries. Know the procedure to get people to nearby hospitals in the event of serious injuries.

Maintain a well-stocked emergency kit. Besides first aid supplies, your kit should contain things like battery-operated radios, flashlights, non-perishable foods, water, blankets, and small utensils and tools. Keep the kit in your safe zone.

Up and Running Again

Once the disaster is over, the real work begins: getting the business up and running as quickly as possible.

Identify an “operations center” and begin working from there. This center might be your building’s safe zone, at your home, or at some other location. Here, you should have access to your communication system, basic supplies and equipment, telephone directories, customer and vendor lists, and critical records.

Make plans for reopening your building. If your building has been damaged, call on your emergency contractor, utility companies, and other suppliers to help you make the building useable as soon as possible.

Restore your computer systems. Now is the time to pull out your backup disks or tapes, or contact your commercial data center to help you get your computer system up and running again. Replace hardware as needed.

Obtain emergency supplies and inventory. Your emergency records package should serve as a quick guide to suppliers, ordering and delivery requirements, and terms.

Make financial projections. Pull out your financial records and develop a series of projections for the year ahead – a “best case” and “worst case” scenario at least. These financial projections may be helpful if you must apply for loans to replace inventory or repair damage.

Any number of disasters can strike your business – anytime. You can’t prevent them, but with careful preparation, you can minimize the losses should you suffer a tragedy and get back on your feet as soon as possible.

Getting Involved in Your Community

August 21, 2006

by Dianna Brodine

Chances are, your business has been asked to donate to local charity events and activities. Chances are, your business has received a lot of those requests. Nonprofit organizations, by definition, have to run a very tight financial ship, and one way to cut budget costs is to solicit donations of cold, hard cash or in-kind services. With the decline of available grant money and the increased costs of doing business, it’s unlikely that the pile of requests from local nonprofit organizations will get smaller. But why should your business get involved?

Four years of my recent working life have been spent in development departments for nonprofit organizations. The majority of my time was given to writing letters, making phone calls, and visiting local businesses that could contribute financially or through in-kind services. During each contact, I stressed the ways our shared community would be improved. The business in question usually focused on the tax benefits. The challenge (although I did my best) was showing the business owner that it’s not just the local charity that benefits from a contribution.

It’s true. There are benefits for your business when you become involved in your community.

Take Advantage of Publicity

The most obvious benefit to your business is the free publicity that comes with making a donation. It’s marketing in its simplest, and least expensive, form. You want potential customers to know about your business. Potential customers are looking for your service. Publicity brings the two together. Yes, selling bindery services is more complicated than it is for the typical retail store looking for a $15 sale but your business won’t thrive if the people who need your services don’t know you exist.

The donations you make should have specific and well-articulated benefits associated with your contribution. Ask the group who is proposing the donation what publicity will be included. Questions you should ask include the following:

Will your logo be placed prominently at the event (for example: on posters or T-shirts) or on other visual publicity generated by the nonprofit?
Will your business be mentioned in the event press releases?
Will your organization be thanked in the nonprofit newsletter or on its web site? If you’re listed on the nonprofit web site, can a link be added to your business site?
During the event, is there a location that would be appropriate for displaying your business’ banner?
What hands-on opportunities are available for your business to participate in during the actual event? Don’t underestimate the value of your presence. Television and newspaper media often will be present at these events, as will potential customers.

Don’t be afraid to send out your own press release. Many times, information from well-respected businesses is received with more enthusiasm by the local press than that received from a charity organization.

Say Hello to New Customers

Media publicity is not the only benefit for your business. The networking opportunities can be priceless. Nonprofit organizations often have an extensive board of directors, made up of top management from local businesses. The majority of those businesses are generating annual reports, advertising booklets, product pamphlets, and other printed materials that are currently funneled through other binderies. Take advantage of the chance to shake some hands and talk about the special services your business offers.

Nonprofit organizations also receive contributions and support from individual donors. Those with the most influence have probably made significant donations in the past. Where did the money come from? Individual donors also can have connections in the community that will open doors for your business.

Don’t forget about possible business partner connections. Is there a printer in town that youd love to work with but haven’t been able to make a connection? Working together successfully on a project for a nonprofit organization is an easy way to sell your capabilities, efficiencies, and expertise to a potential partner.

There’s one other new customer to consider – the nonprofit organization. As a rule, nonprofits don’t like to spend money on items that could be donated. But you can bet that whenever my budget allowed, I spent the money I had with the local businesses that had given to my organization in the past.

Some of this may sound rather calculated. After all, isn’t giving to charity supposed to be about finding the most deserving organization? Not necessarily. It’s not unreasonable to make charitable contribution decisions based on which organizations have connections that could benefit your business. After all, it’s your dollar that is on the table. You have the right to decide where it will be most effectively spent.

Create Warm Fuzzy Feelings

So you’re starting to see some of the tangible benefits of community involvement. Your company logo could be on t-shirts all over town and you might find yourself shaking hands with future customers. But what about the intangibles? Yes, I’m talking about that warm, fuzzy feeling you get from doing something nice. As a business owner, you are in a position to affect positive change for the community in which you live. Adding your name to its roster of supporters could give a nonprofit just the lift it needs to make an event a success. The money or services you contribute could make a significant difference in the life of someone in your hometown. Sure, it sounds like a sales pitch, but I was often amazed by the number of people who didn’t understand that their donation, no matter how small, made a big difference when it was added to what others had given.

That warm, fuzzy feeling doesn’t stop with you. Your employees will feel it too. A project for a local charity is often a welcome break for employees who rarely feel a personal connection to the work they’re doing. And, although it may seem unlikely, your employees could be receiving some of the services provided by local nonprofits. Counseling services, local boys and girls clubs, programs for the elderly, and food banks are all run by nonprofit organizations. The community members that you are benefiting through your contributions could be the same people you work with every day.

Choose Wisely

With the variety of requests that come through the door each year, it’s obvious that your business cannot support every organization in town. So, how do you decide which requests are worthy of your attention?

The first step is to determine a budget for your business’ annual contributions. By setting aside funds specifically for that purpose, your ability to respond to donation requests is already predetermined and you won’t feel a strain because you’re using funds that were meant for equipment acquisitions or employee salary increases. When the budgeted funds are gone, your business is no longer able to accept requests (unless you choose otherwise).

Your business also should create guidelines for which types of organizations you will support and the value of the service you are willing to provide. Perhaps you feel strongly about supporting children or the elderly. Maybe you would prefer not to make cash donations but would be happy to work with a local printer to create program books or other printed and bound items. Your comfort level determines your involvement.

Finding out what other local businesses are contributing to a particular event could make it easier for you to decide if you will be participating. Are any of your competitors contributing to the same event? Do you want to avoid events that put your names together or do you want to emphasize your involvement as well? There’s no right answer to that question – it’s just one more thing to take into consideration.

Getting your employees involved also could be an effective solution. Ask your employees to make recommendations about which projects are a fit for your business. Form an employee committee to make the final decision. Or create an employee committee for evaluation purposes and get those donation requests off of your desk altogether!

Making a contribution to a nonprofit organization is a personal decision, but the next time your business receives an invitation to become involved in a community event, remember the good that you’ll do, not only for them but also for you.

Planning for Internet Success

May 1, 2006

by Mary Napier

As potential customers turn to the Internet to research and make product purchase decisions, more companies are trying to market themselves and their products with the use of a web site. But you shouldn’t jump on the bandwagon without proper preparation. The web site needs to be well planned and executed, or the business risks spending money on a web site that doesn’t convey the message it wants or even worse, drives customers to the competition.

Developing a Web Site

Kathryn Fuller is a web site developer with Response Builders, a web site design company specializing in search engine marketing. Response Builders creates web sites that are comprehensive online marketing pieces, serving as useful tools for small to medium-sized businesses. According to Fuller, there are important elements to think about during the initial planning stages. Before beginning a web site project, each company should take time to clearly:

Identify their target audience who buys the company’s products and services and what would the target audience like to see on the web site
Outline short term and long term goals
Research other sites and determine what you like and don’t like
Establish a reasonable budget for the initial setup of the site and the updating of it
Set your priorities

Information Management Services LLC in Hillsboro, Ore. started a web site, www.mybinding.com, about three years ago. The company sells binding equipment and supplies, as well as filing systems and supplies. During the initial planning stages, IMS determined what elements it wanted on mybinding.com, set goals for the site, looked at competitors, and figured out ways to market the web site.

“We wanted to create a web site that was simple to navigate, but comprehensive to give our customers lots of choices, and we wanted it to look good and have a good feeling,” said Jeff McRitchie, business manager and the person who developed the site. “Our goal was to grow the business and continue to provide for ongoing growth.”

IMS developed the web site in-house and does all of the updating itself. This is something to consider when you are planning the budget for your project. If there isn’t someone on staff who is capable of developing the web site, your company should acquire several bids from professional web development firms. Then weigh the costs of setup and maintenance. Maintenance should be assessed since it affects the ongoing cost of the web site. “For successful e-commerce web sites, most companies play some sort of role in the maintenance of it,” said McRitchie. “I spend about 10-20 hours a week updating our site.”

Elements of a Successful Web Site

The next step is to determine what elements on the web site will be most successful in attracting and providing information for your audience.

The most important element, according to Fuller, is the content. “Content is king! Be sure content is clear, concise, and meaningful,” said Fuller. “Visitors to a web site are looking for information to satisfy a specific need. Determine the need and supply content that answers their questions.”

According to Fuller, companies shouldn’t forget to “sell” the web site they have created. When creating your site, don’t forget the following:

Strategically choose images and photography to enhance the marketing message. Be sure to keep download times reasonable for those customers with slower internet connections.
Optimize your chances with the search engines – a web site is only successful if potential customers know your site exists. Web site code should be written with the search engines in mind.
Keep your site fresh – update information on your site regularly to encourage visitors to return.

Specific content that could increase traffic to your web site includes reference tools, industry-appropriate articles, and elements that provide customer interaction. “Quality resources on a web site show that you are knowledgeable in your industry,” said Fuller. “As an added bonus, articles and tools of reference can help your site be found in search engines for specific keyword phrases.”

Customer interaction tools also keep your visitors interested and eager to return according to Fuller. Web site promotions, coupons, and referral discounts all give a customer a reason to keep checking your site. You can even demonstrate a product with a short video. “A lot of people think of a web site as an online brochure, but it should be so much more,” said Fuller. “A little interactivity on your web site can leave a great impression with your customers and prospective clients.”

McRitchie also had some advice for a successful web site, “Aim to be the best. There are so many choices, so know what you are trying to do and be the best at it.”

McRitchie suggests doing market research by simply looking at what other people in the business are already doing to see how you can accomplish the same thing. Then come up with a unique idea to market the same products in a new and interesting way. This will make you stand out among the competition.

Marketing Your Web Site

After a site is planned out and developed, marketing the site becomes extremely important. “No one will ever go to your site if they don’t know that it’s out there,” said Fuller. Fuller often uses online marketing strategies that include optimizing web sites for the search engines so the site gets a higher ranking under key word phrases. Building links to your site and paid search engine advertising are other elements to consider in an online marketing plan. Sending e-mails to clients and prospects also can inform them about what is new in your company.

When doing traditional printed materials or advertisements, it is very important to include your web address on everything. Companies also can mention the web address on phone messages, use direct mail, and write press releases. And don’t forget to talk about your web site to current and prospective customers.

Mybinding.com understands the value in marketing your web site. “Any good web site has to have a marketing plan in place,” said McRitchie. “A few things we do are to try to position ourselves positively on search engines, send out e-mails, and do direct mail pieces. We do anything to get our name out there.”

Plan for Success

Web sites can be effective tools to grow your business if they are developed and executed in the right way. If your company is looking to start a web site, be sure to go through the proper steps of planning, development, execution, and marketing. Then make a commitment to update the site and keep the content fresh.

“Planning is very important,” said McRitchie. “E-commerce is no different than any other business. You have to have a business plan to be successful.”

Fuller explains that a web site is only worth the investment if it does what you want it to do. “Just like any other piece of your business, if you’re going to have an online presence, you should devote the time and money necessary to do it right.”

Kathryn Fuller joined the Response Builders team in 2001 and opened the Houston branch of Response Builders in 2004. Fuller combines her web site design experience with up-to-the-minute search engine marketing strategies to provide her clients with a web site that is a true representation of their business. Fuller currently resides in southeast Texas and can be reached at (409) 386-0807 or kfuller@responsebuilders.com.

Maximizing Yields in the Bindery

August 21, 2005

by Kevin Rickard

In our highly competitive graphic arts industry, labor costs, raw material costs, the bottom line and most importantly, client goodwill are on the firing line every time a job is produced. An effective quality assurance program and reducing spoilage are vital in maximizing yields.

Let’s first look at quality assurance from a bindery’s perspective. Suppose a printing company sends a $10,000 print job to a bindery for $1,000 of bindery services. If the bindery expects to net a 10 percent profit, it is accepting $10,000 of risk for only $100 potential profit. Since printers hold binderies accountable for their performance, the reality of the bindery business is that only a few bad jobs will destroy the financial performance of the company. In short, binderies, as well as printers, must do their work right the first time, every time.

Get Correct Information

Quality assurance begins by obtaining the right information about what needs to be done, how it should be done, and what acceptable quality standards are. All the parameters of the job should be precisely and completely defined. Binderies use the term “preflighting” to mean the process of obtaining and reviewing reliable and detailed information about every aspect of a job before setting up any manufacturing operations. Without proper information, the scheduler can’t plan the job and department leaders won’t know what is required.

Every bindery has produced jobs that it is embarrassed to admit came in its front door, let alone went out the back – yet the customer was delighted. Similarly, every bindery has produced what it thought would be award-winning work – but for some reason, the customer was disappointed. What can we conclude from this? Quality is whatever the customer needs it to be. On a job-by-job basis, binderies should make every effort to discover how customers define quality and adapt their internal standards to meet customer expectations. To accomplish this, at the very least, binderies need detailed purchase orders with written instructions and pre-production samples, bluelines or samples of prior jobs.

Setup

When a bindery has compiled all the information necessary to begin a job, the internal job order must be clearly written up in straightforward language so that every operator and supervisor understands what is required. After the job order is approved, but before production begins, a progressive series of approvals and signoffs should be collected. The operator who sets up a machine must be satisfied that it will produce what the customer wants, according to the job order and provided samples. Good standard practice is to have the operator run a small quantity of material, take it to a supervisor and ask for written approval. This supervisor should measures the pieces, examines them for imperfections such as blemishes, smudged ink, scratching and folding sequencing problems, and then verifies that all parts of the machine are functioning correctly. If applicable, bundle counts should be checked as well. When the supervisor is satisfied that everything is correct, this information should be sent to others involved with the job, including the customer service representative and quality assurance manager (if one exists) for final signoffs.

Production

It must be the primary responsibility of the machine operator to maintain quality control. Managers approve setups, but once jobs are running, operators are the ones with their hands on the throttle. The operator must carefully read job orders and understand all instructions pertaining to their particular function before loading the machine, producing product and packing pallets. Operators should constantly monitor their jobs and check their output lift-by-lift and bundle-by-bundle. In the unlikely event of post-production issues surfacing, a time-stamping process is recommended to create a relevant production history and allows any problems to be isolated.

It also is recommended to provide employees full authority and responsibility to stop production if they have any doubts about quality. Operators should have a comfort level to go to their supervisor at any time to request a second opinion. If a supervisor instructs an operator to proceed with the job, the supervisor should then assume responsibility by signing and time-stamping a sample. Operators then keep at least one signed sample as proof that they have been instructed to proceed. Then, production continues as long as quality doesn’t further deteriorate.

Reducing Spoilage

Good spoilage planning is the second thing we are going to look at to maximize yields. Every significant printing job will incur some spoilage. Since spoilage rates aren’t consistent, it’s impossible to predict exactly how many sheets will be wasted during any given production run.

Many things cause bindery spoilage. Paper characteristics such as thickness, curl, brittleness, grade and coatings are very important. In general, thin sheets are more easily damaged than thicker ones. For example, when planning saddle stitched jobs, 4-page signatures should be given twice the spoilage allowance of 16-pagers, if the paper is the same weight. Exposure to too much heat can make paper and ink brittle, resulting in excessive cracking and increased spoilage. As the job runs, accumulating press powder and varnish buildup will gradually change the grip of the fold rollers, changing the fold position. Humidity will make paper limp, but excessive dryness can cause static. Either condition might hinder sheets from moving squarely into plate sections – again increasing spoilage.

Common Causes of Bindery Spoilage

Varnish. Varnish is one of the bindery’s worst enemies and best friends. On the one hand, it generally doubles the amount of spoilage during folding, but on the other, it certainly reduces marking problems. Varnish buildup changes the coefficient of friction of the fold rollers. Inexperienced operators tend to change fold settings instead of cleaning the rollers. In most cases, cleaning will cause the fold position to return to its original setting.

Shipping. A lot of “bindery” spoilage occurs during transportation from the pressroom to the bindery. When shipping printed material between facilities, some damage is inevitable. Not surprisingly, the amount of damage is directly proportionate to the care given during shipping preparation and the skill levels of those involved. Sometimes packing choices comes down to the lesser of two evils. Applied improperly, banding wire can cut into and damage sheets. Stretch wrapping without corner boards will bend corners of the sheets, causing downstream machine-feeding problems. The key to minimizing transit damage is carefully and tightly containing product so it won’t vibrate during transit or slip off the pallet.

Wood pallets and tops. Many wood pallets and tops are made from new, or “green,” wood with very high moisture content. Without a barrier, moisture will migrate from the wood to the paper. This moisture migration can destroy up to ½-inch of otherwise perfectly good printed material.

Mixing paper stock: Mixing brands, grades or even different lots of the same paper will increase spoilage. If a pressman runs out of stock and substitutes a similar sheet, expect different performance levels in the bindery. Paper lot changes should be clearly marked on skids and kept separate as the job transfers between departments. For example, if a cutting operator finishes cutting a job and mixes different papers without identifying which is which, a folding operator will have no idea why a fold position suddenly moved and why the crossover, which was perfect ten sheets ago, is now 1/8″ out of alignment. If the operator doesn’t waste a lot a sheets making the necessary adjustments, a lot of time will be wasted – or very likely both. Even worse, if an unmarked skid from the first lot remains, the machine will have to be adjusted back to the original settings. In general, whenever different stock is used on a job, plan for 1½-percent additional spoilage allowance.

Quality assurance is an excellent way to maximize yields in a bindery, however, you have to reduce your spoilage in order to reduce waste and save money. These two things are very important items to consider for every job. Don’t waste more than you need to and provide customers with a job that is of great quality and done right the first time. Your company will stand out and it will show in your bottom line.

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