Software

Importance of Workflow Software for Binding/Finishing

December 11, 2023

Edited by Erin La Row, editor, PostPress

Investing in workflow management software to connect binding/finishing operations helps streamline specific tasks of the production processes, increasing efficiency and minimizing the chance for costly errors.

PostPress posed questions to these industry experts – Andrew Bailes-Collins, head of product management, Ultimate TechnoGraphics, Inc.; Yashi Potdar, workflow solutions analyst, Standard Finishing Systems; Carlo Ruas, partner, Taktiful Software Solutions; and Mauro Valle, solutions manager, SigmaLine & Connex Workflow, Müller Martini – to gain a better understanding of how workflow management software is helping to improve outcomes from the printing to the finishing/binding environments.

Improving communication

The development of these applications mainly was triggered by the prepress departments that were being modernized and digitized quickly, Ruas explained. Workflow management software could help prevent or avoid errors along the processes, which were mainly caused by human factors. “It is well known that errors in prepress will have a direct impact on subsequent processes, such as printing or finishing, since all three are interrelated,” he said. “It is for this reason that the evolution of these developments has maintained among its principles the automation with which production errors are minimized by seeking to anticipate them.”

Bailes-Collins agreed. “It could be argued that prepress is more important than the actual press in a lot of scenarios. As the prepress department imposes the pages for the press, it’s the information that’s generated by prepress that is used to set up the finishing equipment, including embellishment, and this normally is achieved by JDF [job definition format]communication or by placing barcodes on the printed media.”

The development of new finishing systems is a challenge for workflow software today. These technologies are not yet compatible with XJDF [exchange job definition format, which is a subset of JDF], which keeps them excluded from management software and means the processes involved for the adjustment and set-up of the equipment still are manual and prone to errors. “The challenges that these new finishing technologies pose in terms of their integration into a workflow still are very varied since it is necessary to first document and define the variables of the processes involved so that they can be integrated into the XJDF format,” Potdar said.

Many print providers identify the finishing process as a bottleneck in their operations, especially as job runs get shorter, he added. Finishing equipment often doesn’t run at press speed, and there often are multiple machines that need to be set up to complete the finishing on a job – such as a booklet application requiring cutting, cover sheet insertion, saddlestitching and trimming.

“When the printing environment isn’t communicating with the finishing environment, it places more burden on operators to keep track of which jobs are being processed and when. This introduces inefficiencies in the form of wasted time and human error, especially as experienced operators become scarcer,” Potdar said. “When the press and the finishing are in communication through workflow software, there is less friction in processing applications.”

Valle said with shorter production runs, makeready times become more crucial by passing the information from the digitally printed product to the binding equipment. He added “You drastically reduce the makeready times by eliminating operator input.”

Important considerations

Compatibility is the most important element of workflow software for communicating between the printing and binding/finishing processes, according to Potdar. She said manufacturers incorporate proprietary software within their equipment that can manage the workflow within that specific piece of equipment.

“A press may use one type of software and the finishing equipment may use another. For an end-to-end workflow solution, the workflow software must be able to communicate with all these different machines,” Potdar said. “Luckily, this isn’t as complicated as it once was. Advancements in workflow software have improved compatibility across systems so providers can implement a true end-to-end workflow.”

Another factor that plays a role in why the adoption of finishing automation through workflow management software still is slow compared to the adoption of other technologies is that many print shops still have older finishing equipment that is not compatible with JDF.

“It is no less important to highlight the need to continue with the dissemination and training of XJDF to catalyze its adoption, which will indirectly promote new finishing developments to also include compatibility with the XJDF format in their systems,” Ruas said.

Bailes-Collins believes connectivity and open communication are key considerations. The ability to work with open standards is important, he said, as all of the individual applications in a print production workflow need to communicate with each other using standards such as JDF, XJDF, XML (extensible markup language), JMF (job messaging format) APIs (application programming interface) and JSON (JavaScript object notation). “To be honest, a company doesn’t need to understand these formats as they are under the hood and transparent to the users – they just ‘work,’” He said. “But as they are the building blocks of connected workflow solutions, companies should ensure anything they buy is ‘open’ and they are not locking themselves into a single solution or vendor.”

“So-called ‘islands of automation,’ where solutions provide automation within themselves but cannot openly communicate with other software or hardware in the production environment, are to be avoided,” Bailes-Collins said. “Open end-to-end communication is what the market is demanding. Proprietary systems and formats can create dead ends in modern production. If you are buying a new piece of finishing equipment, ask if it can be connected to your network, if it’s driven externally by JDF or some other method, and about integrations that already exist at customer sites. Prepare for the future.”

Overcoming challenges

Companies get overwhelmed when talking about software tools, Potdar said. “Introducing a new workflow solution into an operation will require training operators and staff, which intimidates many print providers. Also, setting up end-to-end integration is a large, though cost-effective, investment, and it requires buy-in from executives and managers from across an organization to work to its fullest potential,” she added.

Even with improvements in software compatibility, some organizations will still require some manual customization from their software providers to automate all their processes, which can further affect costs.

Ruas explained that equipment manufacturers are free to integrate into their workflow software proprietary data exchange formats for intercommunication of their systems, and it is quite possible that they could deliver some additional features to those that XDJF could naturally deliver. However, he added, this would only be feasible when a printer has decided to work with systems from the same brand/manufacturer.

“The real challenge faced when implementing workflow management software would not directly be related to manufacturers’ proprietary interchange formats,” Ruas said. “An example worth mentioning is the rapid adoption of the PDF format which, since it became available in 1993, has rapidly replaced other formats used in prepress environments and now is accepted as the standard format for sending electronic files for printing. The modernization of the installed plant of prepress devices and their compatibility with the PDF format allowed this file format to be integrated as a technical standard.”

Valle said he has observed that as companies try to move into the digital space, not many people have embraced the JDF standard. “Many customers do not have the required upfront data to push downstream to optimize their production runs. This means that they still are leaving a lot of manual work for operators,” he said.

In some cases, automation can be viewed as a threat if not explained properly. “Any automation project requires a change of mindset,” Bailes-Collins said. “The whole team should feel that they are involved in the project. Automation is a company-wide initiative, so everyone should be included with clear messaging about why it’s happening and what the goals are.”

Recommendations

As companies begin the implementation process, it’s important to set clear goals for the company and include representation from each department on the implementation team. Bailes-Collins advised, “Don’t try to bite off more than you can chew. And don’t overcomplicate things.” Any automation project is best done in small, bite-sized pieces, he said, adding that “Too often the focus is too small and, when you want to achieve end-to-end automation, you can end up having to replace small pieces if you don’t keep the end goal in sight. Automate in step but with a clear end goal in mind.”

Valle said a lot depends on and starts from the customer entry and the file submission that is going to be printed. “It is important to have that data upfront. Knowing how the product will be finished (such as paper type, binding methods, etc.) and having a good management information system (MIS) are crucial to passing all the information downstream to the bindery,” he said. “Having the ability to receive feedback from the printing and post-press equipment also is important.”

Potdar said the most important thing is for companies to look at their entire operation holistically, from intake to shipping, adding, “Many companies try to simply connect existing, separate workflows, and this is where problems can arise. A holistic view of operations not only helps identify inefficiencies and redundancies up front but allows companies to build in capacity and capabilities for the future instead of only working with what already exists in their shop.”

Take a holistic view but then focus on one area, perhaps the biggest bottleneck or the place where the company will get the greatest return on investment. “Do that first and then move on to the next area and so on,” Bailes-Collins said. “Learn as you go. Keep the scope of project tightly focused and don’t fall into the trap of adding and adding functionality. You will never finish your first step if you do that.”

Another tip is to nominate an “automation champion” in the company to drive the project forward and manage it. “Give that person the time to step outside his or her daily work to focus on the project and make it happen,” Bailes-Collins advised.

Whether or not there’s a benefit of having a workflow software platform for separate trade binding/finishing operations depends on the company, according to Potdar, who said print service providers that do high-volume, long-run applications will benefit the most from end-to-end automation and workflow solutions. Smaller print service providers that work on a lot of short-run jobs may find that separate workflow solutions work best for their operations.

“Incorporating workflow automation software even in just binding/finishing can automate the finishing process, including machine set-up, which is helpful to reduce dependency on skilled labor, reduce errors and improve overall production,” she said. “Again, the key is to evaluate the entire operation when considering the addition of workflow solutions to find the best configuration for each specific business.”

Future of workflow management

Valle foresees a better MIS in the future. “I think the impact is going to be a better MIS system that fully understands the process from order entry to printing, binding and down to shipping, where they can utilize and take advantage of the available standards, such as JDF and JMF,” he said.

“The current trend in the adoption of artificial intelligence tools across industries undoubtedly will have an impact and future changes on what we currently know of as XJDF,” Ruas said. “Workflow tools will be able to anticipate with greater certainty problems related to finishing processes which would help production processes to be further optimized.”

Also not new, but a growing trend Bailes-Collins sees is the ability for two-way communication between the finishing and the upstream systems. “Whether this is related to analytics relating to machine performance, or information regarding the progress and status of each job, this will enable real-time status data for managers, production planners and even customers to know what is where, if it’s on schedule or late,” he said.

As a work mix becomes more dynamic on the press and runs get shorter, Bailes-Collins said finishing automation also must be more dynamic in set-up and operation.

“Therefore, we expect to see more JDF automation, as a JDF set of instructions is job-specific and does not rely on a set-up on the finishing device,” he said. “In short, you won’t need any set-ups, and each job can have a different finishing set-up that automatically is controlled by accompanying JDF instructions.”

Potdar said she expects to see further improvements in compatibility to make integrations even more painless and cost effective. Many software providers are moving to cloud-based models so that print service providers can access data from anywhere, even across multiple business locations, to optimize operations on the go. She added, “We expect both print manufacturers and finishing manufacturers to continue to incorporate even more advanced automation, including robotics, predictive maintenance and data analytics, into their equipment and software to push the capabilities of workflow solutions even further.”

PostPress would like to thank Andrew Bailes-Collins with Ultimate TechnoGraphics, Inc., www.imposition.com; Yashi Potdar with Standard Finishing Systems, www.sdmc.com; Carlo Ruas with Taktiful, www.taktiful.com; and Mauro Valle with Müller Martini, www.mullermartini.com, for their assistance with this article.

The Easiest Way to Increase Sales May Be Right Under Your Nose

December 13, 2022

By Mark Porter, Dienamic MIS Software, Inc.

Successful businesses continually are looking for ways to increase sales and profits. Looking for new products, new processes and new markets are common approaches to meeting these objectives. These methods often are costly and time intensive. There are significant increases in sales and profits that can be obtained much more easily, and they are right under your nose.

There are significant increases in sales and profits to be had by simply taking control of the business in the following ways:

Determine the true costs of running the business
Increase revenue from existing clients
Maximize efficiency and reduce waste
Eliminate mistakes that turn good jobs into bad jobs

Determine the true costs of running the business

It is vital to know what the true costs are to know what profits will be on each job. This allows the finisher to determine which jobs to aggressively seek and which jobs to refuse. Budgeted hourly rate software is available that will help determine the true cost to operate each machine, and productivity analysis software can determine the true speeds and times achieved by the equipment. These true costs and standards can then be used in an estimating system that will determine the true cost of each quote produced.

We all know: Sales – Costs = Profits. If we don’t know our costs, how do we know our profits?

Increase revenue from existing clients

Of total sales, how much is created by changes to the original job specifications received from the client? Every print finisher/bindery experiences these changes. The estimate was to ship bulk in cartons and now the client wants to shrink wrap in 50s. The management of these changes can have a significant effect on the bottom line by collecting the charges from the customer or not incurring an additional cost the business ends up paying.

The nature of today’s business is to focus on quality and delivery time, causing companies often to miss many legitimate extra charges. These charges add up quickly. Let’s say a finisher has $2,000,000 in sales and that 15% of the work is for changes to the original order. That represents $300,000 in sales, if they tracked and rebilled them. By only capturing 50% of these charges, $150,000 is being left on the table.

Finishers must take an approach to their business, much like the housing industry. These changes are happening, and someone has to pay for them – the business or the client. The estimate represents the original blueprint, and a changes management system allows the business to capture these legitimate chargeable changes that happen during the production process.

The most effective way to accomplish this is through an order entry system. By computerizing the order entry process, finishers can lock in the original job specifications for the order – those that match the estimate. As the job is produced and changes are requested or needed, the order entry system date, time, employee and reason stamps the changes. The system will generate a change form that is sent to the customer with the price and the approval. The chargeable changes are automatically added to the invoice and documented to a report that management can review at the billing stage. The business is now tracking all extra charges and providing the backup to the customer to substantiate the charges and increase the likelihood of collecting them. This will either increase sales or reduce costs – every change made to a job is costing money to either the customer or the business.

Maximize efficiency and reduce waste

The easiest way to maximize efficiency and reduce waste is to make people accountable for the time and materials they use. If an employee knows that he/she can be questioned on the length of time that it took to perform a task or the amount of material used to produce a job, be assured they will be productive. Employee performance can be compared to identify employees who need more training or supervision. This can only make employees more efficient and have a positive effect on the bottom line.

The benefits of accountability are tremendous. Even a small 5% increase in productivity and decrease in waste can mean a significant increase in profits. If we use the same $2,000,000 finisher that has $1,800,000 in costs – a 5% change is $90,000.
By placing computers on the plant floor, employees are required to be accountable for every minute of their day and every piece of material they use on every job. This also tracks the time and utilization of the equipment. It’ll tell how much time was spent on running, makereadying, cleaning, repairing, maintaining or waiting in any time period. With computers on the plant floor, not only are employees sending information to the office, but the office is sending information to them in real time. This means changes made to orders, changes in scheduling can be communicated to the plant immediately in real time to ensure costly mistakes are not made.

Empower employees with technology that will benefit them and the business.

Eliminate mistakes that turn good jobs into bad jobs

Nothing is more frustrating than receiving a nice job and then losing money on it due to preventable mistakes: last-minute changes that don’t make it onto the job jacket in time, changes that are not well documented and missed or past mistakes that are repeated. Technology today can help prevent costly mistakes with applications in the following areas:

Electronic order entry
Customer profiling
Job notes
Problem history

Electronic order entry

Although there seems to be a reluctance to get rid of a physical job bag completely, as it is required to hold certain items, the reliance for it to provide information to plant employees should be questioned. The plant should be using an electronic version of the order. This ensures all employees always will have access to the most current job information. The information on the electronic order is always updated in real time – the minute a change is made in the office, it is immediately reflected on the electronic order. Employees eliminate wasted time looking for or inquiring about the correct job specifications. The electronic order will be linked to job notes, customer profile and problem history for that specific job.

Customer profiling

Customer profiling allows details specific to a customer, including production and shipping details, and even how the president takes his/her coffee, to be entered. Any piece of information that will ensure the customer’s work is produced exactly as expected, or procedures, should be entered. This will eliminate errors, improve quality and provide the greatest customer satisfaction.

This information is available to all employees at all stages of administration and production. A specific employee no longer has to be relied upon to know the finer details of a customer’s requirements. A great example is if the shipper is looking at a skid with 11,000 pieces on it and the job bag that states the quantity is 10,000. If the shipper looks at the profile and sees the customer accepts 5% overs, they can ship 10,500 which maximizes revenue and holds the other 500 back, which could be sold to the customer at a later date.

Job notes

A description that shows cryptic notes or shortforms that no one understands will only lead to costly mistakes. Software allows electronic notes to be attached and automatically warns anyone looking at that job that there are notes. With plenty of space to enter detailed notes and warnings that tell employees the notes exist, there is no way employees can miss vital information that will determine the success on a job.

Problem history

As the old saying goes, “You are not a fool for making a mistake – only when you make the same mistake twice.” Making preventable mistakes is the most frustrating way to lose money. If problems are not recorded and attached while producing a job, the same mistakes likely will be repeated. These problems can be seen at the estimating stage. Estimates can be adjusted. Issues can be reviewed when the job comes in, and issues that caused problems last time before the job was accepted can be reviewed at the end of a job to help analyze what went wrong and what can be learned. The system also is good at documenting issues on jobs that are going wrong to try to limit liability. The system allows photos and video of the problems to be attached as proof. It can be used as a relationship building tool to explain to customers how they can provide their jobs for the best most economical results.

The system also is a database of problems and solutions that can be used generically for common situations that may occur in the plant – finding previous solutions to those problems.

Automating the company in the office and plant with the proper software and hardware can save tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars each year by helping finishers know their true costs, maximizing their productivity, minimizing waste and preventing mistakes with real-time data to help them make more profitable decisions.

Mark Porter is president of Dienamic Software MIS Inc. Porter can be reached at mark@dienamicmis.com. Learn more at www.dienamicmis.com.

Folding Carton Production: Automation to the Rescue for Workflow Challenges

September 15, 2022

By Liz Stevens, writer, PostPress

From the earliest days in the folding carton finishing sector, there has been a push for greater output quantity, higher product quality, increased speed and improved efficiency. Each time a goal in one of these areas is achieved, the honeymoon is short-lived because, in the blink of an eye, another new goal crops up. Folding carton finishers perpetually strive for ways to better serve their customers and improve their profitability. Finishing hardware and software manufacturers work equally hard to provide new technologies and automation solutions to meet the emerging needs and overcome the latest challenges.

PostPress talked with printing and finishing equipment and automation leaders about the challenges they see arising for folding carton finishers, the automation and software solutions they offer for their customers, and the upcoming technology innovations they see on the horizon. PostPress is grateful to Bill Rice, product manager, postpress packaging at Heidelberg USA, Inc. (Kennesaw, Georgia); Doug Herr, director of sales, folding carton North America, Bobst North America, Inc. (Parsippany, New Jersey); Jeffrey Bates, national sales manager at W. H. Leary Co. (Tinley Park, Illinois); and Jan De Roeck, director industry relations & strategic marketing, Esko (Miamisburg, Ohio), for
their insights.

Challenges and solutions

Bobst’s ToolLink is a chip embedded into the diecutting die when the tool is slid into the machine with job-specific information.

The challenges facing folding carton finishers run the gamut. There is the chronic lack of available, trained workforce candidates, but automation and software capabilities may offer some solutions. There is the inherent mismatch between printing press speeds and finishing equipment speeds; here, software for overall plant/job scheduling and individual department scheduling may be helpful. The relatively consistent nature of printing workflows versus the wildly variable nature of finishing workflows produces plenty of challenge but here, again, computerized aids for managing jobs, presses and finishing equipment can help smooth out the rough transitions.

The trend toward shorter runs, the demand for highest product quality, and the requirement to provide production data to customers – these certainly pose challenges. Technologies for streamlining makeready times, vision systems for ensuring superior product quality, and sensors and software for collecting and managing production run data can offer options for finishers. The rising price of energy, the still wobbly supply chain and the increasing costs of materials all add to a finisher’s list of items to address and manage, but good aids exist for finishers to run leaner and eliminate waste. And last but not least, a finisher’s aversion to updating or replacing equipment – and to spending the capital required – can be its own challenge. For this, the argument can be made that investing in equipment may give a company a competitive advantage and result in greater profitability.

Common challenges

Bill Rice, representing Heidelberg and its array of equipment and software solutions for the entire print-to-finish line, identified the challenge that exists in plants managing two systems – printing and finishing – which are sometimes viewed as a single job stream even though they have differing makeready tasks, makeready times and run rates. “The technology and software in our equipment can identify the best way to run a job through a particular machine,” said Rice, “but from one machine to the next, the job plan may not be consistent. A job schedule that might work well for the printing press is not necessarily the same order that would be ideal for running through the rest of the equipment.” Pushing a job through the plant based on the greatest efficiency for the printing press might lead to extended makeready times on the folder/gluer. Conversely, a great workflow for the folder/gluer (going from small and simple products gradually up to the larger products) would reduce the makeready times but that might disrupt the workflow coming out of the
printing press.

Esko’s ArtPro+ software provides print unit support and repeat layout creation.

Rice offered two solutions: Heidelberg’s “Push to Stop” philosophy and the company’s Prinect software packages. “In dealing with the two sides of the printing-finishing line,” said Rice, “it ends up being a compromise. In the scheduling and planning of the production floor, it is important to get as much efficiency as possible through every process.” Heidelberg’s Prinect Workflow software offers management tools from web portals for communicating with customers to costing, job creation and planning, production management, and production and business reporting. “The other solution component is Heidelberg’s manufacturing philosophy: Push to Stop,” Rice said. “It is a way of working, using software and hardware, so that when the plant starts up for the day, everything is pre-organized based on efficiencies. The system starts the first job and then automatically goes from one job to the next, and human operators don’t get involved in changing that flow and schedule unless there is a problem.” Rice stressed that planning and scheduling are the foundation for getting a job through the whole plant as efficiently as possible. “We are seeing tremendous success in companies that are able to manipulate some of that,” he said. “We have seen the biggest success in plants that are able to look at the finishing side of things and manage that best because that is really the most labor-intensive part of the operation, whereas on the printing press side, there is so much technology built into the presses that it is possible to have very good makeready times even if some of the press’s efficiencies are disrupted.”

At Bobst, which offers substrate processing, printing and converting equipment and services, Doug Herr said that longstanding challenges stem from several issues. “Run lengths are becoming shorter,” said Herr, “turnaround times for the client are becoming shorter, and margins are tight as always. So the efficiencies of the converting equipment are extremely important; they are critical to profitability. Our customers’ customers – the brand owners, for instance – expect a higher percentage rate of quality product; in other words, fewer defects are important. And more and more frequently, brand owners want production data and data relative to the number of imperfect products produced. In the pharmaceutical industry, for example, they need to closely track the production of the product, including the packaging, so that each item and each lot have a specific code which can be tracked back to the manufacturer.”

Herr sees solutions that include upgrading or replacing hardware and adding software. “Older equipment,” Herr explained, “although it can still perform, often doesn’t include the software and capabilities which are built into new machinery to give customers information and quality assurance in an efficient way.” Herr used diecutting as an example. “Diecutting is an area where Bobst has made a number of improvements and introduced new equipment and related support products. We now offer a HMI 22″ (Human-Machine Interface) touchscreen; this is the control module, the brain of the equipment. We also offer Recipe Management, a program that can save up to 5,000 of our customers’ jobs and all of the parameters of those jobs.” Herr mentioned a third diecutting enhancement – TooLink, a chip which is embedded into the diecutting die so that when the tool is slid into the machine, job-specific information is transferred automatically to Recipe Management. “By the same token,” he said, “production information relative to a specific job, such as number of impressions, the number of times that job has been inserted into the machine, the number of times that job has been run utilizing that tool, are kept on the microchip embedded in the die.” Bobst now also offers a Digital Inspection Table, a standalone machine for checking the quality of a full sheet. “A quality assurance (QA) individual can inspect the print,” Herr explained, “to check the color or position, to check for missing copy or – with diecutting – to look for a poor score, an incorrect score or a missing score.” Bobst recently introduced Accucheck 2, a module positioned after the feeder’s blank alignment device on a folder/gluer, for example. Accucheck 2 has cameras which read the copy on each individual blank, check for incorrect color, missing color, missing type. The module can check creases, and can read imperfections in stamping, embossing and other embellishments.

Jeff Bates, with W. H. Leary, a maker of quality assurance, glue application and mechanical solutions for the packaging industry, reported that the biggest challenge his company has seen for folding carton workflow is the continued lack of skilled or even unskilled labor, which has been made even worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. “I think the factories learned a lot from COVID,” said Bates. “It definitely affected a lot of factories; they now have to start looking more towards innovation and automation for the future.” According to Bates, a lot of plants have acknowledged that skilled workers do not exist and now are just looking for people who can run the lines and keep them going. “More or less,” Bates, said, “they just want someone who can push a start button and a stop button.”

Leary has addressed the skilled workforce scarcity by building more features into its solutions. “Our software, Monet, is a pictorial system that we created 10 years ago, and we have improved it to change with the times,” said Bates. “With Monet, operators can just look at the graphics and understand whether they are shooting dots or shooting a line of glue, and they can see where the tolerances need to be from a quality standpoint.” The system also displays bar codes so that operators can verify that the code on the cartons matches the code on the computer screen.

“Operators can verify what they are running, guarantee that it is top quality and, at the end of the job, they can save the job info,” Bates explained. “All of the settings are saved now so it makes the makeready times shorter for repeat jobs and the quality specs are saved, too.” To further ensure quality, the Monet system includes password protection that prevents operators from making unauthorized quality spec changes. “Plants are taking product quality much more seriously these days,” said Bates. “Once a job’s quality specs are transferred to our system and password protected, no one other than a manager or somebody from the quality department can
make changes.”

Leary has added QA sensors to its hardware and the company’s Monet system has evolved to handle more quality assurance features. “Our QA focus used to be just looking for glue, looking for bar codes and scanning for missed copy,” Bates said, “but many companies now are starting QA all the way up at the feed. They are looking for doubles that are coming out of the feed, they are looking for skew and any bent flaps.” Leary’s system also now collects more production data and offers equipment troubleshooting features. “When there is a mechanical problem, the customers want us to guide an operator to a specific area on the machine to look for a problem and make a fix,” said Bates. “Helping customers pinpoint problems on the machinery is important since this can eliminate a lot of downtime.”

Heidelberg’s Mastermatrix diecutter includes presets for things that are done automatically on the machine based on the data flowing into it.

At Esko, which provides integrated software and hardware solutions for packaged goods, Jan De Roeck sees several challenges. “As the packaging industry continues to grow and adapt to the very real threats of today,” said De Roeck, “supply chain volatility, labor shortages and rising consumable and energy costs all underline that converters need to accelerate their search for increased efficiencies throughout the workflow.” De Roeck pointed to efficiency as the biggest benefit of a standardized workflow and identified standardization as being the necessary foundation of any successful automation. “Although the entire packaging sector faced unprecedented challenges in the last two years,” De Roeck said, “Esko has continued to focus on developing new technology, ensuring customers remain at the forefront of productivity, efficiency and innovation gains and are supported on their digital transformation journey.”

Esko believes that successful digital transformation means more automation, more cloud computing and more integration between disparate systems. “In the face of the disruptive market trends in the industry, we continue to work closely with our customers,” De Roeck explained, “listening and developing innovations that respond to demands and deliver tangible benefits. That’s why we recently launched a series of innovations to empower businesses to improve ways of working, eradicate waste and optimize operational processes.” Esko Release 22.07 includes new features such as Cape Pack for cloud-based palletization and logistics optimization workflow, Automated Packshots for creating hyper-realistic packaging images, ArtPro+ for print unit support and repeat layout creation, and more.

De Roeck also brought up the challenge for finishers of taking on capital investments. “Innovation and change are inherent in any packaging business but driving and implementing that innovation is a challenge that can sometimes be difficult to achieve,” said De Roeck. “Many businesses, in the face of challenging market conditions, insecurity and volatility, freeze investments in response. However, the opposite reaction is more appropriate. Investing in accelerating digital transformation maintains competitive advantage and efficiently deals with profitability pressures. We also know it is equally important that these innovations are integrated quickly and smoothly to ensure businesses achieve demonstrable improvements and a speedy return
on investment.”

Challenges created by shorter runs

The increasing tendency of customers to request shorter runs of folded carton jobs is a challenge that all of the industry representatives recognized. “That is a challenge that everybody is facing,” said Heidelberg’s Bill Rice. “The way we respond to that is we try to build in as much technology into the equipment to reduce makeready times.” Rice pointed out that, as an example, splitting a previously routine run of 500,000 pieces into short runs of 50,000 pieces balloons one makeready time into 10 makeready times. “The estimating department now is having to add in those additional makeready times. We encourage folks to build those costs into their price because everybody is going to the much shorter runs.” This type of change also calls for input from equipment suppliers. “It is really a situation where OEMs, like Heidelberg, can work with production floor people to help them use the technology that they have properly and efficiently. In some cases, it means recommending that they buy additional software packages or workflow implementations that will help them operate better.”

Leary’s Monet System settings are maintained with unique security features.

Leary’s Jeff Bates offered an alternative solution to responding to the demand for shorter runs. “A lot of the plants that I have dealt with for years used to run maybe three or four days,” explained Bates, “and they would just put a card in on the machine – a side stream structure card – to eat up board.” But with board now being a hard-to-source commodity, some customers are looking at switching over to the upper end work – shorter runs but with cartons that are worth more money. “This might take them back into the pharmaceutical and the cosmetic lines,” Bates said, “but with board being as scarce as it is in the industry, that’s what a lot of these companies are looking for – the shorter runs, the more expensive cartons.” This, however, puts pressure on finishers to find the right opportunities for operators that can do these types of makereadies. “The automation with our equipment is really helping these companies turn short-run jobs into a profitable business model.”

New technology solutions in the offing

Though the future is unknowable, equipment manufacturers do their best to predict trends and design features for the next anticipated requirements. According to Doug Herr, Bobst will focus on increased automation, preventative maintenance and the flow of data between machines and software, among other priorities. “Bobst is automating more and more of our equipment so that the setups on the machine are more consistent and the length of setup times continues to fall,” said Herr. “Our PackMatic Plus, recently introduced, provides quicker changeover times and more automation to set up machines much faster, with less skill.”

Bobst sees the demand for data driving future solutions. “Data is really key, whether it is downflow of data from machines or upflow of data to the equipment,” Herr said. “That is going to continue to be extremely important for upping productivity and for facilitating preventative maintenance.” Bobst’s Connect Essential, a subscription service, will help finishers maintain and troubleshoot their equipment. “If a customer has a problem where a machine overheats or stops or isn’t producing at the levels it should,” said Herr, “the customer can access remote diagnostics through the internet and communicate with a Bobst professional. We can possibly avoid sending a service person out by identifying problems which the customer can rectify. And if a repair part is required, we can order the part to be delivered a day or two later, versus sending a service person out to locate the problem and then order a part. There will be tremendous decreases in downtime with Connect Essential.”

Heidelberg’s Bill Rice commented on the company’s plans for its finishing equipment and software. “What we have seen because of COVID-19, because the workforce is depleted and it is difficult to hire new employees whether skilled or unskilled, is a trend of more companies looking into automation,” said Rice. “We have a lot of existing automation in this area already, but a stumbling block for some customers has been the price point for added features such as collecting data and managing the production process with things like pre-sets. The newest diecutter in our fleet is the Mastermatrix; it has pre-sets for things that are done automatically on the machine based on the data flowing into it. On our folder/gluers, we have auto-set technology; at this point it is not tied into the Prinect workflow system but that is an upcoming development that Heidelberg will offer.” In today’s environment, Rice expects more customers to see the value of automating workflow as well as the value of data collection and information flow. “All equipment manufacturers are trying to make the technology much more affordable. We think that customers also will be more willing to spend money on these features to replace the (now unavailable) labor that was required to do things the manual way.”

At Leary, Jeff Bates described his company’s future innovations. “For us, it will definitely be automation,” said Bates, “including being able to set jobs up and adding more integration with the OEM machines. We know the future is automation, and with automation comes an increase in demand for vision-based inspection systems.” Bates chalks up the future’s demand to a shrinking workforce. “It is no longer the case that facilities can count on having three or four people at the back of the lines, and two people at the front of the lines feeding the cartons. They just can’t get the headcount that they used to be able to rely on.”

Bates offered his opinion on how the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred change in the industry that actually has been needed for some time. “I think the pandemic caused a lot of companies to pay more attention to tightening up productivity because so many people would get COVID-19 in one week,” he said. “Instead of having just onesies and twosies out sick, plants had half of an entire department out, to the point where it really stressed the ability to get production done. This definitely did wake up a lot of people.”

The industry already had known it had a problem, but the pandemic got a lot more companies thinking and strategizing. “Companies realized that they had not invested much money into finishing; they had concentrated on investing money into printing,” Bates explained. “Now these companies are thinking that they must start investing more money in this last process that they have in their plants because where they used to have plenty of people, the workforce is just not there anymore and it’s not returning. Frankly, I don’t foresee it ever coming back.”

For more information, visit www.bobst.com, www.esko.com, www.heidelberg.com and www.whleary.com.

Software Can Bring Savings on the Plant Floor

June 5, 2020

By Mark Porter, president, Dienamic Software

Businesses constantly are trying to increase profits by developing new products they can offer to existing customers and finding different ways to attract new customers. But, this only is one side of the profit equation. Profit is sales minus costs, so business owners can improve profits by focusing on controlling costs as well. Software and technology are excellent ways to control the cost component and therefore maximize profits.

Remote access of the front office tasks – such as estimating, order entry, purchasing/receiving, shipping and invoicing – facilitates a constant and consistent flow of information from customers to plant staff to ensure the work coming into the plant runs smoothly and on time. Communication between the office and the plant is in real time and accurate to ensure good jobs do not go bad. Unfortunately, the latest business environment has shown the extra importance of having a remote capability in shop operations. The ability to manage jobs remotely can be a tremendous advantage in current times.

Improving costs on the shop floor can be achieved in many ways with software and technology.

Controlling costs in the plant starts in the office

As a job-oriented manufacturing business, Dienamic is constantly estimating potential jobs in hopes that it wins a percentage of those jobs. It is vital that the process of bringing jobs into the plant accurately reflects the cost of producing the job. Software can help with this. Estimating software must reflect the true cost of resources in the plant and represent their true speed and makeready capabilities.

If a press is estimated at producing 5,000 sheets per hour but only is achieving 3,000 sheets per hour on the shop floor, the business is losing money on every job won. Conversely, if the company is quoting at 3,000 sheets per hour and achieving 5,000 sheets per hour on the shop floor, it is losing jobs it could be producing profitably. Software will allow businesses to track their production statistics and show the average speeds and makeready times actually being achieved on the shop floor.

Most business owners are aware of machine speeds and makereadies, but the true cost of having the equipment on their plant floor is not well known. The cost is based on cost of machine, rent, employee wages and benefits, factory overheads, number of shifts and percentage productivity. Again, ensuring the estimating system reflects the true costs of the equipment on the shop floor is vital. There is budgeted hourly rate software that can help with getting accurate machine hourly costs.

Communication increases productivity and decreases waste

Technology allows for storing and organizing a great deal of information and for distributing that information instantly. By distributing job information, customer information, material information and previous problem information, it is possible to reduce mistakes, improve deliveries and provide better customer service.

Features such as Electronic Orders allow changes from a customer to be communicated to the plant employees the second the change is made on the order. This avoids the cost of mistakes resulting from the plant working with out of date information. It also cuts down on information delay that can lead to extra costs.

Customer Profiling allows companies to record all the ways their customers like to have their jobs produced – things like number of overs (excess product), shipping details, sample requirements and communications procedures. Gathering this information and distributing it to plant employees ensures jobs are produced to the customer’s exact specifications. This reduces errors and makes for happier customers. For example, take the shipping employee who has a job with 11,000 finished pieces but the order only calls for 10,000. The shipping clerk can look at the customer’s profile, which shows the company will accept 5% overs. 10,500 are shipped, maximizing revenue while holding 500 back that may be sold later.

Purchasing modules allows for tracking the purchase orders issued and comparing the goods received to the goods for which the vendor invoices. It also compares the cost agreed to on the purchase order to the invoice the vendor sends. Catching any of these discrepancies can provide tremendous cost savings.

Job Notes can be added to electronic orders and can be accessed by the plant employees on the shop floor. If there are specific instructions for a job that are designated by the order entry staff, they can be displayed to the plant employee at any time. For example, if the job is run on the afternoon shift at 7:00 p.m. the notes are printed out and available to the plant employee to ensure the job is run correctly.

It also is possible to track problems and machine setups for previous jobs. For many shops, a certain percentage of jobs produced are reruns of previous jobs. By recording problems and machine settings for a job, shops are in a much better position to produce the job a second time in a more productive and less costly manner than the first. This also is useful for estimating and order entry. When requoting a job, businesses can account for any mistakes experienced the first time. They then can adjust the estimate and write up the order based on those initial experiences. Reduction of costs on the shop floor starts at estimating.

Software allows businesses to track all materials that enter the shop floor. This includes printing sent by customers and supplies needed to produce jobs sent by vendors. Staying on top of goods that enter the plant ensures that jobs are produced on time. Overtime and pulling other jobs off equipment to meet deadlines can be avoided while eliminating additional shipping costs incurred to get missed items to the plant on time.

Furthermore, many finishers and binders have a large inventory of dies. Software that manages die inventory can save money. Knowing where dies are stored and if they have been disposed of or sent back to the customer can save the cost of looking for dies or remaking them. Knowing if a die needs retooling before the job arrives can avoid the costs of press downtime or missed deadlines.

By increasing communications, software can reduce costs associated with missed information and the costs associated with the inefficiencies of employees having to ask other employees or customers questions. Software automatically can create emails that are sent between managers, employees and customers when changes occur. Once a job is opened or changed, an email is generated and sent to the people who most need the information. This also happens when a purchase order is generated, goods are received, packing slips and invoices are generated, and dies need retooling.

Chargeable changes are costs that someone has to pay

Everyone has those jobs that start as one thing and quickly morph into something completely different. As a result, the original estimate of the cost of that job is out the window. Those changes must be paid for by someone, and too often it is the finisher/binder.

Software can, at the very least, track these costs so they can be recovered from the customer; however, businesses should be making a profit on these services. Customer change management software allows users to open an order, and if/when any changes are made to the order, these changes are date-/time-/employee-/cost- and reason-stamped, providing documentation of communications with the customers as to changes made and costs incurred. At the end of the job, management can get a complete listing of all changes and the dates/times of notifications. By documenting changes, businesses can capture legitimate extra charges without damaging the relationship with the customer.

Labor and production analysis

Labor and machine time are by far the biggest cost to the print finishing industry. Tracking the way employees and equipment are utilized can provide tremendous insight into the biggest cost components. The use of software and biometric (fingerprint) technology allows businesses to track every minute of every employee and machine in the company. An employee’s chargeable vs. non-chargeable time can be analyzed. If employees are performing less than 70% chargeable tasks, managers can evaluate his/her role. It also is possible to analyze time spent running, makereading, repairing and maintaining equipment, as well as determine how much time is spent waiting for approvals, etc.

The software also analyzes the average speeds and times of makereadies and running processes, and it further analyzes how individual employees are doing in relation to those machine standards. This information allows businesses to ensure their estimating accurately reflects the costs in their plant.

Conclusion

Automating facilities with the proper software and technology can save tens of thousands of dollars by helping businesses know true costs, in addition to helping properly manage employees and production time.

Mark Porter is president of Dienamic Software and can be reached at 1.800.461.8114, mark@dienamicmis.com or www.dienamicmis.com.

Turning Problems into Positives

July 13, 2018

by Mark Porter, Dienamic MIS Software Inc.

As the old saying goes, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Software helps document and record problems and provides several benefits that actually can turn problems around to strengthen relationships with customers, vendors and employees, as well as improves operating procedures.

Providing employees easy entry of information – such as job number, customer, vendor, employee, department, problem type (paper, MR, etc.), quantity effected, problem description, problem solution, etc. – allows companies to sort and analyze problems that can provide many benefits such as:

Prevents Companies from Making the Same Mistake Twice
Becomes a Database of Problems and Solutions
Improves Relationships with Customers/Vendors/Employees
Minimizes Damage by Documenting Problems

1. Prevents Companies from Making the Same Mistake Twice
Another old saying goes: “You’re not stupid for making a mistake, just for making the same mistake twice.”

By recording problems against jobs, immediate notification of the issues incurred last time is available when re-quoting or rerunning a job. This is helpful at the estimate stage because it allows for quotes based on the previous information. Similarly, at the order entry, there now is the option to not proceed with the job if the customer is not willing to incur the extra costs this time around.

2. Becomes a Database of Problems and Solutions
Recording problems and solutions builds a knowledge base that can be accessed by employees in the future. Learn from previous mistakes by adding images and/or video of the problems/solutions to the database.

3. Improves Relationships with Customers/Vendors/Employees
Generate a list of problems that came up with good customers each quarter. Discuss those issues and offer solutions with the customer. Continually refining the working relationship between the company and customer allows for production of higher quality, better priced and better serviced products. This strengthens the bond with that customer, ensuring it takes a bigger mistake or price difference for them to take their business elsewhere.

The same logic applies to vendors and employees. Discussing issues helps strengthen the working relationships. Trends can be seen with employees and certain operations. Say an employee is always having problems with a certain product. Additional training can be provided. Trends with vendor materials continually causing problems can be identified and rectified.

4. Minimizes Damage by Documenting Problems
If nothing else, documenting problems can save money and relationships in the event of disputes. The more documentation available, the more a company can reinforce its position to the other party in a constructive and articulate way. This can reduce or eliminate liability and open the possibility to future business.

Reprinted with permission.

Mark Porter is the president of Dienamic MIS Software, Inc. Dienamic offers a wide variety of software products and services designed specifically for trade binderies and print finishers. For more information, call 800.461.8114 or visit www.dienamicmis.com.

Job Costing – Using Data Collection to Determine Estimated vs. Actual Profits

March 19, 2018

by Mark Porter, president, Dienamic MIS Software, Inc.

In any business, knowing costs is important. After all, isn’t the mathematical formula Profit = Sales – Costs? If companies don’t know their costs, how can they know their profits? Sure, at the end of the year anyone can say “I made money” or “I lost money,” but when businesses control costs and use cost data to make better business decisions they may not lose any money. Better yet, they may be able to say, “I made more money.”

Data collection

Whether done via time sheets or shop floor data collection, job costing is the process of tracking every minute of every day of each machine and employee. This not only allows us to get accurate costing of how much each job cost to produce but also allows us to analyze all aspects of our operations.

Job costing involves several different aspects, one of which is data collection. Data collection, particularly when it comes to the shop floor, is one of the most valuable resources for determining exactly how much a single job costs. For instance, how much of employee John Smith’s time last quarter was chargeable (rebilled), and how much was nonchargeable? How many hours did the company spend repairing that old Kluge press last year?

Collecting shop floor data allows companies to easily find this information. Furthermore, this type of information can allow companies to control their labor costs and make more informed decisions regarding the company’s machines.

It is possible to extend this further by tracking characteristics of jobs. For example, what was the average running speed on 28×40 sheets of 10pt coated stock run 2-up on the Bobst press? How much time was spent waiting for customer ABC to do press oks?

This type of information can help with providing more accurate estimates. This is important because, if a job is quoted at 3000 per hour but only achieves 2500 on the shop floor the company is losing money as soon as it gets the order. Conversely, if quoting at 2500 per hour and achieving 3000 on the shop floor, the company is losing jobs it could be producing profitably.

Companies do not have to be limited by software analysis. All this data can be sent to software such as Excel, where it can be sorted and analyzed in ways that answer questions that are specific to individual companies.

A wealth of information is available on the shop floor every day. Companies simply need to start collecting and analyzing it to help improve productivity and profitability.

Purchasing for profit

Another piece of the job costing puzzle involves purchasing. All companies must purchase both materials and services in their day-to-day activities. The levels of those purchases can vary from industry to industry and from company to company. Certainly, the industries of print finishing, trade binding and diemaking are more labor-based than material-based, but purchases must still be made.

Whenever money leaves the company, accountability for that money is vital, as is confirmation of the expected value received for those funds. Purchase orders should be generated for all purchases. This includes items for specific jobs, materials for inventory, any outside labor services and general office purchases, such as supplies.

Whether written or verbal, issuing purchase orders is the same as writing a check from the company to the vendor. Whether the company makes many purchases or only a few, each purchase represents money leaving the company that should be controlled. A purchasing system should record every purchase order issued. This provides accountability of who is issuing purchase orders and where they are being sent. By making people accountable for the purchase orders they issue, companies will ensure employees are more careful with the purchases they make.

When goods or services are received they should be matched to the original purchase order. This helps ensure the full order has been received and serves to check if more was received than originally ordered. The print and finishing industries are so job-based, it is often a good idea to take a step back and view purchases by vendor and employees issuing POs.

By ensuring employees follow these procedures, companies can tighten their financial control of the business to ensure maximum success.

Job closing routines

Another valuable step in collecting job costing data is to establish a strong job closing routine. When a job is complete, is it simply passed to invoicing so that the customer can be billed based on the estimated amount? If so, a lot of valuable information is probably getting missed. Closing a job in an automated system should generate several useful reports and functions.

Close the job to prevent additional charges

When creating the invoice, the last thing companies want is to have employees still incurring costs against the job. Trying to get a customer to pay additional charges after the original invoice has been sent is, at the very least, embarrassing.

Once the billing process starts, part of the closing procedure should prevent additional time, materials and purchases from being placed against a job without a supervisor OK.

Full listing of all costs incurred

The job closing process should generate a report that lists all labor hours and costs material costs and purchases that went into producing that job. The company should be aware of all funds that went into the job. The closing report should offer the option to view the data by department, cost center, operation or transaction level.

Generally, these reports are viewed at a cost center level. This means there should be a total hours and total dollars report for each machine used on the job. If a cost center looks unusually high or low, drill down to an operation level to see if the cause was the makeready or run time. Identifying the source means being able to evaluate even further to a transaction level to see which employees worked on a job.

Actual vs. estimate report

This report provides a comparison of the estimated hours and costs for all labor, material and purchases for the specific job to the actual costs. This is a valuable report that can quickly identify actual costs that are not in line with the estimated costs. This could prove to be a onetime exception that nothing could prevent, or maybe it is a process that needs to be evaluated. If a machine is estimated to run at 5000 per hour and it is actually running at 4000 per hour, the company is losing money every time it wins a quote. Conversely, if it is running at 5000 per hour and with a quote of 4000 per hour, the company is losing jobs it should be winning.

Changes report

When a job is complete, it should be possible to get a listing of all changes made to the job from the time it was agreed to produce the job to the final product that was shipped to the customer. It is important to track these changes, as they are needed to explain time and cost variances and, also, to help correct legitimate extra charges.

Collecting extra charges can be a great source of additional revenue, and having a complete backup of information about the extra charge – i.e. who, what, where, why and when a change was made – allows for recovering that extra charge without damaging the relationship with that customer.

Problem history

Provide employees with a problem history system they can use to enter problems with jobs as they happen. When closing a job, a list of its problems can be viewed. These problems may help explain some of the variations and issues on that job. This saves the time of office staff to track down employees and ask what happened two or three days ago. Problem history is also valuable when quoting or running the same job in the future.

By following good closing procedures, companies can ensure that all costs are captured, all legitimate extra charges are recovered, all production variances are accounted for and all processes are running as efficiently as possible. Furthermore, by collecting data regarding the shop floor itself, as well as purchasing information, companies maximize their profits while gaining a better understanding of all aspects of the business.

Mark Porter serves as president of Dienamic MIS Software, Inc. He can be contacted at 800.461.8114 or by email at sales@dienamicmis.com.

Estimating: Know Your Costs to Determine Your Profits

March 10, 2017

by Mark Porter, president, Dienamic MIS Software, Inc.

A good product estimate not only determines the selling price to give to the customer, it also should determine the true costs to produce the product. This is very important because if finishers do not know their costs, how will they know their profits? After all, profit is the reason we are in business.

For many finishers, the price they present to their customers is a result of simply adding up numbers they know the market will bear. Unfortunately, they do this without knowing what their costs for these processes will be. What if the customers ask them to reduce their costs? Are finishers then paying out of their own pockets to produce the jobs? There is no way to know, because they did not calculate their own expenses beforehand.

When I talk to finishers about this topic, they usually say the market dictates the price. This is true; however, the market does not dictate their costs. By identifying their costs beforehand, they can identify the true profitability of various types of work and start to learn which work generates the greatest profit. Once finishers identify this, they can start to target their businesses to those specific types of work.

The following article will identify components of true costing that should be accounted for in the estimating before companies make sales decisions as to what markups and returns they want to achieve for this work.

Firstly, determining production standards – through a variety of methods that will be listed later – will aid in the estimating process. The times then can be multiplied by hourly cost rates that accurately reflect the cost of running that machine per hour. These rates are called budgeted hourly rates (BHR), and they encompass financing charges, labor costs, miscellaneous materials and allocation of overheads. Assumptions are made on the number of shifts and productivity levels that will be obtained, and now finishers have an accurate cost per hour to operate each piece of equipment.

Once the hourly rates have been determined and applied to the production standards, finishers have an accurate representation of how much the proposed job will cost to produce. Now, risk can be evaluated, along with the desired return and the markup of the estimate, in order to determine the selling cost.

Of course, the market will not always bear the desired price. When or if that happens, finishers now have all the data required to evaluate at what market price they are unwilling or unable to bid on a particular job. There even may be times when a company will bid on work that is below cost. The difference is, now they know they are below cost.

Once the time standards and BHRs are in place, it is vital that all graphic finishers monitor their production processes to ensure they are staying at the production standards that estimating is using. This is done through the constant monitoring of production factors, such as labor and machine time, and the comparison of actual vs. estimate calculations.

These concepts of cost accounting and management information systems are vital to the job manufacturing industries – such as finishers – no matter how big or small. The results will provide more data for companies to manage their businesses in a more profitable manner.

How to determine budgeted hourly rates

The process of determining BHRs is fairly simple: Identify all costs for each cost center of the plant.

The purpose is to recover all costs incurred in the production, sales and administration of the product. It is important not to include costs that are really not associated with that production process, because that will make a finisher’s hourly rate too high and price them out of the market. In addition, finishers must not miss legitimate costs. Doing so would result in their hourly rate not reflecting all costs. They will be losing money each time they quote that production process.

Determining BHRs begins with the breakdown of processes performed in the plant. Finishers then must collect and determine their own data. Just because ABC Graphic Finisher and DEF Foil Stamper have the same press does not mean they will have the same hourly rate. ABC may have paid cash for its press. Its rent may be cheaper, and it may hire people with lower skill levels to run the machine. This will lead to lower hourly rates for ABC Graphic Finisher.

A sample BHR sheet for a press is included below to demonstrate the type of information that is required for the BHR calculation. Keep in mind, the manufacturing cost per chargeable hour is not the budgeted hourly rate, but it is useful if finishers must charge back house error to the company.

Also remember, BHRs are not prices. They simply reflect all costs incurred to produce the product, as well as the administrative and selling overhead. The calculation of the BHR multiplied by the time estimated should reflect the time cost to produce that product with no profit. There are several BHR software programs available that walk through the process of determining budgeted hourly rates.

Another thing finishers need to consider is adding multiple shifts. For instance, when cost centers reach 40 percent overtime, adding a second shift may be necessary. The advantages of the second shift are the reduction of overtime and the spreading of the fixed costs over a larger time block. This can result in up to 15 percent savings.

Determining accurate production standards

In addition to having accurate BHRs, finishers also must have accurate production standards in order to have a more precise estimate. Production standards are a measurement of the output that will be achieved on a certain machine under a certain set of circumstances.

Having an accurate determination of production standards can be achieved one of the following six ways:
1. Historical
2. Intuition
3. Published Results
4. Competition
5. Manufacturer
6. Time and Motion Studies

It can be cheaper to utilize methods two through four as they use information that now is the finishers own. This makes it less expensive to accumulate but also lowers its value. Method six is highly accurate but also more costly and not continuous in its monitoring basis. Method one is the best combination of cost and accuracy. Method one collects data from the shop floor, either through the use of time sheets or data collection devices. The information goes into the job costing software where it then can be analyzed and sorted by different jobs and cost centers. This not only collects the beginning data, it allows companies to monitor the standards on an ongoing basis.

Having a precise measurement of BHRs and production standards allows finishers to confidently quote on work, all the while knowing they will be covering their costs. It allows for knowing when to walk away from a job as the desired returns at the current market values are unacceptable. Production standards are used by the estimating department to provide the time element of the estimate. This requires that they be constantly monitored to ensure that production is achieving what is being quoted. Equipment ages, new equipment is purchased and operators come and go, which means a review process must be in place to ensure accurate data.

This review process starts with all jobs. An estimate versus actual comparison report should be produced with each job and reviewed by management to highlight any significant differences in what was estimated vs. what actually was achieved. Differences should be investigated and understood so that processes can be more closely monitored or changed.

Every month, a production comparison report should be run to determine how the processes, on average, are comparing to the standards. Employee efficiency reports should be run to ensure all employees are reaching the production standard set. If certain employees are not meeting the standard, then retraining should be considered. If none of the employees are reaching the standard, the standard needs to be investigated and estimating notified. If estimating is using standards not based on actual data, then finishers may be giving money away on each estimate. If estimating is using standards higher than actual results, then finishers risk losing work.

This should be a standard policy in good times or low times. In good times, when there are never enough hours in the day, why would finishers want to work overtime on jobs that dont make their desired return? During low times, it is important that finishers know their exact profit position when people start demanding price cuts.

By employing good production standards and BHRs, finishers have the ability to properly monitor their estimates and production area. Again, software is available to help calculate all of the above, making the job easier and allowing finishers to have a more informed and profitable business.

Mark Porter is president of Dienamic MIS Software, Inc. He can be contacted at 800.461.8114 or sales@dienamicmis.com.

Labor Reduction Technologies: New Software Solution for Guillotine Cutting

December 9, 2016

by Zeenath Haniff, Farheap Solutions

Using touchscreen technology, Scissor Hands software allows for reduction in errors and improved function.

It is commonly believed that bottlenecks in print production most often occur in the bindery. But, to reach the finish line, let’s look back at the start. While the finishing may be the most time-consuming stage, what other factors consequently affect the time it takes for print jobs to reach the bindery where the cutter operator is forced to make up for any lost time?

Many print service providers invest in the latest prepress and cutting machines to produce high-quality products at record speeds, yet fail to consider how to pass the baton to finishing. Even the most advanced equipment requires a skilled journeyman who can fluidly manage the production timeline. Implementing an efficient workflow between prepress and press can vastly improve post-press production times and quality of the finished product.

Bottlenecks eliminated at OvernightPrints.com

As the founder of OvernightPrints.com, a leading e-commerce printer of business cards, postcards, brochures and other printed materials, Brett Heap originally founded Opensoft Inc. to directly solve his own printing issues. The drive to maximize the efficiency of guillotine cutters at his production facilities in the US and Germany led to development of software that would improve function and reduce errors.

“In the beginning, (Overnight Prints) wasted a lot of paper. Run sheets would have empty positions because they needed to get printed and out the door,” said Paul Barnum, COO, OvernightPrints.com. “Brett (Heap) has always driven everything toward eliminating waste and reducing the cost.”

Under Heap’s direction, the production facility programmed prerecorded cutting routines into several Itotech guillotine cutters. Manual adjustments by cutter operators, however, would inadvertently change the cut courses and naming conventions of the cutting routines, resulting in inaccurate cuts.

To eliminate errors and reduce waste, Heap moved to connect the machines and automate the process. After consulting the manufacturer, the machines were rewired to enable broadcast signals between them. Engineers then were hired to write programs for the cutters, and that software would eventually become Scissor Hands.

“We had to reverse engineer the signaling of the cutters to figure out how to tell the machine the next cutting course,” Barnum explained.

Software adds cutting efficiency

Scissor Hands demonstrates how a single software solution can effectively reduce production and labor costs on gang runs. Created to optimize guillotine cutting and maximize overall print production, the cutting automation software was conceptualized for internal use in 2012 at Overnight Prints, but the technology had implications for the print industry as a whole.

The enhanced JDF automation works by creating efficient cut sequencing based on a run’s prepress JDF data, sheet count, substrate coatings and packaging intent. Barcodes are added to the press sheet from which the software reads the job. Once scanned, the software displays the live image of the job, calculates the most efficient sequence of cuts and loads that sequence into the cutting machine in fractions of seconds.

Unlike previous methods, the automatic job loader also saves a tremendous amount of time by eliminating the need for the operator to search for a specific cutting routine. Instead of storing hundreds of cutting courses, Scissor Hands customizes each print job.

“Every time a new press sheet is built, the information goes to the machine, and it’s specific to that job. We could save the routine, but we don’t need to anymore because it acts like a new job every time,” said Barnum.

The software adds artificial intelligence (AI) to guillotine cutters. These AI-created cut programs share cuts across lifts to reduce the total number of cuts needed to finish an entire run. Shorter, smarter cut programs reduce blade wear and extend the longevity of the cutting equipment, ultimately saving time and money on maintenance and upkeep.

Job runs simplified for operators

Labor costs are another demonstrable cost savings for production facilities that implement the print cutting automation into their workflow. While some manufacturers of similar systems display cut measurements as line drawings, Scissor Hands shows the actual product image onscreen with step-by-step animation of cutting each step from start to finish without having to calculate, enter dimensions or adjust by numbers or visual observation. Operators just follow the presentation for how to load and rotate the lift.

The efficiency of the provided algorithm, combined with guided animation, allow for entry-level labor to complete print jobs, which significantly reduces the need for experienced journeyman. Additionally, operator training time can be condensed.

Some of the most experienced cutters at Overnight Prints shared that the software would save 20 minutes of every hour in cutting time alone. Operators no longer need to waste significant time calculating, doing decimal conversions or planning cut courses before they begin cutting.

An integrated MIS system provides real-time reporting. It can track the name of the employee completing the print job, start and stop times, blade drops and other relevant data.

The Scissor Hands technology was on display at the recent GRAPH EXPO 16 in Orlando, Florida.

Awarded a 2015 Must See ‘Ems Award, Scissor Hands was named a leading innovation in cutting edge automation by a panel of industry experts at GRAPH EXPO 15.

Zeenath Haniff is the content writer for Farheap Solutions, Las Vegas, Nevada. Scissor Hands uses artificial intelligence to augment a cutter’s behavior. The cloud-based auxiliary system only requires the installation of a mounted touchscreen, barcode scanner and model-specific connector to enjoy the benefits of newer imposition software on older equipment that are not fully computerized. Scissor Hands can work with any cutter that has a programmable back gauge. For more information, visit www.scissorhands.net.

Digital Front Ends for Package Printing

August 13, 2016

by Lee Zerfass, Anderson and Vreeland

There has been a huge push towards digital printing over the last few years and increased interest in what digital printing has to offer, including short-run printing efficiencies, personalization, prototyping and more.

Every digital press is a complicated piece of hardware; the mechanics “under the hood” are scary yet brilliant. Digital press vendors have encapsulated the complexities of their software in a single component called the Digital Front End, or DFE.

Before digital presses, printers talked about RIPs, workflow, stepping, trapping, imposition, color mapping, calibration, etc. Mentally, we separate the components or tasks required to make flexo plates. But in the digital world, it’s just the “DFE” – a catch-all phrase for all of that software “stuff” that is required to keep the press running. For that matter, everything else up and downstream serves as the focal point for all job information, all the way to shipping methods and addresses.

Think about how archiving physical plates is vastly different to storing jobs in the cloud. How do you know without hesitation which version of a job you printed an hour or a year ago? These are very useful concepts outside of the digital printing world too, but our world is getting much smaller, with merging technologies from other similar industries offering significant benefits for flexo.

The bonus for management is it’s less complicated. Following a successful digital transition, operational costs are going to decline overall due to consolidation of data and efficient production. In fact, as a major manufacturer and distribution partner for the flexo industry, Anderson and Vreeland’s contention is that every business can benefit from a “DFE” – an integrated system that combines all of a client’s business systems and processes to drive business more efficiently.

You can read about the benefits of Digital Front Ends in an article published in the February 2015 issue of Flexo magazine (registration required).

Lee Zerfass is digital business development manager at Anderson & Vreeland, headquartered in Bryan, Ohio. This article was reprinted with permission. Read the original article at flexodaily.andersonvreeland.com.

Cash is King

October 13, 2015

by Mark Porter, Dienamic MIS Software Inc.

Controlling your cash is vital in today’s economy, but you also are probably understaffed and overworked – a perfect combination that can lead to missing items, which can greatly affect your cash flow. Therefore, it is vital to have checks and balances built into your operations that will help avoid bad customers, missed charges, paying too much to vendors and maintaining cash flow.

We aren’t looking at this topic from the accounting side since we assume that everyone has an accounting system in place and is watching their aging process. With this, we are looking at the management side.

Avoid bad customers

Debt from one bad customer can wipe out profit from a lot of good jobs. It is vital that you stay on top of COD and delinquent customers. These days, this information can be continually changing, and it is important that everyone is aware of a customer’s status. There is nothing worse then shipping a job to a customer on COD before getting the money or calling a customer to tell them you are holding their job back only to find out they sent you a check earlier.

Allowing management to make credit decisions on customers and to convey that decision immediately to other staff is very important. Management simply can flag a customer as COD or On Hold and immediately order entry people cannot open orders and shipping people cannot create packing slips without security passwords.

Chargeable changes

Profit margins on jobs are so thin these days that any extra work can turn a job from a money maker to a money loser. It is vital that you track your chargeable changes and collect on them from your customer. Implement a system that will document all changes made to the order from the time you agree to do the job until you ship that job to the customer. The changes should be date-, time-, employee- and reason-stamped. Change orders should immediately generate an email notification to the customers of the changes. These changes should be immediately reflected on the invoice but allow for changes at that time.

If you keep record of every change and document the reasons for the changes, you will collect your legitimate extra fees.

Start your aging as soon as possible

We all know that customers are going to take their time paying you whether that is 30, 60, 90 or 120 days, so the sooner you can start the clock the better. When you generate a physical invoice, automatically email a pdf copy of it to your customer at the same time. This avoids any delay in mailing invoices and allows you to collect your money days earlier.

Customers will want your invoice ASAP so that they can bill their customers and keep their cash flow going. You may not get your money any sooner, but you will become a more desirable vendor for them.

Don’t miss any jobs

Reduced staffing and hurried work schedules can lead to people doing things they forget about. Maybe a job is shipped and then your plant manager pulls the job bag to write something on it and then forgets to put it back in the billing file. Or maybe the job bag fell behind the shippers desk. The end result is a shipped job that isn’t billed at all or billed at a much later date when it is found, which is uncomfortable and embarrassing.

Run reports each Friday that provide a list of jobs shipped but not invoiced. Don’t let any hard-earned money slip through your fingers.

Don’t overpay purchases

Everyone makes mistakes, including suppliers, but you shouldn’t have to pay for their mistakes. By issuing POs, recording receipts and entering vendor invoices you can be instantly flagged when the invoice price varies from the PO and the quantity billed exceeds the quantity received. You work hard for your money – don’t give it away to suppliers.

Mark Porter is the president of Dienamic MIS Software. Dienamic develops and markets software solutions specifically for the postpress 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.

Reprinted with permission.