Benchmarking Productivity -- Pursuing Profitable Pressrooms

PIA/GATF is currently helping sheetfed printers improve productivity by releasing a productivity benchmarks report that will allow them to compare their operations against similar firms, as well as productivity leaders.

An important indicator of productivity are run speeds (total impressions for a particular job divided by the total amount of time required to complete the job). According to preliminary results from PIA/GATF's current survey, sheetfed run speeds vary significantly from job to job based on the size of the job and the number of colors used. Median run speeds ranged from 325 impressions per hour (iph) for a process color, short-run job (under 1,500 total impressions) to 5,105 iph for a one-color, long-run job (more than 20,000 total impressions).