Benchmarking Productivity -- Pursuing Profitable Pressrooms

Waste Not, Want Not

Similar to run speeds, the amount of planned waste (amount of paper consumed to bring the job up to acceptable quality as a percentage of total paper consumed) and unexpected spoilage (amount of paper lost in production due to quality problems after makeready was completed as a percentage of total paper consumed) vary from job to job based on the run length and number of colors used. Median planned waste for a six-color, very-short-run job (less than 500 impressions) was close to 240 percent and the median amount of unexpected spoilage was 30 percent.