Business Management - Productivity/Process Improvement

Why do we duck the reality of the Ratio Studies published by the Printing Industries of America (PIA)? In a prior article, a summary of the last six years of those studies was published. If we accept those studies as representative, the lower three-fourths of our commercial printing industry have had margins that are below the survival level. Either the results presented by PIA are misleading—or downright phony—or we're in denial of the reality of what they clearly say. To put it in existential terms, why haven't at least 10,000 of our 20,000 commercial printing firms filed for bankruptcy? Suppose we accept the PIA Ratios

What is it that the customer of commercial printing is looking for when a job is ordered? Is it quality, count or timeliness of delivery? Or all three? Which is most important? Does it make a difference? Depends on the job and client, doesn't it? All three must be met if a job is to satisfy a customer's needs, but often a little extra effort on quality or timeliness is needed. Offhand, you'd think that a precise count would be the easiest to satisfy. It seldom is, unless, of course, the units of the job must be sequentially numbered like checks or forms. We still

by chris bauer Managing Editor Productivity equals time and time equals money. Obviously, sheetfed and web offset printers want to get the most out of their expensive equipment. And, just as obvious, is the fact that printers want to be as profitable as possible. The opportunities to become more productive in the lithographic pressroom are numerous. "The trend in pressrooms across the country is toward more and more automation, both in material handling at both ends of the press, as well as more closed-loop control processes on the press itself," notes Edmond Kelley, executive director for the National Council for Skill Standards in Graphic

One thing that has puzzled me for many years is how printing companies can stay alive with the kind of operating income they report to the Printing Industries of America (PIA). These reports are the basis for the Ratio Studies that PIA publishes annually. Surely the reports of 600 to 900 companies, as a cross-section of our industry, must be true. Or...as true as can be expected with the general ledger financial reporting system we have in place. Am I suggesting that there's something wrong with the general ledger system we use? Do I join with Trevor Harris, chief accounting analyst at Morgan Stanley, in

"Thank goodness I'll never have to sit through another PowerPoint slide show again," said my late friend Dennis Hiser on his retirement from World Color in Chicago. That remark puzzled me. Then I heard about Lou Gerstner taking over at IBM. He stepped in front of a PowerPoint projector and interrupted a presentation saying, "Let's just talk about your business." IBM was shocked. Scott McNealy hated PowerPoint presentations so much he banned them from all Sun corporate offices. Again I was confused. Then I got hold of a small booklet with the title "The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint" by Edward R Tufte and, for

With intense price competition eroding the profits generated by recent sales growth, many firms are scrambling to maintain and increase profits. One time-proven method of helping the bottom line is to make sure your pressroom is operating at peak efficiency. Minimizing waste, spoilage and production downtime, while simultaneously maximizing run speeds, are a requisite for profitability in any sheetfed shop. 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

There's TPS, the Toyota Production System, and LEAN Manufacturing, which are basically development ideas of Taiichi Ohno of Toyota. Then there's the Six Sigma System strongly espoused by Jack Welch of General Electric, and The Great Game of Business, developed to a fine art by Jack Stack. If that isn't enough, add in ABC, Activity Based Costing, thought by some to be the answer to a maiden's prayer for manufacturing. By the way, don't forget TOC, the Theory of Constraints, by Eliyahu Goldratt. Also don't overlook SQC, Statistical Quality Control of W. Edwards Deming, for continuing improvement of manufacturing. Oops, we almost forgot to

Since offering my book, Monday Morning Manager, free to anyone requesting it by dropping me an e-mail, I've sent out 237 copies. This makes me think that there are quite a number of printers giving serious thought to a better way of making decisions for their business. There's really a concerned minority who are thinking about liquidity, productivity and tomorrow. Several have requested that I spell out, in some detail, what I'd consider an ideal set of reports as a basis for decisions. First, let's be clear about the main contention. We must have weekly reporting. Ideally, 13 weeks (a quarter of a year) should

"How's business?" The usual response is, "Great! We've got a terrific estimating system." We have a tendency to equate job costs with the costs we "estimate." Often overlooked, perhaps, is the major value of a job costing system. System suppliers know and exploit this pricing weakness. Dr. Quincy, the '70s TV pathologist, doesn't try to predict when a person will die. He reacts to what has already occurred. We can do a Quincy act with our cost accounting system. For a cost accounting system we have two data sets: A. Transaction job dollar costs (Transactors) 1) Paper and ink 2) Buyouts 3) Hourly work center "standard" rates B.

Is collecting an account receivable a part of the industry definition of commercial printing? If it isn't now, I am declaring it to be. This is an open declaration of WAR on Receivables. When I see that the average of collections is 50 days for a representative group of printers, "I'm madder than hell and I'm not going to take it any more." This is WAR, good buddies. Victory is collection of the account receivable, in full, within the time allowed. A sale isn't complete until you've got the full cash for the order in your hands. To win a war, you must have a set