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As mentioned in a previous post, I'm soliciting questions from you (or all y'all) about Lean as it applies to the printing and graphics industries, especially for those of you who may be attempting the journey and are stuck in the mud.
If you prefer to remain anonymous you can send an email to LeanPrinter{at}gmail.com, replacing the {at} with the "at" symbol(trying to avoid the auto spammers), or you can just post your question as a reply/comment to this post. I'll do my best within the boundaries of the law, ethics, common sense, and good ol' fashion thinkin' to answer all y'all's questions.
5 comments:
"Please tell me about lean in the printing industry" is not really a question. That's kind of like saying "Tell me about air". Your questions will need to be a tad more specific than that.
If you really only want a very general account of Lean in the printing industry, start at post #1 (June 2007) and keep reading!
cool blog I'll give it a vote,
in return check out
Color Printing of Brochures Cards Catalogs Letterhead Posters and More
Tom,
Great to see a blog like this! Thanks.
Here is a question for you: what sort of methods can be used in a short run prepress environment? In other words, the information stream has many bottlenecks: waiting on proof approvals, incorrect instructions to operators requiring clarification, vendors not fulfilling supply orders or, my favorite, vendors not completing a service call.
Thanks,
Jeff Lazerus
Prepress Manager
Denver, CO
Jeff,
Thanks for your question and comments. I've tried a few times to reply today but techno-glitches keep crashing my laptop. Ah, the price of technology. Probably happens in prepress every day, right?
Last August I linked to a blog post from Graphic Arts Monthly, written by Debbie Goodman, on Measuring PrePress Productivity". Debbie brought up some good points in her piece.
Second, I'd visit fellow blogger The PrePress Pilgrim.
Now, to your question, "what sort of methods can be used in a short run prepress environment?"
My first response would be "what is the issue?" Before we look at what tools or techniques we might choose we first need to identify and define the problem and what the ideal condition is. Only then would we turn to the tools and techniques.
I know that may sound simplistic but it's where we need to start: We need to describe and agree on what the ideal condition is.
For example, waiting on proof approvals. What is the current situation? What is the ideal? By looking at this and any problem from the "ideal" perspective you start to see where there are huge gaps in communication and performance instead of looking at "how do we make this a little better?"
"Incorrect instructions to operators?" Why are there incorrect instructions in the first place? Again, what are the "ideal" instructions, ie. the "ideal" way to do a particular task. Get it written down, get people trained on it, and constantly follow up on and revise both the standard and the training.
As for vendors, perhaps your instructions to them are not clear. Sit them down and, not to beat a dead horse, review with them what the "ideal" condition is. Get their agreement on it and their input on how to attain it.
In order to improve any situation you (the parties involved) need to agree on the "ideal", create some structure on how to attain the ideal (what you intend to accomplish), implement activities to support the structure (how you intend to accomplish it), keep at these activities in order to change peoples's behaviors (implement policies and procedures to sustain the accomplishments), and by doing so you'll change attitudes.
That, in a simple nutshell, is how to attack any problem.
Thanks so much!
I will keep you posted on these things as I go forward.
PS- I love the Prepress Pilgrim blog. I have it right next to yours in my feed reader!
Best wishes,
Jeff
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