We don't live in a world of perfection (though I try . . . at least on some days) and so waste and spoilage are issues at any postpress house, just as they are for any printer. Hopefully, though, spoilage is much less common than waste.
Some definitions first. I think of waste and spoilage much as the National Association of Printers and Lithographers define them in their "NAPL Bindery Waste and Spoilage" report. Waste is predictable, a known entity that's part of the business we do. The cost of waste is included in job estimates and, therefore, does not affect scheduling, work flow or profits if held within company standards. Spoilage, or avoidable waste, is a whole other matter. It's unpredictable, and we absorb the full cost. Therefore, it powerfully affects scheduling, production flow and profits. Spoilage is the enemy.
The goal instead is efficiency. That's a given. But to be as efficient as possible we have to examine causes and solutions.
Probable causes. In any postpress process, the causes of waste and spoilage can be broken down into problems caused by material, planning, machinery, or personnel.
Curled paper can be the end result of work produced on high-speed web presses and delivered into a sheeter. For a cutting machine, which works best on a square stack of flat sheets, that's problematic. So in this case, it's the material that might cause spoilage once it gets to the postpress phase. Examples of the three other categories are just as self-evident. A saddle-stitched product won't turn out as wanted if improper allowances have been made for overlap (planning). Worn adjustment devices affect folding (machinery). And inept feeding isn't what we hope for when collating (personnel).
I'm sure we could all name countless examples of each category from our own experiences. (War stories make us feel better and bonded, right?) And, I think, methods of reduction should be just as easy to relate and as simple to categorize. So let's look at ways to reduce spoilage.
Methods of reduction . Material-caused spoilage and planning-caused spoilage often point to a lack of communication. I've discussed this in past columns, but it never hurts to reiterate the importance of advance planning with the early cooperation of all parties involved. Too often, the printer and designer consult on a project, without the input of the postpress house. Then, when the project hits a bindery loading dock, surprises are likely to be discovered. It might be the overlap issue mentioned above, or page count exceeding the capabilities of the desired binding style, or any number of possibilities. So, if at all possible, everyone working on a project should be involved as early as possible.
Communication should also take place between the printer and postpress house on ongoing issues unconnected to individual projects. This is part of developing a relationship in which topics like material-caused spoilage can be regularly reviewed. In other words, it takes teamwork to be truly efficient.
As noted above, worn or malfunctioning machinery also causes problems. At Seattle Bindery, we've focused on moving to new equipment, within reason, instead of nursing older machinery because upkeep can quickly become inefficient. What we've discovered is that newer equipment, often with greater capabilities, turns out more consistent product, does so faster and requires less time in makeready, which results in reduced waste and spoilage. Plus, fewer breakdowns means less call for troubleshooting by an experienced operator.
On the other hand, if we order new equipment without a detailed analysis of the cost of underutilized capacity on the equipment we already have, then we're fooling ourselves on that end of the equation. It's all a delicate balance.
Equipment mix and size of operation also affects staff performance. Seattle Bindery has become large enough that operators are able to spend their time in one department, each learning the idiosyncrasies of a machine as well as possible, each able to take ownership of the work done in that department. Instead of being floaters, we've become a staff of specialists.
Education is another of the main components of an efficient staff. But work should be monitored after each step of additional training to ensure that results are worth the cost of education and that subsequent mistakes (which will happen) can be evaluated against company standards. Again, waste is as negligible as possible, but still expected and accounted for in costs and scheduling. It's the surplus waste, or spoilage, that hurts the bottom line.
Where to turn. Much of this is probably self-evident. But I know that on those more imperfect days, when phones are ringing and everyone has questions, I have as much difficulty as the next guy when it comes to slowing down enough to separate inefficiencies into waste and spoilage, or their causes into reasonable categories of causation. So I hope categories can be useful for you, as they are for me, when pinpointing exactly where to concentrate first.
Milt Vine is president of Seattle Bindery, a postpress house specializing in custom
tabs and presentation folders; folding and stitching; foil stamping, embossing and
diecutting; plastic spiral, Wire-O® and perfect binding. You can reach Milt at
206/682-2558.
© 1998, Seattle Bindery. Reprinted from Printing Journal, May 1998.