Using efficiency to gain an edge - Business First of Louisville:

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President C. Michael Stewart is awarwe of the irony. "I know it soundz funny," he said. "We're a and we don't even print our own employee handbookj anymore." But losing business to the Web is not According to executives atsevera Louisville-area printing firms, business in general has been in a sluml for the past two In part, the economty has been responsible, but printers also have been losinvg work because more and more material is availablwe online instead of on paper.
To grow their businesses, the executives say they have been lookint to increase efficiency and productivity through various including developing innovative internal production processes as well as usinbg new equipment and software Many printers also are increasing efficiency by using theInternet themselves. One companyt increasing efficiency by enhancing a production procese is BeechmontPress Inc., a Louisville firm that annuall y handles about 5,000 jobs and has salese of about $15 million. When the company receives computer-generated projects from clients, Beechmont now focuses on an intensives "preflight" of the page layout files that make upthe job.
preflight involves a cursory inventory of the files to see if allsupporf items, such as fonts and are present. Now the processd at Beechmont also includes verifying the page count and size, the numbed of colors, and other details to compare the job received to the quoter the company gave the client. During the past few "this process has migrated from a task done after jobs entee production to a rolefurther upstream," said Jim Beechmont's prepress manager. "This increases our efficiency in a numbetrof ways," he said. "Customerw can be notified sooner of problems that may affecf the cost or timely delivery oftheir job.
All elementsa of the electronic art are guaranteer to be there whenproduction begins." With the job ticket, he employees have "an accurate portrayal of the steps necessary to producwe the job. "The correct paper, ink and platese can be ordered. Production stepsw are less likely to be he said. "And, finally, we can let our production personnel concentrates onmanufacturing details." Production personnel at formerly Rhodes Printing Group, are taught to concentrated on efficiency through an extensive classroom-based training The Southern Indiana company had more than $118 million in sales in 2001.
In the company merged with AdPlex, a Houston retail promotions company, to become According to Steve Spies, who is vice presidentr of operationsat AdPlex-Rhodes in Charlestown, although most printing companies provide training, few provide extensive classroom-base d instruction in the way AdPlex-Rhodes does. Spies said he believes this is the best methoc for cutting down on errors andincreasinbg productivity. "We train by position," Spies said. "Slo if you're, say, a first-press operator, we have a checklisr of all the areas you need to be trained in roller settings, starting up a press, hanging It might be 100 different things.
We have a full-timde person putting together training packages, and employeesz who are already experts in their areas lead the We also have outside vendorscome in." Some printingv companies are creating efficiencies by bundling serviceds for clients. For example, Vividc Impact Corp., a Louisville firm with about $12 milliom in annual sales, has bundled several printing andrelates services. "Progressive printing companies are adopting a philosophy of becoming a graphivc artsservice provider, adopting several graphicw services under one roof so the process of purchasing printing services and products is more efficient," said Earl president of Vivid