In-Plant versus Ooops

To err is human, to really screw things up takes a committee.

Or, in this case, a Corporation.

R R Donnelley Screws up a job for Google, as reported by In-Plant Graphics. And they point out that an external company has to ultimately answer to their own shareholders more so than to the clients they are printing for.

Not sure if this qualifies as a full point for the In-Plant Team, but I know every In-Plant manager out there is making a copy of this story to put in their files.

Why are deadlines so important?

Why are deadlines so important? I mean why not just do everything as soon as it comes in?

Well..... what gets done and when is a delicate balance of what paper is available for which job on which machine in which order based on what has to be done before, during, and after the project. There is a lot of science to the process, and a surprisingly large amount of artistry. When a production schedule works it is a thing of beauty. When a production schedule goes wrong it is the source of heart burn, headaches, and unhappy customers.


Let me offer you the following example:

Project A is going to take 1 hour to complete using  Machine 1.

Project B is going to take 2 hours to complete, 1 hour on Machine 1 and 1 hour on Machine 2.

Project A is due in 2 hours, Project B is due in 3 hours.

It looks like it is a simple thing to do, Project A and then Project B. Everything gets done in order and everything gets done on time.

True.

But that is not the best way to organize those jobs. If Project B is started first, then Project A can run next in line while the second part of Project B is worked on. The result is both Projects A and B getting done at the same time with an hour to spare to do something else.

Not so intuitive to put the second project ahead of the first, is it?

That is why a complete Due Date is so important to us here in the Copy Center. If we know exactly when you need your project we can mange our schedule to better provide you what you need, when, and at the lowest possible cost.

So please, give us a complete due date. Help us to help you.

Printing versus D.I.Y.

Economic Times are tough all over. Pennies have to be watched, belts have to be tightened, basically everything needs some attention.

Paper is a good opportunity to save money. Print everything two sided and reduce the amount of paper you use. This is just a good idea anyway, reduce the amount of physical space your archives will consume, lighten the load when moving those archives, both of which reduce the total carbon footprint of your operations.

However,the actual money savings are slight when you figure the cost of a sheet of paper is somewhere around a penny. It takes a lot of pennies to make a difference. So if your printing two sides to save money immediately, you aren't really saving any money immediately. You should keep saving those pennies, but with the understanding that they are only pennies.

Let me give you another example of a money saving idea that doesn't really save any money: Envelopes.

Envelopes should be the easiest thing in the world, order a rubber stamp or print some labels, stamp or stick, and away you go! Easy as pie!

But did you save any money?

A box of envelopes from the local office supply is about $9. And that is for the most basic of envelopes.

If you want to go with a rubber stamp, you can get an a typical address stamp for about $15. And a stamp at that price point should last you between 3 and 5 thousand impressions.

Now, how fast can you stamp a box of 500 envelopes? And what is that time worth to you? What could you be doing, what should you be doing, instead of stamping a box of 500 envelopes?

Keeping up with me so far? Your envelopes have cost roughly $19 a box if you count two cents per stamp to cover your time and the initial cost of the stamp.


Oh, there is a quality issue as well. Your $15 dollar rubber stamp is going to print kind of like this:

And the longer you use the stamp, the more it will fade and then you start hitting it harder which shortens the life span even further..... you get the idea.

That life span of the rubber stamp I mentioned above, between three and five thousand impressions, a case of envelopes is 2,500, or five boxes of 500. That means you will be lucky to get two cases of envelopes stamped from one rubber stamp. How many boxes of envelopes do you use in a year?

The alternative?

The Copy Center!

This is our blog, did you not see that one coming?

Envelopes can be printed for $25 per box, or if you have room to store them you can get a case for $100, or $20 per box.

And we have specialized machines for envelopes that can print as many as 2,500 envelopes an hour. That is a case of envelopes in an hour. And all it takes you is the time to send us a work order. A few minutes of your valuable time and you get a professional presentation that looks something like this:

Clean, neat, professional looking, everything an envelope from the City of Hollywood should be.

Lets recap:

Crappy rubber stamp impression on an envelope - $19 ish dollars for a box.

Professionally printed envelopes from the Copy Center - as low as $20 per box.

Any questions?