Efficiency lies in the details. Delivering jobs with reduced turn times and fewer resources requires being intensely focused on the details. As more companies realize the benefits of automation, they’re looking closer at each piece of equipment and each process to find out how to maximize efficiency. And one of the standout industry players in automation today is Think Patented. This is the site for the 2015 Automation Solutions Network Meeting, February 25–26, in Miamisburg, Ohio. What makes this facility so impressive? Every square inch of Think Patented is designed for automation.  Before you go, we wanted to give you a preview of Think Patented’s facility, what makes them successful, and what you’ll see on the tour! How They Got Here A “marketing execution company,” Think Patented thinks beyond ink on paper. Founded more than 35 years ago, they recently moved their operation into a new facility created to meet their customers’ every need. With keen attention to detail, it is designed top to bottom from an automation and lean manufacturing perspective. They’ve incorporated optimized delivery and material flow with a just-in-time mindset. Designed also with an eye to the future, Think Patented has allowed room for expansion in this already massive facility. Any aspects that should be automated are automated. Not one detail was spared within the entire operation, and cleanliness and efficiency is evident in every corner of the facility. How They Work While some operations may look at a job as an order-in/order-out process, Think Patented looks at it from the perspective of both a printer and a marketer—the whole process. From Web development services to fulfillment, their goal is to create custom solutions for their clients. Therefore, as the customer moves, the jobs—and the profits—stay with them! What You Will Experience Go inside the Think Patented facility and get a full sense of this meticulously designed plant built to maximize throughput and minimize transportation and motion waste. They’ve invested millions of dollars in software and equipment to enhance every automation aspect. Equipment—The facility houses an impressive collection of some of the most efficient technologies in digital and offset printing equipment. Attendees get to see these giants in action, including Sheetfed Offset presses, digital presses, wide-format printing and finishing. Think Patented employs software to measure metrics and monitor performance on all of their jobs. Value-added Services—Integrated, full-service solutions add greater value for Think Patented’s customers, like marketing portals, campaign tracking and reporting, and augmented reality. One particular service they’ve perfected is automated marketing. By working with their customers to improve their marketing efforts, they allow them to easily contact and analyze responses to mail, email, websites, social media, and other channels saving them time and money....

If you asked your employees right now what it’s like to work at your company each day, how would they respond? Do they feel like they work in an environment that supports their goals and ideas? Are they provided the appropriate resources to excel at their jobs? How would they rate their managers? You may wonder why company culture is so important. Only three out of ten U.S. workers are involved in and enthusiastic about their workplace, according to Gallup’s 2013 State of the American Workplace report. That means that 70% of workers are not fully engaged in their workplace. This lack of commitment leads to decreased productivity and lower overall profits. If this is a reality check for your company, take a moment now to get an honest look at your organizational culture. If you haven’t tried the new Culture Audit Tool, it’s a free member resource that allows you to examine the fine details of your culture and compare your answers to other companies. The survey contains 33 precise questions based on how employees assess your company. The areas include: Mission, Purpose, and Success Communication, Respect, and Trust Team and Empowerment Training, Development, and Support Corporate Behavior and Ethics Compensation and Benefits This survey is 100% confidential and helps you get to the root of your company culture and provide a vision of which areas you need to focus your continuous improvement efforts. So just how important is a healthy company culture? Research says it not only impacts your employees but also your bottom line. We’ve laid out four reasons to invest in your organization’s culture along with key ways to measure it. Why invest in culture? It’s connected to financial performance—An 11-year study by John Kotter and James Heskett looked at the effects of culture in 207 companies from 22 industries. The results, published in their book Corporate Culture and Performance (Free Press, 2011), showed that companies that managed their corporate culture significantly outperformed similar companies that did not. The right corporate culture can be one of a business’s most critical assets. There’s a high ROI—Cultivating a great culture is a financially low-cost endeavor that can yield high economic returns. Best of all, it is an advantage that competitors cannot duplicate. (“How Intangible Corporate Culture Creates Tangible Profits”) Ignorance can lead to serious consequences—While culture may not seem like a top priority, a weak one will reveal itself when you try to implement a new strategy. You may find that your employees’ current thinking and behaviors are incompatible with new corporate initiatives. The conflict can make for an unsustainable strategy (“How Healthy is Your Culture?”). Managers have influence—At the organizational level, managers can help improve key...

If you asked your employees right now what it’s like to work at your company each day, how would they respond? Do they feel like they work in an environment that supports their goals and ideas? Are they provided the appropriate resources to excel at their jobs? How would they rate their managers? You may wonder why company culture is so important. Only three out of ten U.S. workers are involved in and enthusiastic about their workplace, according to Gallup’s 2013 State of the American Workplace report. That means that 70% of workers are not fully engaged in their workplace. This lack of commitment leads to decreased productivity and lower overall profits. If this is a reality check for your company, take a moment now to get an honest look at your organizational culture. If you haven’t tried the new Culture Audit Tool, it’s a free member resource that allows you to examine the fine details of your culture and compare your answers to other companies. The survey contains 33 precise questions based on how employees assess your company. The areas include: Mission, Purpose, and Success Communication, Respect, and Trust Team and Empowerment Training, Development, and Support Corporate Behavior and Ethics Compensation and Benefits This survey is 100% confidential and helps you get to the root of your company culture and provide a vision of which areas you need to focus your continuous improvement efforts. So just how important is a healthy company culture? Research says it not only impacts your employees but also your bottom line. We’ve laid out four reasons to invest in your organization’s culture along with key ways to measure it. Why invest in culture? It’s connected to financial performance—An 11-year study by John Kotter and James Heskett looked at the effects of culture in 207 companies from 22 industries. The results, published in their book Corporate Culture and Performance (Free Press, 2011), showed that companies that managed their corporate culture significantly outperformed similar companies that did not. The right corporate culture can be one of a business’s most critical assets. There’s a high ROI—Cultivating a great culture is a financially low-cost endeavor that can yield high economic returns. Best of all, it is an advantage that competitors cannot duplicate. (“How Intangible Corporate Culture Creates Tangible Profits”) Ignorance can lead to serious consequences—While culture may not seem like a top priority, a weak one will reveal itself when you try to implement a new strategy. You may find that your employees’ current thinking and behaviors are incompatible with new corporate initiatives. The conflict can make for an unsustainable strategy (“How Healthy is Your Culture?”). Managers have influence—At the organizational level, managers can help improve key...

In what seems to be a forever-changing regulatory landscape, employers can only imagine what new EPA and OSHA requirements they will encounter in 2015. How can you avoid serious fines, negative publicity, and serious injuries from EHS violations? For managers, business owners, or anyone involved in EHS in the printing industry, those are just a few of the many concerns that can keep you up at night. But if there’s one thing we do know about your job going into 2015, it’s that the stakes are going to get higher and the rules more complicated. Gary Jones, Assistant Vice President of EHS Affairs at Printing Industries of America, has experienced his share of sleepless nights too, usually because he is traveling from state to state helping printers solve serious EHS challenges. We caught up with him in between a print consulting project and a key EPA meeting to talk about the crucial EHS issues facing industry companies today and important regulation changes they need to prepare for. You’ve led several significant EHS consulting and compliance auditing projects for printing operations this year. Can you tell us about some of the latest ones you’ve been working on? Gary Jones: Our team has been busy on a number of projects this year, both on the environmental and health and safety front. For many of the environmental projects, we’re helping operations with obtaining air permits as well as their compliance record keeping and reporting. Most printing companies don’t realize that if you purchase new equipment or if the regulations change, they may need to apply for an air permit—even small companies. While the thresholds vary from state to state, many of them have dropped to very low levels. In fact, in certain areas every piece of equipment that emits pollution must now have a permit. On the health and safety side, companies are concerned with the fallout of the printing industry being declared a high-hazard industry for amputations. OSHA has been targeting printing companies and focusing on how they are protecting employees from machine related hazards which include machine guarding and lockout/tagout procedures. In fact 78% of OSHA inspections in the printing industry for fiscal year 2014 were planned or targeted inspections. This shows that OSHA has clearly become very aggressive regarding inspections in the printing industry. Can you describe the top issues you see for members in the EHS field going into 2015? GJ: OSHA’s new reporting requirements, effective January 1, 2015, will be a game changer. Employers will be required to report any work-related incidents that result in an amputation, loss of an eye, or in-patient hospitalization of one or more employees within 24 hours to OSHA. Any fatality must...

In what seems to be a forever-changing regulatory landscape, employers can only imagine what new EPA and OSHA requirements they will encounter in 2015. How can you avoid serious fines, negative publicity, and serious injuries from EHS violations? For managers, business owners, or anyone involved in EHS in the printing industry, those are just a few of the many concerns that can keep you up at night. But if there’s one thing we do know about your job going into 2015, it’s that the stakes are going to get higher and the rules more complicated. Gary Jones, Assistant Vice President of EHS Affairs at Printing Industries of America, has experienced his share of sleepless nights too, usually because he is traveling from state to state helping printers solve serious EHS challenges. We caught up with him in between a print consulting project and a key EPA meeting to talk about the crucial EHS issues facing industry companies today and important regulation changes they need to prepare for. You’ve led several significant EHS consulting and compliance auditing projects for printing operations this year. Can you tell us about some of the latest ones you’ve been working on? Gary Jones: Our team has been busy on a number of projects this year, both on the environmental and health and safety front. For many of the environmental projects, we’re helping operations with obtaining air permits as well as their compliance record keeping and reporting. Most printing companies don’t realize that if you purchase new equipment or if the regulations change, they may need to apply for an air permit—even small companies. While the thresholds vary from state to state, many of them have dropped to very low levels. In fact, in certain areas every piece of equipment that emits pollution must now have a permit. On the health and safety side, companies are concerned with the fallout of the printing industry being declared a high-hazard industry for amputations. OSHA has been targeting printing companies and focusing on how they are protecting employees from machine related hazards which include machine guarding and lockout/tagout procedures. In fact 78% of OSHA inspections in the printing industry for fiscal year 2014 were planned or targeted inspections. This shows that OSHA has clearly become very aggressive regarding inspections in the printing industry. Can you describe the top issues you see for members in the EHS field going into 2015? GJ: OSHA’s new reporting requirements, effective January 1, 2015, will be a game changer. Employers will be required to report any work-related incidents that result in an amputation, loss of an eye, or in-patient hospitalization of one or more employees within 24 hours to OSHA. Any fatality must...