This blog was adapted from an article by Manoj Ramachandran, Operations Manager, Label World, who has more than a decade of experience as a lean operations practitioner. He has gained his insight through experience in many different industries, including printing, aviation, and health care. He is also a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and PMP. Mr. Ramachandran will present on Standard Work at the 2013 Continuous Improvement Conference, April 7–10, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Implementing a Lean manufacturing plan can be like composing a symphony: getting all of the intricate details working together harmoniously requires not only attention to minute detail, but also an overall vision of the project. However, you can lay an integral piece of a Lean foundation and put a Standard Work process in place. Standardizing your work methods will set you on a positively evolving pathway to better workflow and operational excellence. But you have to have the right plan supported and firmly in place. The method of Standard Workor “The documentation and application of the best practices of a manufacturing process,” can be focused to three parts: Creation, Implementation, and Sustenance. Find a glossary of Lean and related terms here. Create: Identifying where Standard Work Is Necessary Ask the question, “What processes would benefit most from standardization?” Take a look at your value stream map and confer with the team or department that performs the work and, therefore, owns the process. Be sure to review the process with the equipment operators—their input will help a great deal in ensuring buy-in and continually improving the process. Finally, analyze the process to identify waste sources using tools like takt time, sequence of activities, and inventory levels. Implement: Making the Process Known For your standard work process to be effective, make it available and understandable to all. Place images of the work sequences close to the work site in graphical, easy-to-follow terms. This will not only set the standard but also act as a grading tool as well as a training tool for new employees. Sustain: Ensuring Compliance The team performing the work should be responsible for auditing the standardized process once it is in place. Supervisors and operators will track and determine if the process is being followed and, if not, determine why. Perhaps someone has found a better way to perform the process and can make suggestions for change. The end goal is improvement, not strictly maintaining a stated process. Want to learn more about Standard Work and implementing a Lean manufacturing program? We have great resources for you! Complimentary Articles, Glossary of Lean and Related Terms,and the Lean Manufacturing Assessment Tool. CI resources page for valuable information like Article Collections, Books, andWebinars The 2013...

One of the biggest challenges we face in the print production environment is achieving accurate, consistent color. There are many factors that contribute to getting optimal color results, including proper digital file handling, calibration, profile creation, and more. Your solution? We have developed hands-on workshops that show you how to troubleshoot, manage, and print the best digital color. Our instructors are knowledgeable with years of field and training experience. Best of all, the techniques you learn here at our world-class training center can be applied back at your very own facility. Join us for a practical training workshop that covers the techniques you need to know to get the best color from your digital presses. Check out Optimizing Color from Your Digital Press, today! Take it from the expert: in this video Dave Dezzutti, Technology and Research Analyst at Printing Industries of America, and experienced workshop instructor, gives some insight into what you can learn about producing more consistent color. Discover how to optimize color output from your digital press in an in-depth, experiential workshop, Optimizing Color from Your Digital Press, May 21–22, 2013. You will leave knowing these essential skills and more: Digital printing and color management terms, techniques, and practices Standards and specifications—the best ones for digital and how to color manage                     your digital press to get there How to troubleshoot color and output-related issues using common desktop tools and how to diagnose digital file problems—hands on! How to get your digital press to print to G7® and ISO 12647-2 Don’t just take our word for it! Hear the comments from a few of our previous attendees: “I found the Optimizing Color from Your Digital Press workshop very helpful. My coworker and I learned a great deal of information on digital printing operations that we can apply to our unique situations here at our facility. Beginner or experienced, this course is extremely helpful and applicable!”—Steve Yoder, Prepress Manager, Schlabach Printers The information I received from attending Optimizing Color from Your Digital Press workshop will definitely help us achieve our color management goals as a company. I am a novice to digital printing, but our presenter spoke to us in easy-to-understand terms and made certain we would not leave the class without a complete understanding of the topic. I have recommended this workshop to my coworkers!”—Crystal Cole, Color Manager, Graphic Dimensions, Inc. This is the only Optimizing Color from Your Digital Press course offered in 2013. Due to the hands-on applications of this course, class sizes are kept small and fill quickly. Register you or your staff members today here. See all of our training workshops at www.printing.org/training under the “Public Workshops”...

The following is a guest post from Ken Macro, author of the February/March Book of the Month, The Future of Print Sales. Below, Ken recalls one company looked “outside of the box” to create a new product and grow their client base. I was contacted recently by a friend who works for a printing company that has expanded into the wide/grand-format market. As a result of product development, they were able to obtain a new client (a furniture manufacturer) by creating the “Good Award”—a small Grammy-like desktop award custom-printed for the company to distribute to employees who have gone above and beyond their assigned roles by helping out their colleagues. The awards were ganged up on a wide-format printer, mounted to foamcore, and then cut out using a Kongsberg cutting table. A crosspiece is slotted at the base of the award to allow it to stand on one’s desk, and it sports the face of the owner of the furniture company that says, “Thanks for being so Good.” As a result, the company is now exploring other printed matter for both their internal and external clientele. The printing company’s sales force has reportedly been able to leverage the “Good Award” into gaining access into other new businesses in their area.  The uniqueness of this particular product is that it challenges the traditional roles often stereotyped through the psyche of the potential print buyer. Instead of asking for big volume printing, the salesperson presents a new product idea that is potentially needed—and therefore deemed valuable—by the buyer. What makes this so interesting is that the buyer didn’t even know they needed this product. That is what we—in the industry—must now do, create products that people do not know they need. They know that they need marketing collateral and, as a result, seek to find the least expensive means in which to cast their message. What they didn’t know they needed was a product to assist them in enhancing the morale of their employees. For more fresh ideas and step-by-step guidance on launching new products within your organization, visit www.printing.org/bookofmonth. Enjoy a 15% discount when purchasing this title before 3/31/2013. Use the discount code MACRO at...

Does your team understand the value of what “good” customer relationships should look like? In the article, contributed by Leslie Groene, President, Groene Consulting, find out how “bad” customer service can hurt your company. It is interesting to look at the world around me through the eyes of a sales coach and consultant…always evaluating the service of a company’s personnel or their sales person. I seem to see and ultimately measure my experiences by asking the following questions: Do they treat all of their customers like that? Why did they say that? Do they have any clue what conclusion I come to when I hear that? I had a couple of interesting things happen while on a recent business trip…you decide how you would judge the companies… I boarded a one-hour flight at 9:30am out of the Los Angeles area and requested coffee. The flight attendant told me that there was no longer coffee on short flights after 9:30am.”oh really?” I said. He said that that was the new policy of the airline (He did not offer me any other explanation except that I could have Diet Coke.) Upon my return home from said business trip, I realized that I had left a small (high-end brand) travel case behind at the hotel. I called and was transferred to the security department. They said in fact they did have the case and would send it to me. I received it via registered mail a few days later with all of the contents intact. With the first story, I was disappointed that I could no longer get coffee but more displeased with his “dismissive, snotty” attitude and demeanor. The second story was worthy of a letter to the manager of the hotel to express a “thank you” to his staff for not only turning in the case but sending it to me so promptly. Below are some statistics about clients and what drives them away…make sure you are aware of how your service and attitude affect your clients! 96% of unhappy customers do not complain, they just stop doing business with you. 91% of those who don’t complain will share the negative story with at least 9 other people, 13% will tell more than 20 other people about their experience. The average unhappy customer will remember the incident for 23 years. The happy customer will talk about the pleasant experience for 18 months. For every complaint heard, the average company has 25 other customers with the same problem. Want to learn more about improving customer relationships for your company? Leslie is presenting “Who Is the Correct Customer for You and Your Company” at the 2013 BIA Annual Conference, April 8–10, in...

The following is a guest blog post from Joe Marin, Sr. Instructor/Manager Training Programs, Printing Industries of America, encouraging graphic arts professionals and industry newcomers to attend Orientation to the Graphic Arts, April 15–18, 2013. The printing industry is complex and constantly changing. I’ve found that one of the biggest problems for those who are new to the industry—and even those who worked in the business for a while—is understanding terminology and workflow. Administrative, sales, and even production employees are often focused on their specific task without completely understanding how what they do impacts the job being produced. Add this to all of the industry terminology and jargon and the printing industry can quickly become a confusing place to work! The Orientation to the Graphic Arts workshop addresses all of these issues and so much more. During this class you won’t just see workflow, you’ll be immersed in a graphic arts workflow set in Printing Industries of America’s amazing production laboratories: Be a designer, and create a job to print on our digital press. Be the prepress operator, and understand digital file problems, create proofs and plates. Be the press operator, and print a job on our 6-color offset press. Be the bindery technician, and operate a cutter, folder, and saddle-stitcher. Check out the video above, which provides an overview of our amazing training facility. Also, check out some of the pictures below that illustrate the laboratories used in Orientation to the Graphic...