Hello, I am the department lead for an internal print shop which supports a very large corporation. There was a time (about 12 years ago) when we did charge our customers for our services, but our costs are now allocated out at the business level so our company customers never see a charge back. Because of this, our costs and prices have not been adjusted in years. With the current corporate trend of Performance Management, LEAN, 5S and Metrics I am now being asked by upper management to figure out what our operating costs are and to adjust our prices accordingly so that we can develop performance metrics. I have never had to put together department operating costs and I have been combing the internet for any information I can find but have had no luck. Can anyone provide me with any resources or information on updating and/or figuring out department operating costs ? I was also asked to split up certain crew members salaries into the areas they did the most work in . . for example, 75% of John Does salary should figure into pre-press and the other 25% of his salary should figure into finishing. Does anyone know how crew member salaries figure in to working out operating costs? Any help anyone can provide is greatly appreciated! Regards, Jwood
One book, I'd use is one that was written by Philip K. Ruggles, PRINTING ESTIMATING. Mine is a 4th edition, rather outdated. It explains all the mechanics needed to estimate what a job costs, by walking you back through what the actual costs of your inplant shop. I would view your new task very seriously as during tough times, inplant shops too often get shut down. Not trying to scare you, just caution you. Hope this helps.
Thank you for the reply & no worries on scaring me about inplants closing down. I have been working at this inplant for 13 years and I have had several scares as far as outsourcing/closing shop is concerned. Fortunately, we just save the company too much money and we offer a great service with incredible turnaround times. Though I do need to take this task serious as corporations are always looking to cut costs. Thanks again for your input.
