Hi. First thread here! I have recently been given the task of Print Manager within our company. We have a Pre Press dept, a Print dept (B3 2 Colour Presses) and a Finishing dept. I want to understand how you guys Manage and Schedule the progress of a job in the factory, from the initial enquiry through to delivering the finished job. We have a management information system, but this is not fully utilised at the moment. Do you guys use a software system, a T Card board etc etc. Would love to hear how you all keep track of things. Many Thanks in advance.
It seems, from talking with other printers that some sort of "Scheduling Board" is the way to go? Would anyone be as kind to describe (or email a pic) of how their board is laid out. Appreciate any feedback guys. S.
We use a board where I currently work. My old job had us using Print Point, a software tracking system that tracked everything from quotes and planning to the dispatch. It was particularly helpful in a large warehouse where we would often loose track of due dates and where the job was in the production line. Also extremely good for helping your customer service staff get the right information at the beginning of the line. How it works is, client calls your customer service, they enter the details into the software, I believe it even does a mock up imposition. After customer service has taken all the information and lodged the job into printpoint, they hand it on to the next department and so on and so forth. It saves ten guys walking around the warehouse asking everyone if they've seen "Larrys job?", and when it comes to billing you know exactly how much time the job spent in each station, so you know what charges are appropriate to forward on to the recipient of the bill, and you also have a more accurate knowledge on overhead costs, what staff member/department isn't working efficiently etc It depends on how big your business is for something like printpoint to be worthwhile i guess
