Impressions - March 2023 - 29

The Observation Process
Again, whether you are evaluating yourself or hiring a consultant, both
are going to start with the simple act of watching what's going on.
" I like to be a bug on the wall, " says Coudray. " You are literally just
watching the flow. "
" I try not to disturb anyone, " Taublieb agrees. " Just observe. "
Says Atkinson: " I was in a shop where they had a woman using a
specialty machine to print neck tags. She printed the inside neck area,
it air dried immediately, and she threw it into a box. Then three other
women would pull shirts out of the box, fold them and organize by size.
" I asked the owner why they were doing that, and he replied they
had been doing it that way for years. This woman was so fast no one
could keep up with her. I said, 'Let's test that.'
" I moved a cart over to the printer and grabbed an employee and
instructed that person to take each shirt as the neck was printed, fold
it and put it in stacks by size. The person had no problem keeping up
with the printer. That freed up the two extra people who had been grabbing
shirts out of the box. The owner said, 'You just paid for your trip.' "
According to Taublieb, whose specialty is the production side of
things, " When I go into a shop, I walk through just the way a job
does. I start with the art department, then the screen room and then
the production area. After I have seen what they are doing and taken
some notes, I ask my questions. For me, the No. 1 issue is get the job
on, get the job off, get the next job on. If the press isn't moving, you're
not making money. My job is to identify what things employees are
doing that is not making money. "
A great way to ensure this happens, he says, is by following the
simple rule of always having the next job ready to go on press. " Once
the current run is finished, everything for the next job should be
waiting to be put on the press, including screens, ink, squeegees, and
An idle piece of a equipment is a piece of
equipment that's not making you money.
garments. Not having the next job ready probably wastes 15 to 30
minutes, " he explains.
Another common time waster, Taublieb says, is not having extra
garments on hand. When a misprint occurs, no one gets a replacement
until the job is finished. Then the press sits idle until that new piece
arrives. Similarly, shops can save as much as 30 minutes by setting
up the first job for the next day before they leave instead of waiting
until the morning.
Another good exercise for those looking to wring out production
inefficiencies, Coudray says, is to make a diagram of the layout of the
production floor and pick someone, like a production manager, and
watch them. With a pencil on a clipboard, draw the path of how that
person moves over the course of 20-30 minutes. " It can be staggering
how many miles an employee might walk trying to find a wrench, the
right squeegee or a flood bar, " Coudray says.
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March 2023
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Impressions - March 2023

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