Impressions - August/September 2024 - 46

Manual screen printing, in particular, can be
hard on the body. Rationalizing your process is
therefore good for operators as well as profitability.
Photo by photo_gonzo- stock.adobe.com
for the thickness of the screen stencil) to your manual screens.
Adding just a little extra thickness by doing another coat on an
already dried screen, for instance, can often allow you to be able
to cover in one print instead of having to print, and then print
again. The key is to test to get just the right amount. Not too
thick! Experimenting with these kinds of efficiencies in screen
making will pay off in saved time and energy.
Again, the goal in addressing process steps is to become more
fluid and less wasteful, not just drive yourself and everyone
around you crazy criticizing every extra step or movement. If
you find something or see something that works better, makes
less mistakes and uses less energy, have everyone try it out and
see how things go. Leaving everyone to do things their own
way may create less waves, but it won't allow people to learn
better habits and improve. There is always a way to encourage
improvements using a positive mentality.
Wasted Products and Components
There are a number of ways of producing less waste in screen
printing, like using a little more emulsion and a little less tape to
seal screens, or optimizing your dip tank or reclaiming process
to recirculate chemicals and water as much as possible.
The results of these refinements can be significant and are
certainly worth doing. That said, the most expensive source of
product or component waste is misprinted garments. The reason
this is the top problem is the fact it is magnified every time you
have to re-print something, which in turn requires drawing
profits from all your other orders as compensation.
During a recent visit to the rapidly expanding Culture Studio
shop in Chicago, Illinois, this idea came up in a discussion with
owner Rich Santo. " When we first started out, it was always push,
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ImpressionsMagazine.com Aug./Sept. 2024
push, push and rushing around, " Rich said. " We had some of our
fastest printers going like crazy, but they would also make more
mistakes. Now we focus on doing things right, getting a good
flow from one step to another, and we have multiple quality
control checks on every order. This has made a huge difference. "
According to Rich, " If you push your printer's too hard about
speed, even if they are successful at going fast they will burnout
quick. It's not the best strategy for long term employees. "
As evidence of this approach, whenever we passed an employee
hard at work a during a walkthrough that same day there were
lots of smiles and waves. There was also a wealth of signage in
all areas of the screen prep and production process focusing on
efficiency and productivity, not to mention plenty of equipment
upgrades.
When I asked how Culture Studio has managed to address its
rapid growth so effectively, Rich pointed to the many computer
screens that were in evidence. " We heavily invested in our own
custom order-tracking software system, so we know where every
order is across both locations and the stage it's in, " he said.
The result is a process that emphasizes precision, accuracy and
measurement over speed. And though they certainly had speed
as well, no one seemed to be stressed about it.
Excellence through repetition
A critical step that works in martial arts-and business, as well-is
taking the constituent parts making up a process, like shirt loading,
and then breaking them down into a series of intentional moves
based on what you find are your own best practices and then
learning them through repetition. Most screen printers won't
have a problem finding a variety of repetitive ways of loading
shirts. The key to making improvements is to take the best ver
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Impressions - August/September 2024

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