Big Picture - September 2020 - 9

YOUR TEAM
When asked the age-old question, "What's your bottleneck?"
Clark turns to his employees. "No matter what, it's always
going to come down to each member of the team setting up
the next one for success." He stresses the importance of
hiring great people and taking preventable measures like
training. "Training is difficult, especially if you have high
turnover," he says. "As our company is growing, it's difficult
to maintain our high-quality standards while still working
around the clock or on weekends. Training our operators to
know how to run a particular piece of equipment is the fi rst
step. Having them be able to look at the bigger picture of the
entire project is really the goal. Does the banner match the
postcard, and how will they both fit into the same box?"
SHIPPING
Clark could talk for days about his shipping woes. Since the
shop opened in 2011, the Direct Edge Media team has
learned (the hard way) that something is inevitably going to
get off thrown off a truck or be the fi rst box to drop from a
four-story conveyor belt. They've spent a lot of time fi nessing
their packaging tricks. "Acrylic boxes are really fragile so we
will double box, put in foam corners, and then box it again,"

ater coo ed
tab e for smooth
printing of thin
media

D a ro for
increased o tp t

Mesh kit

says Clark. "You have to assume if it's going to drop 15 feet,
it's going to break it, even if you wrap it in bubble wrap five
times," which gets into third-party shipping, he says. "A lot of
companies want us to use their UPS or FedEx number. The
breaking of the box is then on the client's end, but they don't
know that so we try to do everything through our accounts
so we can handle that and be full service. UPS and FedEx
make it really difficult to fi le a claim so we include it in our
overall service plan." If something happens (like a perfectly
packaged box is run over by a truck - true story), Direct
Edge Media will figure it out and deal with it so the client
doesn't have to.
Packaging and shipping is the biggest stressor in the
post-production process for Clark and his team because once
it's left the shop's doors, they have no control over what
happens from that moment to when it gets to the client - if it
gets to the client.
The current climate isn't helping either. "The postal
service, FedEx, all shipping is terrible right now," due to
COVID-19, says Clark. "They say they're at Christmas-level
shipping volume, but only have 75-percent employment.
Once again, more pressure is on the printer to get things out
a day or two earlier so their deadlines will be met."

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EDITOR'S NOTE

If you want
to share
your shipping
horror stories,
send Adrienne
Palmer an
email and
we'll cover it
in a later issue
of Big Picture.

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Big Picture - September 2020

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