Images Magazine November 18

www.images-magazine.com KB BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT challenges every day without giving them much thought. Ask your crew questions. My favourite is, “If I gave you one wish to change something in this business for the better, what would you change?” Your crew knows what works and what doesn’t. Anytime they have to perform a task twice (or more) to get something to work is a huge clue for you to improve it. This could be with repairing something that isn’t quite working, updating to newer technology, or finding a better performing consumable. Don’t think you have the money to fix it? Guess again. You are already paying for it. Let’s take that double hit of ink on press, for example. That not only uses twice the ink, but also slows down your press. How many more shirts could you print a day if you didn’t have to double stroke your screens? Multiply that by a year‘s worth of labour and you’ll quickly understand that solving the root cause of the problem will actually put money in your pocket. The Three Rs For sustainability, many programmes are built on the idea of the ‘Three Rs‘, ie reduce, reuse and recycle. ■ Reduce In your shop, let’s focus on reducing anything harmful to the environment. For example, in your screen room you simply can’t wash the ink and chemicals down the drain. Having a filtration system prevents any sludge and debris from entering your wastewater system. For washing out screens you can also get a recirculation system to reuse the water multiple times. Another great innovation is the use of bioremediation technology to clean plastisol ink from squeegees and floodbars. Bioremediation uses a microbe that eats plastisol ink because it is petroleum-based. The unit replaces the normal squeegee station that typically uses petroleum naphtha solvent, which produces hazardous waste in your shop. Some companies have worked to reduce or completely eliminate polluting or hazardous chemicals from their shop by switching to water-based ink and soy- or citrus-based reclaiming products. Fewer unwanted chemicals in your shop is always a good thing. Furthermore, new innovations will always help with those that are sustainability-minded. One great idea that has recently surfaced is the new thread-colouring embroidery machine from Coloreel. As you sew, this technology dyes the thread to the specifications for the order. This means that embroidery shops won’t have to stock the acres of thread needed to switch out for a new production job. For some shops, the challenge may be to stop polybagging shirts. A simple trick to keep these organised is after you have flat-folded the shirt like normal, roll it up into a T-shirt ‘burrito‘. This can be then banded with a rubber band, twine or a recyclable material like hemp. ■ Reuse Reuse is all about not throwing something away, but repurposing it. For example, let’s say you added a new salesperson to the team. Do you go out and purchase a new desk and office furniture for them? Why not look into sourcing that stuff from a used office supply company or a site like Freecycle? The same holds true with adding production equipment, computers and monitors, forklifts and just about anything you might use for your shop. Generally speaking, there are always opportunities to find something used that might work. In production, you can reuse items such as cardboard boxes, bags and other source material. Most shops use their defective and misprinted shirts as shop towels and rags. ■ Recycle Most businesses will have a commercial recycling programme available to them from the local authority, and there are likely to be other private schemes operating locally as well. Between them, they should be able to pick up the common recyclables such as cardboard, metal, glass and plastic, as well as items such as batteries, phones, computers, metal etc which you are unable to reuse. The more a business can reuse and recycle, the less waste it will send to landfill, which means reduced waste costs. Upgrade old equipment How old is your equipment? Is it reliable? Energy efficient? Chances are if you are using equipment that isn‘t functioning properly, it‘s costing your business in lost time, extra labour and maybe even quality. If it is time to replace that old wheezing pile of junk, there are many good options on the market these days. Sure, you‘ll have to spend the money to upgrade – but if you think about how properly working equipment will impact your shop, it‘s easier to make a decision. Of course, there are all types of equipment needs in your shop. When considering a purchase, make sure the new equipment will fit in with your workflow. Can you use the same screens? Investigate the energy consumption. Are replacement parts or a service technician readily available? Measure in order to manage For sustainability, the secret to success is understanding the journey. In anything you try to change, get the metrics established of how you do it now. What‘s the average or number? What‘s the cost? Then, when you change things, these metrics will tell you if your effort is working. If you are measuring costs, you will be able to see the savings. If your shop is doing it right, these costs will continue to drop. Your efficiency will increase. The crew you have working will be happier because they don‘t have to work as hard to achieve the best result. But to make all of this happen you have to start. And remember, you can‘t deposit excuses. Marshall Atkinson is a leading production and efficiency expert for the decorated apparel industry, and the owner of Atkinson Consulting, LLC. Marshall focuses on operational efficiency, continuous improvement and workflow strategy, business planning, employee motivation, management and sustainability. He is a frequent trade show speaker, article and blog author, and is the host of InkSoft’s The Big Idea podcast. atkinsontshirt.com