ImagesMagUK_Digital_Edition_Feb18

www.images-magazine.com 32 images FEBRUARY 2018 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT the dryer. Any downtime can find one or two members of the press crew lining up or working on the next job to print instead of leaning on a table. Despite operating their press a little slower than Wildly Flailing About, they outperform them daily by at least 30%. On the face of it, it may not make sense. One crew looks like they are working and hustling at a much faster pace. But when you stop and examine what they are really doing, you’ll find that they aren’t that efficient. Smooth and In Control always wins because they are more thoughtful, and understand that every motion should make a positive impact on the work being performed. Take a look at your press crews and observe what you see. The number one tool to use I’m a huge believer in using the right tools for the job. For automatic screen printing the number one tool that can make a gigantic impact is a press registration system. Ideally you want your crews to set up in under five minutes per screen. With some practice and using a press registration system, I’ve seen crews consistently set up in around three. Without a registration system, most press crews average about seven or eight minutes per screen. While that doesn’t sound like much, let’s take a closer look. Let’s say your shop averages eight minutes per screen on set-ups. If we can get that to five minutes per screen, that will save three minutes. Three minutes? Big deal… But here’s the interesting part. Three minutes per screen on a three-colour job adds up to nine minutes. Let’s say your shop averages ten set-ups per day. That’s ninety minutes a day extra you are adding to your downtime. That’s seven and a half hours per week. That’s practically an entire business day. How much more work could your shop push out with an extra ‘free’ business day to print? That’s why it matters. Work on getting your jobs set up faster. Invest in a pre- registration system. Reducing downtime So, you can see where this article is going. Printing a shirt is value added time. It’s where you are making your money. Any moment that you aren’t printing a shirt is downtime and you are essentially losing the opportunity to make money. The trick is to build more effective strategies to eliminate as much downtime as you can with your press. up in colour that shows the art on the shirt, and on a coloured background. List the screens in order. Earmark where the flashes drop. Also, put in some landmark information such as ‘Print 8cm down from the collar’. Make it easy for your crew to do the right thing. Smooth and in control I’ve got a few decades in the business and from what I’ve seen I can stereotype print crews into two basic categories: ‘Wildly Flailing About’ and ‘Smooth and In Control’. Wildly Flailing About crews are usually inexperienced. They make more mistakes. Their auto runs so fast that they miss boards. They apply too much platen adhesive so the shirts are difficult to take off after printing. Sometimes that results in a circle-shaped print being stretched into an egg shape. They don’t lower the dryer temp for polyester inks. At the end of the shift they are exhausted. Smooth and In Control crews are the exact opposite. They have been printing for years. Every movement is like a ballet step, and is on purpose. Their feet rarely move. The press speed is perfect for the loading speed, and they never miss a board. Their workstations are immaculate, and nothing is stored under