Is Something MISsing At Your Shop?

I WAS amazed to learn that only 42 percent of in-plants have shop management software. I then got down from my high horse and remembered the not-so-distant past when the shop that I manage was part of that statistic.

Like many small in-plants we had a homegrown system that relied upon Microsoft Excel, carbonless forms, chalkboards and the memory of our employees. While it sufficed for years, the two-day drudgery of generating the end-of-the-month chargeback reports for our controller’s office was reason alone for me to begin investigating management information systems (MIS), knowing in the back of my mind that we couldn’t afford one and that I couldn’t sell it to upper management.

I was wrong. I also did not realize the countless other benefits an MIS had to offer.

To this day, when I reflect on decisions I have made during my 17-year tenure as manager of Printing and Mailing Services at College Misericordia, without a doubt, one of the best was the procurement and implementation of print shop management software, a.k.a. a print MIS system. The 58 percent of you that have one know what I mean; for you 42 percent that don’t, consider me off the horse and on the soapbox.

It Started with a Search

After realizing that I needed “something,” I began with a simple Internet search for “print shop management software.” After surfing through a sea of sites, I selected about five that I thought were right for our shop. All of them had demo versions of their product available for download. I downloaded all five and began experimenting. I also contacted their prospective sales departments for pricing. After a few weeks of testing I decided upon Printer’s Plan by SoftUSE. My decision was based on a few factors:

• Price: the entry level package was about $3,000.

• Ease of use.

• Ability to start small and upgrade.

• Total satisfaction money back guarantee.

• Users listserv where users can help one another out.

• Incredibly helpful staff and two absolutely wonderful, proactive owners.

I met with upper management, literally showing them how we do things now versus how we could do things. It became obvious to them that the $3,000 investment would be worth it. They were right.

Some Practical Advice

After researching, selecting and purchasing a system, it’s important to read the manual, paying particular attention to what not to do. Select a system administrator and decide what level of password-protected access each employee will have. Computer-savvy employees should have no problem catching on, especially if they have a well rounded background in printing, although there will certainly be a learning curve. In all honesty I spent about a month before I was comfortable going “live” with the system. I can also tell you that I was terrified. Don’t be. Nothing is carved in stone.

It is very important to spend time setting up the defaults and services of your particular shop. These include:

• Product types

• Services offered

• Production departments

• Sales departments

• Employees and vendors

• Pricing system (your cost and your price)

• Production standards

• Waste percentages

• Delivery/shipping methods

This can be time consuming but the more you know about your shop the better. You will find out a lot more about your shop while you are doing this. The process forces you to look closely at each operation and break it down into smaller components, making for much more accurate pricing.

“How long does it take for us to run 10x13? latex seal envelopes? I know it takes longer than number 10s but not as long as #9 remittance envelopes, but how long exactly?” I found myself timing operations in the shop because with each new and different job the administrator is analyzing the components of the job to build a foundation of information. Once this information is entered it need not be entered again unless something changes such as replacing a press, copier or piece of bindery equipment.

When the preliminary information about your shop is in the MIS, countertop price books can be created for ease of pricing.

One thing to keep in mind when purchasing and setting up print shop software is that most are primarily designed for the commercial shop. There may be some issues that need to be adjusted and/or eliminated such as sales tax.

Immediate Payback

For our shop the benefits could be seen immediately. No longer did 500, 2/0 letterhead on Accent Opaque 24 lb. bond vary in price by a few dollars depending on which CSR created the work order. All work orders and/or quotes for standard jobs such as letterhead, envelopes, business cards, note pads (you can create whatever you like) are created from a template called “standard jobs.” These standard jobs can be set up for specific customers/departments as well.

The ability to create a work order or quote from a customer’s history is also a great time saver. When the Financial Aid office calls to say that they want 1,000 more of that oddball brochure that we printed for them three years ago, literally within a few seconds we can retrieve the old work order and see the job; and I do mean see the job, as we can attach a PDF to the work order. We then can convert the job in history to a work order ready for production. A search engine will allow you to search by a multitude of criteria.

Production is another area where the system has a great impact. In our morning meetings, all members of the production team are given a printout of what is required of them and discussion ensues. The employee can take notes on his or her sheet. It is so much better than a board attached to a wall somewhere. Also, as employees finish certain aspects of a job they can, via a workstation, go into the software and update the progress of the job. At any given time we can see what phase of production the job is in.

Some things that can be done include:

• Assigning due dates to services

• Assigning services to operators

• Attaching production tags to services

• Updating progress by scanning bar codes or with a few mouse-clicks

• View/edit service notes

• View/print list of scheduled services by day, department and employee

• Know how much time you scheduled for each day, department and employee

Also, for the first time ever we actually assigned waste factors. This not only helps in ordering stock but keeps production personnel aware of their set-up and waste. I highly recommend getting the input of production personnel when it comes to waste so they know that they helped establish the criteria.

Another great feature is the ability to categorize jobs by product type. For example you can have product types called offset printing, high-speed monochrome, wide-format, etc. When a job is entered a product type must be assigned. You can get far more detailed depending on what info you want to glean. For example, I broke down offset printing into letterhead, envelopes, etc. This turned out to be good for us.

Because College Misericordia will be changing its name to Misericordia University in August, my in-plant is preparing to print a lot of envelopes and stationery. Using our MIS, I can conduct a search and see how many envelopes and letterhead were printed for a customer over any given time period. I did this and saw which departments typically order 500 envelopes a month. We convinced them to print 6,000 for the year, saving them money. This customer-centered approach works wonders.

When creating a job, a re-order reminder can be created simultaneously so that when “the same time next year” rolls around and you haven’t heard from your customer you can again take the proactive approach and contact them. It shows them that you are concerned about their work.

The accounting and reporting features contained within an MIS are a tremendous feature. Not only does it take me literally about 10 minutes to submit our chargebacks to our financial folks, the information I can retrieve is invaluable. I can see reports on sales by customer, service, product, CSR, just about anything. Some other benefits include the ability to:

• Experiment with “what if” conditions.

• Override the price of a job by typing the desired price or profit percentage/amount.

• See the direct (out of pocket) cost of labor and material of a job.

The number of clicks or impressions on a copier or press can be viewed instantly. This helps in determining waste factors as you can check the meter on the copier to see actual usage vs. what you are charging for.

Helps Justify New Gear

Recently we noticed a lot more wide-format jobs coming into the shop. Currently we have no wide-format capabilities and would outsource these jobs. With a few clicks I was able to create a report on our wide-format usage and costs. I took this to our VP of Finance and we are now expecting delivery of an Epson 9800 in a few weeks. Creating this report took all of about three minutes.

Other components of print shop management software can include e-commerce. With Printer’s Plan, customers can request quotes, place orders, proof artwork, approve orders, upload files, search jobs and payment history, view the status of orders, view the details of jobs, invoices and payments and more.

Our customers appreciate the professionalism and consistency that a print shop MIS offers. And make no bones about it, the commercial shop down the street has one, and your customers know it.

.

Jim Sabulski has been Manager of Printing and Mailing Services at College Misericordia, in Dallas, Pa., for 17 years. His tenure in the graphic arts industry began at the age of 14, and he has never looked back. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and is currently pursuing a Masters of Science in Organizational Management. He has received his certification from IPMA as a Graphic Communications Manager. Jim Sabulski can be reached at: jsabulsk@misericordia.edu