The in-plant at Mary Kay Inc. prints and folds high volumes of product inserts on a tight deadline

By Noel Ward

"IT HIT us like a ton of bricks" recalls Keith Hopson. "We didn't know it was coming until we were flooded with work."

The sudden increase in workload came when cosmetics company Mary Kay Inc. shifted the printing and folding of "pharmaceuticals"—the inserts that accompany its skin care and cosmetics products—from outside printing suppliers to the company's in-plant facility in Carrollton, Texas. Similar to those included with many over-the-counter medications, the inserts provide specific, –detailed product usage instructions. These are included in virtually all Mary Kay products sold in Europe, where multiple languages add complexity to the mix of jobs.

Keeping Track of Production

To help manage the flow of work, Keith Hopson, supervisor of Mary Kay Printing Services, and his team rely on a job-tracking spreadsheet, updated daily, which he uses to track and adjust production schedules. While many shops rely on printing-specific job tracking and workflow software tools that emulate the once-ubiquitous scheduling white boards, Hopson’s in-plant relies on one created in Microsoft Excel.

The sheet shows all the jobs scheduled for the next 30 days. Potential bottlenecks or deadline conflicts show up in advance so production can be adjusted as needed. The spreadsheet is printed and distributed twice a week, but can be produced more often during peak periods.

“Right now, the spreadsheet tells me we have 11 different part numbers [jobs] for next week—about 1.1 million pages or so. So, a fairly typical week,” says Hopson. “But I can also see that three weeks out we’ll have to work especially hard to meet the deadlines. It’s a very useful tool. We can all see it, plan from it, and can make changes more easily if a date is changed in manufacturing or shipping.”

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Managing Growing Volumes at Mary Kay Inc.