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screen printing => General Screen Printing => Topic started by: whitewater on October 30, 2018, 12:57:09 PM
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I would like my employee to keep track of setups/ breakdowns/ and printing times.
The reason for this is I schedule jobs in a way knowing I would get those done if I was printing. Well we are never finishing the jobs each day that are scheduled and I'm rearranging every day to accomondate.. I know I am much faster at all these then the employee, but I do not overschedule because I know this.
I tried this before, but they seem to forget all the time. Is there an easy way to do this?
If anyone has their employees do this how do you do it? Do they just look at a clock? do they have a timer they start for each part and fill in a clipboard? Online?
Any ideas would be appreciated....
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I would like my employee to keep track of setups/ breakdowns/ and printing times.
The reason for this is I schedule jobs in a way knowing I would get those done if I was printing. Well we are never finishing the jobs each day that are scheduled and I'm rearranging every day to accomondate.. I know I am much faster at all these then the employee, but I do not overschedule because I know this.
I tried this before, but they seem to forget all the time. Is there an easy way to do this?
If anyone has their employees do this how do you do it? Do they just look at a clock? do they have a timer they start for each part and fill in a clipboard? Online?
Any ideas would be appreciated....
don’t know what type of presses you have but if you have any M&R presses within the last 7 years punch in Production and all of the KPI info is at hand including breaks,etc.
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We use a form from SMR software to track everything. My employees just look at a clock and record their times on the sheet of paper. Its a guideline at best when they are done. There is always missing data on their forms, but they are good enough to get some rough numbers of what kind of time your employees are spending on each job. Once you have a couple of months of data you can start to see some trends and make some average calculations.
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If you are tracking by having employees write down the times, I'd make sure they fully understand what you are doing. When we did this years ago I had employees fudging numbers both ways. Some wanted to look good, so they were saying set ups and run times were faster than reality. And we had others go the other way. I explained that the numbers they were giving were going to be used to make scheduling more realistic. If you say your set up for a six color job is 12 minutes, you better not be lying. That's what I will expect when the numbers are all compiled. So make sure they understand the numbers are to benefit all involved. For us it was to make scheduling better, more accurate, and predictable.
Certainly, if machines are tracking the times it will be harder to manipulate, but probably still possible
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Wel Well Well.. MR. Filip welcome back. The screen Print world has not been the same since you left.
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Echo Dot and a stopwatch "skill".
Tape the instructions to the Echo.
"Alexa start stopwatch"
"Alexa ask stopwatch to stop" and she hollars out your time.
I then have them write the setups, run times, and tear downs on the proofs then turn them in to me.
I can then plug all that data into Excel or whatever and get a running log of what it takes to do X job.
Worked well when I was making them do it. Then I had some turn over so I haven't got back on it again (turn over was unrelated to stopwatch ;D )
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At one shop I had my printers punch a old time clock right on the work orders. One time stamp for start of set up one punch for start print and etc.
https://www.webstaurantstore.com/acroprint-011070411-model-125-analog-manual-print-time-clock-with-month-date-0-12-hours-and-minutes/328011070411.html?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=GoogleShopping&gclid=Cj0KCQjwguDeBRDCARIsAGxuU8Z5vTYj4ljmHVNQWFoLmK6lQ2X2teijIykr7zO4S6j_x3cbVanJwigaAi9GEALw_wcB (https://www.webstaurantstore.com/acroprint-011070411-model-125-analog-manual-print-time-clock-with-month-date-0-12-hours-and-minutes/328011070411.html?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=GoogleShopping&gclid=Cj0KCQjwguDeBRDCARIsAGxuU8Z5vTYj4ljmHVNQWFoLmK6lQ2X2teijIykr7zO4S6j_x3cbVanJwigaAi9GEALw_wcB)
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we record setup times.
we record print times.
piece of paper for each job (same on that gets signed off on and records job details data).
look at the clock method.
when compiling, i separate "once around the press" jobs from "more than once around the press" jobs.
BUT THE REAL difference between "what should be done in a day and a perfect world" and what isn't is much harder to capture and eliminate (here). our setups and print times are fine. it's the EVERYTHING else time that really reduces the theoretical output.
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We have a kitchen timer on the carousel.
The printer calls out times to the catcher no writes them down on a form we printed, set up and printing time.
One of the office staff enter it into Excel and I get a monthly report.
I am mainly interested in total set up time and printing time.
We record how many colors and prints as well so I get average number of prints per hour.
I also see how many hours per day we actually printed.
If we had a computer behind the dryer the catcher could enter the info straight into Excel.
I posted about a program called Monday.com today, I’m trying to work out a way to record this info in this program.
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Again, so many variables. Do you have 20 employees, 2 or none. Pre-press support? Staging for next jobs in either case is critical no matter what. Interruptive downtime is what is most over looked as been stated.
Either way 3 minutes per screen to tear down is fairly predictable and easily achieved when managed correctly
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I would like my employee to keep track of setups/ breakdowns/ and printing times.
The reason for this is I schedule jobs in a way knowing I would get those done if I was printing. Well we are never finishing the jobs each day that are scheduled and I'm rearranging every day to accomondate.. I know I am much faster at all these then the employee, but I do not overschedule because I know this.
I tried this before, but they seem to forget all the time. Is there an easy way to do this?
If anyone has their employees do this how do you do it? Do they just look at a clock? do they have a timer they start for each part and fill in a clipboard? Online?
I do have a diamondback.. 5 years.
Ill take a look
Any ideas would be appreciated....
don’t know what type of presses you have but if you have any M&R presses within the last 7 years punch in Production and all of the KPI info is at hand including breaks,etc.
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Again, so many variables. Do you have 20 employees, 2 or none. Pre-press support? Staging for next jobs in either case is critical no matter what. Interruptive downtime is what is most over looked as been stated.
Either way 3 minutes per screen to tear down is fairly predictable and easily achieved when managed correctly
I agree about a lot of variables..
we have 2-3 employees back there. I know they can be more efficient. But I feel the need to know the times..
Ill prob do 1 sheet per job to go with the work order. They can record the info I need and also put in how many revolutions and also a place for notes, maybe explain if something held them up screen wise, art wise etc.
I just want them to be efficient...
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It is easier to fudge the numbers in a large shop. When I left this one we were developing hand written reports. With the language barriers etc they could not even the date right. So....the data was always in question. So, much more easily done with modern equipment and a smaller more contained environment. Reasonable accuracy is the goal
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And I left the word "get" out! No one is perfect.
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We use file maker and every press including our 3 sample presses have i-pads. There are notes put in for every job including set-up times, print times. they note everything including approval times. Then each day a report is ran with the notes and times on every press for every job. Its not a perfect system as you are relying on the notes entered but its a start
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I find this is also the only way you can have a real sense of how much it costs you to run a job. No only setup/breakdown/printing but also pre/post press stuff, we track as much as we can to know:
1. How much it costs us to run a job
2. How long it takes us to run a job
3. What part of the job is taking the longest and how to improve it
I found that for our price list this was invaluable but the best part has been optimising the entire department. It's easy to optimise when you have data.
We noticed we are way more efficient when we wash 10 screens than when we do 15/20+, so we're washing 10 at a time. It cut our costs by 25% (chems, water, personnel). It's a saving per screen on all jobs.
It takes your guys understanding it's also for their benefit. For the screens part I told my guys "why spend 2 hours washing screens, beating your body, not being efficient, if you can do less screens in 30 minutes and in the end you'll save time and your health?". If they just don't care, you won't get anything done.
They enter numbers on their computer or tablets, it all goes on an excel chart and every month I give them a chart on how they improved. It's fun to see their faces when they see a 2 minute decrease on a 24 shirt run or a 30 minute decrease on a 250 shirt run. It motivates them (and saves us money).
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Very "timely" that this came up. We just started timing / recording data on all jobs in an effort to have our pricing structure based on real numbers (Kitson's model). I have made a spreadsheet which includes each qty range on our pricing matrix. Run times for jobs in each range will be averaged out, then multiplied by our per min shop rate (yet another spreadsheet calc), and divided by the number of shirts. This will give us the per print charge for the first color. 2nd & subsequent color charge has its own data collection and calculation. Its a start... but I'm starting to feel like we need 500 different qty ranges to really nail pricing, which would be a real headache if we continue with a matrix style / cost accounting system.
I recently saw the printavo interview with Mark Cordray, where he makes an argument against price matrix style pricing, but I'm still a bit confused about the whole derivative calculus thing. In either case, timing our jobs and recording data that is easily plugged into our matrix should bring a whole lot of clarity to our biz. I just hope that we can follow through and stay on it so that we see some real benefit.
As for the actual timing, we have been using Siri via my iPhone to set a timer. Simplicity seems best at the moment, so I think i'l pick a kitchen timer and see if we cant start training and delegating this to the press op / catcher. Times will be recorded on the work order and inputted to the calculator by the front of house gal after they are invoiced & shipped.
Also, Jvieira how is it that breaking up tasks is more efficient? This is somewhat anecdotal, but usually when I have a large number the similar tasks (burning screens, post exposure, taping, remeshing etc) I find it most efficient to group like tasks together. When making screens, we'll pre reg all of them, burn all of them, and then wheel out one rack at a time to the post exposure dip tank and pop 7 in at a time, pull two out and rinse pop the next two in etc. about 60-90 seconds for two screens unless we're talking halftones. A little north of 100 screens / week right now using that method. I feel like each time we switch tasks and change gears we lose time recalibrating our brain to the next task.
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Also, Jvieira how is it that breaking up tasks is more efficient? This is somewhat anecdotal, but usually when I have a large number the similar tasks (burning screens, post exposure, taping, remeshing etc) I find it most efficient to group like tasks together. When making screens, we'll pre reg all of them, burn all of them, and then wheel out one rack at a time to the post exposure dip tank and pop 7 in at a time, pull two out and rinse pop the next two in etc. about 60-90 seconds for two screens unless we're talking halftones. A little north of 100 screens / week right now using that method. I feel like each time we switch tasks and change gears we lose time recalibrating our brain to the next task.
It definitely depends on the task but when it's a physical task (washing screens), people get tired after a while and become less efficient and takes them longer. We give them a chance to change pace and do something else. All our data suggest improvement.
If it's burning screens, etc, it makes sense to do all at once.
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Sorry not to derail but I love the batch work vs. one piece flow idea.
Doing things in batches is slower than doing them in a ‘one piece flow’ method because it’s more work to do it in batches.
There’s a super boring video on YouTube of someone naming five paper airplanes. In batches you fold each one, then do the front, then the wings, etc.
In the One Piece Flow version you just fold one plane at a time. And it’s way faster because you’re not picking up and putting down the airplane between each step so there’s just less work to do. Less wasted motion and transport.
And for defects, if you make a mistake you may not catch it until further steps and all the planes are ruined instead of just one.
And if another part of the process is waiting they get the first plane sooner than getting all five at once later.
I see this a ton in our shop. A simple example is mixing a Pantone colour. Some guys will get five ink knives out and then clean each one.
We use one ink knife. That gets wiped when that part of the recipe is done. So it never gets put down for any cleaning and it can be used to mix it up and the kept in the container as it goes to press.
Simple stuff like that adds up. Just gotta learn to see the waste.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I just got on Printavo for a shop management software. You can have a job status for SETTING UP, PRINTING, JOB FINISHED and it will time stamp those changes for every job for you to go back and see. This is how I’m going to tackle it.