Buying Equipment

[GraphicDisorder]

You know what our biggest bottle neck is and no machine on this earth could change it? That is space! We really are at our max for space, there is no room for any new machines and even if we bought a CTS and increased our production it would make no sense since our space is maxed out and pushing more orders through would be chaos.

No plans to expand? 

We bought our building with expansion in mind.  We have the back 6k sqft of our place rented currently.  So we can expand into that if we like.  We can also build another 90ft x the width of our building back if we need.  If we fill up all of that, then we got bigger problems lol.

Electician is coming in next week to rebalance our panel and see if we can practically install our second flash. Depending on what he says it might just be the push we need to expand.

There is nothing like having plenty of space.  In the printing portion of my shop right now we have our normal stuff like dryer, manual, the CH3D, 4 Flashes, tables, drying cabinets, exposure unit, shipping area, receiving area, screen storage and other storage and there is still probably 1500 sqft open.  PLUS the face that our Sportsman 3 crates are still here in the building taking up space until they ship to the new owner.  Once that's gone we will have even more open space.  Its nice!

[ebscreen]

I'm learning that it's really important for throughput to have all processes running at all times, rather than batch operations.
Run like a well oiled machine rather than clunking along. Or nearly so. At any rate, you should never be waiting on anything
but a free press.

As is having a well defined schedule. Before it was more of a suggestion as to what we should do, now I look at a day
and know what we have to get done.

And as for real estate, we moved into a 4K sqft place last May, three year lease, but we'll probably outgrow it before then. Luckily
there is a mezzanine for anything we can put up there.

Out here in California the place we're in now would be in the ballpark of a cool $1,000,000 to buy.

[alan802]

Scheduling nuances can make a huge difference in how productive your day is.  There have been times in the past when we'd do a sleeve print in the morning then in the afternoon there was another sleeve print and with the old Centurian pallet changeovers were 30 minutes so it was even a bigger deal to space those two sleeve prints apart.  The last year we've even started using the manual press for one color jobs and have even done multi-colored jobs on it which we would never do in the past.  A one color on the manual can go pretty fast, 200/hr is you're doing it right, sometimes faster.

[3Deep]

You kiddo's answered some of my questions, I know what we need and what we don't, and what I would like to have but really don't need.  More embroidery heads, a bigger dryer, and right now a vinyl cutter.  I was on digitsmith and I saw a lot of equipment up for sell some looked very new and just wondered are people buying thinking there going to make money with it without a real need or plan.  One thing someone said was and is very true without the right kind of scheduling all the equipment in the world want help you.

D

[tonypep]

No one plans to fail but if they fail to plan all may be lost. So true. The best equipment is not the only ingredient in succesful production; it is only one. While many achieve this, many do not. Proper scheduling and its sister, staging, is critical. Our equipent is old but fast; and there is quite a bit of it. Product mix is across the board to say the least. This requires my Production Manager and myself to come in at least an hour before production and stay a little late as necessary. And now we have heat seal in the mix as well.

[inkman996]

Scheduling nuances can make a huge difference in how productive your day is.  There have been times in the past when we'd do a sleeve print in the morning then in the afternoon there was another sleeve print and with the old Centurian pallet changeovers were 30 minutes so it was even a bigger deal to space those two sleeve prints apart.  The last year we've even started using the manual press for one color jobs and have even done multi-colored jobs on it which we would never do in the past.  A one color on the manual can go pretty fast, 200/hr is you're doing it right, sometimes faster.

We are very conscious on how we schedule jobs to go on press. First we try to run all jobs that require white ink together this way the squeegee and FB never need a change. We try to run same colors together as well to minimize S/FB changeovers. Sleeves are always ganged together to reduce pallet change over and when we get really busy we run the manual along side the auto to keep things going.

[tonypep]

Also consider scheduling time and people. Staggering breaks and work hours to exploit capacity. Also who is best fit for a task or job order.

[Homer]

Also consider scheduling time and people. Staggering breaks and work hours to exploit capacity. Also who is best fit for a task or job order.

this right here I think gets over looked too...we give everyone a shot at every position from the sign shop to screen, to embroidery and stick them where they fit best and enjoy it most...

[GraphicDisorder]

Also consider scheduling time and people. Staggering breaks and work hours to exploit capacity. Also who is best fit for a task or job order.

this right here I think gets over looked too...we give everyone a shot at every position from the sign shop to screen, to embroidery and stick them where they fit best and enjoy it most...

Like Homer we have everyone here doing what they are best at which is almost always what they enjoy.  Ironic, dontcha think?  Quality of life factor you touched on earlier which I have preached for awhile. 

[3Deep]

Since it's just my lovely wife and me we split things up long time ago I take care of printing, art ordering screen supplies and production...she handles customers, take orders, place orders for  Tees and scheduling and staging been working out good so far.

Darryl