A
tour of Cambridge Printing’s facilities and a presentation marked the
end of a nine month consultation period with Vision in Print, the DTI
print industry forum.
Vision
in Print is one of 15 industry forums that have been approved and
part-funded by the DTI as part of the government’s manufacturing
strategy. The idea of the industry forum is to establish a body to
enable the transfer of best practice and expertise between companies
within a particular sector.
In practice this initiative has
entailed critical examination and rigorous questioning of all workflow
processes and has involved every member of staff on the factory floor.
An example of the type of improvement and resulting cost saving was the
purchase of a paper reel lifting device. It was calculated that damage
to paper reels during the unloading process was costing £16,000 per
annum. The purchase of a reel lifting device effectively eliminated any
damage and the cost of the device was such that the pay back period was
a mere nine weeks.
A further example of improved workflow
process was the introduction of the X-Rite Auto-Tracking Densometer
(ATD), used to measure a colour bar and gather the density and dot gain
data along the sheet in all ink key zones for 4 colour process work.
The information is then displayed on screen for the machine minder to
analyse and adjust, if need be, by setting the ducts or by using the
Printflow product to make this happen automatically. It is estimated
that the time saved in making the presses ready will save over £40,000
per annum, per press.
A
further positive outcome of the initiative is that all staff were and
continue to be involved, all ideas and suggestions for improvement have
been and will continue to be considered and bought to fruition if
viable, resulting in support for the initiative from machine operator
to Business Director.
What does this mean for Cambridge
Printing’s customers? Our commitment to highest quality, latest print
technologies and cutting edge business practice will benefit our
customers in terms of improvement both to our products and in our
service delivery and, as part of the Vision In Print initiative, will
help raise productivity to world-class levels whilst helping to
identify how printing and associated services can earn increased
profits.
