Systems

This section is all about the business side of screen printing. This may include but is not limited to business procedures, marketing and advertising, return or misprint policies, customer relations and pricing. Basically anything that has to do with the business side of screen printing.

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smartgoat
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat May 24, 2014 5:56 am

Systems

Post by smartgoat »

My question has to do with common systems used in screenprint shops to see a print job thru from beginning to end.
A little backstory first. I was hired by a local, small screenprint shop in my town about 5 weeks ago. Besides the owner there are two full time printers, myself and one other guy who has been there around 2-3 months, a part time person for the retail area of the shop and a part time person that does graphic design and helps with back office stuff (ie payroll, a/r, a/p, etc) Prior to this job I have had zero screen print experience so everything i'm learning is from the owner (who has been in business for around 15 years).
Sometime late last year a girl that had worked for the owner for 3 years and who basically ran the print floor had to leave due to a family issue. At the time there was another guy working there but he quit shortly after the girl left. So over the last 6 months or so there has been several people that have been hired and for whatever reason haven't worked out. And because of this it seems that the organization and systems have broken down and the place is kinda chaotic.
So needless to say her business has been struggling and I would like to do whatever I can to help her get it back to where it needs to be. But since this is my only experience with working in a screenprint shop i'm not sure how to fix things. She is helping as me as much as she can but she's busy doing the stuff she needs to do keep the business running so it's not like she can stand by my side all day and coach/teach me. I know there is a ton of stuff i need to learn about the technical process of printing itself (which a lot of that stuff is covered in jonathans videos) but i'm also trying to figure out the optimal way in which the shop should run. Prioritizing tasks is the biggest challenge i'm having right now. But the thing that is frustrating me the most is the way orders are communicated. So my question is what methods do shops use to make sure an order goes from the customers idea to a finished shirt without anything being lost or changed?
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Catspit Productions
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Re: Systems

Post by Catspit Productions »

I think that is a business issue. You need a business manager and a production manager. But if it is difficult to find good people, which it is, then turnaround is high. Pay and little benefits in screen print shops are an issue as well. It can be very hard to even keep the good people you do find.

Some shops use production sheets which they check off at every point of production. Normally the production manager is in charge of overseeing the print jobs after artwork is complete and approved.

So I do not know the answer for this shop. It may take an analysis of the business to figure out where the real issue is. Any business needs to run a tight ship but I am not the best person to help with this sort of thing.
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bc240
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Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2014 7:33 pm

Re: Systems

Post by bc240 »

I agree that some sort of production order is needed. Many years ago I created a job ticket program that runs on Filemaker Pro. You might think Filemaker Pro is a strange choice since it is a relational database program. But it works very well because you can build scripts to add drop down menus and many other functions. And being a database it is easily searchable if you need to find a specific clients jobs. Of course this all is dependent on how well the database is built. And believe me it took many many hours of late nights to trouble shoot and refine it until it worked properly.

The one I built consists of several screens pertinent to different areas of production with buttons in certain job areas where other choices drop down and can be added to the job. It was made specifically for Pre-press but has been adapted over the years for conventional and digital print and also our sign and T-shirt orders. In a larger production business the person taking the order (such as customer service) would input the specifics to the job on this job ticket. This would be the type of materials needed, ink colors used, total needed to print and any post press needs such as folding, cutting, etc. Once the job ticket created it is placed in the area that needs the job first. Say a graphic needs to be created it would go to that person. Once done the ticket would be passed to the next area. And so on an so on. There is an open area on the ticket so people in the production process may add information pertinent to the job as it flows thru the shop, say a specific problem with the job. This job ticket follows the job throughout the shop and when completed can be handed to your invoice person for billing. It has worked well for us in keeping the job information in one place and typed out so it can be read properly. Also when the job is completed the job ticket may be filed for future reference if the customer comes back for more of the same job. This has saved us many times when our customer cannot remember how many they ordered or if special information was added to the job ticket anywhere in the production process we can retrieve that as well. Good luck.
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