Hidden Costs Of Automatic Presses
Automatic Textile Presses - The Hidden Costs:
Automatic textile presses require more company resources than meets the eye. Too often owners look past the cost of the press payments and focus only on the potential profits of increased production capacity. When profit margins are analysed downline it is shocking how slim margins can be, especially with market pricing so low for volume printing. Lets look at some ‘blind spots’ that owners never see, but workers struggle with on a daily basis. Some questions first:
1. Do you own your automatic press or lease it? If you lease your equipment the payment is made before you can begin to pay for anything else. If you own your equipment, production print prices can be more competitive or you can absorb the costs of doing business a little better than someone struggling with a lease payment.
2. How many people does it take to keep an automatic press running all day? It is far more than 3 people as we will see shortly. Operating the press non-stop requires support departments to be in tune with the automatic press production cycle.
3. How large is your shop? Is it large enough to ‘feed’ your automatics? Automatic presses eat orders quickly, as in pallets of shirts per day. We’ll look at material handling needs to support your autos in a minute.
4. How strong is your plant management? Owning a press is just the beginning. Maintaining the production environment can spell successs or disaster depending on how well you support your equipment.
5. What are the blind spots costing you money on an automatic press while it is printing? Your screens play an even greater role in keeping your press working. While companies buy top of the line presses they often overlook this point when making screens for it.
First lets look at leasing vs ownership of automatic equipment. If you are capable of running two to three shifts per day at your plant the lease cost is minor and the payment only affects a small percentage of your bottom line. However if you run a single shift or you print for part of the day due to lack of work, your lease payment can be quite costly to your bottom line. If you do only contract work and run one shift you need low cost building payments or low labor costs.
Next, how many people does it take to keep an automatic press running all day? When you see that gleaming print monster at the trade show all you hear is how many pieces per hour it will print, how good the registration is and about all the money you can make. Sounds good until you unpack it, set it up, and get your first job printing. If it is your first automatic it will stand still more often than not as you rush to get screens ready, inks mixed, and register your first job (only to find out the print sequence didn’t work and do it all over again!). Then to run a job at full production speed you’ll need workers to load the shirts and unload them, as well as a catcher at the end of the oven to lay them flat to prevent wrinkles. Little thought is given to the next job on press that needs screens shot and prepped by a screen room worker, another to mix inks, another to pull shirts, workers to fold and bag if needed, shipping personnel to get it out of the warehouse on time and receive new orders, and bookeepers and office personnel to keep track of billings and payroll. Not to mention art personnel to design and separate the art, as well as a coordinator to marry art and samples to document all details of a print run so it can be reprinted well. Lacking in any of the areas above can create downtime on press.