5 Keys
to Successful Pad Printing |
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Summer 2005
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People that are unsuccessful pad printing usually
fail to observe one or more of the following five keys
to successfully launching any pad printing operation:
1. Assign someone responsibility for the success of
the project.
2. Create a reasonable time line for implementation.
3. Invest in technology.
4. Invest in training and service.
5. Invest in your people.
Assign someone responsibility for
the success of the project.
Often no one is in charge of dealing with pad printing
projects from cradle to grave. It is imperative that
someone manage the project.
Project management includes gathering the necessary
information, being directly involved in the creation of
the budget, active participation in the review of
proposals from potential vendors and the resulting
decision to purchase, final machine acceptance,
coordination of the shipping and receiving process, and
operator training.
If
someone doesn’t have all of these pieces to the puzzle
and the ability to document them, things will invariably
go wrong.
Create a reasonable time line
for implementation.
If you’re trapped in a “never enough time to do it
right; always enough time to do it over” environment
make a paradigm shift soon. If you don’t have enough
time to do it right, don’t expect it to be right.
How
long is long enough? Refer back to the paragraph above
that describes project management duties. When all of
those are done correctly they can reasonably be expected
to take 6-8 weeks.
Invest in technology.
Purchasing used equipment or obsolete pneumatic machines
at rock bottom prices only serves to make you the
technological equivalent of your competitors. The fact
that you are reading our newsletter suggest that you are
heading in the right direction technologically speaking.
In pad
printing you pay for what you get, so make sure that the
solution you buy is really , not just cheap. At
Innovative we will do a thorough production cost
analysis to show you, in dollars and cents, why our
solution makes the most sense.
Invest in training and service.
If you don’t think that training and service is worth
anything, think again. Training is always less expensive
than the cost of lost man and machine hours lost trying
to learn it yourself.
Some
pad printing solutions don’t come in a box. It pays to
keep that in mind when you’re reviewing quotes, because
“cheap” and “inexpensive” mean two different things. If
two solutions appear to be identical, yet one cost a lot
less, it is probably because that supplier didn’t
include costs for any “service after the sale” in his
price, and has no intention of spending time on the
phone with you after you’ve made your final payment.
Service should be your most important consideration
because good service can save you from yourself. No
matter how organized you are, there are going to be
emergencies. When emergencies happen you’ll want to be
confident that your supplier is going to be there to
bail you out.
Invest in your people.
If your decorating department has a revolving door
you’re going to have a
lot of problems, especially if your project coordinator
is sent somewhere else
after the machine is installed and the operators have
received their initial
training.
A
skilled pad printing technician is a person that can
identify a problem,
determine the root cause of the problem, and adjust the
process accordingly.
Operators need be well trained initially, and then kept
current with recurring
training.
John Kaverman
National Sales Manager
Innovative Marking Systems
978-459-6533
978-970-0479
info@padprinters.com
www.padprinters.com
For additional information contact Innovative Marking
Systems at 978-459-6533 or visit
http://www.padprinters.com.
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