Planning, Processes, and Procedures: The Key to Prepress Control

Editor's Note: The rigid workflow may have limited the development of the company, so you must now find the best way to establish and maintain control of the process.

Few printers can guarantee that their production and operations will always be normal. In fact, many corporate leaders are worrying about the issue of process control. With the increase in customer demand for images, printers are increasingly demanding production in a standardized and procedural manner. When the quality of printing becomes less stable and printing becomes unpredictable, we must begin to look for the reasons for these problems and come up with specific solutions. Of course, this is a waste of time and money. Therefore, I would like to share with you my experience accumulated in process control, so that your life can be made easier and smoother.

In my opinion, the root cause of these problems is the lack of a stable and standardized work flow. Most screen printing factories are developed by small workshops. Experienced screen printers will pass on their work experience to new workers. This newcomer will soon become an old employee and will teach all of his knowledge according to his predecessors. To someone who is later than myself. I call this tribal knowledge because it has been passed down from generation to generation by oral means.

Although in the original society, this approach may be more effective, but we are, after all, living in the era of digital technology as the core. Compared with previous methods, our current working methods are already too technical and sophisticated. In addition, the way people do things has changed a lot. The process will also change over time until it meets our needs.

What's worse is that when people are bored with something, they try something new or they are eager to make changes. When a screen printing plate manufacturer produces hundreds of screen printing stencils every week, they also try different production methods at the right time. This may be some very small changes, such as the use of 2 / 3 or 2 / 2 of the coating agent to 3 / 2 coating method; and this small change may produce a certain effect, perhaps not even the root is not It will have any impact on production, but this is not the key to the problem. The key is that the coating process of the wire mesh has already deviated from the track that we were completely familiar with before.

This small step-by-step change eventually led to serious consequences. As time passes, these issues will all be reflected in the press, and once the managers are involved, the real damage will be unavoidable. Every one of us has experienced painful stages of misfortune, and it is difficult for us to get the desired results. When we carry out serious investigations, we will find that we have deviated from the original production process and have rebuilt our own Value has become our most important task now.

We can illustrate this problem with an example. A screen printing factory technician wants to replace the original light bulb with an exposure unit. Well, this is completely free of problems, and he has done similar work before. However, during the replacement of the bulb, he found that the wires and the transformer were covered with dust. After cleaning the dust, he found that the voltage on the transformer reached 240 V. The general line voltage is 208 V, so he adjusted the voltage to the correct value according to his own idea. There is no problem.

After starting up the exposure unit and returning to normal production, the technician found that his silk screen template could not be cleaned as before. He believes that this phenomenon is caused by exposure problems, but nobody knows what the real reason is. Finally, people focused their attention on the new light bulb, so they found the supplier and ordered a new light bulb to air it. The original worker had already delayed half a day's production time, but now he has to wait until the next day. At 10:30 in the morning, he can receive a new light bulb. In addition, in order to install the new light bulb, the worker must at least Take half an hour. If all goes well, he can produce the first template at 11:15 am the next morning, but the problem has not been solved.

Then, the worker thought that there was a problem with the emulsion, so he formulated new emulsions and used them to coat more templates. At lunchtime, he thought he could start production again, but unfortunately the problem persists. To make matters worse, he found more moiré stripes on the printed sheets than before. At this time, the screen printing stencils on the production floor had already begun to squeak, and some production processes had to be interrupted. In fact, all the halftone templates have certain problems, but he can't find a reason. So, this employee took one day of his time and he didn't find an ideal solution in the end.

The production supervisor knew this matter early the next day because their production schedule was affected and the newly produced jobs could not be matched with the jobs they had produced before. This is really a headache, but it is also a mystery. No one knows what is going on. Two days have passed - the problem has not yet been solved. The more time and cost it takes to produce, the more damage the factory will suffer.

After a month of intense discussion, the owner of the factory finally thought of asking what unusual things his employees had done. The employee scratched his head and said: "I just cleaned the dust and adjusted the voltage of the transformer to the same value as the line voltage." That was a small difference that caused tens of thousands of dollars for the factory. Economic losses!

This is a true story and it is performed every day in different screen printing factories. The best way to solve this problem is to carry out process control, training and documentation. Although most printing companies are engaged in similar work, they have not done enough and they still lack some effectiveness. You must feel pain. Some things are better than nothing. You can figure out your own production process by drawing a flow chart and you can taste the sweetness from it.

Step 1: Draw a flowchart

The flow chart can make everyone aware of their own goals and understand every aspect of the production process.

Many cheaper softwares have this feature. Any structure drawing software can be used to make the flow chart. If you are using a PC, it is best to choose Microsoft Visio; if you are using an Apple computer, you can also choose the mniGraffle Professional graphics software developed by Omni. You should sit down and draw the production process for each department step by step. This flow chart can help you establish a good production system and procedures. It can cause everyone to think, maybe it is not perfect at the beginning, but it will eventually give you a comprehensive understanding of the entire production process, and can make it continue to improve.

Publicize this flow chart and distribute it to various departments of the factory. Paste these charts on the wall so that the workers can see them at any time. Of course, you can also modify the flowchart as needed: add necessary steps and remove redundant links. Work this way for two to three months and insist on weekly or biweekly self-tests until you find the most efficient workflow. In addition, there are exceptions to everything, so you need to be clear about what exceptions exist in each process, and what impact these situations can have.

Step 2: Documenting

Now that our work has officially started, we must clarify every part, every decision, and each step, and write them in official documents. This is the beginning of your standardized operating procedure and the basis of any quality agency. It is mainly to let people know what they need to do, how to do it, and when to do it. What you do now is an important factor in determining your success in the future.

The file is your backing. It allows you to build a stable, predictable and repeatable work environment. It ensures that every employee can complete the job in the ideal way, and it reduces the chances of the final product being changed.

Start the documentation process at the beginning of the scheduling process. You will appreciate the benefits of this approach in areas such as planning, art, and prepress. When everything is on the right track, the possibility of production errors will be greatly reduced.

The document must be clear and complete. Do not assume anything. In fact, the biggest challenge you will face is that it is easy to ignore the most basic steps. This phenomenon is known as the "expert syndrome." Because experts easily forget some of the small things, such as how to apply the coating and put the mixed emulsion overnight, to ensure the complete discharge of bubbles. These details should be taken into account and cannot be a bit ambiguous.

Also, be sure to provide a version number for each loop or modified file. This will keep you informed about changes in information and ensure that everyone sees the same content. The development of documents is a process that requires long-term efforts. The most important thing is that you can discover and understand the latest developments in information development and dissemination. If you can't do this, you will get nothing. Change always appears on the basis of technology. Your working methods will always keep you in the leading position of technology and strong competitiveness.

Step 3: Train employees

The last step is organized training. The flowchart can help you to develop a training plan. You can clearly see the order of information transmission. You can easily use PowerPoint slides to explain every important idea. All details must be written into the document. The combination of documents and flow sheets will bring you more effective training.

The content of the training also needs strengthening to be consolidated. The flow sheet and the complete documentation can bring more confidence to employees. Everyone's learning speed and learning style are different. This is another issue that needs to be solved, but we now know at least how we can train our employees and control the production process. This type of investment requires relatively little time and money, but it can bring great returns to people in a short period of time.