Masterclass Case Study

Challenge: To retain a competitive place in the market by increasing existing capacity and improving productivity of Northend's existing equipment.

Solution: Northend enrolled seven of their employees on a Vision in Print (ViP) Masterclass improvement programme.

With recent economic indicators showing a cooling of the UK economy, in addition to many printing contracts moving out of the UK, few printers can be happy with their current trading results. Across the industry print margins are being squeezed hard, print runs are becoming shorter and customers are demanding more in terms of quality, service and delivery at the lowest price possible.

Northend is a commercial printing company based in Sheffield. Established in 1889, it employs 57 people and has an annual turnover of £3.9million. Northend attributes its success to a focus on customer service and quality, which has built it a strong reputation within the market as a company with a longstanding, loyal customer base.

To remain competitive the company has developed its pre-press and finishing equipment, whilst also being able to offer clients a design service. In addition, the company has also recognised the benefits that digital print can bring, and offers this as a complementary service to printing on its two Heidelberg four- and five-colour Speedmaster presses.

Focused on performance

Dorothy Betts, Strategic Development Manager at Northend comments, "To remain profitable in such a competitive marketplace we realised that we needed to focus on making our existing processes more efficient." She continues, "That's when we decided we needed the help of Vision in Print, and specifically their Masterclass programme, to help us work smarter, not harder."

Northend enrolled on ViP's Masterclass programme and over a period of six months its team of seven employees, made up of people from all areas of the business, learnt Best Practice and Lean tools and techniques. These have not only brought measurable improvements to makeready and running speeds, but that have sown the seeds for a culture of continuous improvement.

Techniques

Under the supervision of two ViP engineers the Northend team developed new skills which enabled them to raise the productivity and performance standards within the company.

Following strict data analysis techniques the team was able to pinpoint key areas for focused improvement. Using facts and not guesswork the ViP engineers helped the team isolate problems and focus on driving positive changes forward. This structured approach helped the team discover that vast improvements could be made in makeready times, eliminating downtime and in assessing necessary 'overs'.

The experience

The team were totally confident in their implementation of changes, as decisions were made based on thorough research. Having filmed and timed a press makeready, they were able to highlight wasteful activities. This enabled them to test out new theories and improve the process, based on a plan, do, check, act procedure. This resulted in a new pre-makeready checklist being implemented, as well as a streamlined overall process.

For Northend an essential part of the programme was developing Standard Operating Procedures, which could be rolled out across the company. In this way, the Masterclass team saw that the Heidelberg Speedmaster presses could reach higher average runspeed targets.

With the help of the ViP engineers the team applied newly learnt Lean techniques in addressing the ever-present problem of 'overs'. They worked hard to investigate a solution, developing a visual matrix that immediately reaped rewards. This helped them 'safely' reduce the overs required at each stage of the printing and finishing process.

The results

The team all agree, "Not only have we learnt repeatable new skills, which we can apply to other business areas, but we had fun along the way."- Paul Gordon, print finisher.

A core aim of the Masterclass programme is to help printers of all levels within a business realise that they can take an active roll in creating a culture of continuous improvement within their company, and that implementing change isn't just the role of senior management.

A key factor to the success of the wider roll out of the programme, to other parts of the business, is reflected by the fact that the team involved other members of staff who were not enrolled on the Masterclass programme. The team is now dedicated to using Lean techniques within their own departments, in addition to involving colleagues in the mission to reduce waste within shop floor and office departments.

Dorothy notes that the teamwork the course inspired had been crucial to it success "In December 2004 we took seven people from different areas of the company, including sales and admin. In May 2005 we had a very definite 'Team' who will continue to make a substantial contribution to the process improvements already recorded."

For many printers in the UK the ability to cut waste wherever possible can lead to substantial cost savings. One significant saving at Northend, as a direct result of the course, was a reduction in waste of 7.2% by producing fewer overs.

Another key area which the team tackled is one which many printing companies can relate to. Through analysis of Key Performance Indicators and implementation of Standard Operating Procedures, the team were able to increase the running speed of the presses, reducing the performance loss from 33% to only 10%.

The final and most noticeable effect the team has had on the productivity and competitiveness of the company has been in the ability to reduce makeready time by 42% in 'laboratory conditions' but 18% on average. This brings extra capacity which was one of the reasons for Northend seeking to learn Lean techniques; this enables the company to more accurately quote on jobs, turn jobs around faster and more profitably, also this allows greater flexibility so helping with short run work.