Digital Print Study Q&A: Press Availability, Actual Production Time
Posted on Fri, Nov 18, 2011
Interview with Catherine Fiasconaro, Director
SpencerLab Digital Color Laboratory
By Aaron Kiel, senior editor, OutputLinks Communications Group
Spencerlab Digital Color Laboratory released a white paper summarizing the results of a unique benchmarking study of digital press Availability and Actual Production time – perhaps the first of its kind.
Spencerlab Digital Color Laboratory says digital presses are increasingly able to produce very high print quality, and having print quality over-the-bar for the targeted applications remains priority No. 1 (and required to be competitive). However, maximizing Actual production time – the time actually spent printing sellable pieces – is becoming a pivotal issue in the value of a press. Higher operational Availability – the percentage of Actual production time to its Potential – equates to a higher Return-on-Investment with its associated financial advantages.
OutputLinks recently spoke with Catherine Fiasconaro, director of the SpencerLab Digital Color Laboratory and Operations vice president of its parent, Spencer & Associates Publishing, Ltd, to learn more about this.
Fiasconaro is an industry analyst specializing in digital color printing, with more than 20 years of experience in management and technology. She is noted for her overall understanding of digital printing technologies, including print quality and consumable life.
Question: What’s the key message from your new white paper, Digital Press Benchmarks: Availability & Actual Production?
Answer: Perhaps the key message is that it has become practical to benchmark, to measure Availability and Actual Production Time. Availability is a concept in manufacturing operations. In this research, it was successfully applied to high volume digital presses. Once Digital Press Availability can be benchmarked, the door is opened to improve it, and consequently, to improve a printer's bottom line.
Question: Why is maximizing actual production time becoming a pivotal issue in the value of a press?
Answer: Actual Production Time has always been an important issue in evaluating press performance, but it becomes a pivotal issue once Print Quality is no longer the significant product differentiator. If Print Quality is not quite good enough for the intended applications, higher Print Quality must come before the other issues. Then the question quickly turns to, ‘how to make more money from the press?' Maximizing Availability and Actual Production Time are key enablers of the answer.
Question: Why wasn’t this an issue sooner?
Answer: Manufacturers are offering digital presses with increasingly better Print Quality. As the Print Quality available from the latest digital presses improves and becomes appropriate for more and more demanding applications, other issues become more evident. Don't get me wrong – until you acquire a digital press whose Print Quality is over-the-bar for all your applications, Print Quality remains the primary issue. Of course, if Print Quality is over-the-bar for some of your applications, Availability has already come into focus.
Question: What kind of financial advantages are there in focusing on actual production time?
Answer: Productivity – the amount of sellable output that can be produced – is simply the speed or throughput of the press multiplied by the Actual Production Time. And sellable output is what is provided to clients in exchange for their money, a high volume output printers' revenue.
Question: What other benefits are there when a printer focuses on availability and actual production time?
Answer: Improving Availability and Actual Production Time can also improve job turnaround time and associated dependability – in turn, improving customer satisfaction and competitiveness. Focusing on Availability can also lead to leaner operations, thereby saving personnel cost. All of this, in turn, leads to higher Return-on-Investment (ROI), another aspect of its direct impact on profitability.
Question: Were there any surprises or valuable lessons from this research?
Answer: Even in the limited sampling of this research – three presses in real commercial operation – there were two areas of surprise. First, it was apparent that none of the presses in these real-world commercial installations were providing the Availability level we believe were expected by their respective manufacturers. And second, the time spent in press-related delays varied quite considerably from one press to another, even between two presses from the same manufacturer (but of different models).
Service varied from three percent to eight percent of the Potential Production Time, Consumable Change from one percent to six percent, etc. Morning Routine and Job Setup times seemed to correlate with press manufacturer, varying from less than one percent with one manufacturer to seven percent on one model and 14 percent on another model with the other manufacturer. Interestingly, Repair ranged relatively narrowly between two percent and four percent.
One valuable lesson from this research is to study each element of the Potential Production Time, to learn if it is a significant obstacle to higher Availability and whether that problem can be mitigated – by technology, workflow, training, etc. While the results of this research were limited to a 20-workday period on only a single press of each type, these findings are the first public results of which we are aware, and can help focus the industry on improving profitability through Availability.
Question: What’s your best advice for printers in this area, especially high volume transaction output printers?
Answer: We would urge all high volume output printers to study the components of their Potential Production Time that potentially limit their press' Availability. For each component, what can be done to improve it? What can be done in-house? What can be done by the supplier? Is there something in the configuration that can improve the ROI? Something in the workflow?
If press' Print Quality is where it needs to be, an essential next step should be to benchmark its Availability – and thereby improve your bottom line.
What are your thoughts on Digital Press Availability & Actual Production Time? Is this research helpful? Share your comments below.