Take these 10 due diligence steps to overcome investment objections for new technology that enhances productivity to reduce time, cost, and pricing. The importance of investing in new technology is taking on a new imperative. Being prepared with due diligence will help ensure your project's approval.
A recent NAPCO study talks about today's competitive challenges and the importance of re-aligning strategies. One aspect is increasing productivity through capital investments. While many understand the due diligence calculations such as ROI and payback, not everyone realizes the importance of garnering support from other team members and departments. In this blog, we discuss 9 steps to increase trust and enhance collaboration to overcome investment objections.
While a variety of factors can cause decision making hesitation, with the faster pace of change no one can afford to make poor or delayed decisions. Indecision or hesitation can negatively impact your ability to respond to new challenges, slow the growth of new products or services, and impact key business areas. In this blog, we describe the signs of decision hesitation and the 5 steps to overcome the fear of the unknown.
In this free eBook find out how you can accelerate your in-plant’s future and proactively respond to change. With many parts of the printing and in-plant industry changing, it may result in a resurgence of the in-plant outsourcing trend. Download the eBook and learn how to prepare your production print operation for the future, and create a plan to minimize threats and maximize your future opportunities.
A common productivity killer for printing operations is bottlenecks. With a recession potentially looming, industry experts are advising print providers to increase their productivity to help address a business slowdown and other current trends. In this post, industry consultant Howie Fenton offers his four STEP process (staff, training, equipment, and procedures) as part of an approach to resolve bottlenecks to increase productivity.
Our 11 predictions about how print industry trends will impact print centers and how to respond to reduce the challenges these trends create. While most in-plant print centers have been struggling with challenges ranging from demand to supply chain to staffing in the last few years, the trends and pace of change have accelerated. The issues from the trends alone would be challenging, but the combination will create “perfect storms.”
This third blog in our responding to change series addresses how to implement change and avoid a trip to the “failed implementation closet.” It answers the planning question of how an operation can deliver on their strategy/plan to position themselves to rapidly respond to change with suggested tips, tools, and an example operational project plan.
Part two of a three-part series about positioning your in-plant to change and reduce the risk of outsourcing by answering three questions- where the operation should be going, what resources are needed to support the vision, and how you plan to get where you want to go. This blog discusses the staffing, software, hardware, and financing resources you need to support your strategic plan.
Intuitively we know that change is a constant. However, technology changes have been gradual and did not threaten the in-plant business model. In comparison, changes brought about from the pandemic have been fast, and may threaten in-plant businesses. These changes are comparable to the metaphor of someone moving the “cheese.” If you see that these changes are impacting your business, it’s the perfect time to start planning for next year to help minimize threats and maximize your future opportunities.
If you are struggling to find new prepress staff, an alternative is to add prepress automation software. Often overlooked when hiring inexperienced staff is the increase in rework. This blog shows that prepress software automation costs less than hiring inexperienced prepress staff.
As production volume increases and staffing remains a challenge, we have a choice to hire inexperienced staff and train them or increase the amount of automation. We compared these options and found that more rework resulted from hiring inexperienced staff, which cost more and reduced the availability of paper. When comparing hiring/training to automation, remember that the costs and risks of hiring inexperienced staff are higher now because of the staffing crisis and paper shortage.
At a recent in-plant conference I was reminded of the benefits of remaining focused on long term strategic goals. Spending too much time on production issues like finding paper and rehiring staff can shift your focus away from strategic issues like remaining aligned with your parent organization. An excellent presentation about workflow automation showed how one in-plant has benefited from remaining focused on working toward their strategic goals for over a decade.
In this post, Howie Fenton previews his IPMA conference presentation designed to help in-plants in your recovery from the last two and a half years. He offers suggestions for dealing with four top issues: declining volumes, hiring new staff, and minimizing complaints about pricing, and the impact of the paper shortage.
Some in-plant print centers, including a university in-plant, survived through the pandemic by consolidating staff, cross-training everyone, and performing more like a nimble, small commercial company where all staff could perform all the shop's tasks. We discuss the motivation, previous in-plant consolidation trends, and five stumbling blocks to consider if you need to plan for the consolidation of staff or services.
RSA's Elisha Kasinskas talks with industry consultant, Howie Fenton about three areas where in-plant print centers can be doing things differently post-pandemic, including staffing, using video for sales, and workflow. Five-minute video.
This article talks about using an older strategy to increase customer satisfaction, awareness, productivity, and sales. The ability to demonstrate shop value has been threatened as more customers work from home, and more communication, marketing, and sales activities have switched to video communications. Adapting the demonstration of operational excellence can help in-plants increase satisfaction, awareness, and sales.
To celebrate the IPMA's in-plant awareness month, this article talks about combining some new strategies to increase customer satisfaction, awareness, and sales. The ability to demonstrate shop value has been threatened as more customers work from home and more communication, marketing, and sales activities have switched to video communications. Using video for communications and demonstrating services can help in-plants increase satisfaction, awareness and sales.
Despite pandemic challenges remaining, typically there is a sense of new hope associated with the beginning of a new year. There are two planning scenarios. Planning for recovery/rebound while addressing staffing needs, and researching the root cause(s) of lingering low volume and overcoming volume declines. Both involve planning for growth, and we discuss planning and tips for each scenario.
Research shows that not only will we continue to experience supply chain and staffing issues in the coming year, we could also experience customer pushback about price increases and slower turnaround times. In the worst-case scenario, this could result in questions about the value of print or, worse, the value of the in-plant. This article will discuss the threats and offer three strategies to overcome them.
This post summarizes the current state of the in-plant Industry, describes three long-lasting adverse effects that will persist, and offer strategies to help you reduce the impact of these challenges.