tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54673302821418198162024-02-20T05:13:26.372-08:00The Finishing LineBlog dedicated to Information Technology and Management Concepts for the Print Finishing, Trade Bindery and Diemaking IndustriesDienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.comBlogger103125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-26662922770920710822019-05-03T05:38:00.001-07:002019-05-03T05:38:11.271-07:00More Accurate Estimating Standards Lead to Greater Profits<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11px;">By Mark Porter</span></span></div>
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Often standards that are used in post press industry estimating are developed for the sake of expediency. It is vital that customers get their quotes quickly and therefore in order to meet that need owners and estimators have taken their knowledge and condensed it into simplier factors.</div>
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This is seen in many processes when standards such as $3 per M are applied or if the cost for running the process includes material. An example is laminating where say the cost of $125 per M includes the laminate.</div>
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This may get the price to your customer quickly but does it maximize your chances of making money on the job or minimize your risk of losing the job because your price is too high.</div>
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If your method of estimating does not allow you to take into account different conditions and materials then you maybe getting the pricing to your customer quickly but you are greatly reducing your chances of maximizing your profits.</div>
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Let's look at a couple of examples to see how changes in conditions or materials can dramatically change the price of a quote.</div>
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In a previous issue we talked about estimating cutting and we used the example of cutting sheets of 60lb and 100lb paper.</div>
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Lets say that we had settled on a price of $12 per M sheets cut because we didn't have time to look up calipers, calculates sheets per lift, number of cuts etc. On our 5000 sheets cut 2 out we would have gotten 5 x $12 per M or $60. As per our example though the 60lb stock would have cacluated to $50 and the 100lb stock would have been $75. This is a $10 to $15 dollar swing on 5000 or a $100 to $150 swing on 50000. The variances get greater with thicker and thinner stocks and based on the number of peces cut out.</div>
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Lets look at a laminating example where material is included in the running price. On a 10000 sheet run of a 19x25 sheet at $125 per M we would calculate $1250.</div>
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But the laminate material could vary from 1.2mil Gloss Polyproplene at $.065 per MSI to 1.2mil Matte Polyester at $.300 per MSI. The cost difference is significant.</div>
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If we say the labor cost is 10000 shts / 2000 speed = 5 hours x $100 / hr that is $500 in labor plus our material cost for 1.2mil gloss polyproplene is $309 (19x25x10000/1000x$.065) and the 1.2mil matte polyester is $1425 (19x25x10000/1000x$.300).</div>
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This now gives us a swing of $1250 - $ 809(500+309) = $441 limiting our chance to get the job or $1250 - $1925(500+1425) = $675 in loss on the job.</div>
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The more accurate your standards the better your chances are of maximizing profitability. If your estimating method compromises profits for the sake of speed you should examine your estimating methods.</div>
Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-9357604419997636762019-03-18T06:12:00.000-07:002019-03-18T06:12:01.030-07:00CHARGEABLE EXTRAS A SIGNIFICANT REVENUE STREAM<div align="left" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">By Mark Porter</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When was the last time you produced a job without any changes ? Are you capturing the revenues for these legitimate extra charges or are they falling through the cracks ?. If not more revenue then at least avoid costs. If a job is changed during production and you did not collect the extra revenue for the change then you propably incurred more cost. </span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Finishers/Binderies provide quotes for customers and customers submit orders. The normal process is to ensure that the job submited and the quote provided are significantly similar that you can approve the production of the job. Once that approval has been given any customer driven changes to the order should be chargable. But how do you track these changes and bill your customer so that they feel compelled to pay but more importantly allow you to collect the charges without damaging your relationship with that customer. </span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You must follow a procedure to record all changes to jobs, chargable and non chargable, to ensure that that nothing falls between the cracks and is forgotten. But just recording changes will not allow you to collect your legitimate extra charges. The changes must be documented as to date, time, employee and reason the changes were made to provide the maximum support for your claims. </span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Documentation is not enough. The changes must be communicated to the customer at the time they are requested. The changes must be recorded as having been submited in writing to the customer, warned that they were chargable and that a price was quoted. </span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When the job is completed a full listing of all changes should be supplied to your employee in charge of invoicing. They can then decide which charges should be accepted, changed or deleted . The invoicing decisions are determined and the invoice is submited to your customer. If the customer questions these extra charges you can support your claims by providing the customer with the who, what where, why and costs details.</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hopefully your customer will start to provide you with better information when the jobs are first submited. Either way your company is in a better position because you are either collecting legitimate extra charges or avoiding the additional costs of providing those changes without charging for them</span></span></div>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-23772869791753415492019-01-28T08:35:00.003-08:002019-01-28T08:35:43.666-08:00Estimating-Valuable Numbers to Your Customers and You !<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">By Mark Porter</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When your customers require a quote you take the time to calculate an estimate that they can use to make decisions regarding their company but you are also generating numbers that can be valuable to your company.<br /><br />Everytime you generate an estimate you can be tracking numbers that can provide your own company with valuable information that can predict future work and predict future trends.<br /><br />By reviewing and analyzing your estimates you can find desirable jobs, future business, changes in market conditions and monitor your customer base.<br /><br />Every week you should review the estimates that you generated. Look for desirable jobs that you can follow-up. Whether it is a quantity level or a price level - flag these jobs and follow up these estimates to ensure you don't lose the order for a bad reason.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All companies have a won\loss ratio for the estimates they do. If you monitor the number of estimates you do each week it can be a predictor of how busy you will be in the future.<br /><br />All companies specialize in and perform different types of work at different levels of success. Tracking estimates each week by job type can further strengthen your predictions of production levels in the future. If 80% of your estimates last week were for work you typically don't get - you may have a production slow down in the near future if you don't increase your sales effort now.<br /><br />Won / Loss ratios should be monitored for Customers, Job Types and Sales people. Tracking your won / loss statistics can provide important information such as who are your best customers. Tracking won/loss by Job Type can indicate where your company excels. A shrinking won / loss ratio for a product you typically do well on could indicate a competitor is reducing their pricing.<br /><br />Won / Loss ratios by Salesperson can indicate if the salerep is targeting their efforts on the type of work your company does well.<br /><br />Tracking estimate activity can not only tell you who is giving you estimates but also who is not. This is especially true for your good customers. Monitoring information such as no recent estimates can indicate if a customer is starting to shift work to another finisher / binder and provide you time to try to correct the situation. This is especially true of your good customers. 80% of revenue comes from 20% of customers - you must stay on top of these good customers.<br /><br />Finally ask questions like when will this job be awarded and then track estimates each day. Find the desirable estimates each day and stay on top of these quotes. Don't lose highly valuable jobs because the printer didn't think you had the capabilities or capacity or simply lost your quote behind his desk</span></div>
Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-69615699536659563172018-11-28T06:00:00.004-08:002018-11-28T06:01:22.780-08:0080% OF REVENUE COMES FROM 20% OF CUSTOMERS<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">By Mark Porter</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In most businesses the majority of sales come from a minority of customers. It is vital that businesses service these good accounts to the best of their ability and tracks these customers so they can know immediately if the customer is becoming dissatisfied with the company or its products and services.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We often use the 80/20 rule - that 80% of revenue comes from 20% of customers but I was talking to one owner recently that stated 90% of his business came from 10% of his customers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The loss of one of these customers can be a big blow to a company so it is vital that you do everything possible to manage these accounts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First you must identify these accounts - which most people can do through their sales records. Once you identify these customers you must make the process of working with your company so easy that it will take a major price difference or a major mistake for them to take their business elsewhere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This can begin with convenience. Providing information such as Was my job shipped ?, What quantity did we order last time ?, Are my samples ready ? 24/7 allows the customer to work on his timetable and saves him and you a great deal of time. The internet is excellent for this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Building customer profiles of the exact needs of each customer ensures work is done correctly every job and saves time looking for information. Problem Histories can be pulled and discussed with the customer on a monthly, quarterly basis to build relationships and ensure future jobs are run smoothly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Provide email updates when events happen in your plant that effects these customers, Keeping customers fully informed builds relationships and reduces problems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Monitoring customers requests for estimates and orders can ensure that you are notified of a customers growing dissatisafaction before it is too late to salavage the relationship. If you normally get 20 estimates a month from a customer and you only received 5 last month -get on the phone and find out why.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And we always want to add more good accounts so monitor Won/Loss estimate records or Jobs per month. There may be a customer whose sales volume is not sufficient to get your attention yet but maybe their won/loss record is high, their jobs are large run and we get a decent markup on their jobs. - cultivate that account and they may become part of your 80/20 group.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.dienamicmis.com/single-video-hint?vid_id=hHhG3R3_KQM"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">BRIEF ONLINE CUSTOMER INQUIRY DEMO</span></a></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-35197408901391154302018-05-31T04:04:00.003-07:002018-07-30T05:23:57.739-07:00IF YOU DON'T KNOW YOUR COSTS HOW DO YOU KNOW YOUR PROFITS ?<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In our last issue we discussed the concept that Selling and Estimating are two different functions. We outlined the idea that it is vital that all Print Finishers/Binderies/Diemakers know their true costs so they can make more educated selling decisions. True costs have two components - the machine speeds and makeready times and the true costs of the production assets to produce the work. Most Post Press Companies have a very good idea of the speeds and Makeready times that their production assets can obtain. Where most post press companies are weak is in determing the true cost of those assests on an hourly basis.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Direct Material and Direct Labor costs are easy to identify but how much of your monthly rent and telephone bill should be applied to each job. Because the post press industry is a job oriented manufacturing business, meaning every job is different, we must have a predetermined Budgeted Hourly Rate(BHR) with the proper allocation of factory and administrative overheads that can be applied to all jobs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You should have all the information readily available that is required to determine your BHRs. Employees wages and benefits, which equipment they operate, what you paid for equipment, the square footage the machine occupies on the factory floor your factory overheads and administrative overheads. Once you have this data your accountant or software can apply proper accounting principles and graphic arts ratios to calculate accurate hourly cost rates.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Having accurate and current BHR's is the first step to generating higher profits. These rates reflect the all-inclusive or fully absorbed costs of doing business, and should be adjusted as events unfold which may change the costs of operating the business. Buying or selling equipment, working different productivity levels, giving raises or changing shifts are afew examples of events that can affect the true cost per hour of your production assets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Providing your clients with prices that are guaranteed to generate profits is only possible when all of your full operational costs are reflected in your pricing.</span></div>
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Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-31517466457124424402018-01-31T09:40:00.002-08:002018-01-31T09:40:35.320-08:00ADVANTAGES OF ESTIMATING SYSTEMS - ADD UP THE NUMBERS<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>By Mark Porter</strong></span><br /><strong><span style="font-family: "arial";"></span></strong> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">If you were questioning the speed of the quoting process in our industry, satisfying customers quoting needs and dealing with competitors that provide pricing that cannibalizes the industry.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">In this blog we will deal with the time aspect of quoting.</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;">We will save the concept that estimating and selling are 2 different functions for another issue.</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Unless you are the guy that just gives prices off the top of his/her head we will all spend time quoting but how much time and how much benefit you provide your customers and yourself from that process can vary tremendously</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Part of this problem is that 7 or 8 out of every 10 estimates we do we don't get. I am sure nobody would be complaining if every estimate turned into an order. So if we have to do this necessary evil why not minimize the time and maximize the benefit you receive while providing a solid, educated quote that maximizes your chance of getting the job and allows you to analyze your business.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The act of doing an estimate involves much more then just getting a number to the customer and should provide more benefit to your company then just getting a 20% job conversion. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">You can maximize your estimating process by:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Having information at your fingertips speeds the estimating process by finding old quotes, past history etc. Software with built in logic and calculations allows you more time to find the best way to run the job rather than crunching numbers, therefore giving you a greater chance to win the job. Information from the estimate saves time when you win the job because the estimate can be turned into an order, packing slip, invoice and hours can be used for scheduling. Analyzing estimates allows you to track valuable quotes and to prioritize your estimating time by customer, job types etc.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The following our some suggestions:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>Estimate Searching</strong></span></span></div>
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- Finding Previous Estimates is much quicker using an Estimate History feature with many search capabilities</div>
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- You can attach the original diagram sent to you that you based the estimate on in the history and you can attach the letter sent to the customer into the estimate history so all documentation is at your finger tips</div>
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- dramatically reduces searching and telephone tag time</div>
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- Simply pick the customer it brings in contacts, address, telephone, fax information immediately no need to look up</div>
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- requoting a previous job - quickly access problem history to see if you need to adjust estimate from last time it ran or if you using job costing quickly access costs last time you ran the job</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Estimate Options</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">- Estimating Software allows you to estimate the customers Options very quickly because you can be doing them all at once<br /> If customer wants to compare 5,000 / 10,000 / 15,000 you can do this all at the same time or if he wants to compare 5,0000 / 10,000 on 8pt stock and 5,000 / 10,000 on 12 pt stock they call all be done in one estimate with the software doing it automatically</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Eliminate Crunching Numbers Aspect</span> </strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">- Spend time looking at best ways to run the job to increase chances of getting the job rather than pounding on a calculator<br />- Build in common material so automatic calculations of things such as foil, laminate, uv, dies, mounting board and glue etc. are done as soon as you put in the specs</span><strong> </strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Not Just Crunching Numbers but also building in logic</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">- Software doesn't just crunch numbers it allows you to build your knowledge into the system. This not only saves time but also provides more consistency in your pricing which is beneficial to you and your customer</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">-This can allow you to download some of the simpler quotes to other people and frees time up for the serious and desirable quotes </span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Estimate Variations</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">- Finding Previous Estimates is much quicker using the Estimate History feature with many search capabilities<br />- Doing requotes is much quicker as the estimate is simply retrieved, changes made to existing estimate and resaved with an A,B,C variation<br />- Also be used for contract pricing <br />- Also if estimate comes from ABC Printer we know we will see it from DEF Printer and GHI Printer. Use original ABC Printer quote to quickly adjust for other printers doing the same job</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">- Automatically converts numbers of Estimate into a professional letter than can be printed/Faxed/Emailed directly to customer stating services and materials you are providing for the price quoted with your company terms and letterhead</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">- If Estimate becomes a job the software will convert the estimate into the format of the job ticket saving time there as well</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Prioritize Customers</span></strong></div>
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<strong><br /></strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">- Estimate History allows you to analyze customers as to won/loss ratios don't waste time doing a quote for a customer that uses you as a third price or at least do his quote after the good customers</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">- You spend so much time doing estimates make sure you follow up desirable estimates - Estimate History can track estimates of large quantities or high sales values so you don't lose them for a stupid reason like (customer doesn't think you provide a service in house or maybe your quote fell off his desk and your not even being considered)</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Analyze Estimates with Estimate History</span><br /> </strong></div>
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<strong><br /></strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">- Get benefit from the time you spend doing estimates by analyzing the data For example<br /><br />- Won/Loss Ratios by Customer, Types of Work, Estimators ie track the customers and type of work you do best at or find out why your not getting certain work, identify potential new and desirable customers </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">- 80/20 Rule - 80% of revenue comes from 20% of customers track that their estimate level stays consistent or grows if there is a dip in their activity find out why and solve problem before it is too late<br /><br />- Measure the number of estimates and type of estimates you do each day We all have a won/loss ratio if we are not doing the numbers and types of quotes that will keep business in the shop we have to adjust</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">- No recent estimates - that best source of new business is people you have dealt with in the past. Generate a report of any customer that has not done business with you in the last say 3 months <br /><br />- Track and follow up desirable quotes as mentioned above<br /><br />I hope this provides some help in saving time quoting and/or maximizing the benefit you can receive for the time you do spend quoting.</span> </div>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-63275005605982443582017-10-26T08:20:00.003-07:002017-10-26T08:21:10.301-07:00DIE MGMT - LOCK UP BIG SAVINGS<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">By Mark Porter</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A large number of companies in the Print Finishing, Trade Bindery Die Making, Packaging and Diecutting Industries use steel rule, foil and embossing dies. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Any user of dies can save a tremendous amount of money by simply managing those dies correctly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Generally users of dies have a large inventory of dies in their plant but the ability to find these dies is often a time consuming if not time wasting exercise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The result is remaking dies that already exist and that wastes thousands and thousands of dollars and cuts into profits. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By providing systems with extensive searching and sorting provisions we can find if you have a die that will meet the customers needs. These sorts are not just on the die specs but on the finished product specs as well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Images of the die and the finished product will allow you to quickly identify that you have the correct die.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By using a bar coding system, a location finder and computerized take out and put back process we can ensure dies are located where we expect them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Once we find dies we can record all specifications about the press run to ensure we can quickly get the die up to speed on the next run.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The condition of the die is monitored to ensure that we are aware of any retooling requirements. Automatic notification goes to the Die Shop foreman when a die needs attention.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We no longer have to lose valuable press time and risk late jobs because a die was not ready to be used at the beginning of a press run or a press run has to be stopped during production to retool a die.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This can save thousands of dollars in lost press time and / or overtime charges to keep jobs on schedule. Not to mention risking your relationship with the customer by delivering the job late.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A good system also tracks the disposal of dies and automatically notifies your customer and your own employees if I die is destroyed or returned to customer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Die Management can also track the components ie type of rule, punches wood etc including costs that make up that die and track all employees that assemble or maintain the die.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This can be a very easy way for any user of dies to see substantial savings in their operations.</span><br />
<br />Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-74052600555920373762017-09-28T06:18:00.001-07:002017-09-28T06:18:21.301-07:00JOB COSTING = VALUABLE BUSINESS INFORMATION<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">By Mark Porter</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In any business knowing your costs is important. After all isn't Profit = Sales - Costs. If you don't know your costs how do you know your profits. Sure at the end of the year you can say I made money or I lost money but if you control your costs and use your cost data to make better business decisions you may not lose any money or be able to say I made more money.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Previous blogs discussed the importance and ways to collect your cost data. Now we can look at what we can do with that data once you have it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Last months blog discussed the proper Job Closing routines and the type of reports you should generate when a job is complete.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The last in this series of Job Costing Blogs will deal with the value of the data you have collected. Information is a valuable asset and when you are collecting information on every minute spent by every employee and machine, every material used and every purchase made you have a great deal of information that can be analyzed to identify better, more efficient ways to run your company.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The type of reports you can generate with this type of information are:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><u>1. Job Analysis</u></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At the end of each job you get a complete break down of all costs labor, material, purchases and inventory that went against that job. You can compare the actual costs and hours to the estimated costs and hours to see how your plant performed. If there are costs that can be rebilled to the customer you can capture more revenue. If there are differences in the estimate and actual these difference can be analyzed as to whether they were one off differences or systematic changes that need to be addressed</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><u></u></strong></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><u>2. Production Analysis</u></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is important that you ensure that makeready times and run speeds you achieve on the plant floor clearly reflect the data you use in your estimating process.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you are estimating a piece of equipment at 5000 per hour but infact you are only achieving 4000 per hour on the shop floor you are losing money every time you win a job. Conversly if you are estimating at 4000 per hour and are actually achieving 5000 per hour on the shop floor you are losing jobs you could produce profitably.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><u>3. Employee Analysis </u></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not all employees are equal and monitoring production results from an employee angle allow you to identify which employees may need more training.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><u>4. Historical Information </u></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Capturing all data about a job provides an excellent foundation for estimating and production in the event the job is re run in the future. This can provide your company with a competitive advantage as to where costs can be saved or allow you the knowledge to requote the job in a manner that will ensure you re coup all costs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><u>5. Time Analysis</u></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By capturing every minute of time spent by each employee and each machine we can analyze that time to make decisions. For example examine how many hours each employee worked and what percentage of those hours were chargable time. If you have employees that work less then say 65% chargable time you may have to examine their role in the company.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A good job costing system will record the hours spent make-readying, running, cleaning up, repairing, maintaining or having no work for a machine. A machine with increasing repair and maintenance time may need to be replaced. A machine with large amounts of down time may be an asset that can be sold.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Job Costing not only allows you to analyze how a certain job ran at a specific time but also allows you to analyze all aspects of your business in a very historical way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-90798793542949164362017-08-29T06:28:00.000-07:002017-08-29T06:28:17.610-07:00OPEN DOORS TO PROFIT WITH PROPER JOB CLOSING ROUTINES <div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: xx-small;">After successfully implementing the Dienamic Estimating, MIS and Online Inquiry Software System in over 100 Finishers/Binderies/Diemakers Dienamic can bring your company results on how to</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: blue;">Increase Sales </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: xx-small;">Increase Quality</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: xx-small;">Increase Profitability</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: xx-small;">Increase Customer Loyalty</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">By Mark Porter</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In any business knowing your costs is important. After all isn't Profit = Sales - Costs. If you don't know your costs how do you know your profits. Sure at the end of the year you can say I made money or I lost money but if you control your costs and use your cost data to make better business decisions you may not lose any money or be able to say I made more money.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In a previous blog we discussed the importance and ways to collect your cost data. Now we can look at what we can do with that data once you have it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lets start with your Job Closing routine. When you complete a job do you simply pass the job to invoicing and have them bill the customer based on your estimated amount. If so you are probably missing valuable information.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Closing a job in an automated system should generate several useful reports and functions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><u>1. Close the Job to Prevent Additional Charges</u></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When you decide to make the invoice the last thing you want is to have employees still incurring costs against the job. Trying to get a customer to pay additional charges after you sent them the original invoice is at the very least embarassing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Part of your closing procedure should prevent additional time, materials and purchases being placed against a job without a supervisor OK once the billing process starts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><u>2. Full Listing of all Costs Incurred</u></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Job Closing process should generate a report that lists all labor hours and cost, material costs and purchases that went into producing that job. Ensure you are aware of all money that went into the job. Your closing report should offer you the option to view the data by dept, cost center, operation or transaction level. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Generally these reports are viewed at a cost center level. This means we would see a Total Hours and Total Dollars for each machine used on the job. If we see a cost center that looks unusually high or low we can drill down to an operation level to see if it was the makeready or run. If we identify the source we can drill down to a transaction level to see which employees worked on this job.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><u>3. Actual vs Estimate Report</u></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This report provides a comparison of the estimated hours and costs for all labor, material and purchases for the specific job to the actual costs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is a valuable report that can quickly identify actual costs that are not in line with your estimated costs. This could prove to be a one time exception that nothing could prevent or maybe it is a process that needs to be evaluated. If you are estimating a machine to run at 5000 / hr and it is actually running at 4000/hr you are losing money every time you win a quote. Conversely if it is running at 5000/hr and you are quoting 4000/hr you are losing jobs you should be winning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><u>4. Changes Report</u></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When a job is complete you should be able to get a listing of all changes made to the job from the time you agreed to produce the job to the final product that was shipped to the customer. It is important to track these changes as you will need them to explain time and cost variances and also to help correct legitimate extra charges. Collecting extra charges can be a great source of additional revenue and by having a complete backup of information about the extra charge i.e. who, what where, why and when a change was made allows you to collect that extra charge without damaging the relationship with that customer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><u>5. Problem History</u></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Provide your employees with a problem history system they can use to enter problems with jobs as they happen. When closing a job a list of its problems can be viewed. These problems may help explain some of the variations and issues on the job. This saves the time of office staff to track down employees and ask what happened 2-3 days ago.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Problem history is also very valuable when quoting or running this job in the future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By following good closing procedures you can ensure that all costs are captured, all legitimate extra charges are recovered, all production variances are accounted for and all processes are running as efficiently as possible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A good Job Closing Routine Opens Doors to Profits. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-34338320620740216822017-07-27T06:12:00.002-07:002017-07-27T06:13:08.817-07:00BIOMETRICS - New Technology to Better Manage Your Biggest Cost - Labor<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">After successfully implementing the Dienamic Estimating, MIS and Online Inquiry Software System in over 100 Finishers/Binderies/Diemakers Dienamic can bring your company results on how to</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;"></span> </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span></span></span></span></span><br /></div>
<span style="color: blue; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue;">Increase Sales </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Increase Quality</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Increase Profitability</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Increase Customer Loyalty</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">By Mark Porter</span></div>
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Last months newsletter discussed achieving accountability on the shop floor to ensure you are aware of all costs you incur in the plant Shop Floor Data Collection ensures that people are accountable for every minute they are in the plant and every material that they use.</div>
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<strong><em>After all Profit = Sales - Costs</em></strong> </div>
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If you don't know your costs how do you know your profits</div>
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Technology can also allow you to better manage who is on the shop floor. To ensure a company is getting the maximum productivity out of their labor they have to ensure that employees are actually on the floor.<br />
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With simple punch card systems it is too easy for friends to clock each other in and out when in fact one person may not be on the premises. </div>
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This results not only in the wasted dollars of say paying someone for 2 hours @ $20 per hour but also results in the lost productivity on the press for 2 hours that you are selling at $125 per hour.</div>
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Managing this type of activity gets much tougher once you start running 2nd and 3rd shifts.</div>
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Biometrics use an employee's fingerprint to activate the time card system for clocking in, starting lunch, finishing lunch and clocking out. </div>
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Requiring a person's finger to clock in ensures that you are paying employees for actually doing work for you and you are running at the efficiencies that you expect and base your cost structure on.</div>
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The Biometric Time clock can be used in conjunction with the data sharing as an employee cannot record time against a job if he has not clocked in for the day or as a standalone payroll system.</div>
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As a standalone payroll system it will stop buddy punching but it will also provide a log of everyone that punched in immediately after a shifts starts so you are immediately aware of staff shortages for the day and it can provide a direct link to payroll services such as Paychex Payroll Services to eliminate rekeying and calculating payroll.<br />
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Labor is by far the biggest cost our customers incur. By managing the employees attendance through Biometrics and demanding accountability of their time and materials while they are in the plant you can take control of your biggest cost. Even small percentage savings on labor can be substantial</div>
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5% on $2,000,000 is $100,000 savings</div>
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Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-7957842076028824352017-06-29T04:56:00.000-07:002017-06-29T04:56:01.387-07:00<h2 class="date-header">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Thursday June 29th, 2017</span></h2>
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<a href="http://dienamicmis.blogspot.ca/2015/05/accountability-on-shop-floor-leads-to.html"><span style="font-size: large;">ACCOUNTABILITY ON SHOP FLOOR LEADS TO PROFITABILITY IN OFFICE</span></a> </h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">After successfully implementing the Dienamic Estimating, MIS and Online Inquiry Software System in over 100 Finishers/Binderies/Diemakers Dienamic can bring your company results on how to</span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: xx-small;"></span> </span></span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: blue;">Increase Sales </span></span></span></h3>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Increase Quality</span></h3>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Increase Profitability</span></h3>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Increase Customer Loyalty</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #333333;">By Mark Porter</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">In any business knowing your costs is important. After all isn't Profit = Sales - Costs. If you don't know your costs how do you know your profits. Sure at the end of the year you can say I made money or I lost money but if you control your costs and use your cost data to make better business decisions you may not lose money and you may be able to say I made MORE money.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">There are many benefits to a Job Costing System. </span></span><br /><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">1. Capturing all costs incurred by a job for billing purposes</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">2. Analysis of Jobs to identify process or employee problems</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">3. Compare Estimate to Actual Values to ensure they are in sync </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">4. Production & Employee Analysis to ensure standards are met</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">5. Work In Process</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">6. Analyze time spent by all Employees and Machines</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">7. Payroll Benefits</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: red;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: small;">* New Finger Print Scanning and integration to Paychex</span></strong></em></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">Last and certainly not least ACCOUNTABILITY - We will look at this aspect in our Blog</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">I don't think it matters if you are the person sweeping the plant floor or the president of the company - if you have to account for every minute of your day and every material you use you will become more productive and less wasteful.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">This can add up to tremendous savings. Lets say we get even a modest 5% increase in productivity and 5% decrease in waste. Extend that to the money that flows through your plant each year. On $2,000,000 dollars that is a $100,000 savings.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">There are several methods to record time and materials in the plant and each method has different levels of accountability. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">1. Employees simply writing their time on the back of the Job Bag provides little value either in costing the job or in accountability. The employee can simply place the time and materials he thinks you want to see. You have no way of knowng if the time he wrote down reflects the true time spent.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">2. Employees manually writing out time sheets is a step closer because at least the employee has to account for his time within the structure of his day. But again if he knows he took way too long on a process he can factor it in over the course of a day.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">3. Real Time Tracking is the most accurate and therefore profitable method. The employee simply enters that he is starting or finishing a process. the system keeps track of start and stop times in real time. The employee knows he can be held accountable for every minute of the day.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">Real time tracking means that you can see the location of a job, the activity of a machine or the process an employee is doing at any time from any pc. Not only is the employee accountable for his time - it can be viewed at any time. </span></span><br /><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">And accurate time collection leads to other benefits such as accurate analysis of employee and machine time. Job Costing provides many benefits, which we will look at in future articles, but accountability is a huge benefit that leads to greater profits which is good for you and the employees.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></h3>
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Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-8184617494795369952017-05-25T05:41:00.003-07:002017-05-25T05:41:56.688-07:00PURCHASING ANOTHER PIECE OF THE PROFIT PUZZLE<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">After successfully implementing the Dienamic Estimating, MIS and Online Inquiry Software System in over 100 Finishers/Binderies/Diemakers Dienamic can bring your company results on how to</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: blue;">Increase Sales </span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Increase Quality</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Increase Customer Loyalty</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">By Mark Porter</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All companies have to purchase both materials and services in their day to day activities. The levels of those purchases can vary from industry to industry and from company to company. Certainly the industries of Print Finishing, Trade Binding and Diemaking are more labor based then material based but purchases must still be made.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These days anytime money leaves your company it is vital that you have accountability for that money and confirmation that you received the value you expected for the funds.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Purchase Orders should be generated for all purchases. This includes items for specific jobs, materials for inventory, any outside labor services and general office purchases such as supplies.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Issuing purchase orders whether written or verbal is the same as writing a check from your company to the vendor . Whether your company makes many purchases or only a few each one represents money leaving your company that should be controlled.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A Purchasing System should record every purchase order issued. This provides accountability of who is issuing purchase orders and where they are being sent to. By making people accountable for the purchase orders they issue you will ensure they are more careful with the purchases they make.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When goods or services are received they should be matched up to the original purchase order to ensure that you have received the full order, more than was ordered or if items are still to be received.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When the Vendor Invoice is received it should be matched up to the original purchase order to check that the prices on the invoice match the prices that were approved on the purchase order. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Vendor Invoice should also be matched up to the receipt of goods to ensure that the vendor is not billing you for more goods than you actually received.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Our industries are so job based it is often a good idea to take a step back and view purchases by vendor and employees issuing POs.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By ensuring your company follows these procedures you can tighten your financial control of another aspect of your business to ensure you are maximizing the success of your company. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-41266599935866392562017-04-28T09:58:00.000-07:002017-04-28T09:58:23.868-07:00MINING FOR DATA GOLD<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">By Mark Porter</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Job Costing - whether done via time sheets or shop floor data collection is the process of tracking every minute of every day of each machine and employee. This not only allows us to get accurate costing of how much each job actually cost us to produce but also allows us to analyze all aspects of our operations.<br /><br />How much of employee John's Smith time last quarter was chargeable(rebilled) and how much was non chargeable. How many hours did we spend repairing that old Kluge press last year. Collecting shop floor data allows you to easily find this information out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">This type of information can allow you to control your labor costs and make more informed decisions regarding the machines in your company </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">We can extend this further if we start to track characteristics of jobs. For example what was the average running speed on 28x40 sheets of 10pt coated stock 2 up on the Bobst press. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">How much time did we spend waiting for Customer ABC to do press oks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">This type of information can help with providing more accurate estimates. This is very important because if we are quoting a job at 3000 per hour when we are only achieving 2500 on the shop floor we are losing money as soon as we get the order. Conversely if we quote at 2500 per hour and are actually achieving 3000 on the shop floor we are losing jobs we could be producing profitably.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">You do not have to be limited by the analysis our software allows you to do. All this data can be sent to excel where you can sort and analyze the data in ways that answer questions that are specific to your company.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">There is a wealth of information happening in your plant every day. You simply need to start collecting it and analyzing it to help you improve productivity and profitability</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-8981365474215132642017-03-30T05:36:00.000-07:002017-03-30T05:36:02.810-07:00Turn Problems into Positives<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;">By Mark Porter</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">As the old saying goes "When life gives you lemons make lemonade". This can be applied to the daily problems you encounter in your business.<br /><br />Software can help documenting and recording problems provides several benefits to your company and you can actually turn problems around to strengthen relationships with customers, vendors, employees and improve operating procedures.<br /><br />Providing employees easy entry of information such as Job Number, Customer, Vendor, Employee, Department, Problem Type (Paper, MR, etc), Quantity effected, Problem Description, Problem Solution etc allows you to sort and analyze problems which can provide many benefits such as:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial";"><strong><em>Don't Make The Same Mistake Twice<br />Becomes a Database of Problems and Solutions<br />Improve Relationships With Customer/Vendors/Employees<br />Documenting Problems Minimizes Damage</em></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><strong><em><br /></em>1. Don't Make The Same Mistake Twice </strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial";">Another old saying goes "Your not stupid for making a mistake just for making the same mistake twice."<br /><br />By recording problems against jobs you can be immediately notified when re quoting or rerunning that job of the issues incurred last time. At the estimate stage it allows you to re quote the job based on the previous information or at Order Entry you have the option to not proceed with the job if the customer is not willing to incur the extra costs this time around.<br /><br /><strong>2. Becomes a Database of Problems and Solution</strong></span><span style="font-family: "arial";"><em><strong>s</strong></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial";">Recording problems and solutions builds a knowledge base that can be accessed by employees in the future. By entering the problems with data such as department, problem type employee etc allows us to shorten the solution time to similar problems in the future.<br /><br />Combine this with the ability to add video and images of the problems/solutions to the database and you can learn from your previous mistakes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><strong><br /></strong></span> <span style="font-family: "arial";"><strong>3. Improve Relationships With Customer/Vendors/Employees</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial";">Generate a list of problems you have with good customers each quarter and then discuss those issues and offer solutions with the customer. Continually refining the working relationship between your company and customers allows you to produce higher quality, better priced and better serviced products for them. This strengthens the bond with that customer ensuring it takes a bigger mistake or price difference for them to take their business elsewhere.<br /><br />The same logic applies to vendors and employees. By discussing issues with people you strengthen the working relationships to the betterment of your company.<br /><br />Trends can be seen with employees and certain operations. Say an employee is always having problems with MR a certain product. Additional training can be provided. Trends with Vendor materials continually causing problems can be identified and rectified.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial";"><strong>4. Documenting Problems Minimizes Damage</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial";">If nothing else documenting problems can save money and relationships in the event of disputes. The more documentation you have the more you reinforce your position to the other party in a constructive and articulate way. This can reduce or eliminate your liability and open the possibility to future business.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">So next time you make mistake make your company stronger for the experience</span>Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-52158071786674359692017-02-23T09:12:00.004-08:002017-02-23T09:13:06.763-08:00CASH IS KING<div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">By Mark Porter</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Controlling your cash is vital in todays economy but you are probably also under staffed and over worked - a perfect combination that can lead to missing items that can greatly effect your cash flow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Therefore it is vital that you have the check and balances built into your operations that will help avoid bad customers, missed charges, paying too much to vendors and maintaining cash flow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We are not going to look at this topic from the accounting side. We will assume that everyone has an accounting system such as Quickbooks or Peachtree etc and is watching their aging process (the accounts not themselves). We will deal with the management side in this Blog.</span><br />
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<em><strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Avoid Bad Customers</span></strong></em></div>
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<em><strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Chargeable Changes</span></strong></em></div>
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<em><strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Start Your Aging As Soon As Possible</span></strong></em></div>
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<em><strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Don't Miss Any Jobs (Shipped Not Invoiced)</span></strong></em></div>
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<em><strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Other Production Tips</span></strong></em><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u><strong>Avoid Bad Customers:</strong></u> Debt from one Bad Customer can wipe out profit from a lot of Good Jobs so it is vital that you stay on top of COD and delinquent customers. These days this information can be continually changing and it is important that everyone is aware of a customer's status. There is nothing worse then shipping a job to a customer on COD before getting the money or calling a customer to tell them you are holding their job back only to find out they sent you a check earlier.<br /><br />Allowing Management to make credit decisions on customers and to convey that decision immediately to other staff is very important. Management can simply flag a customer as COD or On Hold and immediately order entry people cannot open orders without a security password and shipping people cannot create packing slips without a security password.<br /><br /><br /><strong><u>Chargeable Changes:</u></strong> Profit margins on jobs are so thin these days that any extra work can turn a job from money maker to money loser. It is vital that you track your chargeable changes and collect them from your customer. Implement a system that will document all changes made to the order from the time you agree to do the job until you ship that job to the customer. The changes should be Date / Time / Employee and Reason stamped. Change Orders should be sent and immediately email notification to the customers of the changes. These changes should be immediately reflected on the invoice but allow for changes at that time.<br /><br />If you keep record of every change and document the reasons for the changes you will collect your legitimate extra fees.<br /><br /><strong><u>Start Your Aging As Soon As Possible:</u></strong> We all know that customers are going to take their time paying you whether that is 30, 60, 90, 120 days so the sooner you can start the clock the better. When you generate your physical invoice automatically email a pdf copy of it to your customer at the same time. This avoids any delay in mailing invoices and allows you to collect your money days earlier.<br /><br />Customers will want your invoice asap so that they can bill their customers and keep their cash flow going. You may not get your money any sooner but you will become a more desirable vendor for them.<br /><br /><u><strong>Don't Miss Any Jobs:</strong></u> Reduced staffs and hurried work schedules can lead to people doing things they forget about. Maybe a job is shipped and then your plant manager pulls the Job Bag to write something on it and then forgets to but it back in the billing file. Or maybe the job bag fell behind the shippers desk. The end result is a shipped job that isn't billed at all or billed at a much later date when it is found which is uncomfortable and embarrassing.<br /><br />Run reports each Friday that provide a list of jobs shipped but not invoiced. Don't let any hard earned money slip through your fingers.<br /><br /><u><strong>Don't Over Pay Purchases:</strong></u> Everyone makes mistakes including suppliers but you shouldn't have to pay for their mistakes. By issuing POs, recording receipts and entering Vendor Invoices you can be instantly flagged when the invoice price varies from the PO and the Quantity billed exceeds the Quantity received. You work hard for your money don't give it away to suppliers.</span></div>
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Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-14693023499096404972017-01-24T09:39:00.004-08:002017-01-24T09:39:49.356-08:00Customer Profiling Leads to Customer Profits<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12px;">By Mark Porter</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial";">It has always been important to treat every customer as if they are your best customer. These days it is even more important that all customers are handled with the greatest of care.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">There is no room for error because there is always another company down the street willing to pounce on your mistakes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Great customer service does many good things</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">1. Avoid embarrassing Mistakes that lose Customers</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">2. Avoid re-doing work that costs you money</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">3. Avoid Production Delays that cost money and miss deadlines</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">4. Fends off competition that is willing to do a job for slightly less than your price.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">The problem is that part of great customer service is knowing all the different details on how a customer likes to operate. What we call the Customer Profile.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">This is often a knowledge base accumulated in a CSR or owner's head that cannot be easily dispersed to other members of your staff.</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">Samples of this type of information are:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Must have PO to Start Job</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Must provide 2 samples to President</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">No Deliveries after 5pm, must use their truck</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Dies for Bobst Press must use 3pt rule, Birch Board, Red Rhino Rubber</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Never more than 35lbs per carton</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Always Wrap skids</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">By making this knowledge base accessible to all staff members it means that Good Customer Service is not dependant on the availability of one person.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">When a database of this knowledge or Customer Profile is accumulated it can be accessed by:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><strong><em>Estimating</em></strong> - Ensuring they have all details at the beginning of the estimate avoids embarrassing extra charges or worse additional costs you can't get back when the job is produced.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><strong><em>Order Entry</em></strong> - Access to the Customer Profile when a job is opened ensures production has a solid foundation to produce a profitable job. Changes to jobs once production begins leads to costs, production delays and missed deadlines.</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><strong><em>Production</em></strong> - Production Employee access to the Customer Profile allows staff to make educated decisions on situations that occur in non office hours or when the CSR or owner are not available.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><strong><em>Administration</em></strong> - Office Staff can work with clients in terms of samples, deliveries invoices etc exactly as the customer demands.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><strong><em>Sales </em></strong>- Your knowledge base of customers can be a sales tool to gain more customers. When you do your plant tours and show prospects the equipment and employees that will produce their jobs, show a sample of the knowledge base and help support your claims of quality and customer service.</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">Companies find the Customer Profiling so important that the knowledge base is employee and date stamped whenever a change is made to it. This provides complete accountability to your customer service process.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Accumulating Customer Profile Information and making it accessible throughout your company leads to accumulating Customer Profits.</span><br />
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-7101714296842972312016-11-29T04:42:00.000-08:002016-11-29T04:42:09.498-08:00KNOWING WHATS NOT HAPPENING IS IMPORTANT TOO <span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;">By Mark Porter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial";">Information is obviously very valuable because it identifies what is happening in your business.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">For example how many estimates did you do last month. What did it cost you to run that job. How much revenue was generated by different job types. etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">But Information can also provide tremendous value by telling you what is not happening in your business.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">We often call these Exception Reports. They identify things that didn't or aren't happening in your company and this can be invaluable information.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Lets look at some examples.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">What if every Friday afternoon you could get a list of all jobs shipped last week but not billed. This information can be determined very quickly and avoids the potential situation of losing revenue or the embarassement of billing a customer much later when the mistake is evetually discovered.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">You can also avoid the even more embarrassing situation of Jobs Billed but Not Shipped.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">Another example of identifying things that are not happening in your business can be in the area of No Recent Estimates or No Recent jobs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">You can identify when a customer is starting to move his business to another supplier. The sooner your company can identify this trend the greater your chance of correcting the situation and gaining back the customer's confidence and revenue.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">It is great to know what jobs were shipped today but it is just as important to know which jobs were scheduled to be shipped to day and weren't.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Won/Loss Estimate Reports not only tell you the customers and job types you are doing well with but also identify customers and job types that are fading and again allowing you to identify that trend as soon as possible so that you can take corrective action.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">It is always good to know what goods you received today but it is tremendous value to know as soon as possible which goods didn't show up. Goods that didn't arrive on time threaten delivery times and throw off production schedules.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">Knowing which employees on the first shift clocked in can be useful but the real value is identifying how many and which employees didn't clock in so that you can adjust the production schedule accordingly or call in more help.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";">It is great to know which dies were used but it is also good to know which dies have not been used in the last 2 years so that they can be destroyed or sent back to the customer.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">So we can see that Information can bring tremendous benefits by telling you what is happening in your business but it can also bring tremendous benefit by telling you what is not happening in your business</span>Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-42071670298377557552016-10-19T08:30:00.000-07:002016-10-19T08:30:48.343-07:00Greater Focus Leads to Greater Profits<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;">By Mark Porter</span><br />
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I was reading an old article on the history of Estimating Software in the Printing Industry and found a very interesting fact that could benefit the Finishing/Binding and Diemaking Industries.<br />
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<strong><em>According to the NAQP (National Association of Quick Printers) in 2007 on average companies using estimating software reported $47,000 more in owner's compensation then those using manual estimating systems.</em></strong><br />
<strong><em><br /></em></strong>The estimating software forced the owners to look at their true costs of producing different jobs and this allowed them to identify and focus on the type of work they did most profitably.<br />
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I think this lesson can be applied to any job oriented manufacturing business whether it is printing, finishing, binding or diemaking.<br />
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The more you can focus your efforts and production resources on specific products the more profitable your business will be.<br />
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If you were to make a graph of all jobs you did in a given year and make the verticle bar PROFIT and the horizontal bar JOBS and then place a dot on the graph for each job based on its profitability.<br />
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The dots above the horizontal line would be profitable the ones below would be not. We must minimize the types of jobs that fall below the line and maximize the type of jobs that appear above the line.<br />
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By identifying what distinguished the most profitable jobs the companies could try to replicate those conditions to get more and more of their jobs into this category.</div>
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Estimating not only helps you identify your true costs but it also allows you to analyze estimates to ensure you maintain your market advantages in the profitable products.</div>
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Won/Loss reports based on product type helps you monitor your valued markets against potential competition.</div>
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Won/Loss based on customers allow you to ensure that customers are staying happy with your service.</div>
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Daily listings of estimates to follow up ensures you don't lose any of your high profit jobs for stupid reasons.</div>
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Estimate listings by salesreps ensure that they are chasing the profitable work.</div>
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When I look at our customers the most successful ones are allways the ones with specific markets and product niches.</div>
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<div>
One of the most impressive things I have heard in an estimating department is "NO BID" because the quote did not fall into their desired product mix.</div>
</div>
</div>
Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-75734313449505369752016-09-15T08:00:00.004-07:002016-09-15T08:00:57.330-07:00Profitability Begins with the Quote<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;">By Mark Porter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">Communications with a customer is vital to the success and profitability of any job and that communications begins before you get the job and even before you get the PO. Communication for the success of a job begins with the estimate. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />The communication from the customer regarding the specifications of the job starts the process and is obviously very important but the key interaction between you and your customer, that often determines the success of a job, is your presentation of the quote.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />I have seen many methods of presenting prices to customers that range from simply writing the price on the original specifications received from the customer and faxing it back to very detailed letters with bold and underlined references.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />The reality is that the more detail the better. Any room for misunderstanding can be interpeted by customers intentially or unintentially in a manner that results in a damaged relationship with your customer and/or you spending more money on the job then you intended.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />A good quote will</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />1. Present a Professional Image</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />A good quote should present a professional image to your customer. A price scribbled on a fax not only reflects negatively on the quality standards of your company but can also provide second thoughts to your customer on large jobs.<br />The print/packaging estimator has to consider his accountability should this job go wrong. I price scribbled on paper will not put him in good standing to his boss when he tries to justify his decisions. Nor will it invoke confidence to entrust your company with a valuable project.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />2. Clearly define the job you are providing</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />A good quote will clearly define the components of the job. The number of pages, bind type, fold/glue configuration, color of foil, type of rule etc. There should be no misunderstanding of the exact product you are delivering.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />3. Clearly define the services you are providing</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />A good quote will clearly define the services you are providing for the cost presented. This is very important as it will provide an opportunity to requote if you mis understood the job and included or left out certain processes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />4. Clearly State What is expected from Customer</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />The quote should also clearly state what is expected from the customer. If you are assuming that the customer is providing certain materials and providing those materials in certain ways by placing this information on the quote the customer can confirm or deny those assumptions before the job begins.</span><span style="font-family: "arial";"></span><span style="font-family: "arial";">5. Allow for Special Instructions</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />Your quote should contain any special instructions or requirements you have for certain jobs. Ideally these instructions should be initiated when certain processes are selected from the estimate, allow you to pick from a list of common special instructions and type in specific instructions for unique jobs. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />6. Present Pricing as Requested </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />Don't make your customer work to get the pricing he wants. If he wants certain processes broken out or he wants an each price instead of per M you should provide the quotation in that format.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />7. Original Date</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />Clearly indicate the date this quote was origianlly provided so that your 30/60 day validation period cannot be extended.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />8. The Quote should be Generated Automatically </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />Taking time to rewrite the estimate numbers into a format to present to the customer takes valuable time and represents potential errors from transposition and ommission mistakes. The quote should be automatically generated from the estimate.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />9. Deliver Quote in Requested Format </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />If your customer want their quotes emailed and you fax it you are starting the process in a negative manner. Your quotes should be deliverable quickly and easily in the manner specific to each customer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />10. Track Quotes for Follow up and Analysis</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><br />Track desirable quotes to ensure you don't lose them for stupid reasons like " we gave you a big job 2 days ago we didn't think you could handle this as well", " we didn't think you could perform that process" or " I seem to have lost your quote".<br />Analyze estimates for won/loss, customer activity and much more valuable information</span>Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-60084852719518152702016-08-24T09:37:00.001-07:002016-08-24T09:37:21.322-07:00More Accurate Estimating Standards Lead to Greater Profits<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11px;">By Mark Porter</span></span><br />
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Often standards that are used in post press industry estimating are developed for the sake of expediency. It is vital that customers get their quotes quickly and therefore in order to meet that need owners and estimators have taken their knowledge and condensed it into simplier factors.<br />
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This is seen in many processes when standards such as $3 per M are applied or if the cost for running the process includes material. An example is laminating where say the cost of $125 per M includes the laminate.<br />
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This may get the price to your customer quickly but does it maximize your chances of making money on the job or minimize your risk of losing the job because your price is too high.<br />
If your method of estimating does not allow you to take into account different conditions and materials then you maybe getting the pricing to your customer quickly but you are greatly reducing your chances of maximizing your profits.<br />
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Let's look at a couple of examples to see how changes in conditions or materials can dramatically change the price of a quote.<br />
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In a previous issue we talked about estimating cutting and we used the example of cutting sheets of 60lb and 100lb paper.<br />
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Lets say that we had settled on a price of $12 per M sheets cut because we didn't have time to look up calipers, calculates sheets per lift, number of cuts etc. On our 5000 sheets cut 2 out we would have gotten 5 x $12 per M or $60. As per our example though the 60lb stock would have cacluated to $50 and the 100lb stock would have been $75. This is a $10 to $15 dollar swing on 5000 or a $100 to $150 swing on 50000. The variances get greater with thicker and thinner stocks and based on the number of peces cut out.<br />
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Lets look at a laminating example where material is included in the running price. On a 10000 sheet run of a 19x25 sheet at $125 per M we would calculate $1250.<br />
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But the laminate material could vary from 1.2mil Gloss Polyproplene at $.065 per MSI to 1.2mil Matte Polyester at $.300 per MSI. The cost difference is significant.<br />
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If we say the labor cost is 10000 shts / 2000 speed = 5 hours x $100 / hr that is $500 in labor plus our material cost for 1.2mil gloss polyproplene is $309 (19x25x10000/1000x$.065) and the 1.2mil matte polyester is $1425 (19x25x10000/1000x$.300).<br />
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This now gives us a swing of $1250 - $ 809(500+309) = $441 limiting our chance to get the job or $1250 - $1925(500+1425) = $675 in loss on the job.<br />
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The more accurate your standards the better your chances are of maximizing profitability. If your estimating method compromises profits for the sake of speed you should examine your estimating methods.Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-62806591436679953802016-07-25T06:31:00.001-07:002016-07-25T06:31:11.890-07:00CHARGEABLE EXTRAS A SIGNIFICANT REVENUE STREAM<div align="left">
<span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">By Mark Porter</span></span><br />
<span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When was the last time you produced a job without any changes ? Are you capturing the revenues for these legitimate extra charges or are they falling through the cracks ?. If not more revenue then at least avoid costs. If a job is changed during production and you did not collect the extra revenue for the change then you propably incurred more cost. </span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Finishers/Binderies provide quotes for customers and customers submit orders. The normal process is to ensure that the job submited and the quote provided are significantly similar that you can approve the production of the job. Once that approval has been given any customer driven changes to the order should be chargable. But how do you track these changes and bill your customer so that they feel compelled to pay but more importantly allow you to collect the charges without damaging your relationship with that customer. </span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You must follow a procedure to record all changes to jobs, chargable and non chargable, to ensure that that nothing falls between the cracks and is forgotten. But just recording changes will not allow you to collect your legitimate extra charges. The changes must be documented as to date, time, employee and reason the changes were made to provide the maximum support for your claims. </span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Documentation is not enough. The changes must be communicated to the customer at the time they are requested. The changes must be recorded as having been submited in writing to the customer, warned that they were chargable and that a price was quoted. </span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When the job is completed a full listing of all changes should be supplied to your employee in charge of invoicing. They can then decide which charges should be accepted, changed or deleted . The invoicing decisions are determined and the invoice is submited to your customer. If the customer questions these extra charges you can support your claims by providing the customer with the who, what where, why and costs details.</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="font-size: x-small; color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hopefully your customer will start to provide you with better information when the jobs are first submited. Either way your company is in a better position because you are either collecting legitimate extra charges or avoiding the additional costs of providing those changes without charging for them</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"></span> </div>
Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-38617080102160672702016-06-29T03:36:00.002-07:002016-06-29T03:36:50.467-07:00ESTIMATING:VALUABLE NUMBERS TO YOUR CUSTOMERS ... AND YOU!<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">By Mark Porter</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When your customers require a quote you take the time to calculate an estimate that they can use to make decisions regarding their company but you are also generating numbers that can be valuable to your company.<br /><br />Everytime you generate an estimate you can be tracking numbers that can provide your own company with valuable information that can predict future work and predict future trends.<br /><br />By reviewing and analyzing your estimates you can find desirable jobs, future business, changes in market conditions and monitor your customer base.<br /><br />Every week you should review the estimates that you generated. Look for desirable jobs that you can follow-up. Whether it is a quantity level or a price level - flag these jobs and follow up these estimates to ensure you don't lose the order for a bad reason.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All companies have a won\loss ratio for the estimates they do. If you monitor the number of estimates you do each week it can be a predictor of how busy you will be in the future.<br /><br />All companies specialize in and perform different types of work at different levels of success. Tracking estimates each week by job type can further strengthen your predictions of production levels in the future. If 80% of your estimates last week were for work you typically don't get - you may have a production slow down in the near future if you don't increase your sales effort now.<br /><br />Won / Loss ratios should be monitored for Customers, Job Types and Sales people. Tracking your won / loss statistics can provide important information such as who are your best customers. Tracking won/loss by Job Type can indicate where your company excels. A shrinking won / loss ratio for a product you typically do well on could indicate a competitor is reducing their pricing.<br /><br />Won / Loss ratios by Salesperson can indicate if the salerep is targeting their efforts on the type of work your company does well.<br /><br />Tracking estimate activity can not only tell you who is giving you estimates but also who is not. This is especially true for your good customers. Monitoring information such as no recent estimates can indicate if a customer is starting to shift work to another finisher / binder and provide you time to try to correct the situation. This is especially true of your good customers. 80% of revenue comes from 20% of customers - you must stay on top of these good customers.<br /><br />Finally ask questions like when will this job be awarded and then track estimates each day. Find the desirable estimates each day and stay on top of these quotes. Don't lose highly valuable jobs because the printer didn't think you had the capabilities or capacity or simply lost your quote behind his desk</span>Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-24328453541837943542016-05-31T06:09:00.000-07:002016-05-31T06:15:20.490-07:0080% OF REVENUE COMES FROM 20% OF CUSTOMERS <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">By Mark Porter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In most businesses the majority of sales come from a minority of customers. It is vital that businesses service these good accounts to the best of their ability and tracks these customers so they can know immediately if the customer is becoming dissatisfied with the company or its products and services.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We often use the 80/20 rule - that 80% of revenue comes from 20% of customers but I was talking to one owner recently that stated 90% of his business came from 10% of his customers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The loss of one of these customers can be a big blow to a company so it is vital that you do everything possible to manage these accounts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First you must identify these accounts - which most people can do through their sales records. Once you identify these customers you must make the process of working with your company so easy that it will take a major price difference or a major mistake for them to take their business elsewhere.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This can begin with convenience. Providing information such as Was my job shipped ?, What quantity did we order last time ?, Are my samples ready ? 24/7 allows the customer to work on his timetable and saves him and you a great deal of time. The internet is excellent for this.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Building customer profiles of the exact needs of each customer ensures work is done correctly every job and saves time looking for information. Problem Histories can be pulled and discussed with the customer on a monthly, quarterly basis to build relationships and ensure future jobs are run smoothly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Provide email updates when events happen in your plant that effects these customers, Keeping customers fully informed builds relationships and reduces problems.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Monitoring customers requests for estimates and orders can ensure that you are notified of a customers growing dissatisafaction before it is too late to salavage the relationship. If you normally get 20 estimates a month from a customer and you only received 5 last month -get on the phone and find out why.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And we always want to add more good accounts so monitor Won/Loss estimate records or Jobs per month. There may be a customer whose sales volume is not sufficient to get your attention yet but maybe their won/loss record is high, their jobs are large run and we get a decent markup on their jobs. - cultivate that account and they may become part of your 80/20 group.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.dienamicmis.com/single-video-hint?vid_id=hHhG3R3_KQM"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">BRIEF ONLINE CUSTOMER INQUIRY DEMO</span></a>Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-74734376863876312292016-04-29T03:19:00.000-07:002016-04-29T03:19:03.855-07:00IF YOU DON'T KNOW YOUR COSTS HOW DO YOU KNOW YOUR PROFITS<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In our last issue we discussed the concept that Selling and Estimating are two different functions. We outlined the idea that it is vital that all Print Finishers know their true costs so they can make more educated selling decisions. True costs have two components - the machine speeds and makeready times and the true costs of the production assets to produce the work. Most Post Press Companies have a very good idea of the speeds and Makeready times that their production assets can obtain. Where most post press companies are weak is in determining the true cost of those assets on an hourly basis.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Direct Material and Direct Labor costs are easy to identify but how much of your monthly rent and telephone bill should be applied to each job. Because the post press industry is a job oriented manufacturing business, meaning every job is different, we must have a predetermined Budgeted Hourly Rate(BHR) with the proper allocation of factory and administrative overheads that can be applied to all jobs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You should have all the information readily available that is required to determine your BHRs. Employees wages and benefits, which equipment they operate, what you paid for equipment, the square footage the machine occupies on the factory floor your factory overheads and administrative overheads. Once you have this data your accountant or software can apply proper accounting principles and graphic arts ratios to calculate accurate hourly cost rates.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Having accurate and current BHR's is the first step to generating higher profits. These rates reflect the all-inclusive or fully absorbed costs of doing business, and should be adjusted as events unfold which may change the costs of operating the business. Buying or selling equipment, working different productivity levels, giving raises or changing shifts are a few examples of events that can affect the true cost per hour of your production assets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Providing your clients with prices that are guaranteed to generate profits is only possible when all of your full operational costs are reflected in your pricing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dienamic can offer budgeted hourly rate software specifically for the post press marketplace. If you would like a basic demo please click on the link to the right.</span></div>
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Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5467330282141819816.post-57481756154895962152016-03-21T09:01:00.002-07:002016-04-29T03:20:23.556-07:00ONLY GOOD DELIVERY IS AN ON TIME DELIVERY<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Post Press companies and Die Making companies work under tremendous time restraints and deadlines. Post Press companies are the last in the Production Processes and are ususally the final stages before delivery to the customer. Diemakers provide dies to very expensive presses that when sitting idle waiting for a die are costing the company a great deal of money and leading to potential production delays. We are all constantly racing against the clock to meet the next deadline. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Software and Systems provide many ways in keeping delivery dates on time and ensuring customers are happy.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. Customer Profiles</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mistakes result in additional costs and missed deadlines.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Typically only the CSR or company owner knows exactly the ways a customer wants their jobs produced. By creating a company profile you make this information accessible to all employees 24/7. This ensures that jobs are produced correctly and on time. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">2. Customer Logos</span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Anything that can save time can help you meet a deadline. If you can ship direct to the end user by-passing the shipping back to the printer you can save time. To ensure that the delivery looks like it is coming from the printer you can place the Printer's logo on your packing documents. This can save on time deliveries resulting from your mistake or the printers mistake.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">3. Communications</span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">As with most problems or situations - communications is key to keeping the situation under control. Systems can provide key employees with information updates that ensure nothing is missed or falls behind. Systems automatically generating emails when</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">A. Jobs are opened - this ensures that the customer is made aware of your understanding of the specifications and requirements of the job so we base our delivery on correct information.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">B. Jobs are changed - Any change from the original specifications can cause possible missed deadlines. Ensure all key employees within your own organization and your customers are made aware of changes and their effect on the delivery date.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">C. Goods are Received - To meet tight deadlines there can be no wasted time. The delivery of printed sheets or punches that are simply taken off the truck and placed on the shop floor represents the loss of valuable production time. Systems that notify key employees as soon as goods enter your company can keep jobs on track.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">D. Goods are Shipped or are Ready to be Shipped. Notify your staff and the customers the minute a job is ready for shipment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">E. Display Expectations on documents. For example on your job ticket display the hours you have allowed for each process. If you estimated a 1.00 hr makeready and 4.50 hours in running time let the production employees know this so they can be aware if they are exceeding the requirements</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">4. 24/7 Customer Service</span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Using the internet you can provide customers with 24/7 access to your company. This allows customers to do many things themselves to ensure on time deliveries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">A. Check Job Statuses - At any time the customer can see the status of their job so that they can make decisions for themselves 24/7.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">B. Pre Open jobs themselves. If it is 9pm and the printer is finalizing a job they coulr pre open that job so that you are made aware of that job and receiving specs to begin work immediately and this can provide valuable extra hours to meet a tight deadline.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">C. Customers can pre enter materials bein sent to you. Even saving the 1-2 hours of time between the time the customer loads the materials on his truck and they are delivered to your door can allow you to make better production decisions to meet a customers delivery.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">5. On Going Customer and Employee Educaton</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Constantly educating your customers and employees as to the ways to best produce work in the fastest most economical way can help you meet more deadlines. By monitoring problems by job, customer, employee, process, vendor etc you can identify constant or potential road blocks to an on time delivery. By recording these issues you can sit down with the customer, employee, vendor or plant manager and discuss issues and how to rectify them</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">6. Monitoring Actual vs Estimate</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">It is vital that you are aware of the actual production standards that you are achieving on the shop floor and applying them to your estimating process. If you are estimating a process at 5000 per hour but are only achieving 4000 per hour on the shop floor then your schedule is off as soon as you win the job.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">7. Accountability on the Shop Floor</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">By tracking employees time, both chargable and non chargable, and the materials they use you are demanding accountability on the shop floor. The minute a person as to be accountable whether it is the President or the Floor Sweeper they will be more productive. More productive employees will get jobs done quicker and with higher quality.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">8. Monitor Success</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Track on time deliveries and analyze the results daily, weekly, monthly. Use the other tools listed above to find out why deadlines were missed and take the appropriate actions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Following these steps will help keep your company on track for a reputation of on-time deliveries.</span></div>
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Dienamic Softwarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07988043622863113661noreply@blogger.com0