By Mark Porter
As companies continue to look for ways to cut costs and become leaner it is more important than ever to have information at your finger tips.
With less staff to do the things that need to be done - any search for information or dcuments can take away from important production tasks and may result in costly mistakes or missed delivery dates.
If you can reduce the amount of time you spend answering the same questions for customers each day your productivity and savings would dramatically increase.
Having information at your finger tips is great but sometimes the customers questions require access to the original documents and paper work. At that point you must get up and find the actual job bag and hope the documents have been correctly filed.
With scanners today it can be quick and affordable to store original documents in your computers for future access.
Ideas of documents you may want in your system are
Quote Sent to the Customer
It is great to know the price you sent the customer but if the customer calls with questions you will want to be looking at the same document he is looking at when you answer his questions.
Customer Fax You Based Estimate On
We all get the hand written drawing faxed or emailed to us which we base our estimate on so it would be great if the drawing was electronically attached to the estimate file so it could be referenced easily when questions arise about the quote
Original Customer PO
Questions arise regarding the customers original specifications or requirements that can only be answered by the Purchase Order supplied to you by the customer. Allowing access to the original purchase order on the screen without having to find the physical job bag can save time and avoid mistakes
Signed Packing Slip
Customers always want to know when and how their job was shipped but often they need to know who signed for the job. When your driver returns from his deliveries the signed packing slips can be entered into the system for easy reference later on.
Other Images
As they say a picture is worth a 1000 words and therefore it can be very beneficial to include images of other parts of the Production Process.
Other images and files that you should consider for quick access are die images, finished product images and video documentation of problems and training material.
Access images from your CAD/CAM system or scanning images of the die into the system gives all employees access to the specific information they need to produce the job correctly.
Images of the finished product can help in the production of job.
Video of problems encountered in the past and video of ways to preventing the same mistakes can reduce costs and keep schedules on track.
Making Videos of difficult job setups or less used features of equipment immediately available to employees can save vital production time.
Therefore we can see that technology that allows us to add or scan images into our computers and allows employees to quickly find those images can help companies save time and money.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
SOFTWARE SAVES MONEY: SMALL INVESTMENTS - BIG RETURNS
By Mark Porter
Well the summer is over and the fall is always a time to get re-energized. With the current news we are hearing it looks like there are more challanges waiting for businesses in the coming months.
Companies in the Print Finishing, Trade Binding and Die Making industries must continue to find ways to save money and increase revenue.
I think it is safe to say that software and computers are here to stay and they are an excellent way to achieve these goals.
Companies can get caught up in thinking they have to purchase a full MIS/ERP type system to see any benefits. Although full MIS/ERP systems can bring tremendous savings invidiual modules and programs can also provide tremendous benefit in reducing costs and/or increasing revenues.
Software such as gotomypc can give you access to your office computer 24/7 from any location you have access to the internet. The cost is approximately $20/month. How many trips do you have to save to the office each month to get a return on your initial investment.
Email blast software can allow you to reach your customers and potential customers very quickly. Software like this is often $20 or $30 per month. It does not have to generate many sales to provide an excellent ROI.
There are many Software APPs that can automate processes you require each day. Many apps are free or very low cost.
Individual Modules from full MIS/ERP systems can provide tremendous savings even if not fully integrated with the rest of the MIS/ERP system.
Customer Profile modules that captures the specific information for how each customer requires their jobs to be produced. Whether those jobs are Finishing, Binding or Die Making. The more informed your employees are the fewer mistakes they will make and that saves money.
Customer Profile $995 how many mistakes need to be avoided to return your investment.
Estimate History Programs can analyze estimates to see what type of work you are getting and losing. Track big desirable jobs to ensure you don't lose them for a stupid reason. 80% of revenue comes rom 20% of customers make sure your good customers aren't starting to look elsewhere.
Estimate History $995. How many large jobs do you need to win to return your investment
Order Entry programs can track changes to job after the job has been openned and can dat/time/employee and reason stamp the change to greatly increse your chances of collection legitimate extra charges.
Order Entry $1995. How many chargable extras do you need to collect to return your investment.
Purchasing modules can track POs, Receipts and Vendor Invoices. This provides and excellent cross check to ensure you only pay for what you have received and what you were quoted. How many wrongly billed items does it take to payback a purchasing system.
Purchasing $995. How many mistakes in Vendor Invoices do you have to catch to return your investment.
Receiving module for Customers dropping off Printed Goods. Emails notify you and your customer as soon as goods are delivered to your Shipping Dock.
Receiving Module $995. How many hours of lost production time because you were unaware goods were in your plant to you need to save to return your investment
Shipping programs that require a supervisor passwords to release the packing slip if the customer is on credit hold. Shipping Programs that allow you to put the Printers logo on your shipping documents that allow you to meet a tight deadline
Shipping $995. How many Jobs do you need to hold to return your investment
Die Mgmt modules allow users who have a large inventory of dies in their plant the ability to find these dies is often a time consuming if not time wasting exercise.
The result is remaking dies that already exist and that wastes thousands and thousands of dollars and cuts into profits.
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.
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......
Die Mgmt $995. How many dies do you need to avoid remaking and how much press down time do you need to save to return your investment.
Data Sharing allows you to account for every minute of every day and every material used in your plant. Accountability leads to greater productivity and less waste. Even a small 5% savings on $2,000,000 dollars of labor and material going through your plant results in a $100,000 savings. You also get productivity tracking, Chargable and Non Chargable hours and much more.
Data Sharing starts at $4995. How long will it tak you to return your investment
BHR modules calculate the true costs of your business. Now more then ever it is important to know your true costs. After all Profit = Sales - Cost. If you don't know your costs how do you know your profits.
BHR $1295. Knowing profitability on every job rather than year end can quickly return your investment.
When thinking software you don't have to think a full system to get tremendous benefits. Sometimes small investments bring Big Returns
Well the summer is over and the fall is always a time to get re-energized. With the current news we are hearing it looks like there are more challanges waiting for businesses in the coming months.
Companies in the Print Finishing, Trade Binding and Die Making industries must continue to find ways to save money and increase revenue.
I think it is safe to say that software and computers are here to stay and they are an excellent way to achieve these goals.
Companies can get caught up in thinking they have to purchase a full MIS/ERP type system to see any benefits. Although full MIS/ERP systems can bring tremendous savings invidiual modules and programs can also provide tremendous benefit in reducing costs and/or increasing revenues.
Software such as gotomypc can give you access to your office computer 24/7 from any location you have access to the internet. The cost is approximately $20/month. How many trips do you have to save to the office each month to get a return on your initial investment.
Email blast software can allow you to reach your customers and potential customers very quickly. Software like this is often $20 or $30 per month. It does not have to generate many sales to provide an excellent ROI.
There are many Software APPs that can automate processes you require each day. Many apps are free or very low cost.
Individual Modules from full MIS/ERP systems can provide tremendous savings even if not fully integrated with the rest of the MIS/ERP system.
Customer Profile modules that captures the specific information for how each customer requires their jobs to be produced. Whether those jobs are Finishing, Binding or Die Making. The more informed your employees are the fewer mistakes they will make and that saves money.
Customer Profile $995 how many mistakes need to be avoided to return your investment.
Estimate History Programs can analyze estimates to see what type of work you are getting and losing. Track big desirable jobs to ensure you don't lose them for a stupid reason. 80% of revenue comes rom 20% of customers make sure your good customers aren't starting to look elsewhere.
Estimate History $995. How many large jobs do you need to win to return your investment
Order Entry programs can track changes to job after the job has been openned and can dat/time/employee and reason stamp the change to greatly increse your chances of collection legitimate extra charges.
Order Entry $1995. How many chargable extras do you need to collect to return your investment.
Purchasing modules can track POs, Receipts and Vendor Invoices. This provides and excellent cross check to ensure you only pay for what you have received and what you were quoted. How many wrongly billed items does it take to payback a purchasing system.
Purchasing $995. How many mistakes in Vendor Invoices do you have to catch to return your investment.
Receiving module for Customers dropping off Printed Goods. Emails notify you and your customer as soon as goods are delivered to your Shipping Dock.
Receiving Module $995. How many hours of lost production time because you were unaware goods were in your plant to you need to save to return your investment
Shipping programs that require a supervisor passwords to release the packing slip if the customer is on credit hold. Shipping Programs that allow you to put the Printers logo on your shipping documents that allow you to meet a tight deadline
Shipping $995. How many Jobs do you need to hold to return your investment
Die Mgmt modules allow users who have a large inventory of dies in their plant the ability to find these dies is often a time consuming if not time wasting exercise.
The result is remaking dies that already exist and that wastes thousands and thousands of dollars and cuts into profits.
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.
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......
Die Mgmt $995. How many dies do you need to avoid remaking and how much press down time do you need to save to return your investment.
Data Sharing allows you to account for every minute of every day and every material used in your plant. Accountability leads to greater productivity and less waste. Even a small 5% savings on $2,000,000 dollars of labor and material going through your plant results in a $100,000 savings. You also get productivity tracking, Chargable and Non Chargable hours and much more.
Data Sharing starts at $4995. How long will it tak you to return your investment
BHR modules calculate the true costs of your business. Now more then ever it is important to know your true costs. After all Profit = Sales - Cost. If you don't know your costs how do you know your profits.
BHR $1295. Knowing profitability on every job rather than year end can quickly return your investment.
When thinking software you don't have to think a full system to get tremendous benefits. Sometimes small investments bring Big Returns
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