Lowering the Margin for Error
December 16, 2008
“Profit margins are not the only things being squeezed in this challenging business environment: so is the margin for error.” That point was made in an article in the NAPL Business Review recently, and it ought to be every printer’s battle cry in these tough times.

It doesn’t mean we can eliminate errors. But it does mean we need to set up business practices that make errors less likely to occur. We can’t eliminate human imperfection, but we can set up systems that detect mistakes before they become costly. The further along in the process an error is caught, the more expensive it is to fix.

One approach to accomplishing that is to cut down on the number of times opportunities for errors present themselves. It is often said the fewer times you have human intervention, the fewer mistakes will be made. But, much more to the point, the system itself needs to be configured so human error is simply less likely to occur. The truth is, limiting human intervention also means limiting the opportunities to catch mistakes.

That means making instructions explicit and simple. And it means everything needs to be done in such a way that everything must be double checked. For example, it may mean the entry of numerical values should always be cross-referenced and double checked. Figures that are out of the normal ranges should automatically pop out and require approval. It’s not enough to tell a CSR or pre-press technician or cutter operator to double check their work: the cross-checking needs to be built into the process. Increasingly, software for print production is designed to errors are caught automatically and anything beyond the normal needs to be approved before it can go forward.

A simple example of this approach is found in pre-flighting software. Markzware’s flight-check can be set to toss out any files that appear to be problematic and require a technician to intervene before the job can continue. Enfocus PitStop can be set up not to only reject files with elements like hairline rules and unflattened transparency, but it can also fix such flaws automatically.

On the Printing Tools site, there are a number of solutions for lowering the margin for error for printers. Check it out at PRINTING TOOLS.

Posted by Stephen Beals on December 15, 2008