Do Printers Believe in Continuous Improvement?
If the recent Printing Industries of America Continuous Improvement conference is any indicator, then I would say that printers are thinking about continuous improvement. And it is the fundamentals – setup reduction, mistake-proofing, cycle time reduction through elimination of non-value added tasks, etc. And like other industries, continuous improvement is prioritized differently company by company. I’ve seen smaller printers do one-off Kaizen events to tackle a specific issue (eliminating hand written job tickets) and other mid-sized printers with dedicated continuous improvement managers. In summary, I haven’t seen the economy impact this to a large extent. Although, as I read these posts, it appears that some companies are impacted.
