Just last month I spent some time with a customer out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. You know, Cedar Rapids, the city that was underwater last year from a devastating flood that the Army Corp of Engineers said was impossible. Bimm Ridder Sportswear is one of many companies that, through tremendous perseverance, hard work and a little help from industry friends, is recovering from that tragedy. One year ago the entire production floor, including the presses and dryers, was completely underwater. Today they are rockin’ and rollin’. A wonderful story, indeed.

At some point I’ll share it in detail with our readers. But for now, I asked the company’s production manager and part owner Dave Filip to share his thoughts on my “How-To Book” assignment: how to staff and organize the screen-printing production floor for optimal production efficiency. Here is what we came up with through our discussions.

Yes, screens are of critical importance, but if it takes you forever to get them properly set-up on press, they can still be losing you money. According to the author, a quality pre/pin-registration system is the only way to go.

Dialed-in, at all times

How many people to staff a press? The simple answer would be three, right? Loader, unloader and catcher. But let’s consider that. The days of getting those 5,000- or 10,000-piece runs are all but gone for most of us. Spending an hour (or half a day, as the case may be) setting up a job that’s going to run for a few days just doesn’t happen all that often any more. Shorter runs have become the norm in many shops; running 36- and 48-piece runs is nothing new, manual or automatic.

It is more important than ever to try to make everything go quick and smooth, from the first screen in to the last screen out, and it’s not dumb luck that makes this happen. But the idea is to make a little profit along the way.

Unfortunately, we can’t simply consider the press and its set-up when we are looking at staffing needs. Every step of the screen-printing process has to be analyzed, the key word being “process.” We are only as efficient as the least efficient link within that process. As cliché as it may sound, every step of the process is the most important part. The equipment, materials and supplies are certainly important. And, of course, we must have competent, reliable and well trained employees—our most important asset.

So, while we can’t simply consider the press, we will begin there. We’ve all done our homework (or at least we should have) and bought the best press(es) we can justify. They should do their jobs day in and day out but, of course, you have to take care of them. We know that while they are spinning we generate revenue. However, when they don’t spin they do nothing but cost us money. Downtime is the enemy.

Along with the maintenance schedule set by the manufacturer, there are a few other things to consider. Be it a manual or an automatic, the press must be “dialed-in” at all times. It must be plumb; that is, the center shaft perpendicular to the floor. The platens all have to be on the same plane with each other, and that plane must be parallel to the frame holders, which are also all on their own same plane. The off-contact (distance between printing surface of platen and print side of screen) needs to be consistent from platen to platen and head to head. Depending on the press and standards, this distance may be measured to hundredths or even thousandths of an inch. The tools used may be as simple as coins, or as high-tech as a $3,000 gauge. This distance will be decided as the standards are set internally.

The importance of screens

The screens are the most important part of the process. After all, we are screen printers involved in the screen-printing process. One of the most important things to keep in mind is that we want to have consistent tensions. We use and recommend retensionable frames; they should be religiously checked and re-tensioned until the mesh has been work-hardened and is stable. We have also worked with many mesh counts, thread diameters, and manufacturer-recommended tension levels, and have selected an assortment of recipes that fits our needs and, more important, that have similar ideal tension levels. This translates to fewer adjustments on press.

Most advanced pin-registration systems are in themselve miniature processes that enable separated art to be accurately and repeatably reunited on press with a minimum of effort, guesswork and luck . . . in order that the press can begin turning sooner.

The reclaim department is often considered “The Black Hole” but, as with every other step, this part of the process is just as important as any other. Perfect or near perfect screens don’t just happen. As with any other part of the process, you need the proper equipment, supplies and personnel to make great screens. Folks can do the job with a garden hose and bleach and rocket fuel—not the best way, for certain. It is advisable to invest in a good high-pressure washer and a proper chemical system.

Pinholes, too, can become a thing of the past with proper reclaim and some good housekeeping in pre-press. Use the right tools, chemicals, and people and you can make great screens. And great screens reduce downtime on press.

(Note: For a more-detailed discussion of screen making, turn to page 46.)

Production staging

Pre-registration systems are critical. If you don’t have one, get one; it’s an absolute must. We’re amazed when we hear someone say a six-color job took 45 minutes to set up. With a good pre-registration system this time may be cut in half.

There are several good systems available that will work for many presses. The initial investment may seem a bit steep, but crunch a few numbers and you can see how quickly it will pay for itself. In any process, a pre-reg system will require a commitment to use it correctly and reap the benefits. This my very well be the biggest time saver and money maker in our printing process, next to our commitment to the screen itself.

Staging of the screens, inks, squeegees, garments, proofs and work orders is important as well. Everything we need for the order (and next several orders) should be ready to go to the press. Ideally, we use press carts which hold the screens and materials for the next several jobs. The top of the cart holds inks, squeegees, floods, tools and so on. A clear pocket on the side might hold necessary paperwork and proof. The goods to be printed should also be near the press and staged properly. We want a set-up fixture for each press staged in the area. The set up person/people should never have to walk away from the press to get anything they need to get the job up and going.

Staffing the pit crew

The people, once again, are our most important asset. We must look at our presses as race cars. And, as with race cars, since we’re now dealing with shorter runs, the actual time “driving” isn’t really as important as the time we spend “in the pit.” Getting the press ready to run is the most vital part of the process. The car (press) is not going to run very well without tires (squeegees, floods, etc). We need plenty of tires in the pit. As stated, we’re not making money unless the press is turning. If you watch an auto race, what you will see is every member of the pit crew doing a very specific job on the vehicle in the pit. Not only are they doing a specific job, but they are the best on the team at that particular job. The gas man isn’t changing tires, nor is the tire changer jacking the car up. They know what they do best, and they do it.

We take the same approach. We have one or two people that do an excellent job on choosing print order, squeegee selection and, most important, registering and locking the screens in, and making any adjustments. Two other people have the job of either loading or unloading. Depending on the load at any given time, we have one or two others that are considered “floaters.” They are there to help the set-up people with whatever they need done. It could be mixing ink, laying out garments or just plain being a gofer. If we do get into a longer run, we also ask our floaters to make sure all the screens have enough ink. We don’t want the press operators to have to stop for anything. Also, everyone should be cross trained and, eventually, have the ability to do any and every part of the set-up, run or tear-down. Tear-down and change-over is often an overlooked part of the process. With cross training, we have the ability to have anyone do anything in case of absence. They may not do it quite as well as the regular person assigned to the task, but we can’t allow an absence to cripple production.

Consider staggering breaks and lunches. Have your floater stand in for the loader when it’s break time. When the loader returns, the person unloading goes on break and the floater is now the unloader. The same process can be used for lunches. Just because we give lunch and coffee breaks doesn’t mean production has to shut down. Doing the math of stopping production for breaks and lunches reveals a significant production loss over the course of a year.

Thinking ahead

Obviously, we can’t set up a new job until the last one is out of the way. Press carts should be used here as well. As soon as it is safe to do so, remove screens, squeegees and floods from the press and move to a clean-up area. This will open the press for the next set-up almost immediately. Have someone other than your set-up people take care of carding ink from screens, squeegees and floods. The carts can then deliver the inks to the ink room, screens to the reclaim department, and squeegees and floods to their cleaning area.

Proactive thinking is important to flexibility. Simply put, why not make tomorrow’s screens today? Or the next day’s, for that matter. This allows maximum flexibility as far as where (and when) each job will go. We want to be able to have a back-up job or two (or three) ready to go at all times, just in case there’s a problem with the scheduled job. And there will be. There always is.

We are constantly looking at our jobs and taking into consideration what colors will be on press, what size platens are on what press and so forth. At the end of every day (assuming only one or two shifts) we want to make sure the presses are set up and ready to go first thing in the morning. The rest of the day will go smoother if we hit the ground running.

No easy answers

Finally, let us now reconsider the original answer of three people to staff a press. It’s really about the number of people we have throughout the production department, and just a matter of how we choose to maximize their efforts. There really are no easy answers, are there?