Make Changes to Keep Digital Workflow Profits Flowing

Short-run digital production requires some workflow changes for shops that previously specialized in long-run screen printing. This time of year is a shop's best opportunity to make changes that will pump up short-run digital production profits. February 01, 2010
By Chris Bernat, Contributing Writer

This time of year is the traditional off-season at apparel decorating shops — but it arguably should be the busiest time. An annual lull in production demand gives shop owners and manages the time to reevaluate processes, focus on quality improvement, streamline paperwork and test new workflow solutions. The post-holiday winter season gives decorators the time to prepare for a more profitable peak season.

Many shops have purchased, or are considering purchasing, digital garment printing technology. Whether you choose an inkjet-to-garment printer, a sublimation printer or set up a transfer paper solution, there are many things to consider. Traditional long-run shop layout, quality control, order taking and staging need to be evaluated. Finding leaks in a system can be the difference between being profitable and hating your new machine every time the lease comes due.

When evaluating your digital workflow, remember that you will have a lot of orders made up of extremely small unit counts. While orders for as few as six, 12 or 15 units are not uncommon; these can be some of the most profitable shirts each week if the workflow is efficient.

A shop layout designed around long run printing has to be altered for digital. Smooth digital workflow requires additional steps and tools; otherwise chaos is imminent. Ask yourself, “Does the layout of my shop provide a clear productive atmosphere?” Spatial organization can be the difference between good and great workflow.

General Workflow Review#
There needs to be clearly defined areas designated for the different parts of the process. Additionally, there are different areas where you will need additional quality control (QC) steps to ensure quality and limit fallout in production. Everyone understands that shirts need to be staged, printed and packaged, regardless of order size. However, digital production requires more attention to detail at each step to ensure profitability.

In digital production, a clean staging zone is the first area of importance. All digital printing processes require a high level of quality control and this starts with the blank garments. Blanks contaminated by dust and dirt almost certainly will mean a high number of defects in the run. Since contaminants can sublimate into a garment as well as ink, care needs to be taken when unpacking and stacking garments to avoid time-consuming cleaning procedures. Things like lint rollers, foam kits and other digital accessories need to be built into your system.

Customer demands are constantly changing and the short cycle time from art creation to finished product will force your shop to make your production process as modular as possible. For example, in a particular week you may run just 15 jobs, each consisting of six to 12 shirts each. Inevitably, a customer will call while you are printing and request a change of shirt color, a different quantity or ask to move the delivery date up to "5 minutes from now!"

If you are staging all the shirts for these 90 to 180 shirts on one cart, you will have to handle and re-handle the shirts in order to accommodate these changes. Using a bin or large envelope system to manage staging for small digital jobs allows you to change the order of prints and quantities without the risk of contaminating the shirts again.

Ensure all prints match by hanging a target garment near the printer or heat press so your operator can compare each subsequent print. There are so many variables in digital, such as misfired nozzles, heat fluctuation on press and alignment errors on the part of the heat press operator. Target garments are a simple way to keep production in line.

Recognize where you need to add QC processes. Know the difference between a QC scrap and a QC save.

A QC scrap is when you recognize an error in printing that cannot be solved. When a sublimated error is found on a printed shirt, there are no ways of saving this garment. On the other hand, a QC save is an opportunity to stop an error from moving to the next stage. For example, inspecting the sublimation transfer paper just before pressing is an opportunity for a QC save. While you may have to replace the paper print, you are not going to eat the cost of the garment or time wasted in reproducing the entire piece. For digital garment printing, focusing QC at the end of production will never be enough. For an historically analog team — these details can prove challenging.

Batching production in the digital world is one of the most profitable actions you take in 2010. There will always be instances where you need to run a job immediately. Even though you have the ability to instantaneously make one shirt at a time, this is not the best method. Try to group your short run digital production into a day or two a week in order to optimize your production. If done well, these will become the most profitable days of the year.

A popular belief is that in order to double your production, you should buy another heat press or printer. That's not always necessary; you can often increase production speed by having the printer/presser focus on printing only. The other parts of the process, such as staging, final QC or packaging, should not distract him or her.

A wise man once said, “If shirts are not falling off the dryer, then you aren’t making money.” The same goes with digital printing. If the heat press isn’t pressing... you get the idea. When two employees are working together, it is often more productive to have one person printing and the other handling all the other logistics than to have both printing and handling the logistics individually.

Once the shop is laid out and production started – take a step back and watch the process. You may notice that moving the equipment around slightly can greatly increase production.

Helpful Tips and Tricks
Spot-cleaning guns are similar to the Wild West’s six shooter. It’s saved many screen printers from their own shortcomings in quality control. These can be used to help in the digital printing process; however it will not reclaim a misprinted shirt at the end of the production line. Simply put, misprinted digital garments are going into the “Bin of Shame.”

For your digital printing process, store a spot-cleaning gun, loaded with water, at the staging or printing area. This can be used to remove most stains and contamination but only before the garment is cured. Once direct heat is applied in your heat press, very little can be done to remove a stain or smudge.

You would be surprised how quickly you can add 50 cents cost per shirt in digital production. When reviewing one shop’s digital workflow, it wasn’t a pretty picture. They printed two color copies of each production order for two shirts (20 cents), individually poly bagged the shirts unnecessarily because their shop was not clean enough to withstand the loose printed shirts waiting to be shipped (8 cents), and placed finished shirts in a new box from the supply store (46 cents).

This is an extreme example, however, it helps illustrate what happens when costs are amortized over only a few shirts.

Educating customers with physical examples will minimize rework and returns. One of the biggest problems is a customer who gives you low-resolution artwork, say it's OK to print it, and then complain about the print quality. While this sounds elementary, do you have the exact same image printed at 72dpi and 360dpi on a shirt to show your customer? While they are looking at you in the eye and saying they understand your explanation, they will conveniently forget that conversation once they are unhappy with the results. Get them to sign the sample for future reference.

To summarize, workflow needs to be just that — flow. Effective workflow setups will be obvious to everyone from the long-term employee to the visiting customer. A clear path from start to finish is more than just a metaphor; it should be a physical reality. Clearly defined areas, cleanliness, time management, thorough quality checking and understanding of color management are some of the keys to remember. We can’t control the economic climate that dictates our ultimate success but we can control our work environment and that’s a great place to start.

Christopher Bernat, partner, Source Substrates, also is partner and chief revenue officer for  Vapor Apparel, N. Charleston, S.C., where he focuses on the sublimation and performance apparel markets.
For more information or to comment on this article, e-mail Chris at chrisb@sourcesubstrates.com.



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