Manage Your Ink Inventory for Maximum Return

Given the huge role that ink plays in every shop, it's important to have an effective inventory system that starts at the order-entry stage.
May 1, 2008

Two ways to speed up press setup are to have your inks located close to the press and to use a handy cart with wheels so you can load up the cart with the colors you need and roll them out to the press to be loaded onto screens.

By Greg Kitson

You already know that you need a system to track key aspects of your business, such as how much you're earning and how much capacity your production floor can handle. However, if you're like most screen printers, you may not be tracking an important consideration in your operation that can make a huge difference to the bottom line: your ink inventory.

Some printers may wonder why it's worth tracking ink at all, given that it's a relatively inexpensive part of the business. It's rare that you'll put more than three or four cents worth of ink on an individual garment. Ironically, though, some printers will try to save a few bucks and get a $30 gallon of ink vs. the $60 gallon of ink.

The problem is, the higher-priced ink can make a difference in terms of run speed, especially on an automatic press. When you try running some lower-priced inks at higher speeds, you may have problems with inks transferring incorrectly and causing a rough, irregular surface due to the ink's filler material and other compromises made to drive down its cost.

The point is that high-quality ink is inexpensive relative to the wasted time associated with low-quality ink. You may save a fraction of a cent per shirt on a gallon of ink but slow down your automatic press or get unacceptable prints, which will cost you more money in the long run. That's why it's so important to choose a quality ink for your operation.

THE BASICS
Most smaller shop owners start with an ink inventory that consists largely of the basic colors. They usually purchase all-purpose ink (AP ink) that works well for a number of substrates and situations, such as T-shirts, uniforms and sweat shirts, for example.

Your inventory of basic, RFU (ready for use) colors should include two to three shades of red, yellow, green, blue and so on. Again, these colors come ready to print, without any modifications. (Keep in mind, though, that while some inks are sold with marketing names, such as Bears' Navy — suggesting a blue that matches that of the Chicago Bears, in this example — they don't necessarily match the specified organization's colors.)

Suppliers can have as many as 50 standard colors, but for our shop, about 18 colors handle most of our needs. For most shops, a dozen to 20 front-line colors in AP ink will handle roughly 80% of what people request. Suppliers offer ink cards that you can show customers when they're placing orders to choose their desired color.

As shops increase in size and use automatic presses, printers may add to their AP ink collection, augmenting it with multipurpose (MP) inks designed specifically for printing on faster presses. These inks have less tack or build-up on the bottom of the screen. What's important to note is that you should be using the right ink for the application. Otherwise, you'll have the potential for ink build-up on the screen's bottom, depending on the ink's formulation.

Although this stable of AP and MP inks in basic colors will handle most jobs, some customers will request specific color matches. Our shop charges $12 for this service, where we use an ink-matching system to mix the right components to achieve the color. In most cases, customers will simply choose a color that's close enough to what they want rather than pay the $12 fee. If they do opt for the match, then we're compensated in terms of the extra time and effort it calls for.

CHOOSING SUPPLIER(S)
There's really no right or wrong approach to which ink supplier you choose, or how many you use. Many small- and medium-size shops prefer to stick with a single ink manufacturer. It could be that the owner has a personal relationship with the company, or that it's just the one he's always used, and it's easier to stick with that company rather than trying another one.

Our shop has established relationships with three ink suppliers due to the way we do business. We do jobs for other printers, who may dictate that we use a particular ink brand, which necessitates that we have a relationship with several ink suppliers.

Also, as shops get bigger, the owners may find that a single ink supplier simply can't provide everything they want. It may be that Company A does phenomenal blue colors and Company B has wonderful fluorescents, while Company C has the greatest whites. Determining which supplier excels at particular colors is a matter of trial and error — trying out the different colors on various substrates and for various applications.

FROM THE START
Even though ink is relatively inexpensive, in many ways it's at the heart of your operation — you can't print without it, after all — and it's important to have a system for tracking your inventory of it.

Ink issues really start at the order entry stage, where the person taking the order must communicate the choices available. Whether you print them yourself or get them from the supplier, use color cards to show customers their choices. Also, be ready to explain why one company's cards are offset printed and another's are plastisol on fabric, and how these issues may affect the way the color card looks.

The person taking the order also must correctly convey the customer's choice on the order form, writing down (or entering) the name that corresponds to the name of the ink. For example, he shouldn't write "Red," he should write "National Red" or "Drake Red." In a perfect world, all color call outs would be by Pantone Matching System (PMS) numbers (more on that later).

Our shop keeps a chart that shows second- and third-choice RFU colors in the event that the first choice is out of stock. For instance, our chart says that Athletic Gold is Company A's product 123, but second choice is Company B's product X and Z; this way, we're still able to proceed with the job if we're out of stock on Company A's ink. In theory, we could simply mix ink to get the color that's out of stock, but it's about 50% more in material costs, let alone time to do a custom mix, so we prefer to stick with RFU inks whenever possible.

At the next stage, the art department staff and production manager review the color selection and look for possible problems or questions. For example, they may notice that the job should use athletic inks with high opacity, so adding another spot color or a white underbase may be required to get a nice color blend.

Screen mesh selection is another issue with ink communication. A high-opacity athletic gold printed on black or navy may have trouble going through finer meshes. This is a great example of getting what you pay for. A $60 per gallon ink, which has the consistency of marshmallow cream, will print like a dream on fine meshes, as opposed to a $25 per gallon bucket of ink with the consistency of tar. If you have fine details, you may need more screens with the less expensive ink. This means the customer is paying for three colors, but we may choose to print with four or five screens to achieve his desired result while maintaining production speed.

As far as storing inks, we've got shelving that is located right next to the presses and a cart with wheels to move ink from the storing or mixing area to the press. So we are never more than five or six steps from the primary ink colors that we use the most.

Whether you're interested in maximizing your supplies or improving the quality and accuracy of your colors, it makes sense to review your shop's ink management policies to see if they can't be improved. Small tweaks often can have a significant impact over the course of a year. Hopefully, some of these tips and ideas will provide a starting point for you to do your own evaluation that may end up with several meaningful shop improvements.

Greg Kitson is founder and president of Mind's Eye Graphics in Decatur, Ind. For more information or to comment on this article, e-mail Greg at greg@mindseyeg.com or visit mindseyeg.com.

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