Automation Starts with These Simple Steps
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The Case for Automation
These days experienced staff are hard to find,
so it makes sense to work towards systems that allow your team to spend the maximum time possible
adding value to your business rather than shuffling paper.
The buzzword is automation, and your print machine manufacturers dream of offering their sign and wide-format clients an end-to-end solution where their customer places orders through a website and their files are pre-flighted and sent to machines grouped by material type. "Lights out Automation" is the catchword, but is it practical or even possible for a signmaker to work towards automation?
The short answer is that you can and should work towards automating your business. Not only will you improve productivity, but you will make your business more attractive should you ever wish to sell it and make growing your business far more manageable. With artificial intelligence becoming increasingly powerful, you may soon be able to solve the trickiest scheduling issues using services offered by Google, Amazon and Microsoft.
The buzzword is automation, and your print machine manufacturers dream of offering their sign and wide-format clients an end-to-end solution where their customer places orders through a website and their files are pre-flighted and sent to machines grouped by material type. "Lights out Automation" is the catchword, but is it practical or even possible for a signmaker to work towards automation?
The short answer is that you can and should work towards automating your business. Not only will you improve productivity, but you will make your business more attractive should you ever wish to sell it and make growing your business far more manageable. With artificial intelligence becoming increasingly powerful, you may soon be able to solve the trickiest scheduling issues using services offered by Google, Amazon and Microsoft.
Simplify and Standardise
The first pushback from sign companies is always that 'every job I do is different- how can you automate something different for every job?
This argument makes sense - After all, Henry Ford, the master of automation, developed the production line and could have any colour car you wanted as long as it was black.
That inflexibility won't cut it in our industry.
Are our jobs so different? The reality is that if you look at the websites of 20 sign companies, you will see the same products repeatedly.
Sure, artwork, sizes and materials might change from job to job, but how you make the product is mostly the same every time.
To work towards automation, we need to simplify and standardise our sales and production workflow so our automation tools deal with the same information each time.
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Your MIS is the Traffic Controller
The journey towards automation starts with your product list; after all, your clients buy products for their benefit and don't care too much about how
you made the product and whether the machine used is XYZ or ABC. For each product, work out the different ways you make each;
for instance, you might make an ACM Sign by laminating it with printed Vinyl or directly printing it and profile cut.
These are product variations; each has a work instruction detailing how to make the product and which materials you can use. As more and more clients expect to place orders and enquiries online, the product structure you have made translates nicely onto your online shop. Once clients order from an online shop or portal, the information you receive will be the same each time, and we can start automation.
While you can do all the steps above on paper or in a spreadsheet, you only reap the benefits of standardisation when you have software geared towards automation. Your MIS is the 'traffic controller' that holds all the information and coordinates between all the external tools that make you your workflow.
These are product variations; each has a work instruction detailing how to make the product and which materials you can use. As more and more clients expect to place orders and enquiries online, the product structure you have made translates nicely onto your online shop. Once clients order from an online shop or portal, the information you receive will be the same each time, and we can start automation.
While you can do all the steps above on paper or in a spreadsheet, you only reap the benefits of standardisation when you have software geared towards automation. Your MIS is the 'traffic controller' that holds all the information and coordinates between all the external tools that make you your workflow.
Workflow Automation
For instance, workflow automation tools like Enfocus Switch pull jobs from the MIS and can take your files,
check for prepress issues, create file directories, create imposition, separate your CNC cutting files and send the files to a rip.
Your MIS could find all jobs cut from ACM, batch them together and deliver the optimum schedule.
Cutting machine companies like Esko have acquired companies like Tilia Labs, which are built to harness AI and are getting more powerful every day.
Sure, this process will take time, and you will measure your progress in years rather than months.
It is, however, a journey that starts with simple standardisation. Standardise products and pricing, invest in an MIS with automation capability and make machinery investments with an eye to automation. If you don't work towards automation, you will one day complain that your competitor's prices are low and that they can't afford to sell at the prices they do. They may be using automation to do the same work with half the effort, and catching up will be almost impossible.
It is, however, a journey that starts with simple standardisation. Standardise products and pricing, invest in an MIS with automation capability and make machinery investments with an eye to automation. If you don't work towards automation, you will one day complain that your competitor's prices are low and that they can't afford to sell at the prices they do. They may be using automation to do the same work with half the effort, and catching up will be almost impossible.
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