FREE Webinar Archive

Managing Smarter: Magic Numbers to Live By with Bob Rosen and Dr. Joe Webb

Live Event Held on April 9, 2008

Webinar Archive

The following archive materials are being made available. Feel free to download them for reference or to share with your colleagues!

Management Discussion Forms (142 KB pdf)

Management Discussion Forms (87 KB Excel)

Slides

Adobe Acrobat version of the slides (476 KB pdf)

The Graphic Arts CEO, Chapter 9 (210 KB pdf)

Audio

Download webinar audio (6.92 MB MP3)

Q&A

Q: Where can you buy Bob's book?

RHR: The book is being sold by WhatTheyThink.com for $159.

Q: Do any of the MIS vendors provide a "real-time" solution for standard company analytics, such as booking numbers, estimating activity, billing activity, etc? My sense is that the MIS vendors are good at gathering volumes of detailed data, but they may not be experts at organizing the data for the CEO/CFO. Are there options/alternatives that the end user can build based on the data that is already been gathered by the MIS solution?

RHR: There are many paths to formatting and presenting data that already exists in another form within an MIS data base. For example, many users have written Crystal Reports, but we’ve been very impressed with some EXCEL adaptations that are much easier to manipulate.

Q: What percent of a printers cost can be controlled vs those that can not be controlled. For example a printer cannot control the cost of power, insurance, health benefits and paper, ink and related materials.

RHR: Obviously, most printers’ costs are highly fixed in the short term, and many of those are difficult to control. But they CAN be influenced in a constructive direction.

JWW: In the short term, very little is controllable; in the long run, almost all is controllable (such as deciding to be in or not be in the business). Printers have some control over the cost of power based on where they decide to locate and the kinds of equipment they own. Real estate is an obvious one where there is a choice, from owning, leasing, or renting, to the geography selected for business. But it is only a comparative cost differential, and often has to be balanced by something else. Being in a certain geographic market rather than another one; selling in New York has different opportunities than selling in Arkansas, for example, and the nature of sales opportunities be a bigger factor in location than costs. Insurance is often a function of the state an owner decides to locate in, as are health benefits. Paper, ink, and related materials can vary from supplier to supplier, of course. Changing brands of materials can often yield a significant change, but there are often other factors that are balanced, such as you may not like their support representative.

Q: Are CRM systems worth the cost?

RHR: If printers have the discipline to enforce consistent use of CRM systems, they can be VERY helpful. But too many printers install them and let them slide into disuse because of the discipline that is required but not imposed.

JWW: Yes, but only if you develop the discipline to use them.

Q: Does JDF enter into your considerations? Are profit leaders using JDF/JMF?

RHR: JDF is a very useful advance. REAL JDF-oriented MIS systems can be VERY powerful, if implemented correctly. But many MIS systems don’t REALLY put it to use. JDF Compliant is a phrase like “Cable Compatible” in televisions. It’s nice, but you still have to make it work.

JWW: JDF will become so ubiquitous, profitable and unprofitable printers will be using it.

Q: Define capacity. Note relationship of available machine time vs availability of labor----how does overtime enter into capacity?

RHR: Capacity means what the user wants it to mean – which is why industry measures of capacity are so difficult to take seriously.

Q: Systems are beginning to offer dashboards to publish the metrics that are wanted - Technique-Group has been offering dashboards since their inception in 1996

RHR: Dashboards are coming into broader use – though most printers are developing their own home-grown approaches using a variety of software.

Q: There is so much buzz around developing a Print MIS workflow... What is the best Print MIS software solution?

RHR: The best MIS software solution is (a) the one that best suits YOUR company’s needs and (b) will be implemented well. And (b) is AT LEAST as important as (a).

Q: Cost accounting rates actually vary based on hours sold. Wouldn't that mean we cover our costs more quickly and thus be able to "make-money" with lower priced work when busy? But the need is exactly opposite...need to lower prices to fill the pipeline when slow.

RHR: Yes, which is why cost-based hourly rates are severely limited as guides to pricing. The market sets the price and it’s your job to be competitive, hopefully having enough work to drive your unit costs low enough to make you profitable. Because you CERTAINLY won’t be able to make up for too little volume by raising prices!

Q: Regarding metrics for quoting activity. If you're a web to print company without a sales staff, how does that affect the calculations of the metrics?

RHR: You’ve got me on that one…

JWW: You need different metrics, and many of them will be web-based, such as page views and other factors. But most important will be the development of historical sales data based on calendar seasonality and also the impact of promotional activities.

Q: Who has the standard definition for calculating these key measures for printers? Benchmarks?

RHR: There is no standard definition of performance benchmarks. The crucial question is: do YOU understand what you’re measuring, so you can put the information to use?

Q: Measuring performance and productivity seems relatively easy in the pressroom and bindery. Our biggest challenge is coming up with meaningful measurements for our prepress department productivity/performance. Any suggestions?

RHR: Perhaps: use your production standards from estimating the costs of the job, comparing actual vs estimated times. Otherwise, be grateful that pre-press is becoming smaller and smaller.

Q: How many commercial printers actually have a brand name MIS with up to date production standards, collect incoming sales and prospects data, collect shop floor data, use computer assisted scheduling---get this data and use it? A fully utilized MIS can provide all of the information that you say is important. Direct machine interface will also provide the productivity info that you are talking about.

RHR: We see many printers with grown-up MIS systems that have been badly chosen, badly installed, poorly implemented and largely unused. It’s good news for consultants like us, but bad news for printing management teams, who are operating blind in many cases., managing with feelings and instinct rather than facts.

Q: Bob your productivity comments are right on, but it takes data to accomplish the things you are talking about...Do you think that printers are going to change their "don’t need it attitude?

RHR: Printers seem to view MIS as a luxury. Worse, companies install MIS systems badly, and then give up on them. The good news for consultants AND printers is this: MIS systems CAN work well, (1) if they are re-implemented well and (2) management has the WILL to make them work. Without the determination to make a system work, the quality of information will deteriorate and people will stop relying on the system.

Q: What metric do you use to establish the hourly rate for equipment?

RHR: I try to figure out a budgeted hourly rate, but ALWAYS take a look at what the market is willing to pay for a unit of production: a make-ready, 1000 impressions or 1000 stitched booklets.

Q: What actions are advised to gain better visibility (predictability) to future sales? Contract agreements for specific volume of future work? Tracking actual to predicted sales volume by product type? Other?

RHR: The fastest way is to help salespeople understand that projections are important. Then INSIST they continually update their projections. The rest of the secret is MUCH more complicated. Not rocket surgery, but real work.

Q: What are the bottom line effects of high employee turnover, especially in lead positions; also effects of poor equipment maintenance; also no employee annual update evaluation meetings.

RHR: Obviously, losing employees as at least as bad as having unhappy employees remain as employees. It’s hard to say which is worse.

Q: Current metrics are usually 1-2 weeks old or older - Reactions do not have an immediate impact - What do you see as the time that changes are implemented before you can see demonstrable results?

RHR: Performance metrics are just a bunch of facts. You need them to be accurate, meaningful, and available in a timely fashion. What you DO with the information is what makes you a manager. Some things can be improved fairly quickly. Others take time.

Q: What is the current average profit in the industry today a) as a whole and b) if the Quebecor's and the Donnelley's are ignored

RHR: The good news and bad news are the same. Donnelley and Quebecor do NOT skew the industry averages.

JWW: The Commerce Department indicates that average profit before taxes has been running in the range of 4%. All companies are included in the calculations. When you examine reports such as the PIA Financial Ratios it's pretty clear that the 25% that are considered “profit leaders” make all of the industry's profits, a characteristic as old as print itself, it seems.

Q: How will Chinese competition continue to effect growth in the US?

RHR: Chinese competition will continue to erode demand for certain products, but not others. The more important responsiveness and flexibility are, the less the threat.

JWW: It's had barely any impact at all. The industry should be more worried about new media, the Internet, do-not-mail legislation and other factors. Imports from China are about 1% of US print consumption, but are balanced by U.S. exports. If anyone should be upset with U.S. imports of print from China, it should be Canadian printers. The increase in Chinese imports is almost exactly equal to the decline in imports from China.

If you have questions about this webinar, please send an email to: help@whattheythink.com

About Press-sense

Founded in 2001, Press-sense has rapidly evolved into the world's leading developer of Business Flow Automation for the Print Industry. By applying process automation to the print service provider's business (from order taking, price quoting, through planning, estimating, MIS, fulfillment and shipping), Press-sense solutions offer printers the tools to fully manage, control and automate their business operations. Going beyond typical Web-to-print and MIS features, the company's solutions enable commercial printers to provide value-added services (i.e. print on demand, variable data printing), develop new internet-based revenue streams, strengthen client bonds, and reach new markets, while keeping ahead of an evolving industry. The added efficiency combined with additional revenue allows customers to constantly provide new and improved services to their clients.

Press-sense boasts an installed base of successful customers throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, and a dynamic team that continuously maintains a clear understanding of the printing industry's ever expanding and evolving needs. The company's Press-sense iWay, Press-sense Manager and Press-sense Omnium solutions provide commercial printing and digital service providers with an elegant, yet comprehensive approach to creating internet-based revenue streams, personalized products, automated production workflows, and business management tools that maximize production efficiency, monitor and reduce costs, and increase profit ratios. For more information, visit www.Press-sense.com or call 1-866-257-9792.

About WhatTheyThink.com

WhatTheyThink.com is the printing and publishing industry's leading online media organization; offering a wide range of publications delivering unbiased, real-time market intelligence, industry news, economic and trend analysis, peer-to-peer communication, and special reports on emerging technology and critical events. Serving a membership base of more than 50,000, WhatTheyThink.com also hosts webinars and live events as well as providing content through a syndication program, which delivers content directly to related websites and through RSS.