The Xplor View - October 2008 - (Page 8)

The mission was to tackle the assumption that available time for sales and customer service staff to dedicate to new business was a barrier to increasing turnover. Working on the process mapping step, the team highlighted the fact that taking an initial enquiry, right through the estimating, planning, prepress, and invoicing was 96 separate steps; pinpointing it as an overcomplicated process with several major inefficiencies. So the team created visual aids to help them tackle the problems exposed and defined clear objectives such as the need to create a system for the approval and despatch of proofs, better visibility of job progress, and gathering clear and complete information on new orders. Their enthusiasm and hard work soon began to pay-off and they halved the amount of steps each job goes through. Streamlining the process saved valuable time and effort. With tangible improvements, which were designed to be sustainable, the team was inspired to tackle larger, more challenging problems after the course was over. For example, they aimed to eradicate any non-value add activities in the production of proofs. George remarked “We audit all our processes against key performance indicators now, and I was really pleased to see that the team’s initiatives have had such an impact on the business. The processes were so improved that the turnover and delivery rate have vastly improved.” George concludes “This programme was a really positive experience for us, not only has it boosted staff morale and motivated people to make continuous improvements to their working environments, but it has directly affected our profitability.” Vision in Print was established over five years ago as the 13th Industry Forum with the mission to improve the productivity and competitiveness of the UK print industry by providing in-company process improvement programmes, and through publication of 'best practice' studies to promote improved performance. Originally backed by a DTI grant, ViP is now a subsidiary of the British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF), although it maintains its own Board of print sector experts who continue to help guide it in achieving its mission. ViP partners with all the major print trade bodies (including BPIF, ProSkills Print, and Amicus GPMS) to ensure maximum impact in raising the competitiveness of the UK printing industry. Since its inauguration, it is estimated that ViP has saved the 350 printers it has worked with over £44 million, with the average added value gained in the first year after running only one programme calculated to be £127,000. The Return on Investment in any one programme is estimated to be better than 10:1. In addition, ViP has run over 24 conferences, seminars, and workshops to raise awareness of the opportunity for process improvement to help transform UK printers and has trained around 2,000 printing staff in the use of lean manufacturing tools and techniques, thus enabling them to instigate and sustain efficiency in their organisations. Six ViP best practice studies have been published in Maintenance, International Productivity, Management Information Systems (MIS), Purchasing, and Customer Service Excellence. These are available free of charge from the Vision in Print website. For more information on lean management, visit www.visioninprint.co.uk Richard Gray Chief Executive Vision in Print richard.gray@visioninprint.co.uk “We audit all our processes against key performance indicators now, and I was really pleased to see that the team’s initiatives have had such an impact on the business.” 8 The VIEW Journal Xplor European Edition Issue 6 October 2008 http://www.visioninprint.co.uk

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Xplor View - October 2008

The Xplor View -� October 2008 Contents TPE Master Class: Three Ways to Tame your Print-to-Mail Workflow Right Now Mission Impossible: Embracing Environmental Concerns TPE Master Class: Implementing a Lean Working Environment Improving Business Processes Yields Award-Winning Business Performance How Do� You Effectively Win New Business Writing a Marketing Plan to Win New Printing Clients How Buying Strategies Have Affected How the Industry Sells Let's Talk About Integrated Customer Communications Management:�Transpromo...It Takes a Village! Knowledge Management Part 3 XDU: Leading the Education Revolution Kodak plus Xplor equals XDU Around the World Xplor Europe News:�Short News Items for the Xplor UK�Programme and Europe News

The Xplor View - October 2008

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