Screen Printing - December 2017/January 2018 - 9

OperatiOns
Many articles have been written about how to improve workflow. I know I've written a few. They tend to be pretty big in
scope. So where can you take the micro-ambition concept on
the production floor?
A natural choice might be to have a small Kaizen event
daily. This is a concept from the Six Sigma lean-manufacturing approach involving small meetings where the people
responsible for a process gather and try to make it better by
the end of the day.
Maybe your event should be in the receiving department
about how they check in arriving inventory. Or perhaps you
can spend the day on your equipment preventative maintenance program. Your goal is to examine the bottlenecks and
friction points in these processes and make them simpler.
You just need one small idea. Think it up; try it; test it. If it
works better than before, great. If not, find out why. Do another Kaizen event and think of something better.

training
Your employee training program is another place to apply the
concept of being micro-ambitious. This industry is filled with
a million things to learn. As we all know, you can't learn them
all in one day. But what if you set out to learn one new thing
a day, every day? Or, as a manager, what
if your goal were to teach someone one
new thing every day? Imagine how much
better your shop would be if everyone
was always learning.
One thing this industry sorely misses is
the apprenticeship-style method of teaching
skills. We have such a fun mix of craftsmanship, art, and science. Yet owners constantly
complain that there aren't enough trained
people to operate their equipment.
One place they should look is within
their own shops. Do they have a nurtured
learning environment? The idea of teaching and learning one new thing a day
could collectively push your crew toward
excellence.

worry about ones who have already bought from you.
A 2014 article in the Harvard Business Review stated that
increasing your customer retention rate by just five percent
will increase profits from 25 to 95 percent. If there is any
reason to give being micro-ambitious a shot, it's to try to hold
onto that five percent.
So, let's say your goal was to reach out to a customer that
hasn't bought from you in awhile with a phone call - one customer a day. Reintroduce yourself. Have your CSR rekindle
that relationship.

it's all abOut aCting
The thing I want to impart to you with this article is to seize the day.
Being micro-ambitious is about taking the opportunity in
front of you, and doing it now. Set a small goal, ace it, and
move on. It's about accomplishment.
This doesn't mean that huge projects and long-term thinking aren't necessary. But consider how much of an impact a
simple idea such as picking up the phone and reconnecting
with a customer could mean. That's 10 minutes of your day.
Showing a press operator how to zero out an ink scale and
mix ink could be a lifesaver when you need to get a Pantone
color on press in about four minutes. It's all about doing one
thing today to make that one percent difference.

CustOmer serviCe
Let's consider the front end of the shop.
Customers are the lifeblood to any business, but the way shops interact with
their source of revenue could stand
improvement, too.
Think about it. How often are you
asking your customers how you are
doing? I'll bet you have former customers you haven't spoken to in years. Are
you scared of them? More likely, you're
too busy trying to find new customers to
december 2017 / january 2018

http://www.screensystemsonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Screen Printing - December 2017/January 2018