Completed jobs and mistakes.

[JamesDeFelippo]

I manage a large format department, we do from 90-150 varied jobs a month.
Within these jobs are varied quantities ranging from 1 - 50 yard signs, 1 - 10 banners, 1 - 300 decals, vehicle decals/wraps, signage, etc...
So say we do 100 jobs for the month, with 1000 products that were created with varied sizes/dimensions/materials in the end... I hope that makes sense! Now onto my question!

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Where I work, we are expected to have 150% accuracy. As in, nothing ever can be wrong. I think it's a disaster to have that kind of expectation.

A dibond sign 15"x3" goes out with a set of numbers on it, one number happens to be wrong.
Spider stand banners go out, customer file was wrong size and we didn't catch it, instead of 11x17 it was 8.5x11.

Small jobs, maybe 2-3 jobs a month are wrong in some form.

I manage the department and I get my *** chewed out every time something is wrong and there's ranting and raving about it, despite every other job and item going out perfect and in a timely manner.(We usually have 1 day to produce most jobs). Our main mistakes are on the small jobs that get squeezed into the large orders!

I've had the owner of the business tell me customers are laughing in his face and he's losing jobs because nothing is ever right in my department.

I'm frustrated, it's annoying and mistakes do happen. I've made numerous changes to the work orders to help subdue the issues, but despite that, even I make mistakes once in a while due to being rushed and wanting to get stuff out the door for the last minute orders.

Am i just in a ****ty environment? Or should I have 150% accuracy on everything like they demand?

 

[James Burke]

Document, document, document.

Make sure you're documenting every mistake that happens, and then hold daily/weekly/monthly meetings with your subordinates to discuss these matters. Make sure they are aware of the "screw-up history", but don't hold it over them like an axe. Ask for their input as to how to keep the mistakes from happening, but it's your baby so hold them accountable. And ultimately, hold YOURSELF accountable...both to your subordinates them and your superiors. Are you really doing all you can to avert these mistakes? Seriously...

If your subordinates know your expectations, and that they will be held accountable - that's all you can do. You obviously can not take it out of their pay, but you can use it as fodder in case disciplinary action needs to be taken. Then, wait on the results and follow through.

Make your superiors aware of your action plan. That's most likely the reason you're getting your arse chewed. If they know you have a plan in place, that should take a bit of the heat off.

150% accuracy...that's a bit of a stretch. You'd be doing well with 100% accuracy, because that's all that really matters.


JB

 

[rossmosh]

First and foremost, no one is perfect so mistakes happen. The idea that everything should leave the facility 100% perfect every time is a pipe dream at best or pure ignorance at worst.

That said, there are ways to minimize mistakes, but this often increases production time. The best way is to create an internal quality control process. This often means double work. What we've done to minimize the double work is we ask our customers to get involved. When in doubt, I send a proof. When they approve it, it limits my liability.

By the sound of your post and how upset your bosses are my guess the following need to be implemented.

1. Longer lead times or more hands available. Rushing leads to mistakes.
2. Increase internal QC. Also look at who is making the most mistakes and either change how they process their work or simply let them go.
3. Ask customers to approve layouts before production to limit liability.
4. Bosses need to understand that this is custom work and mistakes happen on small production runs. It shouldn't be a big issue to handle a few mistakes.

One last thing, you should try keeping track of the dollars "wasted" by mistakes every month. You need to figure out two numbers. Actual cost vs potential cost. Actual will be the shipping, material, and time spent fixing the mistake. Potential will be what you could have used that time and material to bill out at. So if you spend an hour fixing a mistake and it costs you $10 in material, $15 in shipping, and $20 in labor, the outlay is $45. That said, the shop might bill out at $120/hr and you could make the argument that your actual loss is $145.

 

[jrnyc789]

From my view no matter what sometimes mistakes just happen it could be the machine could be the vinyl could be user error but things happen. today just printed a glass door perf and when we were getting it ready cut it too short so guess what we are printing again **** happens do we like it no but we are only human.

 

[Billct2]

and all of your bosses decisions/projects are 150% right, yea that's it.

 

[Gene@mpls]

Is your bosses name Donald Trump?

 

[JamesDeFelippo]

Unfortunately I can not get longer lead times, I've tried!
Most jobs have to go out same day @ noon, and that includes x30 24x18 yard signs printed on vinyl, full color, and applied(with no lam).

I know mistakes happen, and 2 or 3 mistakes out of 100 is totally acceptable to me.

It's just annoying. Never have I been in a job where I feared my position was in jeopardy over a $20 dollar mistake despite successful completion of a box truck wrap on the same day.

oi

I like the suggestions though, I've made a number of changes to various things... but even I **** up something. bah

 

[Kottwitz-Graphics]

For that volume, you can't expect 100% accuracy, much less 150%. No one is perfect, and $&!t happens.

To me, it sounds more like the boss has no clue about production. It appears to me that the company is one of those franchise shops, where the owners are trained by corporate how to "run" a sign shop without any experience in the actual manufacture of product. The only thing they know is what it looks like on paper...

I did a short stint (3 months, but I started looking 2 weeks in) in a signs by whenever, and the owner only knew how to do the paperwork, yet he attempted to tell me how to make signs, without ever doing one himself.

 

[HDvinyl]

Mistakes in quality because you're rushed, is one thing, getting a w0rd or nubmer wrong, is another.

Stupidity is not intentional.

 

[bernie]

I like the attitude of your employer. They have hired you and a number of other employees to make sure you do the job right, which makes the company look good, which brings in repeat customers and
referrals, which brings in more work which keeps everyone employed.

Mistakes happen but ... jobs going out the door that are not 100% right are a direct reflection on the company. Getting a bad rap from any customer for a job that is not right costs the company
future business and referrals. Who is in charge of Quality Control? Who double checks that person or those people? Every single job should be checked and double checked. But .... you know that.

I had a business teacher in high school that was tough as nails and instilled in our brain ... "It's either right or its not". That meant you either got a "A" or a "F". There was
absolutely no gray area, no whining, no trying to justify that there was a reason, no going to anyone higher up to whine that this teacher was being unreasonable ... "A or F ... your choice". I learned more
from that one teacher than I learned from all of the others combined about how the "real world works". Best life lesson I ever learned. Toughest darn teacher I ever had and
I took all her business classes thru high school.

Bernie

 

[fresh]

I expect everything to be perfect, but I understand mistakes happen. There is a limit to what I can expect my employees to do on a tight deadline, which is why I try really hard not to rush them. However, they are expected to work swiftly! I've let go of people who can't complete a task in a timely manner.

Remakes before it gets to the client is one thing, sending out a wrong order is another. Is it possible to hire a QC person? Their only job is verifying the outgoing product matches the order?

 

[Gino]

If you manage the department, then it is your responsibility to make sure things run and go out smoothly. If you accept the responsibility when things are going well, you need to accept the responsibility when they go wrong.

If you can't do it, then they will need to find someone who can get closer to their expectations. The 150% comment is most likely an exaggeration. You will need to take the emotion out of your judgements and put into motion a more strict working machine in your department..... and that starts with you. Evidently, your bosses have seen you are not getting the most out of your people. Feel lucky they are giving you warnings and not a pink slip.

Last thing...... if you're frustrated, how do you think they feel ?? They're paying good money for your incompetence. I would feel V E R Y annoyed if 2 or 3 jobs a month went out wrong..... for any reason. I'd be in your face, too.

We all know mistakes happen, but your quality control stinks. You either need to keep a closer eye on it or make sure it doesn't happen so much.

Here ya go....... last week, we got an order to do signs for a local municipality for a concert coming up. I generally copy and paste the customer's request, so no mistakes are made. Everything was going swimmingly and when we were ready to hit the print button, someone said to me..... hey, how is it the raindate is the 26th and the concert is the 27th ?? These signs were proofed by me and the customer. Called her and asked her to look at her calender and if this is what she really wanted ?? She read it out loud and still said, YES. She kept looking at it and could not see the mistake. It took nearly 5 minutes to convince her the 26th comes before the 27th and usually the concert day is in front of the raindate. She started laughing and asked me to fix it. We had already fixed it, but that's how alert you hafta be. Even the data coming in needs to be checked for mistakes. It's not always in-house problems, but you will be held accountable for any and all mistakes.
​

So, sit you a$$ down and manage your department and get a better count then 2 or 3 a month. That's too much.

 

[Billct2]

Maybe it's not productions fault, maybe it's management/ownership having unrealistic expectations.

" I get my *** chewed out every time something is wrong and there's ranting and raving about it, despite every other job and item going out perfect and in a timely manner.(We usually have 1 day to produce most jobs). Our main mistakes are on the small jobs that get squeezed into the large orders!
I've had the owner of the business tell me customers are laughing in his face and he's losing jobs because nothing is ever right in my department."

I don't see management making asking for feedback/suggestions just demanding the employee fix the problem. I also see a boss who is a drama queen, 2 or 3 errors a month and customers are laughing in his face and he's losing business because "nothing is ever right"?

 

[Tim Aucoin]

I'm the owner here... I make mistakes because I'm human. Sometimes they're mistakes I've made, sometimes they're mistakes my customer has made and I neglected to catch it. BUT... 99.99% of the time I catch it BEFORE it goes out the door... and I fix it. AND, I LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES! Very rarely will the same mistake happen twice. I learn and place things in the back of my mind so that when something similar comes up, I am subconsciously aware of it and catch it before production/printing happens!! Little things like cutting vinyl for second surface application forgetting to mirror it. We are all human, mistakes can happen. How we handle them and how we learn from them is what makes us or breaks us.

I'm a professional Scuba Diver... I've made mistakes, and believe me, when it comes to diving, YOU LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES, or you risk death! That's dramatic, but it creates a mind-set that I carry to the office each day.

 

[rossmosh]

It's always a combination of management & production. Based on what I'm reading, management is pushing for FAST turnaround. When you want 24 hr turnaround, you better have a kick *** system in place to handle it. Not only does the system need to be spot on, you also need the employees available to implement it.

 

[Solventinkjet]

If the numbers you have stated are 100% accurate, you are being rushed into making mistakes. That being said, it sounds like you need to be checking each job and approving it to go to the next step. So have your designer make the files and have you or someone else proof read and check for mistakes before sending to the printer. After it prints, have you or someone else check for mistakes. Mount the sign and then check again. If you always have a person who is not running that station check for mistakes, by having 2 sets of eyes on it at every step, you will not be able to make as many mistakes. Sometimes when you are working on something you become blind to the mistakes. Having a second person, who has not been staring at it for the last hour, proof it helps a lot.

 

[Morkel]

I'm what we call the "pre-production manager". Between myself and another guy, we do the designs and the printing. We have sales reps deal with the customer, workshop and install teams to do the application and install, and a production manager oversees the lot.

The he guy I work with was always getting in trouble for making mistakes. So I decided to track our error rate. I work on number of jobs and number of items. One sign or a bunch of signs on one material = one item. A job with a flute sign, a backlit acrylic and some window decals = 3 items. We do approx 40 jobs a week, up to 50-60 items a week. Our error rate is approx 3% per job, so ~2% per item.

Conversely, frustrated with the info coming from the sales reps, we tracked them too. Anything conflicting gets a "paperwork" error. Ie, description says "digitally printed and laminated SAV", but specs for what type of laminate says "no laminate". Anything that we can't cross-check and ends up wrong is a "critical" error. So basically something like giving us the wrong size. Their critical error rate is about 8%. Their paperwork error rate is 40%. That's not a typo.

So we could see where the errors are being generated. As has been said above, try to find where the errors are and work from there.

IMO, 3-4% is quite high as an overall rate. Even with our pre-prod error rate being around that figure, the guys in the workshop can normally catch 80% of them, meaning the jobs going to the customer have a rate of less than 1%.

My my suggestion is twofold - you'll never, ever, ever get 100% accuracy, especially when every job is a rush. But cross-checking is will get you close. Quality control is your friend. Explain to your bosses that in order to reduce mistakes, you need a dedicated quality control department. Whether that means you need to hire an additional person or extend the hours of an existing staff member, that depends on your workload. If your bosses balk at the cost, use the maths explained earlier to present the alternative. It might cost an extra 10 hours of overtime per week, but I guarantee it will save at least that in less wasted materials and time, and the priceless commodity of customer satisfaction.

 

[Andy D]

First of all, mistakes being made during production vs production mistakes going out the door are two
COMPLETELY different issues, with different contributing factors and different solutions. I run the graphic department for a very large sign shop, and have been in this business
over 20 years and I still make dumb mistakes, such as doing a repeat job that has always been .063 pre-painted aluminum and not seeing that on this print it's going on 3mm
composite aluminum, your mind will see what it expects to see. redos, mess-ups, mistakes... even dumb mistakes are part of the cost of doing any type of custom work and should
be expected and priced into the job...It's a cliché but very true, if you're not making mistakes in this business, you're not doing enough!
That, however, doesn't mean that management shouldn't address and try to minimize the number of mistakes. You have to track them and figure out
the main reasons they're happening, such as, is the paper work not clear, are employees constantly dealing with last minute rush jobs, that interrupt the flow of work, etc.

IMHO the person that is quality checking product before it goes out the door should never be a person in production. Idealy, the salesperson should quality check all of their jobs before they're packed up... They should know exactly all of the specks of what the customer ordered.

It sounds to me the the business owner is an idiot and you should look for another job......

 

[eahicks]

I manage production, as well as do 98% of the design work, 1/4 of the production, and maybe 1/4 of the installations (windows, vehicles, etc.) I am hyper critical of my own work, my production team's work, any art that comes in for us to print, and any designs any one else does within the company.....critical as in design, spelling, punctuation, etc. That being said, our mistakes are near zero, leading up to installation and production. At that point it is usually up to someone else, so installers and production people may occasionally goof a letter, wrinkle something, install on wrong material, etc. HUMAN mistakes. You have to account for that. It will happen. The other piece of the puzzle is QC after the product is made. If it's not perfect, it gets remade. No big deal, and rarely happens.
If you are the production manager and it's not running that smoothly, you really need to re-evaluate your processes, or possibly decide if this is right for you period. Not to be harsh, but it sounds like more experience or training is needed.

 

[Andy D]

Also, if I understand your OP correctly, your company must be skipping the whole proofing process, if most jobs go out the next day &
as you said

A dibond sign 15"x3" goes out with a set of numbers on it, one number happens to be wrong.

I would think the only way this could happen is if the customer never saw and approved a proof, correct?

If so, then it's absurd that anyone thinks that 2-3 mistakes a month is bad percentage....
I doubt anyone here could do better under similar circumstances.