Newsletter Archive: Late Spring 2010
Finish Strong
THE VIEW FROM THE BINDERY WORLD
Late Spring 2010
In This Issue
BIA RecapThe Art of the Bindery
Index Tab Positioning
Small Improvement Sees Big Results
"Print Grows Trees"
Most everyone I talk to wants to know how we are doing and what is going on with the rest of the industry. We are all in the midst of tough times and looking for answers.
To educate myself and see what my industry peers were thinking, I attended the recent BIA Mid Management Conference in Baltimore. I had a great time as always, not including the fact that I had a chance to see the Camden Yards ballpark for the first time.
So here is what I got out of the conference. I welcome your comments and discussion.
Sincerely,
Frank
To educate myself and see what my industry peers were thinking, I attended the recent BIA Mid Management Conference in Baltimore. I had a great time as always, not including the fact that I had a chance to see the Camden Yards ballpark for the first time.
So here is what I got out of the conference. I welcome your comments and discussion.
Sincerely,
Frank
BIA Recap
It's been a while since our last newsletter, but the recent Binding Industries Association mid management conference deserved to be reported. The BIA was left for dead as recently as four years ago and due to the efforts of the executive director, a dynamo named Justin Goldstein, it has been resurrected and now is a can't miss event. Here is what the world of binding and finishing looks like:
The mood throughout the country is one of cautious optimism, and I share that. Even though the printing industry is undergoing contraction of its own apart from the general economy there are reasons to be hopeful. One is that print is solidifying its role in the media mix, and according to some leading advertising agencies is now regaining its position as the medium of choice. The optimal marketing mix, in most minds, involves print and on-line media used in coordination.
To be sure, most binderies are in stabilization mode but nonetheless are sustainable. We are all adjusting to the shorter run, quicker turnover jobs.
A great deal of discussion was had about the growing importance of social media in to the total marketing mix and according to what age group was commenting the feeling was either positive or negative. We at Seaboard are also looking to establish a social media presence and in the coming months you may see us popping up on Twitter. We are already on Linked In, but have plans to be involved more in that as well. We are looking at all the ways we can get our message out. Read on for more.
One of the most difficult aspects of being in the printing, binding, and finishing business these days is being thought of as a commodity. It is true that our competition can match almost every aspect of the physical production of a product. But what is it that sets us apart?
To that end we must be able to articulate our (cliché alert) unique selling proposition. How do we define our intangibles? It's difficult but critically important to hone down our message into an elevator speech, a fifteen second or shorter talk designed to laser in on what we do and how we do it.
One thing that I am trying to be better at is listening to our customers. Too often I find myself talking when I should be listening. I need to spend more time finding out what our customers' problems and challenges are, and then we need to step back and think about how we can help. My goal is to become more of a business consultant and offer more value to our customers. We are about providing information to help printers do their jobs better to eliminate or minimize the binding and/or finishing.
For me, these were the highlights. We need to plan for the future, and somewhere someone is doing what we should be doing and we need to learn from those experiences.
It's been a while since our last newsletter, but the recent Binding Industries Association mid management conference deserved to be reported. The BIA was left for dead as recently as four years ago and due to the efforts of the executive director, a dynamo named Justin Goldstein, it has been resurrected and now is a can't miss event. Here is what the world of binding and finishing looks like:
The mood throughout the country is one of cautious optimism, and I share that. Even though the printing industry is undergoing contraction of its own apart from the general economy there are reasons to be hopeful. One is that print is solidifying its role in the media mix, and according to some leading advertising agencies is now regaining its position as the medium of choice. The optimal marketing mix, in most minds, involves print and on-line media used in coordination.
To be sure, most binderies are in stabilization mode but nonetheless are sustainable. We are all adjusting to the shorter run, quicker turnover jobs.
A great deal of discussion was had about the growing importance of social media in to the total marketing mix and according to what age group was commenting the feeling was either positive or negative. We at Seaboard are also looking to establish a social media presence and in the coming months you may see us popping up on Twitter. We are already on Linked In, but have plans to be involved more in that as well. We are looking at all the ways we can get our message out. Read on for more.
One of the most difficult aspects of being in the printing, binding, and finishing business these days is being thought of as a commodity. It is true that our competition can match almost every aspect of the physical production of a product. But what is it that sets us apart?
To that end we must be able to articulate our (cliché alert) unique selling proposition. How do we define our intangibles? It's difficult but critically important to hone down our message into an elevator speech, a fifteen second or shorter talk designed to laser in on what we do and how we do it.
One thing that I am trying to be better at is listening to our customers. Too often I find myself talking when I should be listening. I need to spend more time finding out what our customers' problems and challenges are, and then we need to step back and think about how we can help. My goal is to become more of a business consultant and offer more value to our customers. We are about providing information to help printers do their jobs better to eliminate or minimize the binding and/or finishing.
For me, these were the highlights. We need to plan for the future, and somewhere someone is doing what we should be doing and we need to learn from those experiences.
The Art of the Bindery
Ray, our lead saddlestitch operator and do-all guy, and I were watching a difficult saddlestitch job and he said to me, "This job would not be running at all without our experienced pocket feeders. These tabloid sized 8 page signatures must be loaded with care and if they are not handled right they will just not feed".
These comments remind me that I sometimes do not appreciate the skills of some of our people and what they do to make jobs run. Usually we reward the machine operators for a job well done but do not acknowledge the signature loaders or people who pack the finished product. Every day there are situations where an experienced person notices a little thing, such as a scratch on a cover or folded signature that we need to bring to our customer's attention. Every day someone proactively brings up the idea to shrinkwrap a book with a scratch prone cover. Every day other details worthy of customer review are brought to our attention.
We at Seaboard Bindery are guardians of your job from the moment it comes in the door until it leaves our dock. We give it our best possible care while its within our four walls, and we package it the best way possible for the journey to its destination. Our experience goes all the way to your customer's door.
Ray, our lead saddlestitch operator and do-all guy, and I were watching a difficult saddlestitch job and he said to me, "This job would not be running at all without our experienced pocket feeders. These tabloid sized 8 page signatures must be loaded with care and if they are not handled right they will just not feed".
These comments remind me that I sometimes do not appreciate the skills of some of our people and what they do to make jobs run. Usually we reward the machine operators for a job well done but do not acknowledge the signature loaders or people who pack the finished product. Every day there are situations where an experienced person notices a little thing, such as a scratch on a cover or folded signature that we need to bring to our customer's attention. Every day someone proactively brings up the idea to shrinkwrap a book with a scratch prone cover. Every day other details worthy of customer review are brought to our attention.
We at Seaboard Bindery are guardians of your job from the moment it comes in the door until it leaves our dock. We give it our best possible care while its within our four walls, and we package it the best way possible for the journey to its destination. Our experience goes all the way to your customer's door.
Index Tab Positioning
We get a lot of questions about how to position tabs on a sheet. Some want the tabs positioned along the full edge of the sheet so that the tab extension is flush with the head and foot of the page. There are some limitations to this.
We can extend the tabs the full length of the sheet, EXCEPT that if the tabs are to be mylar laminated the two end positions would need extra 1" margin at the end of the sheet where the tab is located. This is so the mylar has enough paper to grab on to. We would then trim off the extra margin off-line.
The formula goes ((length of sheet - 1") / number of tabs) = the length of each tab. 11" sheet - 1" = 10", divided by 10 tabs = 1" per tab. There is 1/2" at the head and foot before the tab starts. This is to accomodate the mylar so that it is not applied with half of it hanging off the sheet.
If there is to be NO mylar, then the tab can be cut right out to the end of the sheet without any extra margin. See our tab template at www.seaboardbindery.com/images/tab_templates.pdf.
We get a lot of questions about how to position tabs on a sheet. Some want the tabs positioned along the full edge of the sheet so that the tab extension is flush with the head and foot of the page. There are some limitations to this.
We can extend the tabs the full length of the sheet, EXCEPT that if the tabs are to be mylar laminated the two end positions would need extra 1" margin at the end of the sheet where the tab is located. This is so the mylar has enough paper to grab on to. We would then trim off the extra margin off-line.
The formula goes ((length of sheet - 1") / number of tabs) = the length of each tab. 11" sheet - 1" = 10", divided by 10 tabs = 1" per tab. There is 1/2" at the head and foot before the tab starts. This is to accomodate the mylar so that it is not applied with half of it hanging off the sheet.
If there is to be NO mylar, then the tab can be cut right out to the end of the sheet without any extra margin. See our tab template at www.seaboardbindery.com/images/tab_templates.pdf.
Small Improvement Sees Big Results
Carlos, our expert folder operator and Kolbus operator, happened to be on working on both ends of a particular fold and perfect bind job that just wouldn't trim evenly from front to back. The finished book had a curl to it and he couldn't pinpoint the source. The front cover actually was 1/32" larger than the back cover.
As he was binding the job he realized that the problem started in the folding. He noticed that the signature folded in a way that caused the gathered book to bend. And a seemingly slight adjustment would do the trick.
History: This 32 page signature had always been folded up, down, up, then in the right angle went up and up. The paper was 70# opaque, a good substantial sheet. The problem seemed to be that as the sheet went up into the 2nd plate in the right angle section, it acquired a curl, then folding again in the 4th plate the curl was magnified. So Carlos thought that if we could go up, then down in the right angle the curl would be smoothed out by going in the opposite direction.
A test confirmed that that was indeed the answer. No amount of perfing would cure the initial problem. The solution simply involved the reversal of that last fold. So now that we had signatures that lay flat without bending, the book would bind and trim square and even. Reversing the last fold was a solution that our customer easily agreed to.
If you would like an imposition showing what we came up with, just email me at frank@seaboardbindery.com.
Carlos, our expert folder operator and Kolbus operator, happened to be on working on both ends of a particular fold and perfect bind job that just wouldn't trim evenly from front to back. The finished book had a curl to it and he couldn't pinpoint the source. The front cover actually was 1/32" larger than the back cover.
As he was binding the job he realized that the problem started in the folding. He noticed that the signature folded in a way that caused the gathered book to bend. And a seemingly slight adjustment would do the trick.
History: This 32 page signature had always been folded up, down, up, then in the right angle went up and up. The paper was 70# opaque, a good substantial sheet. The problem seemed to be that as the sheet went up into the 2nd plate in the right angle section, it acquired a curl, then folding again in the 4th plate the curl was magnified. So Carlos thought that if we could go up, then down in the right angle the curl would be smoothed out by going in the opposite direction.
A test confirmed that that was indeed the answer. No amount of perfing would cure the initial problem. The solution simply involved the reversal of that last fold. So now that we had signatures that lay flat without bending, the book would bind and trim square and even. Reversing the last fold was a solution that our customer easily agreed to.
If you would like an imposition showing what we came up with, just email me at frank@seaboardbindery.com.
"Print Grows Trees"
With the constant bombardment of how our environment is in trouble and how wonderful our electronic devices have become, the general public is getting the notion that print is dirty and contrary to a healthy earth. The Printing and Graphics Association, Mid Atlantic is out in front of a public education campaign called Print Grows Trees, which discusses the realities of the effect the printing industry has on forests. Did you know that printing papers come largely from managed forests in which landowners, in order to grow their businesses, replant two trees for every one that is cut down. Proper management of forests can lead to productive harvesting for printing paper. You can read more at www.printgrowstrees.com. It is important that we back up our own industry and counter the points that less informed people (i.e. the general public) are making.
With the constant bombardment of how our environment is in trouble and how wonderful our electronic devices have become, the general public is getting the notion that print is dirty and contrary to a healthy earth. The Printing and Graphics Association, Mid Atlantic is out in front of a public education campaign called Print Grows Trees, which discusses the realities of the effect the printing industry has on forests. Did you know that printing papers come largely from managed forests in which landowners, in order to grow their businesses, replant two trees for every one that is cut down. Proper management of forests can lead to productive harvesting for printing paper. You can read more at www.printgrowstrees.com. It is important that we back up our own industry and counter the points that less informed people (i.e. the general public) are making.