While high ink and raw material prices are a perennial concern for flexo printers, it’s likely that inefficiencies in ink handling are a greater threat to profits.
To sustain a competitive edge in a market where repeatable quality is a given, and shorter runs are the norm, requires more than high-tech equipment and software. It requires a culture-change—adopting the “Lean” business philosophy, famously championed by Toyota.
Lean is a way of collective thinking to methodically stamp out waste while simultaneously maximizing value creation. Respect for people and continual improvement are central to this philosophy. Employees are motivated to perform their work better every day, thinking deeply about it to understand the shortfalls and develop improved methods.
All photos courtesy of GSE Dispensing
Lean delivers a strong competitive advantage because the changes it brings directly improve the bottom line. Waste reduction savings of $100,000 can be like improving turnover by millions.
Given the costs of ink-related errors, the importance of color accuracy to brands, overhauling ink related processes is a good place to start your company’s Lean journey.
Here are some tips for transforming into the “zero reject, zero delay” converter that brand owners love to count as their suppliers.
The trick is to look at the processes and identify which costs provide value (your staff, press and equipment), and to reduce as much as possible the costs and tasks that do not provide value. That requires considering what customers are really paying you for. The label and packaging they buy are a means to a greater end: increased sales and/or compelling, strong and consistent point-of-sale branding.
8 Wastes
There are eight types of waste and they relate to ink handling in the flexo printing workflow as follows:
Over Production: Producing more ink or labels than the customer will pay for is a common cause of waste when preparing spot colors. Printers sometimes overproduce, to avoid running out of ink during production and the costly consequences of machine stoppages.
Determining the exact amount of ink needed for a production run requires complex calculations, taking into account variables, such as, surface area, coverage, absorption and run length. Without software, printers may overestimate needs by about 10 percent.
Inventory: Waste is stocks that the customer will not pay for—most usually because they never get used for production—is certainly problematic. These symptoms of poor management can include over ordering, or a store room cluttered with buckets of expired inks returned from the press.
Waiting: Products, people and information that stand waiting, deliver no value. A common cause of waiting is delays because of over reliance on external suppliers or manual labor that builds complexity and potential points of failure into processes.
For instance, by depending on ink manufacturers or human eyesight to make spot colors—rather than mixing automatically in-house, on-demand–means longer lead times and more opportunities for mistakes.
Transport: The distance your ink ingredients must travel is an expense that adds no customer value. Buying base colors in bulk, in barrels less frequently, as opposed to small containers of pre-mixed inks, means substantial reductions in transport costs—and lower emissions.
Motion: Carefully plan pressroom, ink room and inventory layout, so processes can be completed without excessive motion by foot or truck within the factory. Tidy, ordered workplaces enable inks and tools to be located without searching, and integrated software systems can export and import data without a paper trail.
Over-Processing: Relates to tasks that should be eliminated from the workflow. Usually these are administrative chores that require excessive human involvement: raising purchase orders, preparing colors, duplication of order entry information. Software programs are available to perform these faster, without human input or risk of mistakes, and store data for easy recall when the job comes around again.
Rework/Rejects: Refers to the costs of not meeting quality expectations in terms of wasted substrate, ink, operator hours and production time. These can be substantial, so aiming for zero-defects is crucial. That requires controlled processes, so that colors are first-time-right, every time.
Human Talent: Finding and retaining staff is a significant challenge for converters today. Companies with a mindset that is committed to continuous improvement are better at retaining employees, who look for purpose in work, personal development, a healthy work-life balance, increased self-worth and recognition.
Excessive administration, uncontrolled error-prone processes, and disorganized workplaces are an obstacle to fulfilling potential and may cause your people to look elsewhere. Use your people to their full potential—or lose them!
5S Program
Reorganizing the workplace creates the conditions for waste to be eliminated and problems to be resolved at their source. Implementing the Lean 5S Program results in the pit stop scenario where makeready happens in minutes. The five elements are:
- Sort: Remove all items in the ink room that are not used in the work area
- Set in order: Arrange all items so they can be found when needed within 30 seconds
- Shine: Clean and inspect tools, equipment and surfaces, to discover problems as soon as they arise, such as leakage or damage
- Standardize: Make an organized workplace an expectation. This requires leadership and clear communication to agree to best practice standards, so that everyone knows their responsibilities and appreciates the importance of meeting them
- Sustain: Prevent backsliding with regular audits and always look for improvements!
Automated Kitchen
Most forms of ink related waste in flexo printing can be reduced by automation, to ensure predictable and repeatable results and to avoid being over reliant on experience.
A prerequisite for achieving repeatable quality is to communicate color objectively in terms of measurable targets, using PANTONE or L*a*b* values for instance—not the human eye. Colors are measured by a spectrophotometer and provide a standard that customer and printer can agree on.
Usually, the ink supplier can provide the ink recipe or formulation, otherwise these may be generated using dedicated software from vendors such as X-Rite or Datacolor.
The next step is to create the color by preparing and blending the ingredients with a gravimetric ink dispenser. Ink dispensers create special shades, by blending exact quantities of base inks together, as specified by a recipe. The operator enters the target color and volume requirements into the interface; a computer calculates dosage volumes and activates the process. The base inks are supplied in barrels to the dispensing bucket. A batch can be prepared in minutes.
The dispenser’s own software stores the ink formulation for instant recall when repeating a job, and handles inks returned from the press, booking them methodically into storage and calculating them into new recipes.
Automating the ink kitchen can yield ink cost reductions of up to 30 percent and cut emissions, thanks to the following benefits:
- Processes are faster, setup times are reduced, potentially leading to increased uptime
- Standardized processes for color measurement and dispensing provide assurance of predictable, repeatable quality, with colors prepared faster and accurately
- Reduced ink usage: dispense exactly what is needed without excess ordering; re-use press-return inks in new jobs
- Reduced substrate waste—especially in the start-up phase
- Significantly reduced carbon footprint
Smart Logistics
Ink follows a more complex passage through the print factory than other raw materials as base inks are mixed into spot colors, and leftovers are returned from the press for remixing into new jobs. The availability of software that can manage inks through their uniquely non-linear route in the workflow, and share data with other software platforms, has made it possible to automate a host of ink related processes:
- Managing press return inks in focused ways, including clustering into one component connected to the dispenser for processing, or reserving for specific jobs
- Exporting and importing ink data, such as stocks and recipes with other software platforms, avoiding data re-entry and paper trails
- Performing color corrections and adjustments
- Creating new colors
- Management reporting: real-time stock level, cost and consumption per job
- Purchasing: generating purchase advice automatically when base color stocks are low
- Ink batch traceability: tracking ingredients through the supply chain, including for reused return inks
Staff Empowerment
Being best-in-class demands a culture of continuous improvement, waste elimination and an inclusive environment where employees are empowered to be the best they can be.
Automated technologies, such as dispensing and proofing, simplifies and controls processes. Smart software solutions accelerate decision making, facilitating Quick Response Manufacturing. With these in place, a converter is on the road to preferred supplier status.
Finally, it is your people—the only asset in your business that increases in value over time–that bring about change. A collaborative environment where all staff feel included in decision making and empowered to contribute is vital for making change happen.
About the Author
GSE delivers robust, fast and smart dispensing equipment, software and services to minimize ink related waste in the printing workflow. With nearly 50 years’ experience in the industry, the company, based in Brummen, the Netherlands, has an installed base of 2,200 systems worldwide.
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