The New York/New Jersey market is a territory where even the top companies must constantly battle to stay alive. In this area, printing is an industry where the competition is especially fierce. Plagued by small margins and countless competitors, printing companies have found it essential to have effective and reliable management systems. Carlstadt, NJ-based Pictorial Offset Corp. is a printer that epitomizes the gold standard for a customer-oriented approach to business. As one of the top 200 printers in the United States, Pictorial serves the metropolitan area by being the closest full-service web and sheetfed printer to Manhattan. How has Pictorial set itself apart in
"Lift" and "pull" are dirty words in the world of commercial printing. When you "lift" a form or job, you "pull" it off the press, binder or other process before it's completed. You do this because you must put some other job or form in its place, in order to meet a promised delivery time. The practice impairs productivity, compromises quality and zaps profits. "Well, if it's that bad," you say, "then why would anyone do it?" We do it because we've promised a delivery date we can't keep unless we interrupt the completion of forms or jobs already in process. Next question: "Why do we
Soon after this column appears, many printing companies may find themselves struggling on the unfamiliar terrain of a deflationary contraction. Even companies that have done well during the long period of uninterrupted growth—now perhaps about to end—may be faced with new and severe challenges. Before winter is over, slower demand may begin to reduce the number of cylinders in the market. Or not. I'm reluctant to predict an imminent downturn. I'm just not sure the hard times are really waiting for us around the next turn in the road. Moreover, I know little about deflation, too little to be confident of my advice about
Along with several other people, I was inducted into the printing industry's Soderstrom Society last month. I haven't read the Soderstrom Society by-laws yet, but I'm sure that membership gives me broad powers. For example, I now have the power to ban things in the printing industry that I don't like. Be it ordained and decreed that all print buyers henceforth shall purchase printing based only on quality and service. This means that "price" will no longer be a consideration. Printers are inherently honest people, who would never gouge buyers, so why all the fuss over a few dollars? Furthermore, I proclaim and demand that
Something has has been troubling some accountants and printing software suppliers whom I speak to from time to time: They note that printers often produce reports—information—from their computers at dazzling speeds, but then they don't use the data to make decisions and take action. "Why do companies pay big bucks for these data systems and then seem to ignore results that mandate remedial action?" is a question many ask. "We're giving them what they asked for, aren't we? So why don't they use it?" Yes, these systems are providing financial reports, balance sheets, income statements and cash flow analysis—all based on a system developed by
I love those old good news-bad news jokes. In the best of them, the bad is unexpectedly derived from the good. On close examination, what seems at first glance to be good news turns out to be a mixed blessing, sometimes even a grotesque outcome. The humor comes from the disparity between what we at first expect and what we then learn. Well, there's good news for marketers in the printing industry. And, predictably, the good news is also the bad news. After two decades of struggle during the '70s and '80s, marketing won widespread acceptance in the printing industry. Few printing executives doubt
This is column number 154. One five four! They don't call me old Rhetoric Breath for nothin'. It also marks my 14th anniversary writing for Printing Impressions. By the time you read this column, a whole bunch of people, including yours truly, will be in Chicago at GRAPH EXPO. I'm being inducted into the Soderstrom Society during GRAPH EXPO, and, if I'm not mistaken, you will have to start calling me "Sir Mañana Man" or maybe it's "Lord Mañana Man." The Soderstrom Society is kind of like being knighted or something, I think. There's lots of news as I write this. By the time you
BY JERRY JANDA Phil Ruggles, a Cal Poly State University professor and consultant specializing in management information systems, estimates that this year there are approximately 70 vendors selling computer management systems to the graphic arts industry. As of yet, no vendors sell software that makes selecting, and integrating, a computer management system any easier. Ruggles notes that there is no easy way to determine which computer management system is best for a given company—there are simply too many variables to allow for a quick choice. Research and study by the printer are essential. And at the end of the research process, it is unlikely
Virtual reality is created by a computer using sights and sounds that the mind perceives as real as the desk, table or chair where you're reading these words. This reality exists in that computer gear you put over your eyes and ears to see and hear a simulated scene. We also have our own virtual reality in printing management. We call it "job cost accounting." We see these job costs, and we think they're as real as the chair that we occupy as we look at them. "An hour in platemaking costs me $57.43." We forget that these costs are a virtual reality we
Shut your eyes tight and imagine that you're in the grand ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. You and everyone in the audience are elegantly garbed in formal attire. You have come to attend the fifth annual Mañana Man's Receptionist Hall of Fame ceremony. Tonight, four new nominees will be inducted into this prestigious society of printing company employees. If you're a regular reader, you will remember that I created this recognition five years ago to honor the folks who greet your customers by phone and in person. They are the people who frequently create the first impressions that lead to new accounts. They
