In our last episode, the topic was discussions at live print events. They are starting to happen more often, and they allow for conversations that are hard to have at online line events. The advantage of sharing a lunch table, conversing during coffee breaks, and even doing the conga with a gaggle of printers is the chance to hear the current pain points and innovative solutions.
Last time, the focus was on post-mortems after delivery challenges and the risk involved using freeware and downloaded apps. This time the focus is on different types of hauntings.
- Unmaintained Software Installing software is not a "one and done" event. Software lives in an environment where things around it change, so it must change to stay with the times. The best print shops review and update their software on a continuous cadence, but many wait until something stops working to figure out what is wrong.For shops that take that approach, it is likely that things started going wrong well ahead of a catastrophic event. The problems may have been so subtle that they were missed by customers and the QA team. Eventually, though, they make themselves known. A little investigation usually uncovers maintenance patches that haven't been applied. Vendors send out those patches to ensure that their software will continue to perform, especially as new server and operating system patches are applied. Some printers worry that if they apply patches, their delicately balanced workflows will break. If you are in that group, it is time to reassess your workflow. The printers I talked to who dismissed the need to apply software patches all had tales of woe. Those who worked a maintenance cadence indicated they rarely had software issues that impacted their workflows. What is the best practice to avoid haunting? Keep your software up to date!
- Ghostly Spreadsheets This is truly a haunting prospect! Many printing companies have them. They are comfortable. They serve as a backup for the "real" systems. They are dangerous, and even those using them know the risk.One printer told me that he hadn't thought about it, but there were spreadsheets in every department. Many were on the desktops of department managers or administrators, and each was out of sync with the central production systems. No one cared until they had a problem. Multiple jobs were scheduled for the same finishing equipment at the same time. The main systems showed the availability, so the team with the emergency job told the customer everything was fine, and they'd get right on it. On a spreadsheet in an adjacent department, that time was already scheduled due to a rework requirement but hadn't been updated in the main system. Adding one more challenge, another department managing work from a different press needed to finish work that hadn't been completed due to a maintenance issue. They had updated their spreadsheet and not added anything to the main system. They learned most departments were updating the main system after events occurred. Sometimes at the end of a shift, sometimes at the end of a week. That meant that the main dashboards management looked at were seldom correct, and every department was guessing. Another printer told me that they had morning meetings to resolve the departmental spreadsheets. A different printer said they stopped using their very expensive workflow because everyone was more comfortable with their spreadsheets. The takeaway is to look in each department to see who is managing by spreadsheet. If you are running dashboard systems and workflow automation systems, question their accuracy if you discover ghostly spreadsheets that are the actual status indicators.
Don't forget to let me know what type of hauntings you experience! Please send your thoughts to me or add them to the comments!
