Pittsburgh, Pa., June 12, 2001 - According to a recent survey, printers cited excessive color variation as the number one reason that they needed to partially or completely reprint a job at their expense in the past year. The survey was commissioned by the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF) and the National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL), with results being presented at ninth annual Sheetfed Pressroom Conference. Held May 20 22, 2001 at the Marriott O'Hare Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, it is the only conference that focuses on issues that directly impact the sheetfed pressroom. Questionnaires were mailed to 700 people who were past attendees of the GATF/NAPL Sheetfed Pressroom Conference and GATF's Continuous Improvement Network. Seventy-two usable surveys were returned with 60 percent of the respondents representing commercial printers. Choosing from a variety of 26 probable causes with the opportunity to name a unique cause, respondents were asked to rank the most common reasons for rework. Behind color variation, print defects such as hickeys ranked second, followed by short counts, wrong copy or images/corrections not made, and problems with digital files rounding out the top five. Respondents were also asked to indicate all causes of partially or completely reprinting a job at their expense in the past year. By this measure, print defects and wrong copy or images are the most ubiquitous causes, with almost 80 percent of printers experiencing rework because of them in the last 12 months. Results were also categorized by facility functions such as pressrun problems, quality management, production management, and plates/prepress operations. The largest percentage of causes identified by printers resulted from pressrun problems (37 percent), followed by production management (25 percent). "The usefulness of this survey is that it heightens the awareness of printers to continuing problems in the pressroom. It highlights the fact that even with the most modern presses and controls traditional problems like color variations stay with us," explained Don Goldman, director of consulting services at CAP Ventures in Norwell, Massachusetts, a leading industry research and consulting organization in the digital information and printing industries. Goldman presented the results of the survey and moderated a panel discussion on the ways and means of battling the war against waste and spoilage at the Sheetfed Pressroom conference. He told the conference attendees that the next step is to put a program together that strategically attacks these major causes of profit erosion. According to Goldman, "The key to having a successful rework reduction program is through a good action program. Get people involved in solutions by letting them know of any problems or spoilage trends and then conduct no fault meetings that involve your employees on solutions and not blame."