Seattle – Metrix Software, developer of Metrix®, the intelligent, automated job planning and imposition system, announced today that industry consultant Jim Aust had shared his research on the Return On Investment (ROI) of Metrix in a video interview, after analyzing data from over a dozen Metrix printing plants. Metrix Software invites anyone who is curious about the value of Metrix to have a look. The YouTube video can be found here. 

Jim Aust has had nearly 40 years of experience in the print industry, and spent the bulk of his career as an ROI analyst. He explained that over the course of his career he has been able to study “over 2000 printers, mostly in North America, but quite a few in Europe and Asia.” This broad experience has given Aust a unique vantage point from which to know and evaluate print operations in many markets – from commercial to flexo to books to publishing.

When asked about the overall benefits Metrix brings to print operations, Aust said: “Right off the bat I can tell you it strikes me as one of the best, if not the best, return on investment, dollar for dollar. So for every dollar spent, the return is, quite honestly, phenomenal.” Aust went on to say that, “even on a very conservative scale, it appears to me that the payback on an average Metrix solution is well under one year, and the cash flow it generates is very, very good.”

Jim Aust pointed to the ability of Metrix to assist an Estimator as one its main benefits. He cited the fact that Metrix projects “can be done on the fly, quickly,” that even last-minutes changes can be made quickly. Aust said he finds the “Metrix approach” very compelling, because it “centralizes data and all of the parties within the production stream are working off that same centralized data…” Aust explained that this means far fewer errors passed along to the pressroom and the bindery, and a drastic reduction of the transcribing of data. He added, “So I like the Metrix approach because it integrates these departments, rather than the type of system that typically requires manual construction of templates and then re-inputting of data in a following department, so it really lays the groundwork for increased efficiency all the way through the manufacturing stream.”

Aust was asked what he thought about the economic advantage of combining jobs in the pressroom. He responded, “There is a perception that in a quality shop, every job should be treated as a unique job, and certainly there’s a lot of truth to that. However, I don’t believe that quality is compromised simply because certain jobs can be combined.” Aust emphasized that for short run lengths, make-ready time and materials can often exceed the run time and materials. He challenged printers to save money by identifying “a certain percentage of their work that can be combined and printed more efficiently through combo…” He cited the ability of Metrix “to identify and combine like jobs” as one of its strengths, resulting in “a fairly dramatic reduction in make-ready spoilage.”

Jim Aust wrapped up the interview by sharing his general point of view on the value of Metrix. “… what I find in general, and this is a pretty good rule of thumb, that we believe that Metrix will improve the productivity, and therefore lower the costs on almost half of a printer’s total manufacturing operations – things like estimating and job planning and prepress and make-ready spoilage reduction, even bindery spoilage reduction and setup time. Those are huge dollars.” Huge dollars indeed! Aust concluded the interview with, “So that’s why I said starting out that the ROI on the Metrix solution is one of the best, if not the best, that I’ve ever seen in this industry.”