A Methodology for the Design and Efficient Operation of Print Shops Sudhendu Rai Xerox Corporation May 21, 2005

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A Methodology for the Design and Efficient
Operation of Print ShopsSudhendu RaiXerox
CorporationMay 21, 2005
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Structure of the presentation

• A quick tutorial on print shops
• Methodology for improving productivity of print
  production workflows
• Results from case studies
• Future opportunities

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Motivation

• The printing industry is large
• 1997 census reports that there were 42863
  establishments with 97.4B in revenue
• Printing is a manufacturing activity and
  manufacturing techniques can be applied to
  improve productivity and profitability of the
  industry at large
• Printing is still being practiced as a craft and
  there is a need for a systematic methodology for
  efficient design and operation of print shops

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Types of print shops

• Transaction print shop
• Copy shop
• Publishing
• Offset print shop
• Combination of the above

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Transaction printing
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Copy shop
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Publishing
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Transaction printing, copy-shop and publishing
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Offset print shop
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Some characteristics of print manufacturing
systems

• Typically a job-shop type environment
• Differentiated by document application and
  industry segment
• Long bid-times
• Diverse fluctuating workflows
• Many types of variability associated with labor
  and equipment
• Departmental operational structure
• Makes it difficult to develop a robust and
  scalable methodology to improve operational
  productivityacross printing industry

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Print shop classification by complexity
utilization
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A methodology for improving productivity of print
production workflows

• Data collection
• Establishing baseline metrics
• Partitioning of job mix into a few primary
  equivalence classes
• Takt-rate analysis and equipment grouping
• Scheduling architecture
• Workflow simulation and modeling
• Post-implementation modeling and tracking

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Data collection and establishment of baseline
metrics
Shop event data
Historical data
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Partitioning of job mix into equivalence classes
and takt-rate analysis
Large number of jobtypes
Few equivalence classes

• Booklets
• Perfect bound books
• Shrinwrapped products
• Coil bound books

• Equivalence class 1
• Equivalence class 2
• Equivalence class 3

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Job to workflow mapping rapid simulation
Print shop independent job description
Production workflow
Signature booklet with black andwhite pages
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Design of print shop configuration and scheduling
policy
Routing
Sequencing tracking

• Methods to achieve fair routing have been
  developed
• Sequencing is based on job-splitting and
  heuristics validated via simulation

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New Layout and Corresponding Workflow
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Results of implementing the methodology
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Conclusions

• The methodology described in the paper is the
  first of its kind in the printing industry
• Based on modeling simulation, practical
  heuristics and detailed domain knowledge of
  printing
• Significant improvements have been demonstrated
  from application of this methodology
• Large complex operations are still the subject of
  ongoing work