If you look at our industry it becomes evident that we are on a crest of change. Not that there are outstanding technological developments that singularly have evolved into "must have" devices to succeed in business. No, there is not a single element that has evolved our business, but what is it that has recently changed? If we can not see the change, just how are we to capitalize on it and push it further? The simple fact is that we as Flexographers are learning to effectively apply strict and well-engineered practices to the trade. In my experience, what I am seeing is an attitude change in the way we are developing these ‘improvements’. The fact that our business is growing, by the ‘improvements’ in abilities, print quality, consistency, costs and time lines. The pressure now is to continue this trend.

I have the inane ability (some say insane) to be optimistic with the solution to problems. If you look at how I foresee the solution to the forthcoming environmental laws helping us print better it becomes evident. No matter what your position is, you must have the attitude of being positive with solutions, even if they cause us more work or cost us more money to see them through. At the end of the day, we must be profitable and if we are not, the solution will be to shut down the business. Sometimes that is the case, but I have not found that situation yet. What my point is, that all positive changes take effort, money and time to be profitable. The more effort, the more profitable. There is no short cut, or easy way. I propose a plan.

Look at the cost of not changing, or not improving. Because by not considering change, you are going on record as fully developed (perfect) and incapable of improvement. Do not meet the upcoming environmental law and try to stay in operation, that one is simple! If you do not improve your printing and your competitor does, try to stay in operation, fail to reduce your costs and your competition does, and try to stay in operation. These are more difficult. In these cases your profitability is challenged. Might as well continue what I am doing and drop my price. The fact is this loop closes fast and is the last resort.

The first item on my list, or ‘plan’ is measurement. If I am lucky you have read some previous articles from Flexo Canada, to those that have not here is a quick review. Everything that we do in Flexography can be measured. It typically is not, but items such as, density, colour, contrast, are some of the difficult components to control, but they can be measured. All operations need to invest in a measurement program.

The second item is recording, now that you are measuring the components, record them. Computers are amazing things for this aspect. The main reason for measurement will be to identify critical control components that affect your ability and profitability. The record keeping will allow you to go to step three.

The third item is analysis, the data generated needs to be analyzed relative to the print coming off the press, and the success with customer expectations and your profitability. At this stage you can develop the ‘TEAM’ to review the data and make recommendations. A key point I might add!

This is enough to get you started, next issue I will add some thoughts on what you do with all the data. The object until then is to establish the measurement protocol as part of your business, narrow the span of the results, and get everyone working on the numbers game.

Bottom line is to keep Flexography growing we need to out-perform litho and gravure. They are not standing still, trust me on that one! The most effective way to get business from your competition, be that flexo, gravure or litho is to outprint them. You can base this on delivery time, costs or print ‘ability’ (I do not like the word we typically use in this case, quality). So getting back to the change in our industry, I see the opportunity of better printing, be that ability based on consistency, additional colours or process printing in place of line as the path of business growth and profitability. The operation to do that first sets the standard and the high jump bar for everyone else to clear (or attempt to). If you do the good job that you should, the bar might be higher than the competition can make.

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