Your garage and your plant!

When I get a call to help with the re-design of a plant, I am afforded a new perspective on our industry. Since every plant I visit is different from every other one, I think that I have seen almost everything—until I get to the next place.

Rather than describe these places, let me suggest that you all think of your garage. It may be very much like mine—neat, clean, well-organized. I can find everything easily. My wife just looked over my shoulder and said, “Bob, don’t you know that you will dwell in Lucifer’s domain for lying like that?”

When my wife designed our new house ten years ago the garage was neat, clean, etc. Then I started to add “stuff.” It doesn’t matter whether it is a leaf blower, or a new plate frame. It doesn’t matter whether it is a riding mower, or a new two-color press. We all do the same thing—look for the greatest amount of empty space. It is too much of a chore to take everything out into the driveway and put it all back the way it “should” be.

In reality, when I put something in the garage, I look for the area that has the greatest amount of empty space. I put it there. When I add some new treasure, a set of jack stands, or some other toy that I will never use, I look for another empty space. Eventually, things wind up where they are awkward to get to and awkward to use.

I remember the first shop I worked in. In 1948 Louie, the owner, had ordered a new Kluge. One day the truck showed up. Louie and Howard had a conference. The position for the press was determined after the press was in the building. At that time, we could see the actual size and the actual space that we had. We did not move everything so the plant would work as a whole. We put the press where there was space for it—just like me and my garage.

Most of our plants look the way they do because technology changed, our market changed, our equipment changed, and our personnel changed. Workflow is an after-the-fact item. I think that the biggest factor in plant layout is personnel. It is the personnel that will determine where things go. As I go from plant to plant, I can see the “Personality” of the plant as soon as I go in. Most plants are cleaner today than the days when I started printing. We had soot on the walls from melting the lead and doing other unhealthy things. Some plants haven’t changed in years. Some are in a state of constant change. Your plant is just like all other plants. That is, your plant is being redesigned on a continuous basis.

Change in plant layout costs money. Change in plant layout will alter your Budgeted Hourly Rates. Change in plant layout should result in increased productivity that will ultimately lower your Budgeted Hourly Rates. Your business is never static! Tomorrow, it will be worth more than it is worth today, OR it will be worth less. This is true every day. A trend will make itself evident. You should be making plans for a continual and constant shift in layout. If the trend is on the decrease, do nothing and the trend will continue.

Some of the things I find . . .

Technological Preservation

Outmoded technology is a common item. I remember well when a large plant made the move from Linotype and Intertype to this new-fangled “Computerized Typesetting.”  I suggested that the “Linos” be eliminated, there were about 10 or 12. The response? “Nah! We have to keep them for backup.” This is a very common occurrence—How long do I keep the old technology is a common question. When designing a new plant, I always ask my clients, “Do you want a darkroom in the new facility?” Ten years ago my clients said, “What is the matter with you Bob? Of course I need a darkroom!” Five years ago, they would say, “Well, yes, some of our clients still bring things in “on boards.” Now I rarely put a darkroom, as we used to know it, in a plant. We all hate to throw out the old stuff. Don’t believe me? Go look in my garage—maybe even in your own garage.

Personal Agenda

A common procedure is to always talk with the persons who will be operating the equipment. One shop that I redesigned stands out in my mind. When I started talking with the operator of the press, I asked him why the press was located in the present position. His first answer was something like, “This is the best location for the job flow in this shop.” Job flow is something that EVERYONE knows is important. Everybody has heard that! Job Flow has almost a holy ring when you start talking about redesigning a plant. It didn’t look that way to me, so I hung around for a while and started talking press stuff. When the topic of why this location came up again, he confided in me the real reason for the present location of the press—it was so that he could have a view out the window.

Common Cautions

I suppose that many press operators and bindery persons have a sleight touch of compulsivity in their personality makeup. Compulsivity is that trait that makes some of us want to have everything lined up. I saw a delightful manifestation of this with my 3 year-old grandson. We were walking down the grocery store aisle, when he stopped to straighten up some crooked cereal boxes. This same trait is desirable in our press operators. They should take pride in having their work lined up in neat, crisp, precise stacks. This trait will manifest itself in wanting all of the front edges, delivery ends, feeder ends, off sides, high sides, low sides lined up in a straight line.

Do things really need to be lined up for production purposes, or is it because of the personality of the individual doing the layout?

Spatial perception is a trait that is measured by the GATB test. Some persons have it. Some do not. When I show persons a plant drawing, some can “read” drawings. Some cannot. When making a drawing of space some people can “understand” the space that is represented by the lines on the paper. Some cannot. Before asking one of your personnel to make a drawing, you might ask them to tell you how long that press, (camera, multibinder, etc.) is. If they need a tape measure to answer, or if they tell you that a you should think your choice over carefully. They should be able to answer that the multibinder is 25-30 feet long. Or the press is about 15 feet long. Or the light table is about 4 feet long. There is nothing wrong with using a tape measure, but you need to work with someone who has this “intuitive” understanding of space and distance. Many people have no idea of

As an Outsider

As an outsider, I ask the “dumb questions.” These are the questions that sometimes cause persons to re-think what it is that they are doing. Most of the time, I find that we all accept the present layout because it has always been this way. Back to the garage example. If I move to another house, I will have all my prized possessions out in the driveway. I will then start to move them into the garage in a manner that is more functional than my last garage. Then the cycle begins again.

I talk with everyone in the plant to get their best thinking. I then temper that with my own judgment and experience. Next, I try to integrate all that with what your long range plans for growth are. We may leave some empty space for a piece of new equipment that you will be getting in 2-3 years.

When I start to redesign a plant, I use a computerized drafting program. At this time, my thought processes are focused on getting the equipment drawn to a close scale of the real size. I draw the outline of the equipment and leave it scattered on the screen. Many people want to start working on job flow first. Working on job flow at this time gets in the way. You might want to identify shipping and receiving doors, but that should be all.

After getting all of the equipment drawn to scale, I then start to “drag-and-drop” the equipment so that it begins to form a work unit. This is very much like taking everything out of the garage and stacking it in the driveway. When I carry stuff out of the garage and put it in the driveway, I select items from all over the garage and start to pile them in some common grouping. “Holy Job Flow” is not an issue at this time. My first concern is how does this group of equipment and personnel work to provide a major thrust in this particular plant. I want to make a grouping of equipment that fits together.

After the major equipment groupings are done, I have a new puzzle. I can now shift my perspective to deal with relationships—not how long is this piece of equipment.

Sometimes, especially in the bindery we may want either a static arrangement where all the equipment is in a fixed location. Other times we want the equipment on the periphery of the area so we can roll it out for use on different jobs in differing configurations depending on the job in progress. Do you want your finishing area to be the same for all work or do you want it to be changeable for different types of work?

Different perspectives

The stripper wants an outlet in this spot for her radio.

The designer wants the film room close.

Generic space planners are frequently a help, but they need to know something about printing or they are likely to waste a lot of time with magic markers and circles on butcher paper.

At one place, customer parking was near the dumpster and customers had to go in the back door to get in the shop—bad PR. Reminded me of a restaurant that I used to frequent. One day I took a friend there and took a shortcut through the kitchen. My friend refused to eat there that day and never went back.

What about the overhead? Will it collect dust and drop onto the press to cause hickeys, etc? This is very common.

If you leave it to your staff, the design will be a mirror of the strongest personality in the plant and not necessarily a reflection of your market and your technology—like the press operator who positioned the press so he had a view out the window.

In summary, group your equipment the way you want your work to be done. Then arrange your groups to fit within the confines of the walls / building that you have to work with. Be careful who is “in charge” of the planning. Their personality will most likely manifest itself in the finished project.

P.S. Several weeks after I wrote this, my wife went out of town for a few days. I was feeling guilty about telling you how to arrange things. So I went to the garage and cleaned it out. Rearranged things. Cleaned and vacuumed it. Put things back. I think it looks great. ---------My wife says it is still full of junk.