August 3, 2012
Who doesn’t want to save money? If there has been one great benefit to our industry going through a recession, it’s that we have been forced to examine and evaluate how we do things. This process has resulted in discovering that we can run our shops leaner and meaner without sacrificing quality.
However, as business slowly recovers, I submit that we should continue to strive to run our shops as efficiently and profitably as possible. Here are 10 ways I have found to save money in my shop. See if any of these may work for you.
1. Conduct Time Studies
Conducting time studies is a practice I endorse for all businesses — recession or not. There always is room for improvement. You must evaluate each task performed in your shop and see how long it takes to complete it. Without a doubt, you will see inefficiencies. If you don’t think time studies are worth the effort, your ego is getting in the way of your profitability.
As you evaluate your shop for inefficiencies, consider these questions: Are you getting things through the art department fast enough? Are you getting ink on the screens fast enough? Do employees get dust in their contact lenses because the fans are blowing in the wrong direction? How long, how fast or how often do you have to touch something to get it done?
These types of tasks and countless others should be evaluated with an eye toward improvement. Use a computer program if needed to keep track of time studies, and conduct them routinely. Hopefully, you’ll start seeing patterns in areas where you can work to improve and also be impressed when you compare current studies to those conducted months ago. Never stop trying to improve!
2. Review Your Insurance Policy
If you’ve been running your shop for five to 10 years, it has likely been just as long since you’ve taken a close look at your insurance contract. More often than not, insurance companies raise prices every year. I recommend sitting down with your insurance agent every two to three years to review your policy.
Often, you’ll find areas where you need coverage and don’t have it, as well as coverage in areas you don’t need; it pays to carefully review everything. I have found through experience that when you tell your agent you want to sit down to review your policy because you are putting out your insurance products for bid, he suddenly starts paying a lot more attention to you. In fact, he may get more competitive on prices, which works in your favor.
3. Have Your Insurance Agent Bring In A Consultant
When you invite your insurance agent in to discuss how you can save money, he may want to bring in a risk management specialist or industrial hygienist — at no cost to you — who usually is an engineer that specializes in protecting the health and safety of people in the workplace. If the insurance consultant finds any risks and you fix them, you can end up saving significant money on your insurance premium.
A good example of a potential problem this consultant may find is data recovery. If your entire payroll is on one computer and you have no backup, consider the consequences of something happening to that computer. Ensuring you have adequate data recovery protection is critical, and this is something a consultant can help you determine.
4. Encourage Your Employees to Look for Savings
Often, no one is more qualified to help increase efficiency or reduce waste of consumables than the person doing the job. Whether staff contributes to this process depends on your corporate culture. Are your employees treated like they should just show up in the morning, do what they’re told and leave at the end of the day? Or do you ask your employees to think about what they are doing and how to improve it?
One great example is in the area of consumables. Whether it’s ink, shipping boxes or copy paper, consider asking whether you should buy more of this — not how much more — when discussing the need for more supplies. If your employees are using equipment or supplies that no longer work, they need to be given permission to say whether something is not right or is not working the way it has in the past.
5. Keep Workstations Fully Stocked
As you consider ways to maximize production, you’ll discover what may seem like small setbacks that, when added together, really can cost you money. I discovered a “black hole” in our production capabilities that I like to call the “wandering employee.” This phenomenon likely happens several times a day in most decorated apparel shops; an employee roams the facility in search of a certain supply.
To combat this, we provide comprehensive supply caddies at every station in our facility. Not only do they contain everyday tools that employees use, but also work orders that can provide answers an employee is seeking, saving that person from having to find a manager to answer a simple question. While most shops may accept the wandering employee phenomenon as a dilemma that can’t be solved, it can be. Never just accept an issue; find a way to address and improve it.
6. Upgrading Equipment Can Save On Energy Costs
Energy costs are major operational considerations for most people in our industry. If you are a screen printing operation, you probably have a dryer that is heating up more than the shirts you are curing. If your dryer is more than three to five years old, check out the energy costs on some of the new super-insulated units. You’ll likely be surprised. A few years ago, my shop converted our dryer to a newer version that is bigger with greater capacity, but uses 40% less gas. In the long run, investing in a new dryer saves us money each time we turn it on.
7. Build Relationships With Your Suppliers
While ordering via the Internet is convenient and saves time, you may find that the lack of interaction with supplier reps results in missing out on the best deals. It pays to have a personal relationship with a sales rep.
Reps are knowledgeable about the industry and, by working with them directly on most of your needs, you can get some good price breaks. Let’s say you get to know your ink supplier rep and he is familiar with your orders. The next time you call, this rep points out that instead of ordering the usual 15 gallons of white ink every Monday, you could purchase a 90-day supply and save as much as $5 to $15 per gallon in drum quantities. It can really pay off to get to know your rep. Establish a good rapport and reap the benefits.
8. Reuse and Recycle As Much As Possible
Because the ink cost per individual garment isn’t much, printers sometimes don’t realize the value of what they are losing in ink when they don’t properly reclaim it from screens. An automatic screen will have somewhere between a pint and half gallon of ink left over at the end of a run.
If you pay $50 for a gallon of plastisol ink, that means there’s about $5 to $25 worth of ink sitting in that screen. If the ink is still usable, you definitely want employees to scrape back as much of it as possible. This principle also applies beyond ink; apparel decorators need to be mindful of what they can recycle.
9. Shop Auctions
If you are a knowledgeable, experienced decorator who knows and understands the equipment you use, there are significant cost savings in shopping auctions for equipment and even supplies like frames and squeegees. I don’t recommend this to beginners who will have no idea of what they’re looking at.
One way to find out about upcoming auctions is through equipment sales reps. They often will know customers who are going out of business. Obviously, sales reps make their living selling new equipment, so by discussing what type of equipment you have in mind and offering to pay a finder’s fee, the rep will be motivated to help you.
After all is said and done, paying a great price on barely used equipment and a finder’s fee to the sales rep who helps you get it will be less than what you will pay to buy brand new equipment.
10. Use Suggestive Selling Tactics
Another method for saving money is to be smart about how you interact with your customers. For example, when helping a customer choose a thread color, don’t start off showing him a thread color card; instead, bring out cones that you have on hand. This gives you the opportunity to use thread you have vs. having to buy a new thread color.
This basic principle can be applied in many areas when you are selling to a customer. By limiting choices, you help them make a faster decision, and you’re better able to serve them by turning the order around faster vs. having to wait on something special ordered. Consider all the choices customers have to make and how you can steer them to make choices that they will be happy with, but cost you less time and money.
These 10 tips are just a starting point for ways to save your shop money. It’s a mindset that you want to cultivate in your shop from the owner on down. Look around your shop to evaluate every area. Pay attention to suppliers who can tip you off to deals. And visit forums and trade shows where you can find out tips and tricks from other decorators on how they keep their business running lean and mean.
Greg Kitson is founder of Mind’s Eye Graphics, Decatur, Ind. For information or to comment on this article, e-mail Greg at greg@mindseyeg.com or visit mindseyeg.com.
Hear Greg speak on apparel decorating topics at the 2012 Imprinted Sportswear Shows. Reduced workshop and seminar rates are available if you pre-register: issshows.com.
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