Lean manufacturing is one of the most important and transformational business developments over the past fifty years. By applying some basic principles and utilizing various planning tools, a lean initiative puts into motion practices that strive for added customer value, improved quality, and faster turn-times with the intention of reducing or even eliminating waste and all forms of inventory: WIP, raw materials and finished goods. The practice of empowering an…

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The science of print production has gone through dramatic improvements in both quality and productivity as technologies for both press and prepress have been successfully implemented across much of the packaging industry. Digital printing on packaging substrates is one such advancement. Coinciding with these technical advances, there have been significant changes in business management philosophy. In particular, I am thinking of: lean manufacturing, disruptive innovation, the theory of constraints, and…

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Prepress is a term used in the printing industry, which refers to a process of making sure a job is correctly prepared for printing. The prepress process involves preflight, Mac file manipulation, proofing and plating. Effective prepress production allows for catching errors that could hold up the job on press. The first step in prepress production is preflight. Preflight is the process of confirming that the digital files (fonts, artwork,…

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First-time and returning visitors alike share with us how much they enjoy visiting our lobby. Once you get past the six and a half foot Charlie Brown statue you discover a discordant collection of baseball autographs and antique printing equipment. Although the printing equipment is authentic, it was purchased through collectors and was never actually used at Impressions Inc. Some of the equipment dates back to the 19th century, long…

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