Shop Layout - Not sure where to post for best response

[Petros72]

Hi Everyone,

We are new in the sign industry and would like your opinion and comments. We have been outsourcing most of our banners/graphics/digital signage but have gotten to a point where we will be producing them in house (picked out most of the equipment with the help of the members of this forum, thanks again). We have the following equipment coming:

HP Latex 360 w/ Flexi Sign Pro for the RIP
Graphtec 8600 -160
Ustech Pro Laminator 64"
Keen Cut Evolution2 104" to be mounted to table
Epson F2000 DTG printer and Pre-Treater

We have 2 rooms which are side by side and are rectangular in shape (36' x 24').
In one room we plan on putting the 2 printer, the cutter and the laminator. This room will be humidity and temperature controlled with minimal dust.
The other room will have the table with the cutter mounted to it, another smaller table for the grommet machine on it, a third for 2 heat presses and the pretreater and we were thinking on making a fourth table for finishing and possible putting a cutting pad over the whole surface.

Is there an optimal way to set up the equipment?
Should one pc of equipment be next to another as a rule of thumb?
Is there an optimal size for a finishing table?
Is there a certain amount of distance away from walls or windows each pc of equipment should have?

I'm sure I may not even be asking the right questions or thinking of other important factors, so any information or feedback based on your experiences would be helpful.

Thank you in advance,
Pete

 

[phototec]

WOW - Purchased all that NEW equipment and don't know how to place it for the best work flow!

Have you ever used any of this equipment?

Do you know anything about printing with this equipment?

Sounds to me like you put the cart before the horse.....

 

[Petros72]

WOW - Purchased all that NEW equipment and don't know how to place it for the best work flow!

Have you ever used any of this equipment?

Do you know anything about printing with this equipment?

Sounds to me like you put the cart before the horse.....

No, we have never used this type of equipment before. We accounted for a lot of trial and error before we find our groove. Once we feel comfortable with it we plan on hiring experienced people to take over. We already have local ads posted so the individuals may be employed long before we get to that point.

Can you give us any feedback regarding the layout that may be useful?

Thank you for your reply.

Peter

 

[Gino]

The room sounds to small to house all that equipment and be efficient without tripping over each other while changing out media and such.
Not knowing each individual piece.... as for sizing/space, I'd say keep your printers as on opposite sides of the room, with the laminator in the middle and the cutter off to one side. Which ever side is convenient and not in the way of other things while walking or working. Put the Keen in the next room with the taping up capabilities. The pre-treater.... no idea.

Yeah, doing this stuff in the order you have set up is kinda bassakwards. Whatever floats your boat....................

 

[phototec]

No, we have never used this type of equipment before. We accounted for a lot of trial and error before we find our groove. Once we feel comfortable with it we plan on hiring experienced people to take over. We already have local ads posted so the individuals may be employed long before we get to that point.

Can you give us any feedback regarding the layout that may be useful?

Thank you for your reply.

Peter

Peter, you should post a scaled drawing (floor plan) of your facility indicating the locations of all your doors, windows, electrical outlets, office areas, restrooms, HVAC unit, etc. Then a separate drawing with scaled drawings of all the existing and equipment and work tables that you plan to have in the work space.

Then folks on here may be able visualize what needs to happen regarding the proper work flow (arrangement) for your situation.

The work flow layout is not something to take lightly, you should invest time and energy to plan ahead so things move smoothly later on.

This way you can cut and paste the different pieces of equipment on the floor plan and determine how everything will work together and if you will need to have additional electrical service locations for the new equipment.

 

[Petros72]

The room sounds to small to house all that equipment and be efficient without tripping over each other while changing out media and such.
Not knowing each individual piece.... as for sizing/space, I'd say keep your printers as on opposite sides of the room, with the laminator in the middle and the cutter off to one side. Which ever side is convenient and not in the way of other things while walking or working. Put the Keen in the next room with the taping up capabilities. The pre-treater.... no idea.

Yeah, doing this stuff in the order you have set up is kinda bassakwards. Whatever floats your boat....................

Thanks for your input Gino, it definitely looks like they'll be some trial and error. Was just hoping to try and set-up as best as possible to from the start.

I think I will take Phototec's advice and post a layout for anyone to view and comment on.

Peter

 

[Petros72]

Peter, you should post a scaled drawing (floor plan) of your facility indicating the locations of all your doors, windows, electrical outlets, office areas, restrooms, HVAC unit, etc. Then a separate drawing with scaled drawings of all the existing and equipment and work tables that you plan to have in the work space.

Then folks on here may be able visualize what needs to happen regarding the proper work flow (arrangement) for your situation.

The work flow layout is not something to take lightly, you should invest time and energy to plan ahead so things move smoothly later on.

This way you can cut and paste the different pieces of equipment on the floor plan and determine how everything will work together and if you will need to have additional electrical service locations for the new equipment.

That sounds like a great idea Phototec, thank you. I will try to do it by tomorrow am.

Peter

 

[phototec]

That sounds like a great idea Phototec, thank you. I will try to do it by tomorrow am.

Peter

Most equipment vendors like Graphtec have product PDF brochures and have a scaled drawing with dimensions of their product that you can use to create your floor plan drawing.

 

[Petros72]

Most equipment vendors like Graphtec have product PDF brochures and have a scaled drawing with dimensions of their product that you can use to create your floor plan drawing.

Gotcha. Working on it - taking longer than I thought.. thanks.

 

[Accelerated Graphics]

When we setup our shop we measured everything and made a corel file and moved it till we found the best spot.. Printed that and we we moved everything in we threw that away and moved everything someplace different...lol

 

[Ponto]

WOW - Purchased all that NEW equipment and don't know how to place it for the best work flow!

Have you ever used any of this equipment?

Do you know anything about printing with this equipment?

Sounds to me like you put the cart before the horse.....

Wish I could take a stab at this sort of problem.............I'd suggest getting the footprint of all the machinery and working to a scaled down map on the application of your choice,......JP

 

[phototec]

I used illustrator to make a so-called drawing of the floor plan than made scaled drawings of all equipment on different layers so I could easily move the equipment around.

 

[Jester1167]

Don't forget to take you material storage into account. It should be close and in direct line to load especially with the vinyl cutter. On a busy day you could load and unload the cutter 25 times or more.

I guess I should expand that to add the cutting computer and weeding table into the equation. You should be able to process the cut files, load the plotter, cut, weed and mask the graphics, while monitoring the cutter with the minimal amount of steps.

I also like having a table with the cutter behind the laminator. That way I could cut the prints to length as they came out of the laminator then stack them on a separate table ready to cut to width.

 

[Petros72]

Thank you all for the input.

Using a vector based program would be much easier for me.. to scale of course.

I'm going to work on that over the weekend and post it for some feedback. Will also include actual pictures of the space since that may help.

 

[lgroth]

No layout is perfect or etched in stone... I had a 25'X50' area to set up our roll printing area and thought "gee, wouldn't it be great to change the layout on the fly? Printer/ plotter on one end with rip computer, laminator and design computer on the other end... Everything, two 5'X10' & one 4'X10' tables, one 4'X4' cart, keen-cut stand and sewing machine are all on locking wheels and all same height. I can rearrange on the fly... Put the cutter at the laminating table, put all tables together making up to a 10'X14' level work table for large projects, however I need it based on job, I even made a cradle on wheels for laminating anything not on rolls so they don't get dragged across the floor, even my tool box and media racks roll... Everything moves except the laminator. All tables have cutting mats, and the entire area can be rearranged in under 5 minutes, one table has pre-mask dispenser on the end and can be removed by popping two pins if I need that table without it. Under table storage for tapes/ velcro/ grommets, tools, packaging items, etc... There is a light table and shelves for small finished items and main entrance in the corner where I took the pic from.

 

[Petros72]

No layout is perfect or etched in stone... I had a 25'X50' area to set up our roll printing area and thought "gee, wouldn't it be great to change the layout on the fly? Printer/ plotter on one end with rip computer, laminator and design computer on the other end... Everything, two 5'X10' & one 4'X10' tables, one 4'X4' cart, keen-cut stand and sewing machine are all on locking wheels and all same height. I can rearrange on the fly... Put the cutter at the laminating table, put all tables together making up to a 10'X14' level work table for large projects, however I need it based on job, I even made a cradle on wheels for laminating anything not on rolls so they don't get dragged across the floor, even my tool box and media racks roll... Everything moves except the laminator. All tables have cutting mats, and the entire area can be rearranged in under 5 minutes, one table has pre-mask dispenser on the end and can be removed by popping two pins if I need that table without it. Under table storage for tapes/ velcro/ grommets, tools, packaging items, etc... There is a light table and shelves for small finished items and main entrance in the corner where I took the pic from.

Hi Igroth,

I apologize for the delayed response. I was hoping to have a layout of the space up for comments but the printer and the rest of the equipment started coming in and I got overwhelmed.

Your set-up looks great! Nice, clean and well organized and the versatility is an excellent idea. I think you're right about no such thing as a perfect set-up.. everyone would probably do things a little different to suit them - I'm sure we'll do the same over the next few months.

I will do the best I can and post some pics when it's all done.

Thanks again for your reply and the pic,
Peter

 

[Petros72]

Just an update - here's a pic of the room so far. Having some tables built now for cutting, finishing, etc.

 

[Petros72]

Thanks, the natural light really is inspiring. Don't they look nice when they're clean? lol

Nice setup you have there - I'm already getting some ideas from you and the the other people who posted.

I appreciate your response.

 

[synergy_jim]

Pat has it down.... Draw the footprint of each piece. draw the rooms and then work on a layout.

 

[SignManiac]

Two and a half years ago this was my floor plan and it's accurate other than adding the sewing machine, laser table, and embroidery machine. It's pretty snug now.

 

[lgroth]

Wish I had those big windows!!! Natural lighting can't be beat. Our roll print area is on a 2nd floor and I was lucky enough to have some windows, our flatbed is on the ground floor, no windows... And of course Pat said it right, they never look clean during business hours :Big Laugh