Suggestions What Small Change Improved Your Sign Shop Workflow the Most?

[Jonas1ne]

Whether it’s a new piece of equipment, a software trick, better organization, or a change in production methods, what small improvement has had the biggest impact on your shop’s efficiency?
I’m always interested in learning practical tips that save time, reduce waste, or improve consistency. What change made you wonder why you didn’t do it sooner?

 

[damonCA21]

Dumping those problem clients that take up far too much of your time for minimal financial return. You can never please them and they will show no loyalty

 

[White Haus]

Moving to an all Onyx environment really helped streamline production for us.

Adding a flatbed cutter was also a huge improvement that really reduced our manual labor.

Better organization will forever be needed but it's an ongoing battle.

 

[Stacey K]

I'm just one person but I went from white board planning to Signtracker...major help with staying organized.

Small things like making sure you have several months of tape, alcohol, blades, etc. and everything has a place and is labeled. Not sure how big your shop is but like White Haus says organization is an ongoing battle.

 

[myront]

Going from multiple baskets hanging on the walls to transition each paper workorder throughout the production process to trello. Been using the free version for a few years now. We have 3 Primary boards (New Orders, Print & Laminate & Production). Amazing how much faster the production process is.
Plus, I'm constantly adding scripts/macros to software to speed up designs for proofing. The software just seems to leave out things that should be a part of it right out of the box but...

 

[signheremd]

When we added the Graphtec FC9000-160 to cut printed vinyl. This allowed our Roland XR640 to keep printing, gave our flatbed the ability to print on vinyl that could be cut to exact match color corrections/changes), gave us wide format plotting without using the printer, and it was a better plotter than our printer, so print cuts had better corners. We now have a Mimaki UCJV330 and never use the cut function on it - rather just go to the Graphtec and keep on printing. May not sound like much, but nearly doubled on Roland's productivity back before we grew into a second roll-to-roll printer (bought us 2 more years to grow and then buy the second roll-to-roll).

 

[P Wagner]

When we added the Graphtec FC9000-160 to cut printed vinyl. This allowed our Roland XR640 to keep printing, gave our flatbed the ability to print on vinyl that could be cut to exact match color corrections/changes), gave us wide format plotting without using the printer, and it was a better plotter than our printer, so print cuts had better corners. We now have a Mimaki UCJV330 and never use the cut function on it - rather just go to the Graphtec and keep on printing. May not sound like much, but nearly doubled on Roland's productivity back before we grew into a second roll-to-roll printer (bought us 2 more years to grow and then buy the second roll-to-roll).

Integrated printer/ cutters certainly have a use case sweet spot (relatively low volume production), but dedicated printers and cutters will generally provide orders of magnitude greater peak productivity and typically better cut accuracy/ quality over a larger area.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I'm just one person but I went from white board planning to Signtracker...major help with staying organized.

Small things like making sure you have several months of tape, alcohol, blades, etc. and everything has a place and is labeled. Not sure how big your shop is but like White Haus says organization is an ongoing battle.

i did a TON of organization a few months ago. like you said, keeping months of supply and labeling. I organized all my fasteners on the truck, and setup a whole bin system mounted to the wall so I can refill them as needed at the end of the day. i put bins on my truck with helps with organization AND makes it convenient cause I can grab a bin and throw it on the lift or carry it around . i've never been more organized before and it makes SUCH a big difference. It's so clean that I don't want to mess it up so I keep up with it well.

 

[dweavers]

For me. I retired. Did wonders

 

[DSignKing]

For me. I retired. Did wonders

And your still skimming through Signs101...

 

[southtexasprinter]

And your still skimming through Signs101...

Thank you for a good laugh this morning.....

 

[southtexasprinter]

One was when we bought our Colex cutter....increased productivity immensely. Another was when we started using Printavo to help us stay organized.

 

[Think713]

Whether it’s a new piece of equipment, a software trick, better organization, or a change in production methods, what small improvement has had the biggest impact on your shop’s efficiency?
I’m always interested in learning practical tips that save time, reduce waste, or improve consistency. What change made you wonder why you didn’t do it sooner?

Tape is a common use product in this industry. In a shop where we use lots of 2in blue tape, I found using a snitty to cut strips off excess vinyl that is inevitably trashed to fasten vinyl to take up rolls saves significant amounts of blue tape. I still use blue tape from time to time, but this is a no brainer for leftover material that just gets thrown away. You have essentially unliminted tape for this purpose if you pre emptively slice up some pieces. Takes minimal time, and saves dollars down the road in 2 places, one in waste and the other in extra use of blue tape. Seems minimal upfront, but over the long term saving hundreds. That hundreds can be the difference between getting a raise or not.

The other is getting a designer that is worth their salt in the programs that doesn't make excuses for the amount of work required to complete something requested by the client. We have a designer that clearly doesn't know how to use a tape measure, and constantly puts their accountability into some other excuse. Its excessive, and we are getting ready to have a record month on the books, but that also includes hundreds of dollars in reprints because that persons job wasnt done correctly in the first place.

A GOOD DESIGNER IS WORTH THE MONEY THEY WANT.

 

[AndersHerp]

It's an expensive one, but we upgraded our router from one with a 4'x8' bed to one that has a 5'x10' bed. The extra space helps, but really the speed of the new router is what is saving us time.

 

[Stacey K]

i did a TON of organization a few months ago. like you said, keeping months of supply and labeling. I organized all my fasteners on the truck, and setup a whole bin system mounted to the wall so I can refill them as needed at the end of the day. i put bins on my truck with helps with organization AND makes it convenient cause I can grab a bin and throw it on the lift or carry it around . i've never been more organized before and it makes SUCH a big difference. It's so clean that I don't want to mess it up so I keep up with it well.



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This looks GREAT!!! Nothing I love more than nice clean bins!!!

 

[crashaffinity]

On the software side I started writing automation scripts. For example one illustrator extend script takes a file made for a mimaki flatbed ujf 6042, automatically creates every layer (primer, clear build up, white, colour), then saves out each layer, creates the raster link Braille output, then throws each file in its corresponding hot folders for you. One click and a single file is waiting for you ready to print in the faster link queue. Saves tons of time per file for the guys running the printers.

 

[Mr Mark]

The first major improvement is the flatbed printer (Mimaki JFX200-2513EX). Since we have a screenprinter (M&R Saturn 2538) and roll-to-rolls (CJV300-160Plus & HP Latex 365), the flatbed took alot of workload off the other work cells. The second big improvement is an application table (CWT 163010). I can't believe it took me this long to get one. What used to take two people almost an hour now takes one person 30 minutes and the quality is much better. Also, I'd agree with "myront" and "Stacey K" above regarding software. We switched from a paper system to SignTracker three years ago and it works great for organization, productivity and consistency.

 

[RabidOne]

Bought a Rollover application table. So much time saved.