Images_June_2020_Digital_Edition

www.images-magazine.com JUNE 2020 images 47 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Will Pearson runs a small screen print shop and has been fanatical about the one-piece flow approach ever since he read two books 13 years ago: Out of the Crisis by W. Edwards Deming; and The Machine that Changed the World by James Womack and Daniel Jones. Next issue, he’ll be looking at kanban systems and how they can be used to organise a one-piece flow system in your print shop. www.phantomscreenprint.co.uk exist under real-world conditions, due to the myriad of issues and unforeseen circumstances that plague the working days of garment decorators. So, what’s the answer? In the 13 years I have been learning the Toyota Way, I‘ve come to understand the system broadly as fixing problems and then making continuous micro improvements to optimise production. Fixing problems In order to implement a true one- piece flow system, you need your production in all areas to be optimised and working as close to perfectly as possible. Inherent flaws in your methods will quickly bring a one-piece flow system to an ugly halt. This can and does happen, and what is more you must expect issues and embrace problems, seeing them as opportunities to stop and think of better and more reliable ways of how something could work. Some examples of where you might look to start would include: ■ The press Is it level and planar, with squeegees and flood bars all parallel to the pallets? And is each pallet coming up to meet the screen level and planar, for each pallet at each print head? ■ Squeegees Are your squeegee blades and flood bars in good condition with no nicks, and are they handled and stored in a way that ensures no damage to the edge? ■ Maintenance Do you have routine maintenance schedules in place for your dryer, press, exposure unit bulb etc? These schedules should be managed using a system Toyota developed, called kanban. Kanban systems are at the heart of any one-piece flow system, controlling everything from the reordering of sundries and chemicals to housekeeping duties and screen management. ■ Screens How do you clean your screens? Are chemicals kept in a way that ensures no cross contamination? Do you measure how much of each chemical is used per screen, or are you wasting chemicals through spills or over-usage? How can you store your chemicals so they are both safe and quick to access and refill? Do you always use the correct mesh counts for the job? Do you regularly dehaze your screens? How do you manage screen tension: do you use retensionable frames, or do you send your screens for restretches sufficiently often to ensure the tension levels remain consistent? ■ Screen coating Are your scoop coaters in good order? Do you keep emulsion in a fridge to ensure its consistency? This list is inexhaustible. Steady improvement At first, it can seem a daunting task to even think about improving and optimising all these variables, but eventually these continual improvements become more micro and more satisfying as you really start to fine-tune the details in your shop. It took me a good 10 years to iron out all the macro issues in my own shop, but looking back, the learning journey was an amazing experience, and has formed a lifelong habit of questioning the validity or efficiency of everything we do! So, getting your house in order is really the first step to achieving greater efficiency and value, and – ultimately – to achieving more with less. These activities are really all about removing waste from your systems, and they are absolutely valid even if you never intend to go the whole hog and embrace one-piece flow processing. That’s another of the wonderful things about the Toyota System - take as much or as little from it as you want; whatever you do will be of benefit to your shop! In the next article, I’ll look more closely at kanban systems, and also the PDCA (plan-do-check- adjust) cycle, which is a method for establishing a culture of continually improving and refining your business. The most important thing to remember is that trying to introduce a ‘lean culture’ to your business can seem painful – after all, batch and queue provides all sorts of safety nets to ensure things keep ticking along even when you’re battling with less than perfect systems, tools or machines. However, there is a Japanese analogy that I really like, which describes the flaw in relying on this ‘safe’ approach: When the tide is in, we cannot see everything in the bay. It is only when the tide goes out that the rocks begin to appear. Establish the optimal parameters for each part of your process, and make sure you stay within your window of tolerance Use work areas with wheels as much as possible, including locking wheels on work tables. All tools/ sundries should have designated places to live, with accessibility a priority Checking for parallelism on press