A printed product should convey a message to the recipient. If it does, it makes people happy! If it doesn’t, the message is lost.

Who doesn’t feel happy when they see nicely wrapped mail in their mailbox, personally addressed and asking to be opened right away? When they smell that fresh printed ink wafting in the air when the mail is fished out, or when they turn the first page of a classy-looking printed product and get seduced by the desires its messages conjure up? That is the moment when the mail has arrived, in the truest sense of the word, carefully put together and dispatched by the sender, mail that recipients look forward to again and again. That is advertising as it is meant to be. In the digital age, physical mail has increased in value, says Erich Gall.

Interview with Erich Gall in 2017, Production Manager at n c ag, Urdorf – Thomas Gysin

A good printed product is one that manages to convey a message to customers. If it succeeds, it’s a worthwhile investment; if it doesn’t, a lot of money has been wasted and the company has created trouble for itself and others. As a production manager, Erich Gall knows all too well that there’s a fine line between success and failure, and the sources of error are inherent in every single production stage. But he sees this as no reason to be afraid. The risk can be minimized by planning correctly right from the start, coordinating each step carefully and monitoring the entire production process meticulously all the way to the end.

Specialists have taken over from generalists

The rapid progress made by technologies and digitalization over the past twenty years has seen the once homogeneous production process split up into multiple individual and highly specialized service stages. While this has opened up new opportunities, it has also called for specialists whose knowledge is solely focused in their own field. The generalist has been eliminated, in a sense. As the person responsible for an order, however, you are a full-service contractor who has to understand every step of the production process. You have to coordinate the individual work steps performed by the specialists with precision timing. And to a point, you’re also the interpreter acting between the specialists, having to explain why a previous job had to be done one way over another, and also the best way to carry out the subsequent work stages. Every order requires 100% smooth execution, with no quality compromise, no loss of time and no cost overruns – the latter definitely being an absolute no-no in today’s world.

The duty of a trustee

When an offer is submitted to a client, you’re already responsible, and when the order confirmation comes in, you’re definitely now accountable: the quality, deadline and price of an order are set out in black and white. As production manager, you not only have the technical responsibility for a product and the clearly specified delivery date, you are also accountable for the budget. In other words, there’s a sum of money that has to be managed in a fiduciary capacity, a sum with little room for error; this amount is a fixed price that can’t be exceeded.

Between the hammer and the anvil: deadline pressure from two sides

As technology has progressed, the pace of production has accelerated massively and lead times hugely shortened. What pleases customers has, however, become a double-edged sword for the workflows: for the gains just described, the new technology has not become cheaper. Companies wanting to ensure their equipment is always cutting-edge pay large investment costs, which have to be recouped. As a result, printing presses, for example, are hardly allowed to come to a standstill these days. In order to remain cost-effective and stay ahead of the competition, they have to be run at full capacity in two, sometimes three shifts. For production managers in charge of a job, this means playing by these rules. Especially with print runs reaching the millions, production lines have to be booked in advance and used within the scheduled time frame. If an order isn’t ready in time, it can be costly. Production managers often find themselves caught between the hammer and the anvil. Although we now enjoy today’s short lead times, we have to carefully calculate the timing as soon as an order comes in. In many cases, the required prepress processes are underestimated, for example for final approval, which often is needed for multiple languages and only is given in the second or third cycle. The same applies to paper orders. For large print runs, paper amounting to several tons has to be produced first – and this is often forgotten.

The quiet satisfaction of a good result

A production manager never really has time, and certainly not for celebrating. Nonetheless, they do get a particular sense of satisfaction on the days when a printed product is delivered. When you hold the finished product in your hands, carefully check all the technical details again, enjoy the quality of the paper, the print quality and the precision achieved by the finishing department … and finally, when the deadline has been met right to the very end and you’ve stayed within budget. Then you’re allowed to celebrate, but just a little bit.