Time estimation manually printing on a bunch of white tees

[Gilligan]

I know I should have all the answers to this already and trust me, I should!

Looking at a job of 1,100 white shirts 1 color front and back (it's ok, to be jealous).  I'm estimating 4 days of production on the manual (an extra day in there to be safe and to work at a sane pace).

Does this seem reasonable?  Never done a job this large... I know staging and storing will be some what of an issue as we only have 1600 sqft total here and only 800 of it for embroidery and screen printing production.  I do have outside storage that I will be able to use so that should be able to work.

Oh, and did I mention they will all be XL's?   

Maybe this job will stress the importance of logged data for EVERY task we do in the shop so they can understand how we need to it to estimate jobs like this.  It's been too easy going on our production schedule in the past.  Hopefully 2014 will change that for us!!

[Ryan]

Doable. That being said is it full front and full back print? If so that will get tiring pretty quickly. I would plan the full 5 days. A print every 30 secs is going to be nearly 20 hours of printing. If one side is small that will help a ton as you could increase that print speed a lot and not be as tired printing. But definitely try to get/plan more time than you expect

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[dirkdiggler]

contract it to someone with an auto, I could print that in half a day easy.

[Gilligan]

Doable. That being said is it full front and full back print? If so that will get tiring pretty quickly. I would plan the full 5 days. A print every 30 secs is going to be nearly 20 hours of printing. If one side is small that will help a ton as you could increase that print speed a lot and not be as tired printing. But definitely try to get/plan more time than you expect

Full width, so might as well be full front as moving the hand from screen to squeegee is majority of that time consumed vs LC (that would make this really kicka$$!)

contract it to someone with an auto, I could print that in half a day easy.

Totally agree Dirk... BUT, I am doing this as half cash, half trade with a radio station.  Basically I'll be breaking even (probably lose a little on labor, but I'd honestly be paying that anyway)... so if I send it out, my guy will be sitting on his hands and I'll be coming out of pocket which kind of ruins the trade.  I'm sure shipping has to be a $$ drain on something this size.

[screenxpress]

I would think with 1 color, 2 a min would not be rushing too badly making 120/hr., unless your curing with flash (lol)

That said.  2200/120= 18 hours. 

[Gilligan]

I would think with 1 color, 2 a min would not be rushing too badly making 120/hr., unless your curing with flash (lol)

That said.  2200/120= 18 hours.

That's basically what I'm estimating from previous printing.

The data that I've been asking for but hasn't been logged yet is; catching (box), sorting, stacking, folding and boxing. (If anyone wants to share that data, it might help but I know it won't be accurate.)

[Grand]

With two people it used to take us 2 full days to print that many shirts on a m&r chameleon. Used to do it a few times a month, not a big deal.  Kept me from getting fat. 

[Lizard]

If you have the staff available you could have someone load, someone print  and another catch. You could easily run that in two days without pushing too hard.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Make a squeegee rest toward the bottom of the front image so you won't have to reach all the way to the end of the screen for it

[ZooCity]

If you have the staff available you could have someone load, someone print  and another catch. You could easily run that in two days without pushing too hard.

Yup.  A manual press with 3 operators can run over 350 pcs/hr, depending on ink and image size, with surprising consistency if you have a decent printer.  Have your printer hire a couple buddies (well three, you'll need someone at back of the dryer) for a day and knock it out. Or just let your staff get some hours and do it over a few days.  4 days for a solo press op is very realistic, you'll probably get it done a little quicker.

Do this however:  round your squeegee edges and, presuming plastisol, tape the bottom of the screen at the blade edges, the screen will want to break down there.  Got enough ink?

[TCT]

Hiring extra will cost you, so if you want to save some coin, you will have to get YOUR a$$ in gear also! Seriously running a manual with even 2 people speeds it up quite a bit! Plus your printer won't want to kill you at the end of the week. He seems like a nice guy, mr. you are never there when people call:P Can your dryer handle extra qty. per hr?

Reminds me of how they print in some factories in China- 24 color, 24 station semi-auto with like 10 guys printing on it!

[mimosatexas]

If you have a loader/unloader and a catcher this should be 2 longish days, 3 normal days without breaking much of a sweat.  I printed 700 one color front one color back with just 2 people, and the art was 20 inches long and 100 of the 700 were different art on poly tanks which took longer per piece and we finished in under two days including art and screen prep.

[GaryG]

Boy if you can do a push stroke it will help too.
Used to also grab squeegee on sides with thumbs above blade with a push too.
Actually taped t-shirt material on sides of squeegee to help soften wood edges
on this "side grab/thumb push" with very long runs. Lots of pulling then lots of pushing.

Radio stations are a good way to barter, but I don't think any one of them in the history
of radio waves has actually paid normal price for apparel. I cut those conversations short.

Make sure you have your logo on them!!!!

[aauusa]

if you are doing this for a radio station, make sure to ask new customers if they heard the ad or not.  personally we tried it once or twice and never had anything.  even with a 10% discount for someone who mentioned they heard it on the radio.  maybe it will work for you but actually sucked for us.  just my 2cents  b

but i agree with 2 days with 3 people working it.

[mooseman]

we did this same thing a few years ago, One radio group, 600 one color white shirts  3 radio stations, country, rock, easy listening, pretty neat ad (I thought anyway) the radio spot ran for 4 weeks at least 4 times a day.
We got ZIP....I mean ZIP not one related phone call.
As far as the time goes you would be surprised how little time it takes to load , print, unload and re-load a shirt but there are so many other variables that will eat into your progress.
Estimating an outrageously long full minute per shirt to pick , load, index, print next, index, pull, drop, re-load would take you 18 hours non stop so two working days. Fat that up by a factor of 2 we would expect to pi$$ away 4 full days for one man on this job from start to boxed and out the door ready.
mooseman