Passion

[tonypep]

I still don't and never will understand all the vehement emotion going on elsewhere about automatic machines. Why does anyone care aboout what everybody else is doing?........throwing around hypothetical numbers that are truly meaningless and have no bearing on anyone. Then it seems to break down into who is more efficient ie whos the smartest guy in the room. Sure it's important to make smart buying decisions but all one needs to do is a little research
and keep a level head and you'll be fine. There are few if any clunkers out there just a myriad of options.
There is so much more to being succesful than what machine you buy/own. Starting with the people you employ.
Seems like keeping your nose to the grindstone and looking inward will serve most of use better.
My Morning Sermon is over
tp

[alan802]

Well, I get involved simply because there is a TON of misinformation (in my opinion) out there right now.  I'm not an expert on automatics, but I know more about them than a lot of screen printers and I am one of those guys that believes that the right auto can make a HUGE difference in production.  True, if you don't have all of the other variables nailed down the auto doesn't mean much, but if it's a part of a well oiled production machine, I think it can make a real impact.  Now with that said, I also believe some of the autos out there right now can really out perform their competition, so yeah, I get wrapped up in numbers but they're not really hypothetical.  I honestly believe our press would grossly outperform every other press we looked at in our price range, and had we went with something else, we would be less profitable.

I know your model has served your production environments so well that it would be stupid for you to really consider going with new autos every time you needed one, your success is hard to argue with.  I will leave it with our shop is living proof of the increased production capabilities simply from updating the automatic.  For those who don't know, we went from a very capable older machine without many bells and whistles in the Centurian to the RPM.

[tonypep]

Points taken

[GraphicDisorder]

I still don't and never will understand all the vehement emotion going on elsewhere about automatic machines. Why does anyone care aboout what everybody else is doing?........throwing around hypothetical numbers that are truly meaningless and have no bearing on anyone. Then it seems to break down into who is more efficient ie whos the smartest guy in the room. Sure it's important to make smart buying decisions but all one needs to do is a little research
and keep a level head and you'll be fine. There are few if any clunkers out there just a myriad of options.
There is so much more to being succesful than what machine you buy/own. Starting with the people you employ.
Seems like keeping your nose to the grindstone and looking inward will serve most of use better.
My Morning Sermon is over
tp

I think the machine is a important tool.  But I agree with you that there are other things at place that are more important. People and processes for starters.  A shop could have the best press in the world and flop due to people or their processes day to day.  I think what's the large reason for the big debate a lot on these forums is a lot of these people being targeted by the pest are smaller shops, getting their first auto or replacing their first used machine.  I think its important for a shop like that NOT to make a mistake, those businesses will have a rough time recovering from a mistake like that.  But as we said I still think there are more important things at play. 

[blue moon]

agree with Tony, ppl are the key factor! You can think of them as the 80 in the 80/20 rule.

The press falls into the 20%, but under right circumstances, that 20% can make a big difference. In an efficient shop the right press can probably make a 2-5% contribution to the bottom line (less problems during the run, less down time, faster turnovers).

pierre

[tonypep]

BTW we know Alan has the passion......you know the good kind.

[RICK STEFANICK]

great points. i think a automatic press is also a important tool but as stated dont feel bad because another guy has a sweet 150k auto with all the bells and whistles.. its kind of like being out on the lake when the guy blows by in a 75k wake board boat and i'm sitting there in the 3k 19 ft family runabout..were both out there seeing and feeling the same way. i have had a passion for screenprinting for 30 years now.. i ran m/r my whole career, now my whole shop is lawson and 1 chameleon. the reason is the lawson equipment is what i could afford and got financed(creative) and what the lord made possible for me.

[Frog]

I still don't and never will understand all the vehement emotion going on elsewhere about automatic machines. Why does anyone care aboout what everybody else is doing?........throwing around hypothetical numbers that are truly meaningless and have no bearing on anyone. Then it seems to break down into who is more efficient ie whos the smartest guy in the room. Sure it's important to make smart buying decisions but all one needs to do is a little research
and keep a level head and you'll be fine. There are few if any clunkers out there just a myriad of options.
There is so much more to being succesful than what machine you buy/own. Starting with the people you employ.
Seems like keeping your nose to the grindstone and looking inward will serve most of use better.
My Morning Sermon is over
tp

Aren't we skirting one of the main issues here? Of course Tony is right, but the reason that we still have the somewhat juvenile Ford vs. Gm. vs. Mopar  nonsense going on fervently on some other boards is generally because the participants (me too occasionally) are unwitting tools in a marketing strategy of The Joker, and his new gang.

[tonypep]

So most of us have a passion for what we do. And most of us are proud of what we run just like our cars. But one missed point is what makes your press idle? Be it a 20 yr old POS or a 2011 sixteen color rocket ship when it's idle it's not generating revenue. Is it lack of consistent sales? poor scheduling and staging? tardines/absenteeism?
poor pre-press? improper design engineering?
And other than the press itself; what constrains the press from running at it's peak? Some of the above reasons? Sometimes, but don't overlook operator laziness or fatigue, dryer congestion, and even poorly trained press ops.
This is what I mean by looking within rather than over your shoulder to determine which is the better press.
It's not just about what you run it's also about how you run it no?