My ideal would be to have 3 days out of screens ready to print at all times. Reclaim, coating, drying, imaging, resolving, taping/staging, should all be geared to keep up with that. However, we are low screen count/high screen turnaround here. We manage to keep screens prepped a few days out but it can be a struggle and requires some creativity.
Consolidation is the key, especially with a small screen library. If you have too much variety in mesh counts and coating types you'll always struggle to have what you need.
At this moment we need 133 screens to complete active orders. We have a library of ≈130 screens, I'm actually not sure of the exact count.
Out of that 133, 95% fall across 2 mesh counts. This is a big part of how we get by with a tiny set of screens, look at your mesh counts and coating and see what you can eliminate.
A much easier solution is a larger library and more space to store them. I'd love to have a few hundred at the least, it would eliminate a lot of management.
My point is, if yer library is a little slim, you can get by. Minimize/simplify mesh selection, turn screens around quickly and efficiently, manage for the days/weeks ahead v. further out. Not ideal but you can make it work.
