How many hours a week do you use your Auto. (average per auto)?

[Screened Gear]

Just curious where other shops are at. I have the feeling many of us don't use them even close to capacity.

[JBLUE]

If it is not turning 24/7 it is not running at capacity.... We rune our 30-40 run time.

[Zelko-4-EVA]

We have 4 autos and one manual.   we run one shift and all four autos are used.  if someone is out, the manual press operator is taken off his press and used at the auto.

we used to have two shifts but the lack of dedicated employees made it cost more to run.

 

[alan802]

We obviously aren't actually printing the entire 40 hours a week but there is a job being setup, ran or torn down at all times.  If something is being printed on the manual, the auto is still being used.  We aren't maxed out yet either but I can see that point coming pretty clearly if our sales continue to increase like they have.  A second auto will be needed to remain at one shift.

[inkman996]

You need a 30 hours option, that is pretty much where we are at 90% of the year.

[Screened Gear]

OK I changed the poll. Just vote on running time, not setting up time. If it takes you an hour to set up then 20 mins to run a job that is only 20 mins of the presses capacity to print. Lets just look at it that way for this poll. 

[3Deep]

During the busy season atleast 4 to 5 hours a day right now maybe an hour or two per day if that.

Darryl

[alan802]

Our press spins about 5 hours a day.  Give or take.  Our setup time is drastically reduced from where it used to be so we spend more time making things perfect instead of rushing to get the job done.  Our quality has improved because of that  as well as our production capabilities.  Our press just turned over 700K impressions in 3.5 years so it's not like it's spinning all day like some shops, but I don't get too caught up in never letting the press stop.  I'm not panicking if the press is idle for an hour in the middle of the day where some are because we are making money on setups as well. 

[inkbrigade]

I've been tracking the math for about 10 months now on this. I'm ashamed to say our press is only putting out 20% of what they could/should be. For some reason setups are killing us... We're working on it.