Staging Part 4: The Schedule

[tonypep]

Twelve years ago we developed software that ties in with Impress, our shop management software. When orders are printed daily at 9:00 am these small tickets are printed along with them. It's a bit complicated but there is just enough information on them to know how to schedule. They are put on color coded magnets each day and find their place on the board by due date. We then immediately begin to use color coded markers to determine status of film, screen, and garments. I won't go into specifics as it really is specific to this shop. However, once all aspects are checked off and we have a green light they migrate to a secoond board which designates the autos and manuals. We look at things like # of colors/flashes as well as yth and adult as we have a dedicated youth auto.
Now,I have tried over time to use the Impress schedule model as well as other software and even excell spread sheets to do this but it always fails. It might be my shortcoming but we have had others look at it with no viable results. First, things can get overlooked. This is our slow season and before long there will be several hundred magnets on the boards. Second, no matter how well we plan, the schedule and pre-schuling boards are active and fluid often on a minute to minute basis. This command central and everyone is constantly updatingand discussing/e-mailing etc as to what is going on. This module has been massaged and pretty much perfected over time and it works almost flawlessy.
It's not a priority as it is not broken but I will continue to look at doing this electronically but it frightens us a little to change something that works so well.
Hope this helps some of you

[tonypep]

And heres the actual pre-stage board

[bimmridder]

I don't know. It makes perfect sense to me.

[tonypep]

The magnet colors designate yth vs adult and single vs multi sided impressions. Also Resort has its own color system. Orange dots indicates job is on hold.

[bimmridder]

Looks pretty tight. Unfortunately in our industry there is no "one size fits all" software. We have basically built our own and massaged it over the years. There's no way in hell it would work for another shop.

[tonypep]

Absolutely right Dave. I've never done it the same twice. The guys a T-Formation use a Shopworks schedule but I can't get my head around how I could morph it to work for us. They have the luxury of having a full time scheduling manager perhaps thats the key

[trebor]

Twelve years ago we developed software that ties in with Impress, our shop management software. When orders are printed daily at 9:00 am these small tickets are printed along with them. It's a bit complicated but there is just enough information on them to know how to schedule. They are put on color coded magnets each day and find their place on the board by due date. We then immediately begin to use color coded markers to determine status of film, screen, and garments. I won't go into specifics as it really is specific to this shop. However, once all aspects are checked off and we have a green light they migrate to a secoond board which designates the autos and manuals. We look at things like # of colors/flashes as well as yth and adult as we have a dedicated youth auto.
Now,I have tried over time to use the Impress schedule model as well as other software and even excell spread sheets to do this but it always fails. It might be my shortcoming but we have had others look at it with no viable results. First, things can get overlooked. This is our slow season and before long there will be several hundred magnets on the boards. Second, no matter how well we plan, the schedule and pre-schuling boards are active and fluid often on a minute to minute basis. This command central and everyone is constantly updatingand discussing/e-mailing etc as to what is going on. This module has been massaged and pretty much perfected over time and it works almost flawlessy.
It's not a priority as it is not broken but I will continue to look at doing this electronically but it frightens us a little to change something that works so well.
Hope this helps some of you

We manage and schedule in much the same manner using FastManager. While their program does many things we do not require as far as vendor catalogs and such it certainly does all we need. During peak season we manage 400-500 jobs with most being less than two week turnaround.
It allows us to manage the steps in our process such as Art, Art Approved, Transparencies made, Screens, merchandise recieved and so on......it also has areas to make notes to other areas concerning things such as missing merchandise, or order holds, backorders and more.
It also allows you to color code items defining them to specific treatment.
And then it allows you to schedule to different presses by what ever specifications you might desire.
We network it to seven different computers here in our building and we are currently exploring our options to go wireless for a Production Manager to access as he moves through the building.
We have been a Fast Manger user for over ten years and there have been several occasions that we have told Chris W. that it would be great if we could make it do this or that and he has been able to make it happen in every instance.

For us......Fast Manager= Awesome

[tonypep]

The fine folks at Blue Dolphin in NH use this and I like it. Unfortunately we are in too deep with Impress at the moment. To switch would be an enormous and risky undertaking. But I will bring it up at the next managers meeting

[trebor]

The fine folks at Blue Dolphin in NH use this and I like it. Unfortunately we are in too deep with Impress at the moment. To switch would be an enormous and risky undertaking. But I will bring it up at the next managers meeting

There is nothing scarier than switching from a system that isn't necessarily broke. Especially when there are hundreds of jobs in the que.

[whitewater]

nice guys!

[Ron Pierson]

We switched on Jan 1 2013 (fiscal year stuff) to Shopworks. We looked at all systems for years. I was looking for "total package" (including accounting) I found it in Shopworks. Yep - a big 'ol scary event to switch to something new for sure after 20+ years. Our old system wasn't broke - we just needed something much more robust. At 65 employees - i gotta admit - I was scared to death. All the "what if's" kept me awake nights for a VERY LONG TIME. Sure - there are/were some transitional issues and we are still learning it all. We have only scratched the surface after 2.5 months. I gotta say - it was the best move I ever made. Not really a software choice, (the high end ones are all good in their own way) just the decision to go ahead and jump to the 21'st century. These softwares are all designed to move you through your day with the least ammount of hassle if they are used correctly.

Shopworks has staging covered very well. I agree with Tony - STAGING, STAGING, STAGING - the importance if this in a production enviornment is critical. No matter how you pull it off. We could all be making chocolate covered crickets........you still gotta catch the little things and find the chocolate and spray tac the crickets to a --- to get em to hold still and then find more of 'em and find the chocolate and then...........(you get the idea - LOL)

No - I'm not a sales person for Shopworks or any other management system out there.

[tonypep]

Impress was a predecessor to Shopworks, Fast Manager and pretty much all the others. As decorators at Harlequin Nature Graphics (a good 15 ys ago where we beta tested it) we found it had a lot of shortcomings as it was originally designed for apparel mfgrs. Its come a long way since then but the schedule module will absolutely not work for us so we developed this system. Since it does everything else quite well we're good to go.