New Layout

[ZooCity]

Anyone care to give me some feedback?

I feel good about it overall so far- clean loops of travel for shirts, screens/inks/bars. 

I'm wondering about the optimal setup for washout too- Murakami's research states that if you blast out plasti in the same booth you reclaim that you'll never be as fisheye free as you could.  Not sure about adding a third washout but I do want a de-inking section dedicated where squeegees and floods get cleaned and screens get scrubbed up and racked before going to washout. 

[brandon]

Hey Chris,

So where is the bar, foosball table, and Caddy Shack poster?

But seriously for insurance reasons you are not worried about customers walking in with the dryer / catching station right there? Could you put a door next to the office instead? Let's not forget the guy/gal catching and counting stacks of 72 with two autos going and someone asking them questions. I know it sounds petty but in my experience catchers do not like to be interrupted and I don't blame them.

Congrats on the new space though!

[mimosatexas]

my only concern would be how far your dock/overhead door are from your shipping/receiving, and as brandon mentioned, how they enter sort of next to the end of the dryer.  Not sure how I would change either though, assuming you are stuck with both of those locations for entry/exit.  The overall flow, especially for screens, looks clean.

[ZooCity]

Oh we've had the kegerator discussion many times here...lucky that all our locations have been a quick walk to a brewery.

the office is likely going to be half open to address walk in clients and leave our catchers to peacefully stacking shirts.

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[ZooCity]

Most incoming will be in the south door, freight will need to be pallet jacked down from the dock.  Existing plumbing fueled the decision to lay it out this way. No way I'm running the length of the shop with pipe.

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[GaryG]

Yes a division would be nice, but
That's some nice design involvement!!

[gtmfg]

Where do you shove loaded pallets. We are in about the same size shop and that is our constant battle. We can handle about 10 pallets but by the time were done with a job that size we've touched them way to many times. Just something to think about, I didn't and now I'll be moving again soon.

[ABuffington]

Thanks Zoo City for reading our newsletter and incorporating the screen room design I recommended from one of our newsletters.  I am all for helping any shop out to succeed in this competitive business.  I share 40 years of screen printing knowledge with anyone who needs it.  If this is your post Chris, the sample is on it's way! 

Al

[ZooCity]

Haha, it is my post.  Thx Alan for putting together such informative tech sheets for Murakami and sorry if I took any credit for the layout!  One of your suggested layouts from that article is almost identical to what we've done for years except, until now, we haven't had the right space to lay the work flow out correctly. 

If you catch this Alan, what are your thoughts on vapor barriers v. a simple pocket sliding door?  I'd like vapor barriers I think but worry about contaminants.  I am planning on using sticky floor mats on the screen room portals. 

I've linked off to it many times but, if anyone hasn't taken a gander at the information on Murakami's site it's worth a read.  I believe Alan here is responsible for much of it.

[ABuffington]

Hey no worries on the shop layout, we are happy they are of help and typically most shops follow a 'clean' vs 'ink side' to their shop.  Vapor barriers are better, they block humidity quite well and you can see through them.  Sliding doors wind up being left open when your hands are full.  Sticky mats outside the screen coating and storage area help and perform a similar function to mopping floor at the end of the night.  Still if your shop generates a lot of dust it prevents tracking it into a dark room where it is hard to see.

[tonypep]

Where do you shove loaded pallets. We are in about the same size shop and that is our constant battle. We can handle about 10 pallets but by the time were done with a job that size we've touched them way to many times. Just something to think about, I didn't and now I'll be moving again soon.

This can be an issue even for large shops. Occaisional labor/time studies can often indicate that more time is spent handling goods than actually printing. Unfortunately this is an often overlooked aspect when pricing out large contract orders. In ATL we picked up an 80K sweatshirt order one summer. Want to know how many pallets that is. Oh and don't forget you can bet the pallets will contain mixed sizes (theres an interesting reason for this)

[ZooCity]

Great point on sliders getting left open Alan.  So long as my staff isn't irritated by the vapor barriers I'll go with those.

gtmfg and Tony- thank you! I needed another reminder on this.  Like gtmfg, I erred on our current space by not considering where that 5k pc order is going to be before it hits press and it was the main drive for the move.  (actually, I had a very clear plan for expanding staging room in the current space but our landlord screwed us over on it unfortunately) 

I learned that lesson but I agree, the incoming/outgoing end needs to be better configured to accommodate more than the 3 pallets in present in the mockup plans.  Ideally, this layout would be flip flopped with the incoming/outgoing end up top with the dock and large door but the utility setup couldn't allow for it.  Currently, pallets will come in up by the presses and be wheeled down to the staging area.  We will probably have to change the small entry door to an 8' door and build another dock at some point.

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

can you put that on a shirt? I will take a full back and left chest.

[gtmfg]

I agree with Tony I totally misjudged how much space hoodies take. We ran a 20k job this last summer and I thought my employes were going to kill me. Take whatever space you have designated and double it. I've been blessed with a big learning curve in trying to run super lean.

[ABuffington]

Rent or buy a shipping container, or two if you have space.  We often had to rent them to store large contract print orders.  Of all the job functions you don't foresee, material handling and equipment repair mechanic are two you learn the hard way.  In one side of the building and out the other helps.  Avoid crossing paths of incoming and outgoing product.  Typically an auto can print 2-3k per day.  That's 2 pallets of shirt cases per shift!  2-3 shifts and suddenly you need a ton of space both for incoming and outgoing products.  When you have space handle everything on pallets.  Pallet Jacks, fork lifts and pallet racking if you have space are the way to go.  Here is a link to an article I wrote on this very subject:

http://murakamiscreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Screen-Room-Design-for-Small-Auto-Shop.pdf

What we found out is it takes the same amount of space that the print operation occupies to store shirts and keep the presses running.  If you have to hold inventory to ship finished goods at a later date it can take twice as much warehouse space as print operation space.  Add fleece into the equation, especially finished fleece and it's time to see if your landlord will allow shipping containers outside.  Make sure they don't leak! and of course lock them up.  They can be stacked, and with a fork lift and pallet jack they do quite well.  22 pallets on average for a full size container.  Half containers work well also.  Or like a good customer of mine, he rented within walking distance of his shirt supplier, instant blank warehouse.

Al