CTS VS Adding Auto

[bimmridder]

Greg, next time you see one of those, let me know. I'm looking for another one

[Printficient]

Greg, next time you see one of those, let me know. I'm looking for another one

Saw one not too long ago on Digitsmith.

[bimmridder]

Thank you, Sir.

[Printficient]

Thank you, Sir.

Who you calling "Sir"?!?!?!?!?!?!?

[bimmridder]

Sorry, I've been drinking.

[alan802]

As we grow I'm beginning to change or slightly alter my thoughts when it comes to my prior production model principles, which includes not buying an additional auto until you're running multiple shifts (and no longer want to do that) or there is a customer coming on board that will require another press being installed.  That model we've stuck with has holes in it, I can admit that, and the question on this thread is something we're being faced with this year.  To stay with our current production model the decision is CTS all the way.  But with an aging press, increasing production needs, the pressure being put on a single auto and the odds that the press going down with something major has me seriously contemplating a 2nd auto instead of CTS.  Part of that decision is definitely based on our current abilities and setup times and I think we will see more benefits with the CTS on the pre-press side of the production loop but maybe we could see setup times that include rarely having to move a micro but I'm not going to bet the farm on that.  I can see dozens of scenarios where a 2nd auto would save our butts this year and I think with CTS not being a part of our current setup, we might be much better off using that money for a 2nd auto even if most of the time we're only running 1 auto during the day.  Our RPM will be 7 years old soon, it's only got 2.1 million impressions on it and it still has a lot of life left in it but when we're cranking out 10 jobs per day with one auto and that one auto goes down it will cause all kinds of problems.  I don't care how bullet proof a press is sooner or later there will be things like air leaks and mother boards, membrane buttons, flash unit issues, so many different components of the press to go bad and our model doesn't work if we're dealing with nagging press problems even on a monthly basis. The perfect scenario would be maybe sticking with the one auto but upgrading our current press, selling the RPM and then wait another year to add CTS.  Each day I worry that all these years of trouble-free days with the auto are going to catch up to us.  A big beautiful new auto would ease those worries of mine and also allow us to keep a smaller crew and leave us more money to go CTS sooner than later.   

[TCT]

Sorry, I've been drinking.

10am.... Why so late? Did you sleep in this morning? 

[bimmridder]

I didn't say I just started.

[ZooCity]

If I had two autos here, in good shape that fit our needs, then I would add CTS. 

If I only had one auto or one of the two autos was on it's way out/wasn't meeting our needs, then "third" auto it would be. 

But that's us.  We couldn't roll with Alan's one auto structure and we also would not find any advantage in a third auto at the moment. 

Certain types of work favor additional press, curing and/or warehousing capacity over improved pre press.   CTS is fantastic, but it's just a pre press tool.  And pre press capacity may or may not be your bottleneck. 

[jvanick]

1 auto, 1 manual shop here... wouldn't give up the cts for anything.

We run a LOT of short run jobs... (average order is like 20 pieces, sometimes 4+ screens for a single job)... we average about 100 screens a week.

While we could/would do prepress pretty well with carrier sheets, the cts makes life so much easier, and makes better screens.

Setup times are directly related to using a trilock, we average less than 5 minutes per screen to setup a job with minimally skilled/minimally trained labor in both the screen room and press.

[GKitson]

1 auto, 1 manual shop here... wouldn't give up the cts for anything.
Setup times are directly related to using a trilock, we average less than 5 minutes per screen to setup a job with minimally skilled/minimally trained labor in both the screen room and press.

Gotta ask, can't help myself, but here goes.  Are your daring to describe Tiffany as 'minimally skilled/minimally trained' or is that her description of you 

[TCT]

1 auto, 1 manual shop here... wouldn't give up the cts for anything.
Setup times are directly related to using a trilock, we average less than 5 minutes per screen to setup a job with minimally skilled/minimally trained labor in both the screen room and press.

Gotta ask, can't help myself, but here goes.  Are your daring to describe Tiffany as 'minimally skilled/minimally trained' or is that her description of you 

Guess I just thought Jason had left his account up and Tiffany had posted....

1 auto, 1 manual shop here... wouldn't give up the cts for anything.
Setup times are directly related to using a trilock, we average less than 5 minutes per screen to setup a job with minimally skilled/minimally trained labor in both the screen room and press.

Gotta ask, can't help myself, but here goes.  Are your daring to describe Tiffany as 'minimally skilled/minimally trained' or is that her description of you 

[jvanick]

Gotta ask, can't help myself, but here goes.  Are your daring to describe Tiffany as 'minimally skilled/minimally trained' or is that her description of you 

Absolutely not... the 'minimally skilled'/'minimally trained' is our artist/press op/screen cleaner/tiffany's helper...  he's learning, but had absolutely no print experience when he started 6 months ago, and we are still in the process of developing our employee 'training' program/guides.

To be able to tell him, "press these buttons and this will happen" makes the process of making good screens that much easier.  We did teach him how to register jobs as tiffany likes super minimal choke on the underbase, but that's about it.

[jvanick]

1 auto, 1 manual shop here... wouldn't give up the cts for anything.
Setup times are directly related to using a trilock, we average less than 5 minutes per screen to setup a job with minimally skilled/minimally trained labor in both the screen room and press.

Gotta ask, can't help myself, but here goes.  Are your daring to describe Tiffany as 'minimally skilled/minimally trained' or is that her description of you 

Haha!  Jason wouldn't dare make that comment since he likes his health:)   Although to Alex's point, Jason borrowed my laptop on vacation, and forgot to logout, so now I can post as him.  Bwahaha!

[DaveZ]

...Bwahaha!...

I just realized that I'm almost your neighbor.  Mind if I stop by sometime?  (Seriously)