Extending the machine: Xerox brings lean theory, targeted tracking and scheduling
technologies to the printing industry
Printing businesses are seeking ways to re-engineer themselves to account for a
flattening growth rate and the transition in their industry from offset to digital
technology. Enter Xerox Corporation, with a new way for print shops to operate. Results
from seven print shops spanning transaction printing, publishing and copy-shop
environments with print-volume ranging from 2 million images/month to over 20 million
images/month have demonstrated: average productivity improvements of over 40 percent;
labor cost reductions of 20 percent; capacity utilization increases and turn around time
reductions of more than half; and significantly improved service levels.
How is this possible? Xerox researchers have combined "lean thinking" production concepts,
Xerox equipment, and proprietary workflow assessment and automation tools to create a
pioneering new capability called Lean Document ProductionSM (LDPSM). In a customer
environment, this capability is manifested as a suite of four offerings. The first
is a preliminary assessment that qualifies the site for further LDPSM effort. The second
is a detailed assessment that specifies the current productivity of the site and gives
one or more options for its major improvement. The third is the implementation of the
recommendations contained in the second offering, including revised work processes and
possibly shop layout, training of shop personnel, and installation of tools for job
tracking and scheduling. The final offering in the suite is an ongoing consulting, data
evaluation and training that insures the site continues to improve its productivity year
over year.
Most printing shops and plants are organized along production lines. When a job comes in,
each separate department processes it in turn until the product is finished. This batch-and-queue
approach usually requires completion of one process before starting the next. That typically means
lost productivity - employees and machines may be idle for significant periods, and costly errors
can accumulate as work in process grows.
The LDPSM offering suite, created by a team of mathematicians, control engineers, physicists and
software programmers, reinvents the process of printing by offering printing operations a methodology
and architecture for analyzing, scheduling and processing jobs in an optimal manner, subject to
continuing improvement year over year. It is currently being offered to Xerox outsourcing customers.
"We have utilized the Lean Document ProductionSM tools at over 20 customer sites," says Cyndi
Quan-Trotter, a Six Sigma Black Belt in Xerox Services. "Improvements have resulted in financial
benefits to both Xerox and our external customers."
In the detailed assessment offering comprehensive assessment software is used to analyze the
dynamic mix of jobs coming through the shop and map them to the equipment and resources available.
During the assessment, Xerox develops mathematical models of the shop and simulates workflow to
find the optimal equipment, operator allocations and control policies. The data are used to propose
autonomous production cells that handle certain classes of jobs in their entirety. This may require
reorganizing the physical layout of the shop, restructuring workflow and cross-training workers to
handle multiple tasks instead of specializing in just one. The models determine which parts of the
job are routed to specific cells and how they are scheduled within the cells, as well as where and
how staff is to be deployed to maximize output.
In the implementation offering Xerox tracking software - which currently employs wireless technology
to scan bar codes on each job - tracks how batches move through the cells. That information is
relayed to the tracking database. Xerox's methodology and algorithms are applied to the tracked
data, incorporating it into real-time scheduling software programmed to plan jobs according to
batch size, delivery date and number of operations needed for completion. Shop personnel are
trained to operate the tracking and scheduling tools, as well to perform multiple functions in
each autonomous cell.
The LDPSM process dramatically improves throughput, labor and asset utilization in the shops to
which it has been applied. In one pilot test of the nine-week LDP program, a quick printer went
from losing $100,000 per quarter to making more than $20,000. In another pilot, revenues increased
by 42.5 percent without any increase in staffing or equipment.
"LDPSM significantly lowers the cost structure for printing companies, many of which run on razor
thin margins," says Sudhendu Rai, a principal scientist in Imaging and Services Technology Center in
Xerox Innovation Group at Webster, N.Y. Dr. Rai is the primary creator of the four LDPSM offerings.
He, his team, and their Xerox partners have implemented these offerings in over 20 printing
operations of various sizes and functions during the past three years. Their results in the field
demonstrate that Xerox has developed and demonstrated a better way to operate print shops, thereby
creating both enhanced profits for its customers and improved satisfaction to their clients.
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