Wednesday, May 3, 2017

5 Ways to power up production with DecoNetwork

A smart and strategic production schedule can make all the difference to your bottom line and peace of mind.  It can take a shop from a flying by the seat of your pants frenzy to a smooth workflow resulting in deadlines being met, a happy team and satisfied customers.  

As a print or embroidery shop grows the challenge increases to keep everyone on the same page.  The traditional methods of spreadsheets, whiteboards or handwritten notes becomes less reliable and effective.  We understood this and the vital role that production management plays in the success of a print and embroidery shop over five years ago.  Drawing on our industry experience and customer feedback, we developed and continually refine the features in Business Hub™ to support shops in their common production challenges. 

Let’s take a look at the key features DecoNetwork offers to power up your productivity.

  1. Open communication

Full visualization of your orders allows you and your team to be proactive rather than reactive.  See your entire business’s production on one live-updated screen that is color-coded according to its status.  

In a growing business a highly visible system keeps everyone informed.  The progress of each order is tracked from payment, blank products ordered, blank products received, artwork approval, produced to shipped.  Hustle any delays, tackle issues or allocate extra time, resources or staff to keep orders on track.  

Your customers can be kept in the loop too with automatic email updates or SMS notifications as their order flows through production.  

  1. Knowledge is power

To improve your efficiency you’ll need to identify the key areas for improvement.  Reporting on the productivity of your business can reveal bottlenecks, recurring issues, waste or a need for new equipment, training or staff.  Being aware of your capacity allows you to know your limitations and commit to orders confidently rather than nervously crossing your fingers and hoping for the best.  

Perhaps there are job types that are consistently time intensive or problematic, less profitable or that are best to outsource.  But how will you know?  When you are tracking productivity in one central hub you have the ability to generate reports that form the basis of realistic projections. These insights allow you to evolve with the right approach, staff and resources at the ready.   

With DecoNetwork you can measure the performance of an individual or the business such as:-

  • Analyze your production statistics including number of orders received or shipped and average processing times.
  • Analyze team member statistics including days worked, items processed, and total value of the orders they processed.
  • View your fulfillment center performance, including value of orders sold, number of orders received, and number of affiliate network stores.
  1. Be prepared

Having all the supplies and visual production instructions on hand keeps your operator flowing smoothly from one job to the next.  If an operator is unclear and needs to stop to clarify details or chase information, production will be disrupted.

Arm your production team with all the necessary information they need to complete the order to the customer’s expectations.  Production-ready art files, an approved mockup, internal notes and a worksheet are all at their fingertips to view online or download directly from Business Hub™.

  1. Stay on target

A smart production schedule takes the needs of the customers, the equipment, set up times,  down times, staff availability and workload all into consideration.  It needs to be realistic and allow for unforeseen production issues, staff absences or other delays.  

When you create a production schedule with DecoNetwork, you’ll know exactly what jobs are production-ready.  Sort orders by status, decoration process, quantity, priority or machine operator, then assign jobs accordingly.  Set production block-out dates in your calendar for closure periods or to allow for maintenance downtime.  The result is a smart and realistic production schedule.  

You can also check in on the order status throughout the day to see if adjustments should be made such as overtime, outsourcing or moving other jobs around.  When new orders are added to the schedule it will be based on a clear view of the workload, availability of resources and the actual capacity.  

  1. Assign roles

Is this job ready to print?  Where are the art files saved?  What is the deadline on this job?  What job should I print next?  If you’re constantly fielding questions like these from your production team you’ll love the operator logins in DecoNetwork.  

Unique operator logins allow your team to access a customized view of only the orders allocated to them.  The operator is clear on what is expected and what jobs take priority.  They can access and download all of the resources they need to complete the order and update the status of the job as production fully or partially completed.  User logins also allow you to monitor the workload and achievements of each member of the team.  

 

Investing some time in reviewing your production scheduling process can pay dividends towards a more productive and harmonious shop.  And if you are willing to embrace the possibilities that DecoNetwork offers, you’ll never look back.  

Want to learn more about this feature?  You can visit our website here.  Already a DecoNetwork user?  You can enjoy these features now read our help article.  



from DecoNetwork Blog https://www.deconetwork.com/blog/5-ways-to-power-up-production-with-deconetwork/

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