Brief Discussion on the Production Cost Control of Corrugated Box Printing

With the global economy entering the new era and slowing down, many enterprises have fewer orders and fierce competition, while packaging enterprises may face more intense competition. In the past times with high profit, the cost control was less urgent, as they had large quantity orders and mainly focused on production. But now, the capacity is insufficient, it can only minimize the cost to increase profits. The cost control management of some packaging enterprises is out of control, resulting in losses and leading to bankruptcy of many. Therefore, in the economic downturn, cost control seems to be particularly important, even in relation to the survival of enterprises.
In fact, the cost of the product seems like an iceberg in the sea, which is visible above the surface and invisible below the surface. The costs are visible and easily to be calculated such as plant rent, workers' salaries, water and electricity bills, and materials costs. These costs are easily affected by the production scale, the degree of equipment automation and the adequacy of funds, and also affected by other objective factors as well. This cost generation is relatively open and transparent, and it is similar to every manufacturer. The key competition is invisible cost control, which is more integrated system engineering.
So what are the hidden costs that are the forgotten corners? Based on my research and analysis of some clients, I would like to share with you the following aspects.

Costs incurred in the operation and use of printing machinery

The operation and use of the equipment can affect several aspects：

1） The production of defective products depends on the equipment operator's skill and sense of responsibility.
2） The time of proofing making depends on the operator's habit and skill level.
3） Effective production time, the length of production time is also a subjective decision of the operator.

The above three points are the direct causes of cost, which may vary in each carton factory. Firstly, the production of defective products. It only refers to the defective products produced during the process of equipment debugging and sampling and operation. Some carton factories will make the standard of each machine according to the average number of samples produced by the usual operators. In fact, is this the true standard? Is there a scientific analysis of the number of truly scientific samples to the captain based on the performance of the equipment, the characteristics of the product -- that is, the difficulty of making them.
The monochrome and multicolor proofing standards of many carton factories are the same: five, or ten, or even the same order, the number of proofing is different. For example, client A only needs 3 pieces of cardboard for proofing, while client B needs 10 pieces of cardboard for proofing. If we calculated at $3 per sheet, and at a cost of $21 per sample, customer B has to pay for the proofing. If this happens 10 times a day, it will mean an extra cost of 210 yuan, equivalent to the daily wage of 2 people! This kind of phenomenon can happen in a lot of packing factory, and still think is normal. Why does this happen? Mainly in the paper box factory, some managers are not familiar with the equipment performance and operation, can only listen to the captain, and for this phenomenon which has no enough attention.
I once encountered such a case in a client: for a monochrome product, they used 12 cardboard, more than 2 meters wide household appliances cartons, the price of cardboard was 10 yuan per piece, and the sample cost was 120 yuan. The reason is as follows: the captain hung up the plate and printed it, and then for the first time it's not printed, the second time did not find the right printing position, the cardboard was printed the third time just right, not enough printing pressure, not enough ink, adjust groove position for the fourth time, and make axial adjustment for the fifth time. As soon as I saw that the machine was the GD model of DongFang with top printing air absorption, I asked to participate in the test, and the result only took three to adjust all. I asked the captain, did you do this every time? "Yes, waste is a must " he replied. However, when we finished the initial commissioning and finished the production of other orders, we only used one to complete the debugging. Then we started direct production. In total, 8 pieces were used less and 80 yuan was saved. Therefore, the equipment performance and operation proficiency is very important to the cost generation.
Then, we analyze the impact of sample making and production time on cost. Carton printing equipment is a high-power equipment. Currently, the top printing suction air transfer four-color slotted die cutting printing machine is generally up to 70KW, that is, 70 degrees of electricity is required for one hour of machine operation. It is calculated at the price of 1 yuan /h of industrial electricity, which is 70 yuan/hour. If the time of proofing for each order is extended by 10 minutes, then the machine will be invalid with the 10-minute electricity charge, about 12 yuan! Let's say 15 orders a day, that's an extra 180 yuan in electricity bills! On the contrary, after reasonable analysis, if the normal operation speed and production time of each machine in the production process are the fastest production speed, each order will be completed 10 minutes ahead of schedule, which can save another 180 yuan in electricity charges per day! I once knew a carton factory. When the order was not very busy, the manager asked the captain to reduce the speed of production until the off-duty time, so as not to let the operator off duty. What a laughable and silly management approach, with no benefits other than increased costs!

The cost caused by the management of supporting process of corrugated carton production

The so-called supporting process mainly includes the following aspects in the printing process of corrugated box：

1) Cardboard production links cardboard curved, many customers do not matter. In fact, the cardboard warping will cause the printing machine to go to the wrong slot position, and the speed cannot be opened to the fastest, which will increase the printing machine's running time and cost more electricity!
2) Printing plate quality, the quality of auxiliary materials, typesetting process, will also affect the production of defective products. A client once talked about how thousands of waste boxes were produced in multiple production, which caused great losses. His subordinates thought that the operators and quality inspectors were not serious enough. Actually because of the purchase of some sticky plate auxiliary materials, printing plate is not strong enough, paste process is too careless.
3) Using inferior ink, or ink debugging level is not good, ink quality instability is easy to produce waste. For example: high - quality high - screen multicolor printing, ink drying too fast, resulting in printing ink formed waste；And the last and the first of each stop are scrapped, because of high frequency stop the machine to scrub the layout, there are still moisture after scrubbing the printing plate, and the printing color is not uniform. The more times the stop is cleaned the plate, the more waste will be generated.

Cost of equipment maintenance

Improper maintenance of the equipment will cause damage to the equipment, production products unqualified, resulting in increased costs. There is a printing manufacturer that mainly produces printing products with high mesh lines. Due to the poor quality of ink used in the production process, and usually only focus on production and never carry out equipment maintenance. Soon, the roller is blocked, and finally re-painted pottery carving is equivalent to buying a new roller. Another customer, because the empty cardboard box is often unglued in cardboard production, causes the sun wheel of the paper feeding part of the printing machine to wear and the paper feeding is inclined, resulting in waste or defective products, increasing the cost of products.

Material control

Consumables control is mainly about ink consumption, which is hard to manage, in fact, many manufacturers are ignored. In general, the use of ink and ink is not required for the captain, without which it is not controllable. In particular, whether the recycling of ink and ink is completed or not, the amount of ink required for each order is rarely specified, which is easy to cause waste and additional production costs.

When we found the above several cost control vulnerabilities, how to improve? The following are my personal opinions:

1) Enhance the operator and manager skills training, management must be familiar with the performance of the machine, equipment manufacturers can be sought for support. For example, the printing machine of Dongfang Precision: the function of save orders and recall order and the zero function, these can greatly reduce the technical requirements of the operators for proofing and repeated production, control the generation of proofing waste, and improve the cost management benefits. In the case mentioned above about our rapid sample making for customers, we used the zero and the saving and adjusting function of the equipment, which improved the time of sample making by 80% and reduced the waste of sample making by 80%.
2) Establish reasonable operating standards. For example, the quantity index of sample making, the reasonable ordering of order production time, the analysis of reasonable production speed, the reduction of equipment operation time, and the maximum benefit of the machine in unit time.
3) Pay attention to every production link, refine and analyze the control of key links, ensure the quality of each link, adopt pipeline management method, and do not let unqualified problems flow into the next production link. For example: simple typesetting, the purchase of accessories, ink modulation should be adjusted in advance, and the test report on viscosity and drying time should be made to avoid problems in production after loading.
4) The maintenance of equipment in many enterprises is limited to refueling, clean appearance, lack of deep maintenance of equipment. As mentioned above, the anilox roller jams due to not be well maintained. Many customers think that starting up the machine is normal, and cleaning several times will not clog the roller. Actually not, high net line roller is special need maintains, needs to buy some maintenance fluid, and makes maintenance plan. In addition, the maintenance of equipment should be based on product characteristics, which requires users to explore, but the most important thing is to make a maintenance plan and implement it to individuals, which is very important.
5) The method of cost control of consumables focuses on the control of ink usage. Firstly, it is recommended to quantify each type of order, calculate the required amount of ink according to the printing area, test it several times, strictly measure it, and finally form the data. Later when the order is made, the ink usage is suitable, and greatly reduces the waste and situation that operation does not pay much attention.

In conclusion, in addition to the costs that are relatively easy to be ignored, there are many potential problems that require managers to constantly accumulate, summarize and analyze, communicate with other enterprises, reduce production costs as much as possible, and help enterprises to stand in an invincible position in the market.