As a press operator at the Los Angeles Times I'm constantly reminded to keep my waste down. Just twelve days ago I was told management is unhappy with my high amount of waste generated by my crew.
At the top is the machine that carries my completed newspapers to the mailroom, called the Ferag. Our Ferag's are in need of attention if I'm to lower my waste.
Yesterday I took the advice of our vice-president of production (Russ Newton) and used the secondary Ferag to carry my newspapers to their destination. The Ferag on the press I ran yesterday generally drops about two-thousand copies, that can not be sent to subscribers, but the secondary Ferag dropped over two-thousand five hundred copies, or accounted for fifty percent of my total waste for the day.
I enter this information on my hard copy operator report and my electronic operator report, yet nothing seems to be getting any better.
Instead of looking at the press operator as the cause for waste, lets repair the equipment gentlemen.
UPDATE
(Ferag equipment updates are planned for the very near future as funding becomes available.)
Ed,
ReplyDeleteYou're right! We try so hard to shave a hundred papers off our line-up and start-up waste, then watch as the ferag constantly drops papers during the entire press run, regardless of how much effort we expend trying to adjust the darn thing! Unnecessary stops(replates, web breaks, MR stops, etc.) are also a problem, we generate over 300 waste copies every time we re-start. It's even more frustrating to watch denex as Postpress tacks on added waste, sometimes in an almost arbitrary manner, many times without being able to show us what was wrong with the papers that were dumped. Minimizing waste is important to producing a product economically, it's no-brainer, but it's going to take a team effort from all of Operations to acomplish this goal, not just the press operator. Well, that's my rant, sorry if I got a bit long winded but it's a subject I'm pretty passionate about.
get use too it jess it's normal over here at Oly
ReplyDeleteJess,
ReplyDeleteThanks for giving your feedback on this matter, it's so fustrating for the men and women in Operations to reach the goal of low waste, when there are so many things completely out of our control.
Last Wednesday I had 1,562 waste added to my run when I was almost finished. I turned my reports in, and mentioned this to the shift supervisor, he walked over to the mailroom and found the waste was entered in error.
But the damage was done, I had already completed my electronic operator report, so I am charged with the additional waste.
The Los Angeles Times new publisher has the Manhatten Project to increase circulation, I plan to start my own campaign to have our presses repaired.
Now to think of a name for my campaign?
Where did you get the picture Ed? Doesn't look like a Ferag from Oly.
ReplyDeleteThe picture is from the Ferag webpage.
ReplyDelete"Now to think of a name for my campaign?"
ReplyDeleteNagasaki?
Hi Ed, there’s something you can look for in the future that’s going cause crews to run more waste. It seems that going from 50 inch to 49-3/4 is not enough savings for the bean counters. They now want a 48-inch roll, without giving any consideration to the type of make-up we are using at this time, or the belt paths. They are almost eliminating the ends of the pick up area of the make-up. I haven’t had a chance to take any measurements yet, but I estimate the remaining pick up area at the end of a roll will be 1-3/4 to 2 inches. I don’t know if this will cause the make-ups to flip over more often, or if this will cause wrinkles on half rolls causing the detectors to chop the web out. The problem is neither do they!
ReplyDeleteI do know this, on a half in the middle belts will be running almost on the edge of the roll.
This is just another example, of what they do on paper, therefore it should work, they never ask for input from people that actually work on the presses, until they need our help in fixing their screw up.
Ed I will make some measurements as soon as I can, and get the results back to you. I did this for Norski newsprint when we went to 50-inch. Norski made the blue measuring sticks that we are currently using.
Gerald Leavenworth later added additional marks for the correct placement of the timing tab.
The tribune spent 10 million for Lou pinella too manage the cubs for 3 yrs !!! & a new publisher tell me the can't find some $$ somewhere laying around
ReplyDeleteGood point Dave, on the upstairs view it would be nice if someone wants to change the paper size mabe this time they can move some nips,or mabe the trolleys would be nice!!!!!
ReplyDeleteGood point Dave, on the upstairs view it would be nice if someone wants to change the paper size mabe this time they can move some nips,or mabe the trolleys would be nice!!!!!
ReplyDelete