Sometimes things don’t run to plan or go smoothly.
We had an important deadline for an extremely prestigious international customer. Programme covers were being hot foil stamped and under normal circumstances it should have run smoothly. Our print customers had delivered the 2500 covers late Friday and we planned for Seamus to come in on the Sunday to get the job finished for later assembling on the Monday then off to the airport and in New York for the Wednesday. Failure to do so could have literally cost the customer millions in lost revenue as the cover was for an auction list of valuable artifacts and paintings.
The job was set up on Sunday morning and ready to run when Seamus managed to damage the die, a very large expensive copper die. Seamus dutifully informed the printing company’s production manager who wanted to be kept up to date. This guy was fantastic and remained calm and the two slowly drew up a plan to get a new die made for late on the Monday. The die makers were also fantastic and made a copy and had it couriered by motorbike to us for 5 pm Monday.
Once again Seamus set up the job and started to run the job when the foiling machine suddenly stopped and no amount of knob turning and button pushing could get it going again. It was now 9pm and Seamus looked up to the heavens and shouted you “m….r f….r. Seamus got on the phone to the Infographics hotfoil production manager who was more familiar with the machine. He offered to come down and help to get it going which was absolutely fantastic, however, he suggested a solution which worked.
The job began to run steadily but Seamus wanted to run the press slowly to check the quality and keep control. The clock kept on ticking all the way through to 7.30 am when the covers were picked up. The gathering, fold stitch and trim didn’t run as smoothly as you would expect but somehow the job was placed on a plane and arrived in New York in time to sell those paintings and artifacts. This was the first time Seamus had worked a 24 hour solid day and hoped he wouldn’t have to do it again. He was very impressed with the team around him from colleagues to suppliers and production managers who didn’t flap but worked out a way to get the job delivered on time.
End customers often do not realise the hard work and sacrifices that are often made in this industry and it is so important that we all try and work together. We don’t always win but we can succeed most of the time with communication and trying to understand each others roles. Download the hot foil production guidelines and time management from the trade page to make sure that Seamus always gets a good night sleep
