MEASURING MAILROOM EFFECTIVENESS

A kinder, friendlier and more scientific model for production has taken America’s newspapers by storm. Now how do we measure the effectiveness of what we’ve done?

A panel of post-press production professionals tackled the question Wednesday. Employee involvement, auditing and recordkeeping with purpose, aiming all refinements at treating customers better and ensuring cross-functional communications were all good ideas, the panelists agreed.

But their techniques are as varied as workers posting notes on a wall to an inspirational bronze American Indian statue in the lobby of a Virginia book printer. (The statue is meant to remind employees daily that dreams are realized through commitment and hard work, if you reach for the sky).

Here’s a sampler:

Bob Crandall of The Orlando Sentinel discussed the development of the Balanced Scorecard, a plan that can help identify processes and change actions.

A scorecard helps workers understand common goals, and how they work and impact other functions. It tracks actual performance against a set of common goals. In Orlando’s case during 1999, that meant improving customer service and reducing waste.

Different departments use different actions to track their progress, Crandall says. Error reduction in advertising, pre-press and post-press deadlines met, insert quality and trucks departing loading docks on time are among the criteria.

"To use this you must first determine relevant and meaningful performance goals and measurements," he said, noting an even bigger need was to keep employees informed and involved. "Climate setting is extremely important when you embark on something like this."

Some data will come back negative, he warned. For instance, the effort to get Sentinel trucks off the loading dock on time was behind 1998 figures. But that information still helps staffers identify and fix problems.

By year’s end the Sentinel had measured numbers of ad credits and related costs, percent of on-time proofs to advertisers, percent of starter pages closed on time, on-time press starts and percent of on-time truck departures, Crandall said. Staffers tracked more than $195,000 in savings in those areas alone. Savings in post-press amounted to $83,282, primarily through waste reduction and better managing unsold, in-house copies, he said.

He said the Sentinel hopes to improve the concept this year when it participates in the NAA Partners 2000 program, which takes a similar approach across all newspaper departments.

Roy Deaton, operations group packaging manager of The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, discussed the clash when productivity and quality goals collide. Knowing how quality is defined is a first step in helping newspaper managers attack that problem, he says.

Deaton identified such preprint-quality criteria as zoning accuracy, the right number of papers per bundle, no sections missing, timeliness in meeting deadlines, damage-free papers to circulation, no double sections, delivery of stable bundles to circulation and the proper sequence of inserts. Once workers know these goals, they can identify processes to get there, he suggested.

Bob Davis, manufacturing manager for the book printer RR Donnelley & Sons Co. in Salem, Va., talked about the similarity of challenges faced by newspapers and other printers. His company has coupled an emphasis on training and technology to cut costs and increase productivity and satisfaction.

In 2000, the company budget includes funds for two weeks of training for every employee. Every new worker takes a two-day class on how to resolve conflict.

Adopting standards for all processes and ensuring the training has helped RR Donnelley cut drastically some costs and reduce some customer-service issues.

Today, 75 percent of its work is fully digital, and plans call for full digital pre-press by year’s end. Efficiencies have meant slashing the timeframe for printing books, Davis said. It once took six weeks to print and deliver a hardcover book. Now, it takes about 18 days.

Another efficiency gained: capturing massive amounts of data during prep and press runs not only to troubleshoot (paper dampness, for instance), but also to archive with other digital materials so the same printing results can be gained when reprints are ordered.

The company also relied on vendor expertise to help solve and change processes. He says the company spent $68 million to build their facility three years ago. They asked Heidelberg for web presses and the Book Technology Group to handle binding. But they also insisted those companies help them develop work practices.

Do employees like having set processes to follow?

"Employees really want to do a good job," he said. "We just have to give them the training and tools to do a good job. The real key here is communication. Communication and people make it work."

Newspaper managers should always put their employees atop any list of valued resources, Davis said. He suggests managers strive to value differences, resolve conflict, help workers maintain a healthy work-life balance, take pride in work and provide inspiration. That’s the job of the Indian peering toward the sky in the lobby.

-Bob Sims