Strategies to Keep Your Production Moving Smoothly Reprinted from Dimensions By Jay Owen Production Manager jowen@huntsinger-jeffer.com

For those of us who have chosen to make a living in direct marketing production, we are fortunate to work in a part of the industry that is dynamic and fast paced. Sometimes, it can be too fast! Yet it’s a Production Manager’s job to deliver the vision of the creative team and meet the needs of the client on time and within budget.

To thine own self be true

Whether you are charged with producing a new test package for your organization, or producing a tried and true control package for the twentieth time, knowing your organization’s culture – and its expectations – is a great starting point. Does your organization thrive on using four-color pieces to tell their story? Or do you lean towards simpler packages to convey the message? I’m talking about more than graphics standards here, I’m talking about how your organization wants to be viewed by its donors and potential donors.

For example, some of my clients have me print additional pieces, like newsletters, buckslips or catalogs from a direct mail project, so they can use them later in welcome packages or as handouts at a conference. In these situations, it is clear that the client wants the best looking piece available, and that cost is secondary to them. Yet this brings us back to the issue mentioned earlier – namely, how do you fit this requirement into the budget?

Two methods can greatly assist you in keeping the production process on time and within budget. The first method I advocate is a “component centric” approach to mail packages.

In many cases, mail packages initially go back and forth between an agency and a client in a thumbnail format on a board or as a pdf. Simple components in the package are relegated to the back, while the snazzy letter, voucher, insert, etc. is prominent. At this point it’s important to remember that design isn’t everything. All elements of your direct mail package must be accurate from the beginning.

As a Production Manager, many of the problems I encounter at the thumbnail stage involve incorrect art and specifications on the most basic components in a package. In one case, a new client provided Business Reply Envelope permit information that was incorrect. This error made it through several rounds between the agency and the client, until someone in the know spotted the error. Fortunately, it was corrected prior to releasing art to the envelope vendor.

The cost of correcting such errors at the last minute is usually not accounted for in the budget. Such an error can adversely affect your ability to afford the nicer components that you need. Or, at the very least, throw you hopelessly off budget. It pays to pay attention to details.

The second method I advocate in tightly managing the production process is to develop a solid knowledge regarding certain processes. This understanding will give you a high comfort level that the packages being produced with good quality and cost effectiveness. I recommend that you form a comfortable working relationship with your printer and lettershop. Take a tour of their facility and watch them at work. And be sure to ask lots of questions. Vendors who take pride in their work will want to tell you about it.

Haste makes waste (and costs money)

A Production Manager’s day is filled with schedules, deadlines and phone calls, so I urge anyone who is responsible for production services to set aside quiet time to review each component of the package you are managing, as early as possible, before it is scheduled to be released to a vendor partner.

Allot yourself a small amount of time for each component, and do two things: 1) Measure each component’s physical characteristics – size, window position, folds, paper type, and number of colors, for example. 2) Then review the content of the piece, everything from return addresses and indicia information, to required legal disclosures for your organization.

More often than not, at this stage I discover something that requires a slight rework, such as a poorly positioned envelope window, or old or incorrect disclosures. Correcting these errors early in the project’s lifecycle does two things. First, it allows you time to perform quality control in a somewhat calm environment, not in one where you are attempting to release everything to your vendors, in order to keep on schedule. Secondly, the errors that you correct on a component before you send it out to be produced saves you money. No one likes to pay a vendor to do a writer’s last-minute edits, yet this is a common occurrence when time is not taken to review all pieces of a mail package.

Today, those of us involved in production are faced with an array of choices as to how we can ultimately produce a mail package. Newer technology, such as digital printing, can provide us with many interesting ways to personalize a package. Yet for other packages, the tried and true older technology that we have used for years provides us with the best combination of price and performance. All of the choices can be overwhelming. By focusing our attention on just a few things, we can prevent paralyzing ourselves as we move a mail package to final completion.

Developing this knowledge base ties in with knowing the needs of your organization. For example, perhaps your organization uses an insert in all of its control packages. The insert changes very little from mailing to mailing, and you have developed a core of vendor partners who can produce it for you efficiently. If you are required to develop an insert for a new test package, the question becomes whether you can use the same size and specifications of the old insert to generate the new one. If so, you have just limited the time needed to manage this component, and you can focus your attention on pieces of the test package that differ substantially from what your organization has traditionally produced.

In this manner, you are maximizing your effectiveness – quickly and deliberately moving certain pieces of your project through the pipe, but focusing intently on those pieces that require more attention because they are new to your organization and require more checking to make sure that they meet your organization’s standards.

Carpenters use the old adage, “measure twice, cut once.” As a Production Manager, make your work slogan, “check everything first, save time and money later.”

©2007 Huntsinger & Jeffer, Richmond, VA 
Jay Owen is a production manager at Huntsinger & Jeffer in Richmond, VA.
You can e-mail him at jowen@huntsinger-jeffer.com