1) When in doubt, stop the presses. Examine the practices in your own shop. Is it okay for an employee to stop a machine and shut down production because he has a “bad feeling” about what’s being produced? Do you reward that person for just such a shutdown? Maybe you should. The trick is to learn something every single time things grind to a halt while at the same time keeping shutdowns to a minimum. But always keep “stop the presses” an acceptable policy.

2) If there’s a better way to do it, get it out into the open. All the best ideas for running your business are floating around out there in the heads of your employees. Encourage and reward the exchange of these ideas. Follow up on suggestions, and whether you do something with the idea or not, always respond to your employees, explaining why you did or didn’t implement their idea.

3) Put on your customer’s glasses every day before you walk through the door. Sometimes, all it takes to stop your employees in their tracks is to say, “Would you buy this? If you were asked to deliver this order by hand to our customer, what would you change about it?”

Sometimes in the heat of battle, we forget there is a customer involved in this process. If every department has the attitude of pleasing the customer, your business will prosper, guaranteed.

4) Make training a part of your weekly schedule. Learning, relearning, or fine tuning one simple thing in each department each week means that each person in that department has improved on 52 new things each year. That’s probably about 50 more than average. Fifteen minutes, once a week, is all you need to start a mindset of training and learning in your facility.

Excerpt from my free newsletter Screen Print Weekly

http://terrycombs.com/links.html

I’ve been at all the garment shows so far this year… ISS, Printwear, as well as the DAX shows. As with every year, they started off with a bang in Long Beach and Atlantic City, but attendance has fizzled (with the exception of DAX) since then. Not all bad news, as attendees are buying again… if only cautiously. Vendors would much rather talk to a small number of qualified buyers than 10 times as many people with hands in their pockets.

It’s been a long and hard recession for vendors at these shows over the past couple of years. Exhibiting is not an inexpensive proposition for the folks you meet standing in their booths as you stroll the trade show aisles. Beyond renting that small piece of real estate in the exhibit hall, there’s freight in, freight out, hotels, meals, air travel, employees and the unions to pay. It’s a hard decision to commit to these expenses in a tough economy, and even harder to not exhibit at some of the shows.

DAX as a Midwest regional venue has been bustling with attendees who are placing orders. (I’ll be exhibiting at the Chicago DAX show this month with my supply business Garment Decorating Supply.) Regional shows are a great opportunity for one-on-one time with your suppliers and industry experts.

The outlook? We vendors on the booth side of the aisle are cautiously optimistic, but the days of saying “I think the next show we’ll start seeing a turnaround,” are over. Just like the national economy, this is going to be a slow and gradual process. It’s survival of the fittest. Some companies have fallen by the wayside already. Others have curbed their expenses and are holding on for better times ahead.

As in the past, most will survive this economy and be better businesses for all the pain. But I’m sure we can all agree, we’re ready for it to be over.

MAXIMUM PRODUCTION

Probably 15 years ago, one of my sons was working on that report all our kids have to write at some point in their school careers, “My Mom/Dad’s Job is…” So off to work with dad he went, to watch, take notes, ask for change to plug into the vending machines, and of course go to lunch with dad at Chili’s.

The day starts early in production, so that part was no fun. We did the walk around of the production floor for his background notes, while I made personal note of who was at work on time and who was not. Who was at their work station, and who was not. Which machines were moving, and which were not.
Back in my office with the big window overlooking production, my son settled into his chair in the corner to observe. And I proceeded with my own day of running the plant.

After a few hours, my son pulled himself up in his chair and said, “Is this your job?!?!”

“Yes, my job is… wait a minute, what do you mean, “Is this your job?”

“Is your job to come here every day and listen to people complain???”

When did it stop being about schedules, hiring, training, purchasing, packaging, quality control, shipping… and of course printing shirts???

Every real production manager is smiling right now. That’s because they know production management is more about people than it is about printing shirts. That’s why no two shops are alike. That’s why the production numbers the automatic press salesman quoted to you at the last tradeshow don’t mean a thing in the real world. That’s why one shop is dead on schedule, and the next virtually identical shop is terminally, hopelessly behind.

By the way, I like to think those employees weren’t really complaining. But they were discussing issues, both professional and personal, figuring out angles to attack production problems, asking for clarifications and interpretations, offering up suggestions and solutions. My son (just as many business owners and managers) thought people came to work, punched the clock, printed some shirts and went home. Come to work – do your job – go home – repeat. The real world doesn’t work that way. The real world is all about people, and the issues real people have. (OK, maybe somebody did complain about yet a sales guy asking for a favor!)

Production management is less about managing the process than it is about working with the people staffing your floor. Take care of the people, and their needs, and their concerns… be aware of their lives on and off the production floor… give them the skills and the opportunity to be successful… and the production takes care of itself.

So, tune in while I talk about my printing passion and what should be your constant goal… Maximum Production.

All the Epson 3000 users (and similar printers from five or six years ago) ask me regularly, “Why is this clear film so hard to find these days?”

For years, clear film was the least expensive product for inkjet film positives, and did a perfectly satisfactory job for burning screens. It took a little while to dry so we couldn’t stack our printed films right away, but it was simply the nature of the beast.

Waterproof film worked much better, every printer would have to admit, but not better enough to justify the cost. Waterproof for many years was twice the cost of standard clear film. Most importantly, there were no discernable differences in the final screens we produced using standard clear film or waterproof film.

Here’s where the screen print world changed a bit. The newer Epson printers on the market require the use of waterproof film to achieve a dense and consistent lay down of ink. Waterproof film accepts the ink better than standard clear film. These newer Epson devices do not lay down enough ink to achieve an acceptable film positive on traditional standard clear film.

As Epson 3000s, the Cadillac of output devices, head one by one to the junk heap, the market for standard clear film gets a little bit smaller. Every dead Epson 3000 means one less device using standard non-waterproof film.

Ladies and gentlemen of screen making, I have sad news for you if you’re using standard clear film. Fewer and fewer manufacturers are making this product. As a result, fewer and fewer suppliers are carrying this product in deep inventory, if they still carry the product at all. This film will likely disappear altogether in the next 18-24 months unless some innovation in the industry makes it viable for use with the new printers on the market.

But I have good news too. The very expensive waterproof film of the past – that dries faster and accepts ink better – has been steadily coming down in price for the past year or so. In fact, the prices on waterproof today are certainly in the neighborhood of the prices we were paying not too many years ago for standard clear film.

Sooner or later (probably sooner) we’ll all be using waterproof film. On the plus, it’s a better product, for very close to the same prices we’ve paid in the past for standard film.

With a Flip camera or a free blog space, everybody is seems to now be an expert on screen printing, business, and any other subject you might imagine under the sun. But does easy access and what seems to be a never ending stream of information translate to better information.

First, let me confess my own bias and motives. Yes, I do paid training and consulting in this industry. I write articles. I speak at shows. I advise people over the phone, in their shops, on the floor of tradeshows around the world. It’s how I make my living, and it’s based on 30+ years pulling a squeegee, managing people, and being immersed in this industry.

Second, let me offer my concern. Much of the free screen printing information on YouTube and in the forums and the blogs is based on opinion and a limited, sheltered experience. I am a huge proponent of sharing ideas, but we all need to be aware of the context in which these ideas, this information, is given.

I’ll give you an example. Recently, a new industry participant asked on a forum, “What program do most people use to do their artwork?” I responded and talked about the different options, and then explained that the majority of screen printers start out with CorelDraw. Another respondent jumped in to correct my answer saying Adobe Illustrator is the program of choice in the industry.

That’s all well and good that this person likes and uses Illustrator. I like it too. But the question was, “What do most screen printers use?” My answer was based on the hundreds upon hundreds of screen printers I talk with every year. My answer was based on the fact that CorelDraw training DVDs sell easily 100 to 1 over Illustrator training DVDs. Probably more like 500 to 1. That says to me, more people use Corel and it is clearly the program of choice, which was the simple question the new printer asked.

Does it matter if this new printer chooses to use Illustrator over Corel? Not really. Either program will do the trick, but the point is: Free “expert” advice often falls into the category of, “You get what you pay for.” I have to admit I cringe sometimes when I see the advice being offered. It’s hard enough learning from our own mistakes, without compounding the situation with questionable and sometimes just erroneous information.

My simple advice? Take advantage of any opportunity to learn new things and new techniques, free or otherwise. But in this world of sensory overload of information, take that advice with the proverbial “grain of salt”.

Most of us who have been in this industry for a while can name those people we feel are the experts in the field. There are many people I know and respect who I personally consider experts in one area or another of the garment decorating business. These are the people who I will discuss issues, techniques and opinions with when we cross paths at tradeshows and events.

But Expert Opinion comes with a warning. Many of these experts believe there is one and only one way to accomplish a task. “You must use this product.” “You absolutely have to follow these steps.” “Anyone who fails to heed my specific and detailed instruction is not a serious pupil of my wisdom!”

There are those among us who believe, or at least want to believe, that what we’re doing is rocket science. They believe that the process of applying ink to a shirt needs to be complicated and difficult (and follow a specific path) to make all of us worthy of business respect and position on the manufacturing stage.

I have disappointing news for the experts. With a little bit of effort, most people can do this. With a little more effort, people can do it well. And guess what, it can be fun too. After 30 years, I still love to pull up that last screen to see the finished product.

Every job starts with a shirt and a graphic, and ends with a finished product… a graphic on a shirt. Many experts will tell you there are rules and procedures that must be adhered to for a proper and salable result. We all start in the same place, and assuming the customer approves of and buys the finished product, we all end in the same place.

But, and here’s the sacrilege for many, I don’t really care how you get there. What works best for one shop, might not work best for the next. Your particular market or product/customer mix might cause you to approach the process differently than the guy across town. If it was all formula, we could buy the booklet for $9.95, pass out copies to our employees, and be a perfect cookie-cutter duplicate of each competitor down the street or on the other side of the country.

But garment decorating is not a cookie-cutter business. We all have to find the path that’s best for us. That’s why we come to websites like this, or read blogs, or go to seminars, or talk to perfect strangers at tradeshows while we’re standing on line for our name badges. We’re looking for that idea, or technique, or combination of steps that works best in our totally unique business and marketplace.

The trick is finding the perfect path that fits your unique scenario. There is always room for improvement and innovation. While I recommend talking to every expert you can find, and making note of what they tell you, don’t get trapped into the absolutes of what you’re told. For the garment decorator, the start and the finish will be virtually the same. It’s all the creamy filling that makes our businesses special. My apologies to the experts who would tell you otherwise.

During screen printing classes, I regularly get the question, “What do I really need to get started in this business?” Here’s my list to use as a guideline.

Six Color Manual Press – With a six color machine you can print most anything.

Conveyor Dryer – Required for any real production, and air flow is a plus.

Flash Dryer – A must if you’re printing on dark garments. Buy basic. Extra bells and whistles won’t matter here. ON and OFF are all the controls you’ll need.

Exposure Unit – Pinpoint light source is best, but the sun will work on a budget.

Washout Sink – You can buy something professionally made or improvise.

Power Washer – Used for reclaiming screens for reuse.

Heat Press – Optional but necessary if you plan to do any team printing.

Film Output Device – An Epson inkjet printer and RIP software is the package of choice for creating your film positives. Don’t overbuy. Most printers rarely use more than a 13″ wide film, so an inexpensive device like the Epson 1400 will do the job.

Screens – Wood frames are fine, and you should buy them pre-stretched.

• 12 -156 mesh – general printing
• 6 – 230 mesh – fine line
• 6 – 87 mesh – puff and athletic
• Others as needed. You’ll want to end up with enough screens for several days production.

Squeegees – You’ll need them to be a minimum of 1” smaller on each side than the inside dimension of your screens.

• 6 approximately 15” with medium durometer blades
• 6 approximately 5” with medium durometer blades for left-chest designs
• Others as needed – purchased by the inch

Inks – Buy a starter mixing system that allows you to mix any color, plus white, black and any common colors such as for local schools.

Scale – Necessary for weighing inks in mixing system.

Quart Containers – For use in mixing ink colors.

Spotting Gun – For cleaning plastisol drips, drops and fingerprints from printed garments. Requires spotting gun solution as well.

Curable Reducer – This product is used for thinning your inks.

Emulsion – A dual cure emulsion is the most forgiving and easiest to work with.

Scoop Coater – Used to coat emulsion onto your screens. At least 1” clearance required on each side from the inside dimension of your screen.

Emulsion Remover – Chemical used for degrading emulsion for screen reclaim.

Degreaser – Chemical for cleaning screens prior to coating with emulsion.

Ink Degrader – Chemical used to clean ink from screens after use.

Brushes – Soft bristle brushes (and separate) used for 1) Ink Degrader, 2) Emulsion Remover, and 3) Degreaser.

3” Tape and Tape Gun – For taping the inside of your screens before printing.

Temperature Tapes – These will help you determine actual dryer temperature.

Spray Adhesive – Low tack adhesive used to hold garments in place during printing. Comes in web or mist spray.

The Wish List

Retensionable Frames – After use, screen mesh will lose tension. Retensionable Frames allow you to tighten mesh after each use.

Safety Kleen Part Washer – Most larger shops use Safety Kleen part washer tanks to clean their squeegees and spatulas.

Tension Meter – This device when placed on a screen will tell you the tension of that screen, measured in Newtons.

Jacket Hold Down – Jacket printing requires the jacket be held firmly in place during printing with this printer attachment. Also you’ll need a plastisol ink additive such as Union Ink’s Nylobond.

Vacuum Platen – Another printer attachment, the vacuum platen holds flat stock products in place during printing. Required for printing transfers and bumper stickers.

Reprinted from TerryCombs.com

Unless you’ve been under a rock, you know the economy has been down for months, jobs are being lost, credit is tight to non-existent, and everyone seems to be holding fast to what money they have. Bad time to start a new business? Not necessarily.

When times are tough, we in the educational end of the industry commonly see spikes in the number of attendees signing up for starting-a-new-business classes. The darker the economic outlook, the longer the waiting list for classes seems to grow. The stories are the same during every down cycle in the economy when students attend a class, stand up to introduce themselves, and tell why they came.

“I’ve been downsized.”

“I took early retirement.”

“I don’t want to depend on someone else for my livelihood.

“I want to start something on the side – just in case!”

On the plus, even in the bad times the decorated apparel business is one of the least expensive ventures you might find. A legitimate startup screen printing business can be put together for about $15,000, or less if you’re creative. Is this the ideal, most efficient investment scenario? Well, more investment gives you a bigger, better, more efficient printing operation. But, you can start a real business with real cash flow in this price range, and then build from there.

On the flipside, an inexpensive startup opportunity also means there are plenty of folks in this industry who probably should have stuck with their day jobs. But, that can just mean a bigger opportunity for you. People are always telling me they have too much competition in their area. I respond, “There are lots of screen printers, but there aren’t very many good screen printers.” Be one of the good ones and you can be successful in this business, no matter what the economy has in store for us.

Even in economic downturns as we’re struggling through right now, kids still need soccer uniforms, lawn services still need T-shirts for their staff, and my daughter in college still needs to buy those $20.00 T-shirts with one color prints from her favorite online stores!

Today might be a good day to start a business.

I talked last week with printers in Florida, discussing how a physical work order progresses through a production shop. Here’s how it works for me. Every shop is different, but the paperwork flow should be something like this.
In most of the production shops I’ve run, orders go from Sales to Order Entry. From Order Entry, one copy of the order goes to Procurement (to order goods or reduce from inventory) and another copy goes to Scheduling.

The Procurement copy of the order goes on to Shipping/Receiving. When product is checked in and counted by Shipping/Receiving, the paperwork goes back to Procurement so the order can be updated in the computer system. Depending on the sophistication of your system, the order may be pulled up on any computer in the facility to confirm ordered/arrived.

In Shipping/Receiving, the received goods are marked on the boxes with customer name and order number and delivered to the Production Staging Area.

In Scheduling, if the order is absolutely complete (all information is there), the order is entered into the production schedule. That copy of the order then moves on to the Art Dept.

Once the art is produced and on film, the order and film are delivered by the Art Dept to Screen Prep. Completed screens are delivered and matched up with goods in the Production Staging area. Inks are also added to the staged goods. Any special order inks such as PMS matches are prepared at this time.

The order along with screens, goods and inks are delivered to the Production area. Once on press, the paperwork goes to the end of the dryer belt for Inspection to check off product as printed.

After Production, the paperwork and garments go to Packaging/Shipping. Once shipped, the paperwork goes to Invoicing (sometimes done by the same Order Entry staff).

And that’s how I will generally process an order through production. Special thanks to Real Thread for asking me to put the order flow into words and inspiring this article!

Reprinted from Screen Print Weekly http://www.terrycombs.com/links.html

For everyone who can’t attend a hands-on screen printing class, there’s a new opportunity online. The idea is to save time, save travel, save hotels and meals and rental cars. And in today’s economy, it just makes sense. This is the same course already taught to thousands in person, but now available on your home or office computer over an eight week period. And unlike the array of how-to videos available on the internet today, the new course is offering one-on-one interaction with your specific questions, market ideas and business plans throughout the course.

A real plus is that you can take this class at your own pace and convenience. Wives, husbands, partners, kids or co-workers can watch over your shoulder and participate with you in the eight week course.

The course package starts from the very beginning “what is a screen” and ends with learning about the business of screen printing.  Students will see how to setup and print a full color simulated process image on a black T-shirt. Will learn to degrease and coat a screen. Learn the secrets of a quick set up for your multi-color jobs. Learn about transfers, specialty inks, art preparation and more.

Struggling with what equipment and supplies to buy? One-on-one advice is available to make informed decisions for your specific business.

This class is for anyone who imagines becoming a professional and profitable garment screen printer. Whether working from a two-car garage or from a brand new storefront on Main Street, this class is a complete business startup course.

This class will arm students with all those tips, tricks and hard earned secrets that come from years of screen printing experience. There are lots of random videos available online, but this is a real screen printing course taught by an industry recognized professional. And when you have questions, answers and help is part of the package

The course includes:

• Weekly links to each class session, to be viewed at each student’s convenience during that week
• The book How to Print T-Shirts for Fun & Profit mailed to as a reference
• The opportunity to Email  specific questions and comments, and receive responses for all class participants to read and appreciate
• Weekly class materials to assist in following along with the course and to use as reference afterwards
• Regular mailings during the course of sample products, coupons and discounts offered by the class sponsors
• Bonus shop tour videos
• A class completion certificate at the end of the course

As you might have guessed, this is my own course. The same course I teach in locations across the country. Go to http://terrycombs.com/links9.html for more information.

As a business and production consultant, I don’t want to totally redirect all of you from getting some outside help and perspective. There’s much to be gained by having a new set of eyes on your business operations. But all those other consultants out there will agree with me on this one. You observe an operation, analyze what you see, and report back to owners and managers with your recommendations.

A common response from management is, “We already knew about those issues.”

My response, as I imagine other consultants would respond, “Yes, I understand you knew about these problems, but you haven’t done anything about them!”

I think we all in our businesses are guilty of this. We either plan to address an obvious problem later, or just don’t want to deal with the consequences of taking action today. We know the issues exist. Unfortunately, later rarely comes, and putting off the hard decisions won’t make them go away.

So, here’s my challenge: Take a day, or even part of a day, to walk around your shop and take notes on those obvious things that need to change… things that you would like to see changed… things you know you’ve been in avoidance-mode on changing. Go back to your office and make a list. Then put this list into priority order. Before the month is out, take action on the number one thing on your list. Next month take action on the next, and so on.

Do you need to let go of a “bad apple” employee? Do you need to document procedures in screen prep? Do you need to reorganize and deal with inefficiencies in your garment inventory area?

You probably need to take action on everything on your list right now if you had to confess. But as we speak, you’re doing nothing. Crossing these items off, one at a time, one month at a time, will get you moving in the right direction. A direction toward maximum production.

Too big a challenge? There are plenty of us who would be happy to spend a day or two on your floor compiling that list! But you still have to do the hard work of taking the necessary actions to make these corrections happen.

We’ll be discussing this subject in depth in upcoming issues of Screen Print Weekly.

http://terrycombs.com/links.html

I wasn’t surprised at not being surprised by anything at SGIA. If you took a couple years off visiting a show, you would have had an interesting visit out on the exhibit floor. But for those of us who go to many shows every year… it was just that, another show. Same products, same exhibitors. Albeit fewer exhibitors based on my unscientific stroll through the exhibit hall.

I haven’t seen the attendance numbers yet, but the aisles weren’t overly crowded at any point during my three days there. Not painfully empty as with the SGIA event a few years ago in Minneapolis. Not packed with throngs of people as was the case with the Expo in Las Vegas more recently. Vendors I talked with said they were pleased with the steady flow of customers, but no one was talking much about what they were actually selling to that steady flow of attendees through the hall. (Hopefully exhibitors will update us all on the show’s financial successes.)

One thing clear to me was the small number of international attendees that we’re used to seeing every year. Yes there were international visitors, but nothing like years past. The short time until the every-three-year FESPA event in Europe I’m sure impacted attendance. In a stronger world economy, Europeans and points East would have attended both. But with FESPA Munich coming in June, it seems our international friends chose to take a year off from SGIA and see many of the same companies in Germany instead. If you’ve never attended FESPA, check it out next summer. A huge event with tremendous opportunity to see the industry on a global basis.

That all said, SGIA has a much deeper purpose for anyone involved in relationships with other companies and individuals in this industry. SGIA is that single place where you can sit down face-to-face with your industry friends, customers and vendors. That fact made the show a huge success for me personally. But unfortunately for those exhibitors looking for new business, they would rather sell product than be a backdrop for the rest of us walking the floor and networking.

SGIA New Orleans… I’d rate it as average… exactly what I expected it to be.

Are you a meeting minimalist, or do you have meetings for the purpose of planning another meeting? Most companies fall into one extreme or the other when it comes to meetings. Either endless meetings upon meetings, or to the other extreme, no formal meetings of managers or staff at all. There is no question you need to have meetings to communicate with your staff, plan for the future, and to share ideas. The test is in the preparation and planning for these meetings, clearly defining what needs to be accomplished, communicating this intent to each participant, and making every meeting have a useful and productive purpose.

Set a Time and Start on Time
Begin every meeting on time, and get down to business right away. This is a simple idea, but you may be surprised how many managers, supervisors and employees waste valuable time sitting in a conference room waiting for meetings to actually begin. You arrive at a meeting only to sit and wait for one or two of the participants to finish a call, pull together their meeting materials, or just sit at their desks finishing up work until someone picks up the phone to say, “We’re waiting for you.”

If it’s the boss who is always tardy, before long everyone will begin drifting into the meetings later and later as well. All behavior in a business is a reflection from the top. So, if you’re the boss, be sure you display the attitude that you want your company to mirror.

Smaller is Better
I’m all for seeing participation from every single person within a company, but meetings have to be limited in order to be productive. When a group grows larger than five or six, full interaction and participation diminishes.

In the spirit of being inclusive one company held a monthly meeting that included everyone who had any sort of supervisory title or position. The theory was to motivate through this inclusion, but the result was far different. Every supervisor and manager was specifically required to contribute one topic to the meeting (forced participation), even if the person had nothing worthwhile to contribute. As you might imagine, this monthly meeting was a long, drawn out, time consuming chore for everyone involved that resulted in nothing more than lost hours of productivity. And the rest of the office was left to operate during these hours without a single manager or supervisor available to the rest of the staff.

Purpose and Plan
Have a purpose for every meeting. Scheduling a weekly meeting is a waste of time if you can’t guarantee there will be some value in holding these meetings. There are many companies that are hardwired to hold two hour meetings each week, simply because a two hour meeting has been on the schedule for years. If you have two hours to fill with constructive work and resolving issues, then a two hour meeting is worthwhile. But, if you only have 20 minutes of productive information to share, cut the meeting time to 20 minutes.

If you feel the need to have a weekly meeting of managers just to “check in”, then keep it brief. Schedule a 20 minute meeting and offer the opportunity for any manager to discuss pressing issue of importance to the group. But make it clear that the other managers understand they are not required to speak, but rather that this is the weekly opportunity to bring everyone into the loop about a project or issue that affects the whole company. “Check in” and nothing more.

Reprinted from Screen Print Weekly industry newsletter, available free at http://terrycombs.com/links.html

The ultimate goal of any production facility is to achieve Maximum Production. One way to move in that direction is by employing a four day work week. There has been much talk about this concept recently as businesses try to squeeze out as much productivity as possible, without investing more cash into the proposition. I’ve made this change on multiple production floors over the years, and had great success in the process.

On the plus side…

Take a look at how long it takes to get things rolling, I mean really rolling, each morning on your production floor. And at the end of the day, observe at what point production begins to wind down. When you add these times together and multiply by five days, that number turns into quite a bit of non-productivity. Cut out one day of firing up in the morning and winding down in the afternoon, and you can cut that lost time by 20%. That’s substantial over a month, over a season, and over a year.

During crunch time, the thing your employees do not want to hear is, “I need you to work on Saturday… again.” Believe it or not, your employees do not want to spend every waking moment on the job. But if you’re on a four day work schedule, Monday through Thursday, overtime occurs on Friday, not over the weekend. Their kids are in school and their significant other is at work. Trust me, it’s a much easier sell to bring your full crew in on a Friday than to convince them all to work on Saturday.

On the minus side…

This approach works much better on the production floor than it does in other areas of your business. There may be some whining from your receptionist who wants to work four days a week too. Not such an easy translation, since people still come through the door on Friday to place orders, etc. And it’s the same in other departments. The 10 hour day works better in some scenarios than with others. Production is an area where it just makes sense.

When a production worker calls in sick, you lose them for 10 hours instead of eight, 25% of the work week instead of 20%. That can hurt if you’re running a very tight ship, as most of us do in times like these.

The sum of the difference…

For me, the pluses have always outweighed the minuses. I have on occasion, mostly to appease nervous owners, had to keep a couple of employees on the Friday shift to take care of last minute or rush work, but mostly to make the owners more comfortable dealing with such a great change in the status quo. And holidays can complicate things since we only want to pay for eight hours. I’ve either offered makeup hours on Friday, or spread the additional two hours through the rest of the work week. It all works out.

Is the four day work week the way to go for garment printing operations? My experience tells me the answer is a definite yes. Employees love the three day weekend. You get more production due to one less day of start up and wind down. And overtime is an easier proposition for all involved. This might just be the way to increase your output, which increases the bottom line, without a penny of additional cost.