In the 27 years I've been in this business I've seen a ton of specs on projects, and they have been written on cocktail napkins and they have been given on the phone, and they have also been emailed.
But a common mistake happens a lot, and this is in the bindery part of the specs.
People seam to get that their project is going to print 4 color, and they have designed this to be a certain size, but how does it fold? How did you get to your final size? and once we are finished folding or doing what ever you want to do with this piece, lets talk about packaging!
Last week I had a magazine which need to be estimated, and I had others who were bidding on this project. I asked about how much did he want the boxes to weigh? The awnser back was well I don't know what do you think?
That doesn't sound much of a problem but in a situation where the client is buying more on price, here is the problem.
If I try to save the end user and I put 20 lbs per box, we are talking about 100,000 magazines, this is almost 650 boxes to box the project @ 1.25 per box, but if the other guy says put it in a standard 40 lbs box, he has 325 boxes @ 1.30 per box. This is $390.00 saving on just the material of boxes, this does not include the labor to tape and lable the boxes, as this will add about another $200.00.
So the other guy has saved almost $600.00 on this project and per the specs we are both in compliance. But my 82 year old mother can move my boxes, but she can't even move the others.
So when giving specs on a project tell us how you want it packaged, as when you get the project and the box comes and you throw you back out trying to move it. Remember we as vendors are trying to get as much margin in these down times and if I can make it up in boxes and packaging then I will.
Alan
No comments:
Post a Comment