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Many people may think that printing the wrong version is a low-level error and not worth discussing as a topic. However, this kind of problem is not an occasional occurrence in many flexible packaging companies, and even some large factories have had cases of such low-level errors causing huge losses.
Therefore, it is still necessary to share it as a special topic. In short, the less standardized the management of a company, the higher the frequency of such low-level errors. Once they occur, almost all products can be scrapped, resulting in huge losses.
Strictly speaking, wrong printing plate errors is not a technical issue and is more closely related to management processes and warehouse management. However, it is worth exploring how to manage from the source under the premise of technical and process management to avoid the occurrence of problems.
The occurrence of printing errors is likely due to four situations. There are management issues and technical factors in between. Let’s analyze them one by one:
In order to save printing plate fees, enterprises adopt the method of sharing printing plates for some series of products with the same specifications to reduce the number of plate openings, which is basically a routine operation in the industry. While saving costs, it also brings the possibility of errors in the subsequent management of printing plates, archival materials, and planned material control due to the sharing and mixing of printing plates.
If the situation of co printing only occurs in the same series of products for a unified customer, the difficulty of management is not high. Many times, in order to save printing costs, different types of products from different customers are co printed, which brings considerable trouble to the management of printing plates and archives. Once there is a deviation in the management of printing plates or production plans, the consequences can be unimaginable.
When there are multiple customer series products, varieties, and uniform specifications, it is very easy to encounter errors such as cross plate sharing, separate plate opening for different batches, long plate opening time, and frequent changes in plate management, file management, or production management personnel during the process.
For example, in 2020, a certain snack food produced four sets of 8-color printing plates for its products, including spicy, spicy, chicken sauce, and barbecue flavors. The images and product names were different, but the main patterns were basically the same. The color sequence and color numbers were: Zhuan 1, Zhuan 2, Hei 3, Zhuan 4, Lan 5, Hong 6, Huang 7, and Bai 8. Among them, the 8-color white plate was a common plate for all versions; Spicy and spicy have versions 1, 3, 4, and 8, while chicken sauce and barbecue have versions 2, 5, 6, and 8, resulting in inconsistent versions of the series products. In March and August 2021, mushroom flavored and beef flavored products were added, with 3 versions of 1, 3, 6, and 3 versions of 2, 3, and 7 added during production. This resulted in 6 different varieties, with different opening times and color sequences for shared versions. At this point, does management become more complex?! Moreover, due to the different sales of customers, the items and quantities ordered each time are inconsistent, which brings complexity to management. Imagine, in this situation, relying on brain memory or chaotic file management and rough printing plate management would require a strong brain to manage without making mistakes.
Revision is an inevitable issue in the flexible packaging industry. Many times, after the redesign, customers have both old and new versions coexisting, and there are irregular intermittent orders. Especially in the complex situation where the old and new versions coexist and there is a co version, with multiple revisions in between, and a certain version suddenly stops production. This complex situation is also highly challenging for management, requiring strong management and control abilities to avoid installing or printing the wrong version.
The situations where wrong orders are placed include: customers verbally placing orders or unclear instructions for placing orders, business uncertainty about customer orders, and unclear internal consensus resulting in production work order errors. These issues have led to deviations in the production execution process, caused by deviations in the source instructions.
After the revision of the printing plate, there is a situation where both old and new versions coexist, that is, when both old and new versions are used at the same time, errors occur when customers place orders. If there is a system, it is necessary to code and manage the materials, and if there is no system, it is necessary to do a good job in file management and file differentiation.
1) Strictly standardize the shared plate management rules for technical plate making, unify the plate number instructions and specifications for printing plates, and avoid ambiguity.
According to the plate number rules for shared printing plates, if there is a shared plate, a prefix “+” should be added before the plate number to indicate that the set of printing plates has a shared plate, in order to alert production and plate library management personnel; Strictly control the creation of shared versions, which can only use a unified version number and cannot use multiple versions to avoid confusion.
2) Add a suffix to the color sequence of the shared version to distinguish the situation of shared versions.
To indicate the presence of co printing, add a suffix after the color number of the printing plate number. If there are multiple co printing plates, they can be arranged according to the “+1” and “+2” serial numbers.
3) Strictly control the rules of revision.
After the revision, the serial number must be indicated, especially in the case of multiple revisions, it should be distinguished by adding a suffix number to the revision number. For example, adding a suffix “G1” to the revision number indicates the first revision, adding “G2” indicates the second revision, and so on, the revised version number should be identified by the serial number;
4) Keep records and collect information for each co version and revision, and keep a good record of product files.
The archive records must include customer authorization letter, confirmed color draft, revised content, sample draft, customer signature, printing first sample, finished product first sample, standard sample, process and production files, product and corresponding material numbers, etc. All information must be complete.
5) For customer revisions, it is necessary to update the files and materials synchronously, and mark the content of the customer’s revisions. Corresponding version numbers and material numbers should be distinguished to avoid errors.
6) Whenever possible, use the original version of the revised version to avoid the existence of multiple sets of printing plates.
If the customer requires the coexistence of old and new versions, timely update the printing plates, archives, production records, and process data, and annotate the content of the printing plates to distinguish them.
7) Reject verbal orders from customers. For parallel products that have undergone revisions, if the customer does not specify a material number when placing the order, it is necessary to carefully verify and confirm with the customer before placing the order for production. Before placing the order, it is necessary to verify the unified correspondence between the printing plate number and the product material number to avoid errors in the source instructions.
8) Before issuing the production plan, it is necessary to carefully review the products that have been co branded or revised, and verify the orders, materials, plate numbers, and material numbers to avoid instruction errors;
9) Strictly manage the printing plates, register and label the co printing information of the printing plates. When storing the printing plates, they should be strictly classified and stored according to a unified series. The outer packaging of the printing plates should be clearly labeled to indicate differentiation.
10) Before production, the printing workshop needs to carefully check the work orders, printing plates, and materials to confirm that the production instructions, materials, and printing plates are accurate and correct before proceeding with the production operation.
11) Strengthen system management elements, formulate various management rules for printing plates, and strictly implement them.
Longdapac as one of the leading 100% recyclable mono-material PE pouches manufacturers in China, we have stickly folloing ISO system and Total quality management, so make sure there will not happen on the wrong printing plates.