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Computers and Production Management -- An Oxymoron?
According to "TrendWatch Design & Production Survey #8--Winter
2000" many creative shops do not use computers for their production
management and process tasks. In fact, 70% of the production tasks listed
in our recent survey are tracked using a manual system -- no computers,
no how, no way!
Up to 46% of creative shops reported doing these tasks manually: scheduling, job ticket/job folder creation, job status tracking, job cost price estimating, and time tracking. Is this because "it's the way we've always done it" or that most creative shops are small businesses whose job volume still lends itself to manual tracking processes?
Needless to say, this finding surprised even us given the amount of production
management automation in other graphics markets. Creative shops do, however,
use a computer system for customer invoicing, managerial accounting reports
to
executives, and collecting production cost data for invoicing. Almost
60% use computers for invoicing.
After we throw away our pencils, there's a huge opportunity here! As reported in our "Design and Production - 2005" report, creative shops are wrestling with how to account and bill for time and processes used for their growing "electronic services". Analog and digital tasks are colliding head-on inside many shops -- landing this issue squarely on owners' desks.
Many shops are looking for the right solutions to automate their internal scheduling and production tasks allowing them to save time and lower internal job costs. By the way, we expect clients will push hard for Internet access to job production schedules supported with fully integrated billing.
Contact Craig Kevghas, CPR Marketing at 978-392-8990 or email him at: kevghas@aol.com. You can reach the TrendWatch Partners, Dr. Joseph Webb and Jim Whittington via email at mail to:partners@trendwatch.com.