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H
asbro historically sets the print run of Mousetrap at 14,262 sheets, while its Clue DVD board game uses 16,012 of the same 41 1⁄2 x 38-inch size. In these setups, each print run is only utilizing about 75 percent of the sheet. By gang printing Mousetrap and Clue on the same form, and running a total of 21,350 sheets, Hasbro
would save $4,053. The job planner figured this out in seconds with just a few clicks of a – computer – mouse.
This ganging turned the need for eight printing plates into four, saving $200, and an hour less of makeready saved another $814. Press time accounted for a $1,620 reduction. Sheet utilization of running the two jobs together jumped up to 91.63
percent, amounted to 9,424 fewer sheets (including makeready waste) and a savings of $1,419. The toymaker’s numbers are exact because they were generated from a Six Sigma audit that compared traditional job planning against the power of Metrix version 1.7.
Hasbro’s production manager, Jim Hare, downloaded a 14-day free trial of Metrix’s planning software to run the test, organized as a full pilot program with 34 planned orders and a KBA Rapida 162 press. Under the old system, which, as with most printing companies in the world, amounts to putting pen to paper, the 34 jobs had a net cost of $37,087.
The same work calculated through Metrix would have cost $13,090 to produce – saving $23,997 on just 34 orders. Hasbro has a huge in-house printing facility because its entire revenue model is based on per-unit production costs, whether someone is spending $19.99 for Mousetrap or $29.99 for the fancier Clue DVD game – Monopoly, Yahtzee, Nerf, Play-Doh, Risk, Scrabble, Sorry, Mr. Potato Head or The Game of Life, among others.
In 2005, the company made $1.25 billion in revenue and its KBA press logged over 900 planned orders. Following the 14-day pilot project, Hare and the Six Sigma consultant applied Metrix’s logic to last year’s printing data. The 900 jobs turned into 225 and 112,500 fewer sheets. Another 1,117,380 would have been saved assuming a constant level of 91 percent sheet utilization. The audit did not account for postpress automation or staffing redeployment. A year of Metrix gang running, based solely on press sheet utilization, press time, raw stock and waste, would have saved Hasbro US$253,224. Metrix version 1.7 costs $8,000.
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