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One could have the fastest or most powerful machines on the planet, but if the assembly process if compromised it can delay the whole process. Charlotte Darlin, director of Amaya Sales UK explains how companies can vastly improve their output by simply looking at their workflow.
The term workflow is batted around our industry today, but does everyone really know what it means? It is a sequence of steps, tools or roles that move a job from start to finish in the most efficient way to achieve optimum output and applies to all industries from construction to clothing manufacturing and surgical procedures.
Because there are multiple stages, it is most likely that a couple of small steps can make the workflow inefficient rather than one big one. Really simple things like the film, once printed, being carried the long way around the room, a heat press with no working space around it or application time for film being 15 seconds rather than 3 can all add up to lost production hours.
Most businesses using transfer application don’t lack capable hardware; they lack a clean, reliable way for work to move from printer to press. When the middle of the process is designed with intent, quality is established, operators relax, and deadlines become more achievable. Workflow is the multiplier that lets the machines you already own show what they can really do.
Here’s five ideas of how you can improve your workflow without spending extra cash.
Room layout
I visited a customer recently where the printer lived in a corner “because that’s where the socket was.” Printed DTF Sheets zig-zagged across the room. They were printed in one corner, powdered in the opposite one, cured in the warehouse and then back in the room to the heat press. I suggested they redrew the space as a straight line.
Nothing else changed but output rose because wasted time walking around the room was applied to pressing garments.
Heat press
Many assume that your DTF printer dictates the speed of production. In practice, the press usually does. Time a full press cycle honestly from load, align, press, unload, quick post-press.
If it lands at 60+ seconds, a single heat press will struggle to keep up with even a modest 30cm printer. You don’t necessarily need more heat presses, although this can often solve the problem quickly, but also consider pre-pressing garments as a separate operation, use centring jigs to speed up positioning, standardise your pressure, and enforce a simple rule of agreeing the settings in advance, not tweaking as you go along.
The right consumables and RIP software
Invest some time, away from production, to achieve the colours and feel of your transfer that your customer deserves. There are so many variables here from powder and film to settings in your RIP software, to colour profiling but you are far better working on this before you reach the production run time.
Your supplier should be able to help you tune the RIP – linearisation, ink limits, black generation, under base choke, spot-colour libraries etc. against the consumables you are using, and they certainly will be able to assist with colour profiling for their films for a quality output.
Once you are happy with the results, document it, so that you can refer back to it for each job which will save time and optimise production.
Batch your production for consistency
Work by substrate and press settings, not by artwork and job. If you produce all your transfers for dark polyester at the same time, even if it is six different jobs, you can run with the optimum settings in your profiling, powder quantity etc. and then applies them all with one heat press temperature and time, rather than jumping about to complete an order.
Maintenance
This is so important. Carrying out maintenance is a part of your workflow. Ten minutes at the beginning and end of each day will reward you during production with fewer clogs, steadier colour and consistent transfers. Heads don’t just drop out for no reason; they respond to the environment you create.
I hope this helps. If nothing else take a few minutes this week to measure your true production time of one garment and identify where you could make changes. Great DTF output isn’t luck or chemistry. It’s a combination of good equipment and consumables, with planning and great workflow. Workflow doesn’t replace technology; it improves it.
