opinion of importance

[LoganBlade]

Just little rant. I have worked in every department in an inhouse.
talked to customers
worked in presspress
Ran a press
ran cutters folder and saddle stith machines.

With all these areas the linch pin to a good shop is prepress. Do I have agreement?

regaurdless of what a csr does or says he has no idea how to make a good file. He knows what you yell at him about but he really never seems to understand the process to explain to the idiot client.

press cant run a job right for bindery if prepress does it wrong

bindery can't do its job if prepress screwed up the plates and the pressman didn't catch it because he is worried about matching the color the csr is yelling about matching.

So what i am saying If you know your job and understand what all the needs are because I do not think anyone in the whole shop understands the importance of prepress you are a good prepress person. If you dont then prepress is not your fortay and move on.

This may just be me thinking this way but prepress is as stated before the linch pin and if you think your linch dont work well save the company and move on.

So no misunderstands this is not about any one person. I tried to read this forum every day. I cant believe the things I have learned and been able to apply to my work flow. It is at those that come here and think it is easy or for the bosses that think you just click and poof magic. The problem is we make it easy for ourselve by knowing and caring about what we do and when they dont care it shows. I think i am done. I f I bounced around it its becuse it just spuide out of my head


Just wish poll could be a checklist of order of importance

[Dupple]

I think you're right for all the reasons you have stated.

Everything goes into and out of prepress, any screw up by a prepress op will negate any attempt to get work into or out of a company

A good op will know how to fix what's supplied and know what's needed on press

We'd be useless without the other departments, but they rely on us.

[neckbone]

I agree. But, I also think that, for better or worse, the CSR has a huge impact on the job. If the CSR gets the specs wrong, or writes up their order incorrectly, the whole job can be screwed. Their communication with the customer can make a big difference as well. Getting proofs approved in a timely manner, etc.

You mentioned what you've learned from the forums here. I think it's interesting how many prepress people participate in various forums on the net. I may be wrong, but I don't think there are a great deal of press, bindery or CSR forums out there.

[LoganBlade]

Originally Posted by neckbone

I may be wrong, but I don't think there are a great deal of press, bindery or CSR forums out there.

I would agree because the one that are important to production and understand the importance are trying to lear more and more. Your point about a CSR is valid but he doesn't really know what he needs untill the prepress guy tells him. You make valid point in regaurds to the CSR but he is the one that rops a cd and loses images off the cd and believes it. Prepress is and generally will be the smartest and most needed of the bunch.

thanks

[neckbone]

Well, that's why I said "for better or worse." It's the kind of job where you rarely get anyone good or dedicated. And on the rare occasion that you do, they either get promoted to a different position or move on.

So, yeah. I think CSRs have a lot of potential impact (usually negative), but Prepress is definitely the most important.

What also sucks is almost a combination of the two, the shitty prepress tech, which can also have a big negative impact on the job. There's nothing quite like getting finished samples back from an outside vendor whose prepress person decided they should rasterize my PDF in Photoshop before sending to the RIP.

[tbJAMMIN]

I voted CSR even though I know the answer is prepress.

The way it should be is that the customers supply useable PDF's that allow prepress to not sway from standards set based on thier workflow. A good CSR doesn't need to know how to tell the customer how to change his files to satify prepress requirements, but should be able to relay info and keep down the actual contact between the customer and prepress. This allows prepress to have operators that don't have to be the most knowledgeable people in the plant. In other words, you actually would be able to hire kids out of art school to do the bulk of the work and have one prepress guru available to convey needs to CSR and to take the greatly reduced volume of calls from the customers.

With this model, if you don't have a lot of repeat customers, you need a prepress person in the CSR position, but still seperate from the prepress department.

I don't agree that prepress is "the most important". We're all on the same team, and no one dept could do it without the rest of the team.
If we didn't have CSRs to make the relationship and bring us those sh*t-ass files, prepress/the shop would have much less work.
If we didn't have prepress to wave our magic wands and make good plates and traps, color, etc. the pressman wouldn't have anything to run.
When you get those good files into good plates, you need the pressroom to hold up their end run clean consistent color, enough overs for samples and bindery, not waste 1000 sheets of paper on set-up, etc. Pretty important. Right?
Then bindery has to pay attention to the work order and be sure the job is cut, bound, stitched, wrapped, etc, etc, etc with great precision and quality and not screw up the good job the CSRs, prepress, and the pressroom have alrleady done.
Finally, shipping/delivery.. maybe not highly "skilled" with a trade like the other depts, but very important. They've got to get the manufactured product to the customer on time, with a smile. That's the last face the customer see's (in some cases) from your shop. It better be a good people person IMHO. Wouldn't want tot leave a bad taste in their mouth.
So, I'd say no one dept is more important than the other. We all have very important parts of our jobs, but no one is smarter or more needed than the other. Everyone should be appreciated and feel "important".
We all have the same goal - to get paid.

I'd vote TEAM, but it's not on the list.
my .02
Vee







$$$$$$BOTTOM LINE$$$$$$ $$$$$$BOTTOM LINE$$$$$$ :roll:

[neckbone]

Good points, Vee and TB. I take back what I said earlier and would agree that the team is most important. Anyone can make or break a job, so good employees in all of these positions are invaluable.

In practice, however, everyone's situation's going to be different than the ideal. It's pretty rare to have everyone on the team be on top of their game, and from my experience, I haven't seen a lot of CSRs that really have it. And their shortcomings have to then be addressed somewhere else down the line (the rest of the team). But, if the CSRs aren't shining, I guess that also means management isn't holding up their role on the team.

If there's a difference of opinion here, I guess it's because I'm addressing the employees themselves rather than the roles they play.

[Dupple]

Originally Posted by neckbone

It's the kind of job where you rarely get anyone good or dedicated. And on the rare occasion that you do, they either get promoted to a different position or move on.

err, you don't work for my outfit do you? It happens throughout all industries, my brother is a journalist and makes a similar complaint.

I'm desperate for skilled ops, I had one complain that he couldn't print out of QX7 because he hadn't had training...

I demoted myself to fix his 'problem.'

Prepress makes it all happen, but we need other departments, we are either the strongest or the weakest link in the chain

[prepress_brillance_43]

In the shops I've worked in, responsibility for quality and jobs to be "correct" has squarely fallen into prepress' lap. Im not real sure if that means prepress is the "most important" though.. I would agree that GOOD prepress ops tend to be among the smartest in the shop, but that doesnt make them most important either. I completely agree with _Vee that it MUST be weighted the same to every stop in the production cycle, we all play our role and we all are only as strong as our weakest link.

A better question would be who's responsibilty is it to help make the weakest link stronger? I think this, too, is best accomplished with a team effort. If everyone would stop being selfish and quit saying things like "that's not my job" but instead - lend a helping hand at every opportunity JUST BECAUSE. Then I think the print production process could and would be more bearable for everyone.