Welcome to our Award Winning Bindery Success Blog!

I can hear the muttering…what can possibly be creative about working in the bindery? “After all, I run the same folding machine and same jobs over and over again, every day.” Or, “I manage 2 shifts with 50 people, a dozen machines, demanding customers and it’s the same stressful stuff every day.”

Troubleshooting bindery problems can be frustrating, with dozens of variables often leading us in the wrong direction. As we gain experience the process is simplified because we learn to quickly narrow down the field of possible causes to a handful of critical items.

In 2010 OSHA stepped up enforcement actions against printing companies due to “persistent high levels of amputation” in the industry. (Details here in a previous Bindery Success blog post.) Early data from OSHA reports suggest a positive trend.

John and Carol Rickey have been riding print industry waves since they founded House Graphics in 1979.  Their story inspired us to select them as the prize winners in our recent 60,000th Tri-Creaser Contest.

Forget television for entertainment; check out the reality show taking place in your own shop. I had an interesting encounter with a Muller saddle stitcher operator that got me thinking about the psychology of bindery equipment operators.

A printing company production manager recently asked us about best practices for cutting paper on guillotine cutters. He writes, “I have a few people doing paper "their" way. I want to come up with one standard that everyone uses. I know there is a right way and a wrong way of cutting paper. However, I am thinking that some of my ways are incorrect.”

The package on my desk was odd in that there was no letter enclosed, just the word "really?" scrawled on the envelope in which our catalog had been returned. The headline "Your books ARE judged by their covers!" was circled on our cover. (photo at left)

I'm well aware that a catalog mailing might be ignored or put on the shelf by most people. But re-packaged and shipped back? That took some effort, so of course I was curious. The reason for the return was immediately self-evident. The cover didn't line up to the head when stitched, resulting in copy trimmed off at the bottom and a short cover at the top.

Let's just say that in a catalog titled "Bindery Success™" this could be a credibility killer! Did the stitching glitch have anything whatsoever to do with our tools? No. Not a thing. The circled headline referred to the page about creasing tools for saddle stitching and perfect binding machines. Did we lose a chance at a new customer? Probably, but can you blame them? You never get a second chance to make a first impression, or as Cervantes said in his novel Don Quixote, "By a small sample we may judge of the whole piece."  We had been judged and found guilty!

It's inevitable. When you put yourself 'out there' you'll take a few hits now and then, no matter how hard you try to cover all the details. We use the name Bindery Success™ on our catalog because it perfectly reflects our mission at Technifold USA. It neatly sums up what we're all about and we believe in it with all our hearts.

Yet every mistake is an opportunity to learn something, and this one had me wondering about a few things. First, it proved my point perfectly...every book (and I mean EVERY single book) is indeed judged by its cover. So pay attention to your covers, in both printing and binding!

Secondly, was it really a mistake? Or should it be considered fallout from an acceptable level of defects? If it is a mistake, then whose mistake was it? Was it mine because I didn't ask for a comprehensive inspection that would insure zero defects in the catalogs? Was it mine because I didn't do an inspection myself? Should I even have to do an inspection? Was it the printers because they let at least one bad book go out the door? We use a couple of print vendors who have done great work for us for a lot of years. Would I really dare to complain about one bad book (that I know of) out of the thousands printed?

Maybe I sound like Andy Rooney with all these questions, yet it's never a good idea to ignore a mistake in business, no matter whose fault it is. As Confucius said, "To make a mistake and not correct it--that, indeed, is a mistake." Rather than fix the blame, we prefer to fix the problem when we encounter one.

What have I learned? Next printing I'll ask for a closer inspection, probably with a re-telling of this story to illustrate my reasons for doing so. It also confirmed that I should continue to take risks and put us 'out there' on the line. As Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek said, "If you don't make mistakes, you're not working on hard enough problems. And that's a big mistake."

Finally, thank you to the gal that took the time to send this back to us...we appreciate your time and effort! As always, we welcome your comments and experiences with mistakes below.

My education about the ugly duckling nature of bindery departments began as a new-hire apprentice when I watched the installation of a brand new 5 color press in our print shop. While the pressmen donned war paint and gleefully danced around their thoroughbred steed, I ran jobs on a folding machine so old the mechanic said the serial number pre-dated counting. Seriously. I was told I was lucky because I had not one, but TWO of these museum pieces to keep up with the five presses hurling work my way.