DieCraft Company, Steel Rule Die tool manufacturer

The Journey to Better Operating Data – and Profits

Joel Lombard, DieCraft Incorporated

Part 1 of 2

[Editors Note: profitability can be a touchy subject. No one likes to think that another company is unfairly profiting or taking advantage of them. On the other hand, in order to keep an industry strong, all companies along the supply chain must make a fair profit to remain viable. This article is an edited version of the author's publication in 'The Cutting Edge' Vol. 20 Number 6 June 2002. Reproduced with permission from IADD]

[By the way, you want to make a profit, right? We know that you are likely a consumer or purchaser of dies. We decided to include this article because the principles apply to all phases of the die cutting chain. So read on; at the end of the article we divulge what systems we decided on.]

Many of us have made the transition from die maker (or die cutter) to manager to company owner. During the nearly three years in which I have served as an owner, I've tried to make an imprint by answering a core question for this industry: Are we making money when we create a die?

Our firms all have unique pricing systems and various ways of measuring profitability. But my feeling, based upon observation and experience, was that significant loopholes from old ways of doing business were preventing our companies from reaching our true potential in financial performance.

Upon taking ownership of DieCraft, it became clear that my company was leaving money on the table—no doubt about it. So, I began to look for ways to tighten controls and systems. [Note: I wasn't looking for ways to raise prices. The effort was to close the loopholes.] In particular, I was focused on workflow software—which would provide us with more precision in assessing our profits.

When you want to save money, the first place to examine is the entire process of making a die (or dies cutting a job, or gluing that job, etc.). Here are the key steps:

Quoting/estimating: In the past we would do the quote and hope we got the job. The better way is to create a customer database in which all of your past quotes are stored. You can categorize them any way you want—alphabetically, by speed of payment, type of job—whatever makes your business flow smoothly. The key is when that customer calls for a second job, or a 57th job, your computer provides you with the background in a snap—rather than forcing you to hunt through a cabinet full of paper files for the information.

Order entry: The principle of storing important data applies here. If your customer database includes the right information, your customer service people can do their jobs more quickly. The goal is to have the right set of basic questions for each customer, which essentially enables customers to fill out their own orders. Think about it. Storing that key information means that you and your customer are treating each other like partners. You are saving your company—and theirs—time and money. You already know what type of press they're running and their typical specifications.

Job costing: Storing your critical customer information also enables greater speed in recalling how long it took to make a previous die for that customer or something similar for someone else. Maybe a quick check of the data will remind you that you didn't do so well on the prior project—or a mistake was made that can easily be corrected this time. -dci-

Read part 2

Joel Lombard is President of DieCraft Incorporated. Joel has served on the IADD's Annual Meeting Planning Task Force and as a President of the IADD's Midwest Chapter. Joel and DieCraft settled on using DieSoftDM for their workflow software. DieSoft, by Dragonfly Data, is available in versions for steel rule die makers and die cutter/finishers.