ADVERTISEMENT
You will be redirected to your destination in 15 seconds.
You will be redirected to your destination in 15 seconds.
The case of the sloppy spec
October 5, 2012
.
“Speed is only a question of money. How fast do you want to go?” This is as true on a packaging line as it was in the movie Mad Max.
Bobbie was qualifying a new cartoner. He had purchased an inkjet printer for coding and the code quality was horrible so he called me in.
I watched them try to run. The ink dots were spread out to the point of illegibility.
“Fiddlesticks on drifty dots,” I expostulated. “The cartoner is running too fast. The printer can’t keep up.”
“The blister machine will only run at 200 ppm so the cartoner will never run faster.” Bobbie explained. “Testing shows that the printer will run fine at speeds as fast as 250 ppm. The problem is with the validation department. The cartoner is rated to run at 300 cpm and they want to validate that.”
He continued: “When we selected the printer everyone agreed that there would never be a need to print faster than 200 ppm.”
“‘What we have here is a failure to communicate,” I told Bobbie (another movie quote). “Do you have any records of the speed discussion from before you bought the system?”
Bobbie was able to produce some meeting minutes showing that the speed issue had been discussed and validation agreed to back off to 250 ppm.
The moral of the story is:
- Get everyone to agree to the specifications before buying
- Get the agreement in writing.
- Get the agreement signed.
.
Posted by KC Boxbottom on October 5, 2012 |
Comments (3)
Industries:
Packaging Equipment
March 24, 2013
In response to:
The case of the sloppy specNatalia commented:
I've had this printer for a few mhtnos now. Been impressed with other Brother products but this one falls short. I wanted a simple, compact laser printer that could do duplex (two-sided) printing. The 5340D provides fine print quality reasonably fast and quiet, but take the warnings from the other reviewers seriously when they say it warps paper and crinkles envelopes I thought they were just being fussy. Nope. This machine really does have those problems big time. The paper curling is significant. And no, it's not the paper (I've tried different brands and weights). This issue can be a real headache if you decide to manual feed a printed page (for example when you want two-sided printing but from two different documents or web sites). The printed page is so warped that its difficult to insert into the manual feeder and it sometimes causes a jam. I've had several lasers but I have never seen a printer cause such extreme curling. And the the way it mangles envelopes is simply unacceptable. They come out curled (of course) with major wrinkles. The machine must put off too much heat because the envelopes are somewhat sealed and need to be opened quickly before the glue dries them permanently shut. I know there is a back exit that may avoid this problem, but like most owners, my printer is placed close to a wall so its really not convenient or even feasible to open a back door periodically. Simply put, Brother really shouldn't claim this printer can handle envelopes. So now ya know. My advice if you want a duplex printer that can handle envelopes too, wait for Brother to fix these flaws with their next version.
January 16, 2013
In response to:
The case of the sloppy specL. Buxo commented:
Further on the case of fitting an ink jet printer to a piece of equipment; Just as important as production rate (ppm) is linear speed. Check your linear speed and learn the coder limitations in that respect. You might find that even at rates lower than 250 ppm the ink jet will run into trouble if the target is exceeding a certain speed in ft/min.
May 1, 2013
In response to:
The case of the sloppy specSanti commented:
Many of you have tried to implement socail media in the past without much success. a0However, you may still believe that B2C companies have it easier because they have a direct line to their consumers. a0The good news is, you do too! a0In fact,a058% of IT buyers use socail media to make tech buying decisions.
Advertisement
Advertisement
