Issue link: https://nbm.uberflip.com/i/1491554
4 6 G R A P H I C S P R O • M A R C H 2 0 2 3 G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M 6 Workflow I've written multiple articles on this topic since the way jobs move through your shop is so incredibly important to your shop's efficiency. In our shop, we use a folder system that is coordinated with an online task manager called Toodledo. (Fig. 6) ere's a central rack that holds numbered legal-sized file folders. We enter the number on the folder and the cus- tomer's name into Toodledo. As the job moves through the shop, we update cus- tom drop-down tabs so anyone can access the program to see where a job is. e tabs also track which printer the job will be printed on, what kind of material we're using, and who is in charge of the job. is allows jobs to be grouped by mate- rial and printer, and any questions can be directed to the right person. Once a job has been printed or cut, and the graphics are in production for pro- cessing, the file folder gets moved to the production area and placed in a wall rack. Its location is also updated in Toodledo. We have a dry-erase board in production for listing the job folder number, the cus- tomer name, and a brief job description or other notes. While Toodledo is excellent for tracking the progress of a job through the shop, it's helpful to have projects in the actual production stage on a wall board since we're not accessing the computer as often in production. On the board, we note substrate sizes (to group cutting), job priority, notation for freshly printed jobs (we put a * and then erase it the next day), or to highlight any specialty laminates or materials. (Fig. 7) e scheduling of installs is where it's easy to drop the ball. We also have five boxes for the current week's installs on the dry-erase board in production. At a glance, we know which vehicles are com- ing in each day with the job folder number noted. All folders for jobs to be installed also go in a separate rack in the production area, keeping the jobs in process separate from the jobs to be installed. We created a separate dry-erase board to track jobs ready to be installed, but the date sched- uled is beyond the current week, or we're waiting for the customer to get back to us. 7 8 W I D E - F O R M A T P R I N T I N G