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Implementation with production

12:39pm Jan 3, 2001 PST

I'm curious if any of you have experience implementing C&P with your production department. We are just getting up and running and are experiencing a great deal of resistance from our production department. They want everything to be exactly the way it was before C&P and they want to do all changes to hardcopy printouts and hand that info off to someone else to enter rather than get into the database themselves. So I'm wondering if there are similar experiences out there and what you have done to overcome the resistance.

Thanks much,

Allyn B. Summa
Director, Strategic Digital Media

Yes, we had the same type of resistance. The president of our company had a meeting and said that your salaries and bonus will partly be based on how well you use C&P, that seemed to do the trick. They have been on it for six months now and they are getting a better handle of the system. They even told me that they like using C&P now.

Ed Miller
Business Manager
Grafica, Inc.

Change can be a traumatic thing for some people. Our company has been using C&P for almost a year now and although there has been some improvement there are those who are reluctant to learn how to properly use the system. It seems that mostly it is due to the fact that they are tremendously busy and taking time to learn is taking time away from just getting it done. Little do they know that this system could make their lives easier and more productive. My suggestion as to how to handle your production department is not to overload them with too much at once. Implement one thing at a time and as they get comfortable go on to the next item. One thing that we are trying out is handing out a cheat sheet that gives step by step instructions on how to work through different screens and reminding them of what information they need to make sure they include so as a job is trafficked through departments everyone is getting what they need.

Hope this helps.

Kathi Sheehan
Coyne Beahm

I am the production manager at Paul Evers Design. I have had to dive into the program and make it work in the production department. We have been using the system for 2 or three months, and I find it extremely helpful in my position. First, everything is located in a central location: estimate, hours spent, POs (which are so much easier to do) and all the wonderful documentation. If everyone does their part, it's all there. Even time sheets are so much easier to do. That has always been an incredible challenge with my job because of all the multi-tasks and interruptions during the day. But, to begin the job, this is what I do: I print out the Job Tickets and creative brief and the estimate (just for awareness that we do have a budget they need to follow) They get stapled to the front. If there are change orders, the AE/AC prints them out and attaches them to the job jacket and it is routed in the usual manner. When change orders are generated, the job jacket is usually with the AE/AC. That's why they print them out. There still is nothing like visuals. All e-mailing is done through the Clients & Profits diary. When we are notified by e-mail it's easy to write the job # down on a to-do list and then go in and check the change.. It may seem like a hassle at first, but the more you use the program, the easier it gets. But, you have to really apply yourselves to use as many resources in the program to make it effective. It's a team effort, but in the long run, it pays off. Frankly, there is a bit more work on my end making sure that estimates are done for most jobs. But when the job progresses, it's so much easier to be aware of where you are financially and what needs to be done to come in under budget. I'm still not using the scheduling, but that is the next phase I'm trying to apply. The program seems so daunting at first, so we started out only putting new jobs in. That worked great. The other thing we do is have a weekly C & P meeting where we address actually making the program work for our company. When anyone of us calls C & P help, we e-mail everyone what we learned. As questions come up, we e-mail them to administration and they look into them, and at the C & P meeting we address them. It works for us.

Kathy Seymour
Paul Evers Design

Yes, when we first went on full force, I had about 2 yrs of resistance, but I finally sat down with Pre & VP of company and basically ask for full support. Once I got that, it was mandatory to do things as per our process of order. Once everyone saw the time savings, it blew them away. If you are interested in more detail, you are welcome to call me at 256-883-7484. Good luck, Felica

Felica Sparks
Office Manager
Benton Newton & Partners Advertising

Oh my, yes. It's basically like pulling teeth. Designers are designers. They have a difficult time pulling themselves out of the creative realm in which they live to come down to the real world of schedules and deadlines. Everyone in my art department is different, so we have reached various compromises. For instance, one artist likes to feel in control so she has taken on the responsibility of marking her tasks complete all by herself. On the other hand, another artist has problems communicating with C&P, so she hands me her work-to-do report (with notes) at the end of each day and I update her schedules that way.

We also have a production/art meeting each morning that allows everyone to touch base on scheduling, etc., so I take notes and then hand out fresh schedules after the meeting.

There is no ideal way to bring designers into the world of production. They don't even want to know it exists. There is no better advice than compromise in my experience. They will eventually (grudgingly) come around closer to your way of thinking, and if they ever make it all the way there, I would like to know what spell or potion you used to make it happen. I consider the fact that my art department no longer considers me a witch as a significant achievement on my part. But we still struggle with it every day in some way or another. We just had a meeting yesterday in which I insisted that everyone begin to take ownership of their own schedules rather than thinking the all-knowing production fairy was going to keep their schedules up-to-date. They were very receptive, especially considering I put it in the form of "I'm always open to suggestions from you guys as to how to make it easier."

I would love to know if you run into any great ideas during this process.

Good luck!

Kristi Long
Production Manager

I know the syndrome! A major attitude adjustment is needed; however I am afraid it is the nature of the Human Beast to oppose change.

We have been successful by going slow. Pick out just one function....we started with POs...and only do that until everyone gets comfortable with it. Then pick another function and do it again. It takes longer this way, but people will not feel overwhelmed with the change. What will actually happen is that as they become familiar (they will get curious about what other things it can do) and comfortable with the system, they will want to so more.

We are completely on the system now except for scheduling which we intend to start the beginning of the year.

GOOD LUCK!!

Art Rogers
Bjornson Design

I haven't had any trouble implementing C&P . Once your employees are able to witness how much time C&P can save it usually isn't a problem. We do use a traffic coordinator to enter most of the data. As a job is completed or a change order is needed, our traffic coordinator will enter that data and hand it off to whom ever should be working on the job. Every night the traffic coordinator will update all the jobs in the daily status report. So far C&P has work wonderfully for us!

Kristi Tiber
Office Manager
Parker|White

I just wanted to thank everyone for all the feedback regarding this issue. It has been more than helpful. I appreciate everyone's time.

Best,

Allyn Summa
William J Kircher