Case Study: Commercial Printing Project Management using Google Docs

Below is a case study of the application of Knowledge Management in Small-Medium Enterprise Print Industry. The tool that was presented here is a project collaboration management open source software using Google Docs.  

Issues

Company Print (not real name) is a one-stop commercial offset and digital printing, offering its services in marketing, corporate, and institutional-based clients. The company is already on its 8th year. Throughout its operations, it has grown with a number of regular or steady clients as well as occasional ones locally and abroad. However, based from the result of the Knowledge Management’s Rapid Capacity Assessment and External Customer Survey conducted last December 2011, there are three (3) issues that the company needs to address in order to further improve its services, thus to serve its clients better:

• Failure to meet deadlines and inaccurate compliance with the specifications required in some of its projects.
• Lacks overall project coordination between the marketing and production department resulting in overlapping of projects.
• No formal project status report at the end of the day. Its common practice is through verbal communication from the production coordinator.

Methodology

The issues gathered based from the results of the survey, will be used as a reference, which will be applied for the Knowledge Management for Company Print. Most of the issues that needs to addressed are in the production department that can be facilitated by using project management software. However, through research of project management software specifically viable for Company Print’s work process, Heidelberg has a solution to offer called Prinect S but their software is specifically designed for fully automated machines. It also requires full network digital integration from pre-press to post press, which is an ideal setup for a full printing production house. Admittedly, due to Company Print’s lack of machines’ capability to be fully integrated into the said digital network system as well as its limited resources to acquire the ‘Heidelberg way’ setup, the said project management tool is not practical to be adapted into the company’s workflow process for now.

The next best logical solution is a web-based project management collaboration tool using Google Docs. Since Company Print has an existing network that can be fully utilized aside from email and research purposes, its personnel are also familiar with other Google Docs such as the Calendar. Their sales and administrative departments for their daily tasks and meetings utilize the said calendar extensively. For the production department where most of the issues arise, another Google Docs will be introduced into its work process, which is the spreadsheet. Aside from its zero investment, it is also becoming a tool used confidently by several businesses nowadays.

The first task that will be undertaken is to interview the production coordinator of the company for further verification of the production process. It is also important to know if the said tool would really be helpful for his job and can be easily understood by the other stakeholders. The information gathered will be then placed in the spreadsheet that will be divided into three (3) main categories namely: the Pre-press, Press, and the Post-press. These categories are standard in all printing companies. It would then have its sub-categories assigned to these main categories that represent the workflow of the production process unique to Company Print.

Pre-press

• Color Separation / Filming
• Check Negative
• Check Plate
• Stripping
• Platemaking

Press

• Check Paper
• Cut Paper
• Digital Printing
• Offset Printing (Heidelberg Kord 64)
• Offset Printing (Heidelberg Sormz)
• Other Printing
• Drying

Post Press

• Lamination
• Finishing / Binding
• Die Cut
• Numbering
• Perforation
• Embossing
• Hot Stamping
• Final Trimming
• Quality Assurance
• Delivery

The main categories and identified sub-categories in the production process will be placed under the Task field or column. Aside from the task field, it would also have the Start and End Date as a reference schedule for a specific project task. Another field to place is the Task Lead; essentially to refer to the specific person involved or the one who handled the particular task. This would also minimize pointing of fingers in case that an incident happened in a project that resulted in a delay. Lastly, is the Remarks section, where the production coordinator or any stakeholders in the project may input their comments, material specifications, number of copies, etc., for every step of the production process. This section would also serve as guide for the production personnel as well as for the other stakeholders particularly marketing regarding special specification required for a particular project.

Since Google Docs serves as a collaborative tool for editing in real-time, users of the proposed process will be seeing a spreadsheet in a Gantt chart format where it will moved in real-time every time there will be changes in the production schedule. Editing and viewing of the chart will be limited to the “decision-maker stakeholders” such as the head of marketing and production coordinator. The other departments such as the administration and production personnel are only limited for viewing of the chart but cannot do any editing. The said chart would also have correlation with the current date.

The proposed tool would take into consideration these following challenges:

Usability. Could be easily updated by the stakeholders or decision-makers

Simplicity. Could be understood easily by the production personnel and other departments.

Accessibility. Could be accessed anywhere, i.e. PCs, tablet, mobile, etc. with integration to the other Google Docs.

The most challenging part is the integration of the spreadsheet into the other Google Docs. Since the marketing department uses the Google Calendar more often, the spreadsheet in Gantt chart format should be integrated into the calendar. This would served as an overview regarding the ongoing projects as well as a helpful tool for the marketing personnel, i.e. making decisions faster should they want to take in the project or not, since everything is already embedded into their calendar.

So far, there are a number of free Google spreadsheet templates and scripts as well as online tutorials that are helpful for the users depending on the process needs of the business. The Google Docs Template Gallery has a number of templates provided by the developers from Google and independent contributors.

Once the project is fully implemented into the production process, there would be a series of test and feedbacks through interviews from the main users of the tool. It would also check its helpfulness in the process of the business where issues that needs to be addressed were minimized, else, totally eradicated. The person that will hold accountable for the Google spreadsheet is the project coordinator. He/She should ensure that the spreadsheet is updated at all times which ideally towards the end of the day. In the absence of the production coordinator, any of the decision-makers or stakeholders may update the said spreadsheet provided that the coordinator would then be properly informed regarding the updates.

The spreadsheet would reflect only one (1) project at a time and will be divided into folders, named Company Print Schedule 2012-001, 002, 003, etc. The 2012 stands for the year when the project is made and the 001 stands for the sequence number of the folder. Each folder will contain a maximum of twelve (12) spreadsheets with ready-to-use template exclusive for Company Print. A catalog containing the name of the projects may also be developed that would provide information and link to the specific project folder. This would be a helpful reference for project reorders.

The working template named Company Print Schedule 2012-001 shows how the layout is divided into seven (7) columns, namely: Done, Task, Start Date, End Date, Resource, Remarks, and Days till End Date. The remaining columns are the Gantt Chart where the current dates are also reflected (see screen shot of the Company Print Template).

Screen shot of the Company Print Template

which I made it publicly available (see reference 5 below for the link).

Make sure to sign-in to your google account to make a copy for yourself.

One of the challenges is the integration of the Google calendar. The schedule provided in the spreadsheet should also reflect into the calendar. This would give the marketing team of Company Print an overview of the current projects. This was solved by searching for the right script that may be embedded into the Script editor under the Tools menu of the Google spreadsheet. Below is the sample script:

function calupdate() {

var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();

var startRow = 15;  // First row of data to process

var numRows = 1 var dataRange = sheet;  // Number of rows to process

var dataRange = sheet.getRange(startRow, 1, numRows, 5);

var data = dataRange.getValues();

var cal = CalendarApp.getDefaultCalendar();

for (i in data) {

var row = data[i];

var title = row[1];  // First column

var tstart = row[2];

var tstop = row[3];

var loc = row[4];

//cal.createEvent(title,  new Date("March 3, 2010 08:00:00"), new Date("March 3, 2010 09:00:00"),

{location:loc});

cal.createEvent(title, new Date(tsart), new Date(tstop), {location:loc});

}

}

On the other hand, to create the Calendar menu into the spreadsheet, below is the sample script that may also be embedded in the Script Editor. Run the script so that the Calendar would appear on the Spreadsheet menu. The user must click the calupdate under the Calendar menu so that the schedule from the spreadsheet would reflect into the Google Calendar.

function onOpen() {

var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();

var menuEntries = [ {name: "Update", functionName: "calupdate"} ];

ss.addMenu("Calendar", menuEntries);

}

Results

Based from the feedback that I gathered last 06 March 2012. Below are the results from Company Print’s Marketing, Purchasing, and Production departments.

Marketing

• Provides ready information regarding project schedules via Google calendar.

• Efficiently tracks the status of the current projects that would help the marketing team decide if they could still accommodate incoming projects.

• Eliminates overlapping of projects as well as delivers projects on time.

Purchasing

• Accurate compliance on the purchased materials specified on the Production Schedule.

• Efficiently monitors availability of production materials.

• Eliminates over-stocking of production materials such as paper and ink.

Production

• Having a formal written project status report at the end of the day.

• Organized production schedule, i.e. eliminates overlapping.

• Gives continuous online project status report, that would be helpful for the management make sound decisions anytime and anywhere.

Conclusion

Using an open source software such as the Google Docs saves Company Print from purchasing expensive project management software available in the market. Likewise, it also addressed the company’s internal and external issues in the production department. It made the company more organized and productive, thus able to deliver their best services to their clients and other stakeholders.

Google Docs is a viable tool for businesses especially for the Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that are searching for an alternative low-cost project management software, yet robust and secured in its features. It is highly recommended.

References:

1 Heidelberg Philippines, www.heidelberg.com/www/html/en/content/products/prinect/prepress/ prepress_prinect_s,overview

2 Wikipedia, “Google Docs”, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Docs

3 Google Docs Template Gallery, docs.google.com/templates category=2&type=spreadsheets&sort=hottest&view=public&author=Google

4 McKinsey Quarterly, “The Rise of the Networked Enterprise: Web 2.0 Find its Payday” by Jacques Bughin and Michael Chui, December 2010

5 Company Print Schedule 2012-001 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsR1mReWF6M_dFZQZkFKdEc2SVJZeEJrNDgtWkdTSHc

One more thing...

Thank you to Dr. Serafin Talisayon, founder of the Center for Conscious Living Foundation Inc. (CCLFI), for the lessons and assistance, in order for me to understand Knowledge Management (KM) better.