Letters, feedback, get it off your chest: 28 July 2010

Columnist, Warren Davey, earns praise for his latest article, while Print21 is also complimented for avoiding the K word.

Re: How to stop worrying and learn to love the click charge: Print21 magazine article

Warren Davey's article on click charges is probably the best and most objective written in a long while. I would go further and suggest that offset commercial printers who resist entering digital on the basis of a click charge are holding themselves and the industry back. Notwithstanding that some vendors will supply presses on a no-click basis (Screen, Kodak) – what you get in return is a click service by another name as it is wrapped up in maintenance and consumables. In fact, and this may surprise many of my pure offset colleagues, you may be adhering to the 'click' model already if you buy your service, plates, ink and chemistry from your offset press vendor!
 
Warren mentions cars – there is a literal 'click' charge there. You pay for service and preventative maintenence every so many thousand Km, or 'clicks.' Who changes their own oil and spark plugs these days?
 
I was one who hated the concept of click charges when digital started to enter mainstream printing. But when you understand that you get value back in return (or should do) and it makes the vendor-user partnership interdependent and closer because a 'down' press is not generating click revenue for either the vendor or the user, the business model looks more and more attractive. When tied to lease-rental, a monthly service agreement and consumables, cost-per-impression can be quite accurately known and that is the starting point for mark-up and profit and, hopefully, a healthy business.
 
The trick is negotiating the best click rate applicable to your minimum monthly volume. Some printers are paying too much. Perhaps sliding scale clicks are the way to go ... print more, pay lower click rate.
 
As Warren says, learn to love the click (and the business model built around it), and you might find yourself making decent profits on your digital output.
 
Andy McCourt

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Re: Lean manufacturing edge available for printers
It constantly amazes me that the Federal Government spends so freely on a multitude of programs, such as The Lean program to support Australian Manufacturing, yet allows foreign companies to close paper mills and other essential industries.

The Government stands by, as a constant stream of manufacturing companies go to China or India in a bid to chase cheap labour, yet they burden Australian Companies with a multitude of regulations and taxes which ultimately makes us uncompetitive.

Each and every Australian expects a minimum standard of living.

The Government boasts we are a free trade economy and we should compete on a level playing field. I cannot see Australians living on $2 a day or living in one-room apartments or working seven days a week. The last time I saw a level playing field is when I played snooker 30 years ago but I haven't seen one since.

I'm not suggesting we shouldn't use every tool in the shed to promote efficient manufacturing, however it is going to take a realisation by Government, that unless we look after our own by recognising the rules cannot be the same as China or India then we will see the further elimination of more Australian Business.   

As politicians see more and more jobs disappear a revision of the rules of engagement will need to be undertaken. The cost of cheap product cannot be measured without the other cost factors in the equation being considered, such as, jobs, social need, welfare costs, self-reliance and GDP all taken into consideration.

A cheap shirt doesn't look so cheap when the above factors are costed into the price of the shirt. Paul Keating once said, when the Current Account reaches 8% of GDP Australia is in danger of becoming a Banana Republic, well that has well and truly been exceeded as the Current Account reaches for the stars.

I hope this leads to some debate amongst the readers.

Garry Clifford   

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Congrats on the Ipex report (Print21 June).

To be able to write without that dreaded three-letter word "kit" is a godsend. Repeated lingo can send a one loopy.  After three years of smirking "working families" repetitively in news reports, and now a week of "moving forward" whining in my ear, and a monkathon of competition ... gimme a break! Now last night I had more earache ...  "drilling down".

Geez, I'm off to the local dentist for some root canal procedures to have a good time relaxing in the chair. Potentially some relief!

Paul Daley