Sample on Assessment Case Study: Elite Print Services

Introduction

Elite Print Services is a pre-press and printing technology market developed to provide a quality of products and services to its customers. It is a member of the company, namely The Elite Group and its main customers are the creative publishers and supplying retailers. Recently, it has received a great order from the A&B to deal with it. However, this company needs to analyse each and every aspect of potential risks and benefits when accepting orders from A&B. Thus; the conducted study contains a deep analysis of the business model and evaluation of risk and benefits and recommendation through which EPS can introduce special practices in its factories to handle any big order such as A&B.

External performance of A&B

It is evident that different business performs differently in order to satisfy their customers. Its responsibility begins with receiving requests to process data and then filing to a particular network printing queue. Following are the relevant models for analysing the external performance objectives for A&B business and the way they differ from the existing customers.

Input-process-output model

Like any other business, this business is also engaged in satisfying customers at a large level which is done through implementing several approaches in its business function. It, therefore, uses the model to integrate information about its customers and users to provide better output such as making beautiful and special Christmas cards for A&B. Thus, this can be observed in the Input-process-output model.

The input-process-output model is a widely utilised approach within the systematic analysis and is used for describing information structure via processing program and another way (Mansikka et al. 2017). The information structure is categorised into three parts input, process, and output. Input refers to information received from users, where process refers to computations of the information received from users, and output refers to the final execution of the information. For the EPS it is adhered to making out the factors influencing its productivity and efficiency. It analyses the factors in terms of inputs such as the organisational context of A&B, task characteristics of A&B, and the team composition for delivering its work. For creating a team delivering such a big order this company needs to analyse the potential risk and benefits as per its order. The risk may be in the form of metallic ink, gold blocking, die-cutting, technical problems, and others. In order to process the information, it needs to look into its operational activities such as from group norms to the decision-making process and others such as coordination, cohesion, and communication. Maintaining the quality of order is the prime focus of this printing service which can be achieved through the processing approach initiating actions, monitoring resources, and achieving progress (Decius et al. 2021). Lastly, the output approach is basically associated with the results obtained from the internal activities. To successfully achieve the A&B goal, it is necessary for the company to bring the result which can satisfy its new clients. This will be achieved with the help of productivity, innovation, and member satisfaction.

Figure 1: Input-process-output model

(Source: Created by author)

Operation 4Vs

The best quality products and best quality services are the important factors for a company to attract huge numbers of customers. There are another two subfactors of each company to grab and retain customers to it. They are Prominence which attracts a great number of consumers toward the company, and the ability to provide high-quality services to the customer retained the customers for the company (Tech, 2021). These two subfactors are led by four of the traits of services. It is also called 4VS or operational services such as variety, volume, variation, and visibility.

Volume:

The volume refers to the specific amount of product demand needed for the market to get satisfied. The volume means the total amount of items or units required to be manufactured within a limited time for the market. EPS has four machines with the efficient ability to manufacture a number of cards within a day or month to satisfy the customers (Choong et al. 2020). The company has four printing machines that print sufficient amounts and satisfy the customer within the given time. The machines have the ability to print 5000 to 6000 sheets in an hour, but it takes a bit longer for the small size cards. The company does not face any issues regarding quality and service.

Variation:

Variation refers to the change in demand due to external factors such as natural calamities, disasters in the form of earthquakes, Tsunami, tornadoes, Covid 19 and so on (Landa, 2018). The variation issues become a very big challenge during critical situations for the companies to provide services with variations (Senarathne, 2021). Maintaining the variations for the services needs a lot of experience and maturity in the working managers. EPS has experienced and mature managers who help a lot to maintain the variation in their works during such critical times.

Visibility:

Visibility is the advanced tool through which the consumer or the customer can track or know how far their work has been completed or how much yet to. EPS also has such advanced technology which a customer or retailer can use to know how far their job has been done (Chan et al., 2018). This technology not only facilitates the company’s job but also helps the company to avoid the unwanted issues to mitigate (Ratnasari and Sutopo, 2018).

Variety:

Variety for a company refers to the various services generated for the potential customers. These services can be in terms of products or services which a company sells or gives to its customer to retailers, companies or organisations. This diversity of services helps a company or organisation to boost its sales, bring more profit and to become more confident about its business (Tech, 2021). EPS also provides various services to the customers simultaneously; a variety of services pleases the customers and help to get more orders from customers.

Figure 2: 4Vs of operation

(Source: Tech, 2021)

Identification and evaluation of the potential risks and rewards accepting orders from A&B

Potential risks

Like any other services provided by technology, the printing services provided by  Elite Print services also have potential risks while doing its printing services. These are risks that appear during the printing, such as:

Paper Jam: This is one of the major issues faced by any of the printing services provided by any company. Due to some of the technical issues, the paper jam problem is frequently faced by machines that are being used for printing (Inozemtcev and Duong, 2019). Most of the time, the printing machine cannot bear the pressure for a long time and other technical problems. This leads to the paper jam in the machines. The printing paper gets stuck in the machine, and does not get printed.

Colouring Problem:

The next problem every printing service company faces is the colouring issue of their printing. Elite Printing Services also faces this issue (Suhardi et al. 2018). The technological damages in the parts of the printing machines lead to the colouring issues on the paper. This technical problem fails to produce the original colour in the printing paper. Most of the time, the original colour differs from the printed colour on the paper. The faded colour is printed on the printing paper which does not match with its genuine colour on the document or file (Sohn et al. 2019). There could be other problems such as scratches, unwanted lines, and another similar issue could be found in the paper when there are some technological issues in the printing machines.

Wastage of Printing Paper:

The above two major problems would be responsible for another destructive problem for the company is the wastage or damages of paper. Due to the technological problems, many of the time, the printing paper gets stuck in the machines and gets damaged or gets torn; the printing defect or colouring defect on the paper would damage the printing paper (Wolniak, 2020). These damaged papers cannot be reused, so the company expenses for printing paper increase and the company has to spend more funds behind it.

Customer Dissatisfaction:  All of the above issues create a negative impact on the customers; the company faces great loss in its business. Customer satisfaction is one of the major tools for the company to develop or flourish its business. Most of the time, because of the many such reasons mentioned above, the customer gets dissatisfied with the company’s services. The customer opts for other business groups for the same tasks (Qin et al. 2019). Thus the consumers, instead of increasing, gets decreased, the company meets its fall or failure.

Other Risks of the Printing Services Companies:

In this technological world, there are several other risks for the printing company which become reasons for the company’s failure. There is the risk of the data getting leaked or stolen, unable to track the printing activities, the lack of security protection installation, misuse of data by employees of the printing company and many other issues could occur for the printing service company (Wang et al. 2017).

Potential Benefits

There are many potential benefits for a reputed printing company which come in many forms. These advantages or benefits are discussed below:

High Quality Printing:

The big printing companies at the present time have highly advanced and sophisticated printers which give better services compared to the normal printers. The company has the capacity to manage a greater quantity of paper printing without any defect in the quality (Bazmohammadi et al. 2018). These types of printing machines also help by giving better finish or water or better resistant printing. This type of high-quality printing can be expected from high quality printers with high-quality paper which has the capacity to bear the pressure of printing a huge number of papers. The printing machine should have a small lot for printing. These types of services cannot be expected from the small printers at home or in the shop. The standard quality printer cannot produce the best quality printing and the ink is to be changed frequently by the users.

Serving Consistent Colour Quality:

Colour is one of the major factors for hooking the customer’s attention toward any business, especially for printing companies. The small printers or can say that the printers of standard quality do not provide satisfactory services for the users and customers. The colour quantity is also limited in the small printers, which fail to provide the best quality colour in the printing paper as expected. Contrary to it, the printers used by professional printing companies have many advantages with their satisfactory services (Bao et al. 2020). These professional printers have the best quality bright colours and designs. The printers provide better replication and colour representation for the customers. These types of printers used by the printing company ensure better readability, providing consistent colour and high-quality graphics.  As one of the major benefits of the printing companies, the consumers’ strength gets multiplied.

Providing Expected Speed:

The high quality printers used by the printing company for their printing works have many advantages (Kakran and Chanana, 2019). The printers complete a vast number of printing jobs within a short time, with satisfying quality. There is no risk of failing to complete a job before the deadline. Thus these best printers save time as well as provide numerous services for the company.

Graphic Designers :

Graphic designers in the printing company make many difficult jobs easy. The designers provide the best graphics designs for the company for printing, so there is no worry of any brainstorming issues (Sohn et al. 2019).

Variety of Services at a Time:

The printing service company benefited with a variety of printings within no time.  These printing services are notebooks, menus, brochures, booklets, leaflets, business cards, flyers, posters, postcards, invitation cards and many more. Providing a variety of designed printings is a positive strength of a printing company (Bao et al. 2020).

The way EPS’ management introduce any special and different practices in the factory

Elite Print Services has good demand in the printing market with great numbers of customers connected to it. The services of this company are commendable which have the potential to satisfy various customers for a variety of services. The company has a unique and considerable way of completing the target given by any customer within the given time. In case of any new practice to be introduced, the company has experienced experts and mature managers who have sufficient knowledge and design to do the task (Dabner et al. 2017).

Elite Print Services has a spacious factory house with four major upgraded or advanced technological printing machines. The company, being very popular, gets a huge number of orders from customers. The customers need to book slots for their printing works to be done in advance. The company has four efficient modern printing machines which can print 5000 to 6000 sheets per hour. The company has a systematic way of completing the printing jobs. The company has two eight hour working shifts meaning 16 hours divided into two shifts for different shift working customers.

The printing work starts with receiving orders, fixing the designing, placing it for printing, binding, packing and delivering. The company also puts in some overtime if necessary on Saturdays and Sundays. Millions of cards are printed every day. The small orders given by the small companies or retailers, or customers do not take a longer time to complete. It is completed within no time (Thompson and Helfand, 2018).

The printing of the normal cards does not consume more time, such as the litho print set up hardly takes two hours to complete printing works. It becomes a little more time consuming for the smaller size sheets printing instead of two hours it takes three hours. So as per the printing work is concerned the company does not face any problem. The printing jobs are done on time without an inconvenience (Ambrose et al. 2019).

After the printing is done, the next job goes for guillotining and folding which takes a minimum of ten minutes for the guillotine and ten minutes for the folding job. This job is also completed by the company swiftly without any failure.  The next two difficult steps of the printing job are die-cutting and embossing. Embossing and die-cutting are the easier and less challenging jobs compared to folding and packaging. Die-cutting means that the cards printed are not ready for folding or packaging (Dabner et al. 2017). The edges are still not straight but have the proper shapes. Embossing means in order to create interesting surface the cards both the surfaces are pressed. All of these tasks are carried out by the company carefully because the main concern is to satisfy the customers providing them the quality they have demanded (Landa, 2018).

The company does not face any issues regarding its printing and colour quality. The printing quality is checked at the beginning and end of the work. It does not mean that the employees do not check the printing quality in between. There is a rigorous quality check in the printing process. The company workers check and verify the printing quality after every five hundred printing sheets. The unexpected issues or technical issues are faced very seldom (Dabner et al. 2017). In case of such issues in the printing quality, the employees or the company is ready to reprint the defects cards. The company ensures that the good printed quality cards are being sent for the customers.

The company possesses five printing machines, three machines for guillotine and five folders. These machines have immense capacity to receive good numbers of orders from customers and complete those on time. The printers using standard materials for printing has the capacity to print 6000 sheets every hour, the guillotine has the capacity to print 4000 sheets as an average per hour and as per the folders are concerned, it has the capacity to of printing 24000 cards every hour. These machines have given the company good confidence in its performance and have helped the company to attract a wide number of customers.

A variety of printing in size, quality and standards are printed by the company. The most popular and most ordered size printed by the company is 175 x 125mm and the other standard size is 720 x 1020mm.  The company arranges the size in such a way that no amount of sheets gets wasted.  Some of the orders taken and delivered by the company are mentioned below: birthday humour with eight designs 5000, reasons to be happy 12000, better late than never 10000, Christmas cards: farside f34 5000, farside f56 5000, mix m87 7000, angels 7000 and many more.

In case if the company has to introduce a new type of order, the company follows their own unique procedure to complete that task to satisfy the customer’s demand (Bao et al. 2020). Before receiving the order, the company makes sure that it has the capacity and potential to complete the task. While receiving the customer’s demand, the company experts comprehend the customer’s requirements for the order. The requirements of the order are evaluated by the experienced managers and experts, the graphic designer finalises the graphic design for that order and sends it for printing, die-cutting, folding, packaging and delivery (Ambrose et al. 2019). Before delivering the printed sheets, the company manager and other experts check for the final time.

Conclusion

From the overall estimation of Elite Printing Services is quite well known for its printing jobs. This company provides a variety of services with high-quality printing that is continuously pleasing the customers. The company has a very good management system for each and every job.  The company owns five high-quality printers, 3 guillotines and five folders which provide good confidence to meet the customer’s demand. This is very certain to say that the company in the coming years would be flourishing and expanding its business, gaining good profits.

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