Discussion on Integrated Control of Printing Materials Cost (Part Two)

Service life and price

Another important quality indicator of printed materials is the service life, which is more prominent in durable materials such as PS plates, rubber blankets and rubber rollers. Material procurement costs and service life are inversely proportional to the period of time. The use of good quality printed materials not only improves the efficiency of use and the quality of printed matter, but also more importantly extends the service life and reduces the loss of work stoppages. The service life has a significant impact on the cost of materials. Compared with a PS plate that can print 60,000 copies and can print 120,000 copies, the difference is intuitive and easy to calculate, and it also has the advantage of improving the quality of printed matter. A qualified material buyer or manager must consider the life of the material together with the price.

Experience tells us that the service life and sales price of materials do not all increase by 1:1, and most of them are that the price growth rate is lower than the life extension rate. Only when the quality is increased to a certain degree, there will be a separate price increase, and no longer involve the growth of service life. At this time, there must be a principle that if the price growth is slower than the growth of the service life, then better quality materials should be used. However, most purchasers and even decision makers do not have a good grasp of the useful life of materials. They are often neither printers nor technicians, and often prefer to accept the suppliers' opinions rather than listen to the views of front-line workers. Of course, there is still a problem of insufficient data management. Some companies have recorded and summarized the data of their useful life, but they have not formed a data system with reference value.

It is necessary here to discuss the technical relationship between material life and sales price. The main factors affecting the service life of printed materials are aging and damage, and these two aspects are closely related to the selection of raw materials and the production and processing of materials. The raw materials are selected well, the processing technology is good, the corresponding printing process characteristics will be good, and the service life will be prolonged accordingly. From the perspective of the price structure of raw materials, whether it is chemical raw materials or metal raw materials, the price of entering the factory is often basically determined, and the price change caused by the production process becomes the main factor of the price change of raw materials with quality. Taking the PS plate as an example, the aluminum plates, sensitizers, etc. used are mostly based on weight, and there are great differences in the reprocessing process after the raw materials enter the factory. This becomes the main factor that causes the price change of the final product. Therefore, the service life of the product does not increase at the same pace as the cost.

The price of a product is sometimes related to its choice of main ingredients. Low-priced products must be low-cost, and the best way to reduce costs is to reduce the amount of raw materials used, which often directly affects the service life. Taking the PS version of the press as an example, the printing press is designed to have a thickness of 0.30 mm, with a minimum of 0.28 mm. Some domestic PS plates have a nominal thickness of 0.28mm, and the downward tolerance is very large; while the imported PS plates are all nominal thicknesses of 0.30mm, the downward tolerance is very small. The requirement that the thickness of the low-price PS plate is lower than the tolerance will lead to insufficient pressure during printing. The solution is to increase the amount of blanket packing, resulting in inconsistence of the linear speed of the plate cylinder and the blanket cylinder, and making the plate wear faster. . Although aluminum materials are saved and sales prices are reduced, the resistance to India is much lower, and individual cases can even be about twice as poor.

As more and more social capital is involved in the production of printed materials, the quality of printed materials has been largely disintegrated, and the length of service life has also become prominent. Therefore, when purchasing materials, it is necessary to pay attention to the relationship between service life and price, and to obtain the lowest material cost. Material procurement, of course, must also be combined with production needs, and it is impossible to pursue the service life blindly. For example, a product with a small amount of printing does not have practical significance for the printing plate's resistance to high printing force; a printing product with a large amount of printing must consider the change in the material cost caused by the printing plate's resistance to printing force.

Technical factors of price negotiation

Now, the printed material supply industry has more room for price negotiations when printing materials for printing companies. But in negotiations, the lower the price, the better. A reasonable and balanced price is not only beneficial to the formation of long-term mutual trust, but also conducive to the improvement of purchasing quality and cost control of printing companies.

The seller will definitely not make money losing trades. If the rubber is used for rubber dispensing, if the price drops below 0.1 yuan/cubic centimeter, the seller will have no money to make and can only use more domestic glue. The material or use a more simplified process method, thus affecting the use of the roller and the service life. Therefore, the buyer must understand the price bottom line that the manufacturer can afford, and the price negotiation that breaks through the bottom line is definitely not a good method.

The procurement of printed materials is a long-term task, and the relationship with suppliers is not a single sale, and reasonable prices will also bring about stable material quality. It should be noted that the increased competition has caused suppliers' profit margins to become lower and lower. They generally do not trade below the cost due to the establishment of long-term relationships, and such price transactions are harmful to sellers. In an in-depth conversation with some friends who are engaged in this industry but have no business relationship, we can clearly feel that this factor is working.

The terms of the contract also require attention, especially when the supplier accepts a low price, because the quality inspection of the printing factory is basically blank. Moreover, more and more material manufacturers have subdivided the products, and the depth and width of product lines have become larger and larger. Even for products of the same market, there are many models, and the price gap is very large. This increases the difficulty of material procurement and also provides the possibility for manufacturers or suppliers to flex profit margins. Compared with suppliers, printing companies have much less information, there is asymmetry in the mastery of information, and they need printers to fully realize the price bottom line of suppliers when they purchase materials, establish mutual trust relationships, and master price initiative. Rights, rather than simply asking for lower, the better. Sometimes, because users do not know the manufacturer's product series well, the contract is difficult to be leaked. Once the transaction price is too low, some vendors with low credibility may use this loophole to replace the grade or model of the supply product.

Conclusion

The control of material costs must shift from the simple control of direct procurement costs to the integrated control of procurement costs, use costs, and quality costs, so that the purpose of production cost control can be truly achieved. Of course, it is also very important to strengthen the basic work such as inventory control, warehouse management, and material conservation. It must not be ignored.

Li Baoqiang, Legal Printing Daily Press Factory Source: "Printed Materials in China"