Cost Management: A must for printing companies
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Cost management is one of the most critical links in the management of printing enterprises. The quality of cost control directly affects the market's advantages and disadvantages. In a sense, cost control is the lifeblood of an enterprise and a magic weapon for participating in competition. Printing companies can only ensure the long-term economic benefits of enterprises if they do a good job of cost control and break down the cost indicators in order to form a good situation of “cost control and efficiency in the hands”.
First, Current status and problems of cost management in China's printing enterprises
In recent years, due to the implementation of the national new economic policy, real enterprise management has been realized. Enterprises can act in accordance with the laws of the market and establish a modern scientific management enterprise system with clear property rights, clear rights and responsibilities, and separation of government and enterprise. After joining the WTO, China has improved in many aspects in order to strengthen international economic exchanges. For printing companies, this is also a good development opportunity and factor. However, there are some misunderstandings in this. Some enterprises pay too much attention to strengthening market development. Many salesmen are unfamiliar with the production process and are keen on pursuing low prices. As a result, they have formed a situation of high output value and low profit.
A packaging and printing company with an annual output value of 260 million yuan in Shanghai has an annual profit of only about 15 million yuan. The profit has dropped a lot from five years ago. In fact, the current printing companies, the proportion of the real high profit rate is not very large, a large part of the company's profit return is very low, and some companies are in the maintenance stage. In addition, from the “Looking at the Summit of Color and Process Management of Printing Enterprises in Profits in the Age of Micro-profits” (November 17, 2006, the Printing and Printing Committee of China Printing and Equipment Industry Association, China Business Joint Printing Co., Ltd. and Beijing Bisheng Printing Network) At the joint conference in Beijing, we can also see the serious situation facing printing companies. The reasons for this situation are closely related to low-price competition. Therefore, cost management and cost reduction are the only way for enterprises to develop.
At present, most domestic printing companies have not yet formed a true cost management, but only continue the earlier cost accounting model, lacking prior prediction, analysis, budget and control. Most printing costs in China's mainland printing companies are not high, and the common cost management issues are:
1. The concept of cost is blurred
The cost of the business is the sum of all costs incurred by the company in producing and selling the product. After entering the market economy, the functions of the company have undergone corresponding changes, both as producers and operators. However, in actual work, the focus is still on production, and the paper is deterrent to paper loss, ink use, personnel increase and decrease, etc., neglecting the management of sales costs, making it difficult to unify production and operation, making the company less profitable or damaged. It is difficult to adapt to the rapid development of the market economy.
2. Printing cost accounting difficulties
Without scientific costing, you can't get tangible benefits in bargaining with customers. Many printing companies only use general quotations in the industry, so that printing services with special requirements cannot be reasonably priced. As a result, a large amount of funds are deposited in many unnecessary links and fields, resulting in a hidden increase in capital costs, a slowdown in capital turnover, and a significant increase in the rate of capital appreciation and creation.
3. Insufficient understanding of cost dynamics
When the market price is relatively stable, the cost cannot be expanded indefinitely, and it can only be expanded within the range of guaranteed efficiency and flat. At present, some enterprises rarely conduct market research and analysis of production and operation activities, and it is difficult to achieve scientific management. Insufficient understanding of factors such as rising prices of raw materials and auxiliary materials will lead to slow progress in enterprise cost management, and ultimately result in a decline in corporate profits or a cost that exceeds market prices.
4. Cost management lags behind market development
Cost management requires scientific forecasting, analysis, and decision making based on market information. However, in reality, the cost management of some enterprises still stays in the mode of production, supply and marketing, paying attention to book management, ignoring physical management, and there is a situation of “inconsistent accounts, unsound book costs, and reports flowing in form”.
These problems not only bring troubles to the finance department, but more importantly, it is easy to cause the company to fall into a vicious circle. Therefore, we must improve the traditional cost management, adapt it to the market economy, and make the cost management of the enterprise a new level, thus promoting the rapid development of printing enterprises.
Second, the steps of the implementation of cost management in printing enterprises
1. Establish a cost concept
Without the correct cost concept, even with the most advanced information system, the effectiveness of cost management will be greatly reduced. Therefore, the cost management of printing enterprises must first establish cost awareness, that is, enterprise management personnel and production staff. It is necessary to pay sufficient attention to cost management and control, and fully realize that reducing enterprise costs is a long-term task.
Printing companies should take cost awareness as part of the corporate philosophy, through training and education for corporate personnel, establish awareness of reducing corporate costs, optimize cost management, transform traditional concepts, and establish new concepts of cost. To achieve this goal, we must first create a cost management concept in the enterprise, improve the responsibility cost rules and regulations, and realize the scientific, targeted, and standardized cost management through the establishment of a chapter. Secondly, realize management innovation on the basis of institutional innovation, motivate employees to enhance cost awareness, carry forward the spirit of ownership, and do everything they can. From the beginning, I will guide employees to actively participate in education activities through energy conservation and consumption reduction. Minimize costs in tapping potential and efficiency activities.
However, while we are carrying out cost control and reducing costs, we still need to ensure the quality of printed matter. This is because, in some cases, the cost of controlling the cost may lead to a decline in the efficiency of the enterprise. If the appropriate use of substitute materials to reduce the cost of materials may affect the product quality of the enterprise, the decline in product quality will affect the enterprise. Economic benefits also reduce the social benefits of production and management.
2. Optimize enterprise logistics
Logistics is the circulation of materials and is one of the basic activities of modern economic operation. It plays a huge role in supporting and promoting the operation of enterprises. The company has considerable value (including cost control) in logistics operations. With the rapid development of the economy, the market is increasingly demanding the printing company's service time, which brings new challenges to the printing enterprise organization logistics activities. The circulation of the printing business is becoming more and more important. Therefore, constructing a modern logistics management model and effectively managing the printing logistics is an important issue for the printing enterprise to achieve long-term development.
To establish a scientific and rational logistics system, it is necessary to fully integrate the supply and demand information within the market and the enterprise, such as the quantity of the market supply, the supply price, the quantity of demand, the price of demand, and the quantity, variety, quality, specifications, time in the warehouse, etc. The information is classified and processed, and various application subsystems are established by using database and data warehouse technology, and these application systems are applied to the local area of the printing enterprise to realize information sharing, so that the material supply can be comprehensively realized. Printing business quotation, printing process audit, printing product completion, to the delivery management, digital network management of the whole process, to achieve the best state of the internal logistics effect of the printing enterprise.
2.1 procurement links. Enterprises should make full use of the procurement function to directly reduce costs, have high-quality procurement personnel, make the procurement plan accurate and reasonable, and truly achieve "good quality and low price" in the procurement process. In the process of procurement, the management of information is particularly important. If you can't grasp the characteristics of the materials, the use of new materials, and the types of supply channels, it will result in waste of funds in the procurement of raw materials and auxiliary materials. The comprehensive mastery of procurement information resources will also greatly help the preservation of corporate materials and materials. More importantly, companies can make predictions about the future trend of raw materials, especially those that are relatively short-lived and have a large proportion. They choose scientific procurement methods according to market changes, so that printing materials suppliers can provide materials at reasonable prices. Purchasing truly serves the enterprise.
2.2 storage links. Because of the characteristics of printing companies (such as the daily consumption of paper), there is no way to achieve “zero inventory”, and the increase in inventory will inevitably lead to an increase in costs. Therefore, it is necessary to verify the minimum inventory of each raw material and product to avoid It takes up too much money when it is stored. First, the company should master the detailed data and production forecasts to formulate the production plan of the enterprise; secondly, the enterprise determines the consumption quota of the printed materials according to the actual situation. Again, the management of the use of printed materials should be strengthened. In short, the procurement and warehousing inspection of raw and auxiliary materials should be strengthened, and the materials should be fed according to the quota of materials to ensure timely and appropriate inventory.
2.3 transportation links. Timeliness, accuracy, economy and safety are the basic requirements for the management of printing logistics management. Enterprises should reasonably determine the transmission line so that the printing production can operate smoothly with the minimum transportation cost; reasonably organize the transportation activities, effectively arrange the transportation and transportation tools and personnel, improve the transportation efficiency, shorten the transmission cycle; pay attention to the connection and configuration of the logistics function links, Strengthen the connection between various transportation methods and improve the overall efficiency of the logistics system.
3. Enhance logistics information management
Implementing the information management of logistics is an important task in today's enterprise management. Printing information is generated along with printing logistics activities or outside of printing logistics activities. The smooth flow of information has a great relationship with reducing logistics costs such as transportation, packaging, storage, loading and unloading. Therefore, it is necessary to correctly transmit and process information and use it flexibly. Relevant information on printing and logistics activities, seeking rationalization and efficiency of various functions of logistics.
This information includes the cost of accepting orders, shipping inventory management, product transportation, etc. These elements run through the entire process of printing enterprise logistics, that is, supply logistics, production logistics, sales logistics, recycling logistics, etc. All of the above elements should be considered. Through effective logistics management, flexible application of logistics information, establishment of a powerful logistics hardware system, information sharing of each node in the logistics system, shortening the order lead time, reducing inventory levels, improving handling and transportation efficiency, reducing transportation time, and improving Ordering, delivery accuracy and the overall competitiveness of logistics companies are of great significance.
4. Strengthen equipment management
Printing equipment is the basis of the production and operation of printing enterprises, and is an important part of the core competitiveness of enterprises. Therefore, the management of equipment cannot be ignored. It is necessary to fully guarantee the best technical state of equipment, and to minimize the maintenance and management costs of equipment. At present, most of China's printing equipment is imported from Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and other countries, and the cost is relatively large (for example, a 4 tower colorman newspaper rotary machine is close to 100 million yuan), and equipment costs account for a large proportion of the total cost. A large proportion, but because of the faster technology update, it is also a low-value consumables, so how to strengthen the management of printing equipment, to ensure that the equipment is fully and rationally applied, not only to protect the equipment, but also to prevent the equipment from being idle. This reduces operating costs, which is an important issue for printing companies.
4.1 equipment cost composition. Equipment management costs mainly include acquisition costs (directly affecting depreciation expenses), maintenance and equipment management labor costs, maintenance materials fees (mainly spare parts), external maintenance costs, and work stoppage losses. The goal of equipment cost management is to ensure the low cost of all aspects of equipment management under the overall planning of the business strategy, to explore the comprehensive control method of the entire life cycle cost of the equipment, and to strive for the lowest life cycle cost of the equipment, and to increase the equipment cost. The uncontrollable cost becomes a controllable cost, thereby achieving the goal of reducing the total cost.
4.2 purchase of equipment. The use of value engineering, considering life cycle cost and use efficiency, is the basic requirement for the purchase of modern equipment, and is also an effective way to control the overall cost of equipment. Therefore, when purchasing equipment, it is necessary to comprehensively analyze the equipment purchase cost, quality, performance, maintainability, and maintenance cost, and consider the economic benefits, product quality, production efficiency, etc. The best value.
4.3 equipment maintenance. The maintainability of equipment is an important measure to reduce maintenance costs and reduce downtime. Especially for some bottlenecks, the maintainability is more important. Therefore, according to the importance of the equipment, it is necessary to pay attention to the equipment when purchasing equipment. Inspection of maintainability. In daily production, enterprises must master the wear and tear laws and failure rules of equipment, pay attention to the inspection of maintenance economy, choose economical and reasonable equipment maintenance methods, and correctly handle the relationship between maintenance costs and maintenance effects. In addition, the implementation of equipment information management, equipment management, the establishment of a comprehensive preventive maintenance system, equipment management to achieve the desired level.
5. Select the best process
The selection of the prepress process is an important aspect of cost management and has a large impact on cost control. The choice of different processes has a great impact on the use of printed raw materials, the use of equipment, maintenance, maintenance and the ease of printing and finishing. Therefore, how to select the optimal process flow plays an extremely important role in the cost management of printing enterprises.
Some powerful production enterprises (with rich practical experience and superior experimental conditions) should take the initiative to use their own scientific and technological strength to carry out some research and development work. If some parts and components on the equipment cannot be solved in China and the original products are expensive, you can consider self-developed domestic development, which can save a lot of expenses, and may even invent higher performance and economic benefits. The alternatives can be used not only by the company, but also as an export product, with additional profits. Selecting the best process can also improve the production efficiency of the enterprise, which can also reduce the production cost to some extent, because improving the production efficiency of the enterprise, the department and reducing the production cost per unit time is an important aspect of the cost control of the printing enterprise. At present, China's printing enterprises with relatively good production efficiency basically implement the "multi-shift system" to ensure higher production efficiency and control the cost.
6. Control paper costs
Printing materials are one of the most important materials in the printing and packaging industry, and paper is the most used printing material in printing, and it is a vital part of the printing work. The cost of paper accounts for a very large proportion of printed matter, and the cost of paper in books and periodicals accounts for more than half. In the modern printing industry, the profit margin becomes smaller and smaller. Therefore, how to reduce the cost of paper in printing becomes a very important part of cost management. The specific measures are as follows:
6.1 strict paper acceptance
For the printing house / printing company, the acceptance of paper is very important, and the strict inspection and proofreading should be done on the brand, weight, grade, specification, paper packaging and paper core of the paper. Strict paper acceptance not only avoids the appearance quality problems caused by paper transportation, but also avoids the quality problems of the paper itself, thus eliminating the factors that may affect the printing quality, efficiency and cost in the bud, further enhancing the company's Profit margins.
6.2 standard operation printing equipment
In the printing production, under the premise of standardizing the operation of printing equipment, quantitatively record the waste of paper produced in each shift, and measure the downtime of the printing equipment through the measurement system, including the cause, frequency and consumption of the equipment when it is adjusted to the printing. Sheets, knowing the machine's production efficiency and the most common downtime, can provide a practical basis for the development of paper waste reduction measures.
6.3 use new technology to reduce paper consumption
Now many research and development personnel also pay great attention to the consumption of paper, and have developed many new technologies to improve the use of paper. Seamless Blanket Technology: Heidelberg's seamless blanket technology increases the effective print area and reduces the size of the cut, which significantly reduces paper waste; Mitsubishi's sleeve-type blanket technology makes two blankets The gap between them is shortened to only 1/16 inch, which matches the gap of the plate cylinder, which reduces the cutting size of the web and enlarges the area of the signature accordingly; no locating pin folding: no positioning pin The folding type can eliminate the area of the signature when the positioning pin fixes the book page, thereby expanding the size occupied by the printing content; the linkless driving: each part of the machine has its own independent driving device, which can increase the tension control of the paper. Reduce the possibility of web breaks; ink preset technology: The most effective way to reduce paper waste is to combine ink presets with semi-automatic plate changes.
7. Emphasis on employee training
"Quality is the life of the company, and employees are the backbone of the company." Corporate training can increase the productivity of the company and create greater profits. It is also an indispensable aspect of enterprise cost management to do a good job in corporate training and reduce the cost of human resources.
In the production of modern printing enterprises, the application of new technologies and new equipment, and the implementation of advanced management systems have greatly improved the production efficiency and level of enterprises, but this also requires employees to have a higher overall quality and The ability to keep up with the pace of business advancement, so it is especially important for printing companies to regularly organize some training in technology and quality, which can achieve the effect of “doing more with less.” However, the training of some printing companies is not satisfactory. Some companies implement large-scale training, requiring all employees to participate in the training, but the knowledge required for the different levels of employees and work is not the same, the results of such training can not achieve better results. Enterprise training is targeted to reduce unnecessary waste, improve employees at different levels, and make the human resources situation of the enterprise enter a virtuous circle, truly enabling employees to “recreate”. In addition, the training of enterprises is not systematic, and there are only one or two times a year. This simply does not enable employees to acquire systematic knowledge. It does not mean much guidance for future work. What enterprises really need is systematic training and strict training. Plan, training content, etc., and at the same time do a good job of training feedback, so that employees can learn new knowledge, new ideas and new methods, so that enterprises can get more benefits.
Modern cost management is a systematic project involving many aspects, and its implementation requires a process. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a sound organization and effectively implement the work of cost management. Do a good job in the cost management of printing enterprises, in order to explore the potential profit path of enterprises in the "printing meager profit era", help enterprises get rid of the predicament, realize the benign development of printing enterprises, and let enterprises go to the long-term development road.