Binding Workshop: Reforming to Eliminate Long-standing Problems and Innovating to Boost Efficiency

Release date:

2022-05-24 10:26

Time is flying by—after the Mid-Autumn Festival comes National Day, and the third quarter of 2021 has already slipped away. With only one quarter remaining, we are now just one step away from achieving our annual production targets.

During the first three quarters, raw material prices—particularly paper—soared across the board. Coupled with the impact of the “double reduction” policy, the decline of the education and training sector, revisions to publishing schedules, and the lingering effects of the COVID‑19 pandemic, the printing industry faced an extremely challenging market environment. As a result, many printing companies found themselves in dire straits, struggling to stay afloat.

Under these challenging circumstances, our key clients—including Yitong, Wanwei, Youyi, Ailifang, Huayang, XinXin Books, Haidun, Hubei University, Yongkang, Su Hong, Jintaiyang, and others—have extended strong support to us. As a result, during the first three quarters, our business volume bucked the trend, growing rather than declining. However, due to the unique characteristics of the printing industry, customers often place orders in concentrated bursts, demanding tight delivery schedules, high‑quality workmanship, and a significant share of handcrafted products. This leads to tight timelines, heavy workloads, and substantial production pressures.

To enhance production efficiency, unlock the full potential of unit capacity, and ensure timely delivery and product quality, the company has, since late September, further increased investment by restructuring personnel and processes across all stages of the binding workshop, reforming production methods, adding assembly lines, and strengthening collaboration among employees, all in an effort to meet the October production peak. Key efforts have been focused on the following areas:

First, employees in the manual assembly team are required to abandon their previous habit of working in isolation, adopt an optimized staffing mix, and collaborate closely—coordinating with one another and assigning tasks rationally—to enhance operational efficiency and unit output.

Second, we will increase investment to acquire new binding production lines and maximize the capacity of our existing equipment by implementing scientifically designed, streamlined workflows for processes such as perfect binding, section assembly, book collation, page matching, and packaging, thereby replacing manual operations with automated line processing to the greatest extent possible.

Before optimization and restructuring

After optimization and restructuring

Third, the focus is on optimizing and reorganizing the packaging team’s equipment and personnel, procuring new machinery, and establishing an automated packaging assembly line. Employees are no longer required to operate individual machines in isolation; instead, they are expected to leverage the line’s coordinated workflow to fully capitalize on the productivity‑boosting synergies of collaborative production.

Fourth, we will intensify efforts to attract technical talent. In response to the shortage of skilled personnel on the saddle‑staple production line and the resulting shortfall in production capacity, we will recruit urgently needed experts to enhance the line’s operational efficiency and address this critical bottleneck.

Fifth, develop comprehensive contingency plans and prepare in advance. Communicate and coordinate with customers ahead of time, ensure the timely delivery of raw and auxiliary materials, effectively organize and schedule production, address bottlenecks in the production process, and thereby guarantee smooth operations and on-time deliveries to customers.

Unity and Tension, Serious Yet Lively

Full-team commitment, battling through the peak season.

Unity and Tension, Serious Yet Lively

Full-team commitment, battling through the peak season.