Selfadhesive label trade organization FINAT is encouraging its members to adopt World Class Manufacturing (WCM) standards. A new pilot project that aims to build a format for its other printing members to follow was recently launched in Amsterdam with a small number of label printers.
“The big advantage of that is we can develop programmes and create the benchmark for our industry,” explains FINAT president Jan Frederik Vink. He believes the adoption of WCM is vital as the label industry becomes increasingly globalized, although most of the printers are still in the small to medium business category (SMEs) and will need the mutual help that a FINAT inspired scheme can provide.
The driver for the project is the recently reorganized Label Printing Forum, which aims to bring together its printing members in the spirit of mutual help. Part of its programme is to provide a platform for keynote speakers from other industries to explain a wide range of management techniques that could be helpful to the printers in their search for performance improvement.
“I call it the Weight Watchers’ principal,” says Jan Frederik Vink, “where we bring people in the same situation together so that they can help and encourage each other to find solutions. This is going to be important if the SMEs in our industry are to put themselves in a position to compete with the bigger companies.”
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