Short-Run Niche

Commitment to continuous improvement

The process of embracing a short-run niche required a wholesale shift in the way Mid-York approached its manufacturing process.

"First, we set up video cameras to record what was happening in the shop," Tenney explained. "That gave us the means to begin eliminating idle time and nonproductive steps and to streamline our processes, most notably, material handling." For example, he said, the company began to have plates and paper delivered to the appropriate press at the same time. It also began sequencing jobs by color, running dark- and light-colored stocks in the same time period to minimize clean-up and set-up times.