Boxcar Press initially hired Carrie as an Administrative Assistant in 2007. She earned a promotion to Office Manager in 2008 and was continuing her advancement this year into a role as a Client Coordinator, managing our custom printing jobs. Her work was exemplary and always in sync with our mission and values at Boxcar Press.

We will always remember the tireless energy that Carrie devoted to her job. She touched many of our customers and vendors through detailed phone support over the past three years. She was conversant in all aspects of our business, and patiently explained ink choices, file formats, paper sizes, press mechanics, everything. Everybody turned to Carrie for an answer, myself included. In addition, Carrie organized many of our environmental and social initiatives, from company-sponsored organic agriculture to employee-powered neighborhood cleanups.

Carrie’s upbeat, positive, constructive personality helped carry our employees through the past three years. We are all grieving her departure. In her memory, we ask that you consider her 4-year old son Eamon. This “little man” (who likewise brought joy to our life over the years visiting our office and printshop) now has suddenly lost both of his parents. Please consider a memorial contribution to the Eamon Willoughby Trust Fund, c/o Geddes Federal Savings & Loan, 2208 W. Genesee Street, Syracuse, NY 13219.

Our deepest sympathy goes out to Carrie’s survivors.

In addition to having a whole lot of letterpresses in our print shop, we do have a few offset presses that we use for doing cool things like….flat printing custom envelope liners! We tried letterpress printing them at first, but the solids strained our presses, and with such a large form, we got such a light impression that it looked identical to flat printing anyway….so now we use our letterpresses for things that letterpress is good at (almost everything), and we use our offset presses for things like huge envelope liner solids! After printing the large liners, we send them through a die-cut run on our Heidelberg Cylinder and then hand-insert the finished liners into the envelopes. We fell in love with these bright red liners….

Professor Penfield teaches green supply chain management in SU’s Whitman School of Management, and we met him last year when we invited him to perform a sustainability audit of our company. Our intention was to make sure our environmental claims had “teeth” so that we weren’t simply greenwashing our company. During the audit he applauded our company as one of the “greenest in Central New York,” which made us proud, but he also mentioned that really ought to focus on cost savings and efficiencies–things that will reduce our downtime and our operating costs (not to mention our “sustainability”). Boy did I agree. I know downtime. Sometimes it takes twenty minutes just to locate a 1/2″ open ended wrench, or a couple things that when wedged together will loosen a 1/2″ bolt. That kind of wasted time, multiplied by twenty employees, adds up and makes operating a successful business more difficult–especially in today’s economy. It also can make one very grumpy. I’ve seen a lot of letterpress shops so I know that we’re not the only ones who could use a little S5 training! So Pat volunteered to train us on procedures to make our shop more efficient and less costly to operate. Later this year, he’ll be bringing his management students down to our shop to help us too, so that they can learn from our experiences. I was amazed at how everyone in our company welcomed Pat to our shop and took to heart his message of efficiency. Not only will this help our company, but it will also make working here more pleasant.

So today we got started with Sorting and Setting in Place, the first two S’s in 5S. After three hours with seven brave people, we had acheived a zenlike organization around our large paper cutter and our print shop manager’s desk. Offcuts were organized, random press parts were labeled then shelved, and lots of boxes of junk are on their way to recycling. I know that I was able to part with scraps of paper and obsolete Polar 107EL wiring harnesses that have been hangin’ around since we moved in this cutter four years ago. Although it’s only about 1/8 of our shop, it was a great start. Here’s before:

…during:

…and after:

Thanks to the brave “5S Seven” who tackled this first cleanup project!

I hope to keep everyone posted here on our progress. Maybe it will serve as an inspiration for you to clear out some of the clutter in your shop? Or has anyone else implemented lean manufacturing/six sigma methods in their shop? I know that many of us are notorious pack-rats–letterpress equipment probably wouldn’t be around if it were six sigma-ed twenty years ago!–but for those of us who make a living with letterpress, this is a terrific time to try to minimize costs and make letterpress printing as efficient as possible.