Subject: Recommendation to reduce composing costs and restore capacity Composition accounts for roughly 40–55% of book costs, and TTW is uncompetitive on simple work. Industry benchmarks reveal weak productivity and high costs, while the department faces a capacity crisis: jobs are running late, overtime is over budget, and staff retention is failing due to below-market pay, union pressure, and recent departures. To address both the cost structure and the operational bottleneck, we recommend ...
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Subject: Recommendation to reduce composing costs and restore capacity
Composition accounts for roughly 40–55% of book costs, and TTW is uncompetitive on simple work. Industry benchmarks reveal weak productivity and high costs, while the department faces a capacity crisis: jobs are running late, overtime is over budget, and staff retention is failing due to below-market pay, union pressure, and recent departures. To address both the cost structure and the operational bottleneck, we recommend simplifying the process for inexpensive titles and changing the composing method.
● Simplify the process for inexpensive titles.
- Every title currently undergoes identical quality-control stages regardless of complexity.
- Testing selected jobs can measure the impact of fewer or differently timed checks.
- Projected savings could reach 10% of total composing cost.
● Change the composing method to increase productivity.
- TTW's measured productivity trails the industry benchmark by 20–50%.
- A methods study can identify further improvements; George Kennedy is prepared to test whether certain stages can be removed.
- These changes will alleviate the capacity bottleneck, reduce overtime, and improve conditions for retaining compositors.
Material omitted or demoted:
- Comparisons with three other printers were excluded because the analysis doubts a simple comparison will settle the issue.
- Stakeholder comments regarding managerial disagreement were omitted as they do not affect the technical recommendation.
- References to Roy Walter and Brian Thompson were removed as their input did not drive specific actions.
