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Compuscript
3 . Problem Definition and Objectives
The issues faced by the company could be broken down and gathered roughly
under two headings:
- The
old STI typesetting system was inflexible - By employing new systems,
the breadth of products supplied could be increased, attracting new
customers.
- The
process of disseminating files and copy was expensive and time consuming
– New systems could help to reduce both overhead and associated
costs for both Compuscript and its customers. “If we hadn’t
implemented the new system it would have made ongoing survival and
growth very difficult”, commented Lyons.
The main objectives
for Compuscript in developing new systems internally were to:
- Promote
growth and support the current levels of business
- Attract
new customers
- Create
increased scope for expansion and broaden the variety of products
that Compuscript could supply
- Reduce
costs and increase efficiency
- Introduce
flexibility and dynamism to respond quicker to customer requirements
- Take
advantage of the opportunity to use suppliers in the Far East
Ever decreasing
margins meant that Compuscript had to find a way to provide its service
more cheaply and more efficiently.
Publishers wanted to reduce administration overhead, reduce unnecessary
communication and push more back onto typesetters (e.g. distribution of
proofs to authors). Traditionally, the initial document proof would have
been distributed as above, by either courier or mail. Given the number
of steps in the process, the actual ‘transport time‘ of the
document could have been 15 days (assuming there were no delays). Additionally,
the document was likely to be in hardcopy, increasing the amount of paper
being used and therefore increasing the amount of administration time
required to handle it. The author would then review the proof and return
the hardcopy by post or courier to the publisher with marked corrections.
This delay, when combined with potential delays faced when the job went
to the printers or was waiting for other articles to be returned by other
authors to fill a specific issue of the publication, meant that it could
have taken anything from one week to twelve months before an article originally
proofed by the typesetter was actually published. Given that much of the
author’s decision on which publisher to use is based on time to publication,
the shorter this process was, the better.
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