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Impulse Graphic & Display Solutions Inc. 

See How Impulse Graphic & Display Solutions Transformed Efficiency Into Profit

Making the move to ePS Avanti has improved quotation speed to market, ensuring Impulse GDS can see and review quotes in real-time, making them more competitive in the commercial market 

Impulse GDS Case Study (2)
quoteBG

“Our old spreadsheet method was so flexible that there was no consistency in our estimating. We needed to structure our process, which was something we lacked in the past.”

Alexander Cachia
President

About the company

Impulse Graphic Display Solutions (GDS)

Impulse Graphic and Display Solutions, or Impulse GDS, is a provider of large and grand-format signage and display solutions primarily for the in-store retail market. 

Their 25+ employees located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, are experts at recommending and designing retail merchandising solutions as well as producing, die-cutting, assembling, kitting, shipping, and installing plastic, vinyl, metal, magnetic, or paper displays. Their business focus is to provide the best ROl on their customers' signage and display investments.

The challenge

Impulse GDS had minimal visibility into accurate job costing, leaving them with only high-level profitability numbers. They could not determine individual job profitability, and even creating estimates was time-consuming.

In addition, limited insight into quote performance underscored the need for better estimating, ticketing, and business metrics management.

 

Key Requirements
ballot-check Icon - eProductivity Software Improve estimating process and job costing accuracy
binoculars Icon - eProductivity Software Gain full visibility into every job with detailed ticketing
chart-line-up Icon - eProductivity Software Track and measure job and inventory costs accurately in real-time to improve profitability.

Tracking Job Costs for Estimating Accuracy and Profitability 

In 2014 Impulse GDS lost a major client RFQ, which motivated them to revisit their strategy and to find ways to improve their operational efficiency. They suddenly had excess capacity, which they felt could be filled by augmenting their volume with highly-competitive trade printing.

They began to look closer at these competitive jobs and began to unearth unseen issues:

  • They were underbidding some jobs
  • They were overbidding and losing other jobs
  • They were sometimes providing differing quotes to the same account
  • Preventable mistakes and reprints were eroding their bottom line

Impulse GDS had minimal understanding of accurate job costing, so they only had overall business profitability numbers. They could not accurately calculate individual job profitability, and even the estimates were time-consuming. Also, their understanding of quote wins and losses was limited and difficult to determine.Impulse GDS determined that they needed a better way to manage their estimating, ticketing, and business metrics.

The Solution

Impulse GDS spent about two years researching Print MIS solutions, quickly determining that creating, maintaining, and adapting existing products to their unique systems and procedures was too expensive.

These costs continued to escalate as technologies and their needs changed. They concluded that it was more logical to adapt Impulse GDS' methods to match proven industry best practices. They then began investigating how to adapt their processes to those used by commercial Print MIS systems developed by engineers with decades of experience researching, building, and implementing solutions for similar companies.

Impulse GDS selected ePS Avanti for a variety of reasons, including:

  • Their expertise in both the narrow format and large and grand format markets

  • Their willingness to listen to his company's unique needs

  • Their ability to recommend how to adapt their existing methods

  • Ensuring Consistent Estimating

    Tweaking estimates in real-time with visibility to line item calculators.

  • Managing Inventory Controls

    Pooling press information to quickly identify alternatives via substrate classification.

  • Streamlining Workflow Processes

    Eliminates redundant tasks and simplifies day-to-day oversight and reducing the need for reprints.

  • Providing Faster, More Accurate Data Capture

    Makes data entry quicker and less cumbersome with at-your-fingertips templates and scheduling tools. 

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The Results

The most significant results are in the acceptance of the Avanti solution by the Impulse GDS staff, with estimators realizing the benefits of using work templates reducing costs from $1,400 to $800 by printing 2-up on different media and became competitive.

  • Work templates contain all job attributes, materials, and production steps required to get specific types of jobs done, providing precise and complete ticketing instructions to the full production team.
  • Job tickets include additional details so that estimators always easily use accurate and consistent costs for inventory, prepress, production, finishing, packing, and shipping.
  • Production floor workers can do their jobs better with fewer, embarrassing, and costly errors. It is early to quantify the overall business impact accurately.

Since the use of Avanti job ticketing, reprints and production errors have decreased to almost zero, which directly improves their bottom line. Printers without MIS systems integrated into their ordering and production departments typically report 2% waste due to mistakes and reprinting alone.


 

quoteBG
“Avanti's help in structuring our processes, along with their software, has made our team more productive.”

Alexander Cachia
President

Square One - Case Study (4)