Press Schedule Builder
Takes your open orders and builds a run order for the press that groups jobs sharing ink colors, garment colors, and platen sizes, so you spend less time cleaning up, swapping screens, and reloading ink.
Before and after
PRESS SCHEDULE, THURSDAY AND FRIDAY
Notes before we start
- Everything is plastisol except Birch Hollow (water based). Birch Hollow is kept off these two days so we do not switch ink types. It is due in 2 weeks, so it can be its own water based day later.
- Neil's Auto is waiting (see bottom).
THURSDAY
- 5k Fun Run (Coppertop Rotary), 120 white tees
Front: navy, red, gold. Back: navy. Due Fri (race Sat).
Why first: it has the hard deadline and the most colors. Running it Thursday leaves Friday as a buffer if anything goes wrong. - Crestwood Roofing, 48 black tees
2 color white + safety orange, front. Due next Tues. - Crestwood Roofing, 24 black hoodies
Same 2 color art, same screens. Due next Tues.
Why 2 and 3 are back to back: identical screens and ink, so there are no screen swaps between them. Only the garment changes.
FRIDAY
4. Nina's Bakery, 36 black aprons
1 color white, chest. Due next Weds.
5. Driftwood High Boosters, 72 red tees
1 color white, front. Due next Fri.
Why 4 and 5 are back to back: both use white ink, so the white can stay out on the press. These are different customers with different art, so the art screen still gets swapped between them. Only the ink carries over.
Due-date check: Crestwood (Tues) runs before Nina's (Weds), which runs before Boosters (Fri). No job is pushed past its date.
Changeovers
- Proposed order: Fun Run, Crestwood tees, Crestwood hoodies, Nina's, Boosters. White ink is used by the last four jobs, and those jobs run one after another, so white comes onto the press once and stays. The two Crestwood jobs share both screens, so there are 0 screen swaps between them. Nina's and Boosters do not share a screen, so there is 1 screen swap between them, but no ink swap.
- Due-date order would be: Crestwood tees, Crestwood hoodies, Nina's, Boosters (the Fun Run goes first because of its rush). That is the same sequence as the proposed order, so grouping does not save anything here. The due dates already line up with the ink colors.
- Where grouping helps: if the Fun Run were not a rush and jobs were run strictly as orders came in (for example Crestwood tees, Nina's, Crestwood hoodies, Boosters), white would stay on the press, but the Crestwood screens would come off for Nina's and then have to go back on for the hoodies. Grouping avoids that extra screen swap.
- You gave screen swap at 10 min per screen and ink swap at 5 min. If you want, tell me how many screens are on the press at each switch and I can total the minutes saved.
Waiting, not scheduled
- Neil's Auto, 30 white polos: screens are not made and the art is not approved. Due next Thurs. Get the art approved by early next week so there is time to burn screens and still hit the date.
Questions for you
- Do you want the 5k Fun Run back print done on the same day as the front, or as a second pass? I assumed same day.
- Want me to build the water based day for Birch Hollow next?
What it does
Takes your open orders and builds a run order for the press that groups jobs sharing ink colors, garment colors, and platen sizes, so you spend less time cleaning up, swapping screens, and reloading ink. It also keeps rush dates and due dates in front of you so nothing gets buried.
Use it when: Use when a screen printing shop needs to turn a pile of open orders into a press schedule that groups jobs by ink color and garment to cut changeovers, such as "build my press schedule," "what should I run first," "group these jobs," or "cut down on color changes."