Repetitive motion.  That two word phrase defines the decorated apparel industry.
Regardless if you are a screen-printer, embroiderer, or digital print shop, your workers repeat the same task all day.

In The Automation Issue, we present a collection of expert essays on an important topic in the industry today. Here, Marshall Atkinson discusses printroom efficiency and automation.
In the back of any shop owner or production manager’s mind is usually one nagging thought: “How can we get more produced today?” Shop production efficiency is a dragon that every company must slay in order to retain customers, drive down costs, and allow for growth.
Most companies face five common obstacles to making their printrooms efficient. These challenges tend to linger in many shops, but they can be overcome using the following strategies. After all, if you can unglue the bottleneck that is causing the disruption, you can accomplish (and produce) more every day.

Not so many years ago, our industry operated with simpler tools.  Squeegees and ink.  Needles and thread. Maybe a whiteboard or spreadsheet for scheduling.
Remember when you used to plaster parking lots with flyers for your shop?  That was caveman social media.
These days things are far more complicated.
Whether you are the “one-man band” and operate your business by yourself, or your shop has a multitude of employees and is an around-the-clock juggernaut, there is one thing that can help simplify your business:

New article from Marshall Atkinson & atkinsontshirt.com. In December of 2016 I posted on my social media channels a simple essay contest for decorated apparel shops that read this blog.  Send me a few paragraphs outlining your shop’s biggest challenge.  Using that info, I’ll craft a response as the basis of an upcoming article.  The winner receives an hour of free coaching help from me in return.

Here is Part 2 of an article that was recently featured in Screen Printing Magazine’s October/November 2016 issue, and on Screenweb.com, Kieth Stevens gives us some tips on printing on today’s modern fabrics:

Tune-ups are a very important part of maintaining all types of machinery. A tune-up ensures that all functioning parts are performing at optimal levels. Decorators of all types rely on their equipment day after day to produce quality results. If neglected, these complex machines will slowly deteriorate and minimize production and profit potential.

New article from Marshall Atkinson & atkinsontshirt.com. Here’s lies poor Rocky.  
Once upon a time he ran a Garment (Fur) Decoration Shop (Tree) for all the other animals in his area.  
He used to have a good business and made a lot of acorns over the years.  Rocky wasn’t comfortable with change, as he always liked to do things “his way”.
Recently there has been a good bit of financial pressure in his Tree.  Rocky has been losing acorns steadily over the last year or so.  His wife Matilda has been in his ear about trying something new to grow the business.  
She fancied a bigger nest in that Oak Tree across the pond.  The one with golden leaves in the fall.  You know the one.
Rocky’s biggest challenge is that gaze of Raccoons that work in the forest across from the farmer’s field.  They built up a huge fur decorating enterprise seemingly overnight and have been steadily eating into Rocky’s territory.  One client after another, they all seem to be heading away from Rocky.
“They don’t even do a good job!”, Rocky used to say jealously.  “I’ve seen their work.  Sloppy.  In fact, I heard the Raccoons aren’t even doing the printing!  They are contracting the orders out to those Badgers by the river.  They run everything out of their basement Log.  They just ship the goods in Raccoon branded  boxes!”
But look at poor Rocky now.  He’s a mess.  Business indecision led to his heartbreaking demise

A sold-out crowd of 130 manufacturers, end users, and researchers gathered for the first “Digital Textile Printing: The Future Is Now” educational conference hosted by the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC) and SGIA in Durham, North Carolina, December 6-7.
Big Picture’s Editor-in-Chief Adrienne Palmer was there; here are some of her top takeaways from the event:

A shop's layout can certainly help a business function better. Lon Winters of Graphic Elephants explains why in this excerpt from a longer interview.

Every screen printing shop tries to run efficiently, but sometimes we get bogged down by the minutiae of day-to-day operations. So it’s important to set aside some time to analyze the systems in your screen printing department to make sure things are running smoothly.
If they’re not, here are three things you can do to improve efficiency and productivity: