It was announced on August 27th 2007 by the Flint Group that they will be raising the price of their inks effective October 1, 2007. The cost of News ink in particular will rise six percent. The increase costs are blamed on the high costs of petroleum and petroleum distillates as well as the efforts from China to clean up their chemical manufacturing industry.

So what does this mean for the newspaper industry or more specifically a newspaper printing plant? It means that cutting costs in a tough business climate is getting increasingly difficult. But we must remain upbeat and put a positive spin on this. Remember, THERE ARE NO PROBLEMS, ONLY SOLUTIONS. If you are a newspaper using Flint ink then you must cut down on your ink usage by a minimum of 6 percent to maintain current costs. I suspect that ink usage can be cut further though once the situation is investigated. How can ink usage be reduced? First, define what you are doing. In this case, you are seeking to minimize ink usage. Second, an account of total ink usage must be attained. This will be the baseline or yardstick by which you measure your success or failure to achieve the goal. Third, explore areas where in particular the ink is used. A fishbone chart will accomplish this nicely. Fill out the chart and areas of waste will jump out at you. Now brainstorm with your production, foremen, and printers to devise cost effective ways of reducing ink usage. Lastly, once changes have been made it is very important to go back and compare against your original baseline. Also note your new baseline and use it to further improve your manufacturing process in the pursuit of continuous improvement.

The Goal/Qpc publications really help out in a project like this and I think you will find them helpful. Happy hunting!