Millers Blog : Performance

Turnaround Time Testimonial

Jason Becking — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:47:00 GMT

Warren Kahle recently sent us this excellent shot and nice note, bragging on us. Was kind enough to allow us to post it here too:

While I'm at it, I want to again express my amazement at how efficient Miller's lab was during the past holiday season. Here's a brief recap of what happened during the week just before Christmas.

On Dec. 17, 2007, a weather-related panoramic photograph of mine was published on the front page of the Annapolis newspaper ( The Capital ). It struck and emotional chord with many people who saw it and contacted the paper about getting copies of the image, or simply to send me a congratulatory email. I was delighted with the response, but a bit worried that I could not satisfy everyone before my wife and I left on a trip to Florida immediately after Christmas.

I believe I uploaded orders to Miller's on the 19th, 20th, and 21st. Amazingly, I received all of the prints before the end of the week...even the order I sent on the 21st was delivered on the 22nd (FedExed overnight for Saturday delivery). So much for the December 10 cutoff date for Christmas delivery of prints produced with film! My customers were as astonished as I was.

When I returned from Florida I followed up on additional orders, some 32 prints of that image in total...and I still am getting inquiries.

In short, I'm excited to be knowledgeable enough to capture and work with digital images, and I'm also glad to have Miller's backing me up with prompt, high quality service.

Please pass this along to Arnie, Dick, and whomever else should see it. ( Attached is a copy of the un-retouched image. )

Thanks very much.

Warren Kahle
Annapolis, Maryland

Daily Meetings

Jason Becking — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:31:00 GMT

One of the methods we use to strive for continuous improvement is daily department meetings. Each area will gather for just a few moments near the start of their day. The Department Coordinator will typically lead the meeting, paying particular attention to any new or ongoing problems.

We’ll also then go over any changes coming, etc., then give the other team members a chance to offer thoughts or suggestions. Just 5-10 minutes a day, fairly informal (as you can see), but they are an invaluable tool for improvement.

Here’s the Mount/Finish team gathering for their meeting one day earlier this week.

Praise for Press

Jason Becking — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:15:00 GMT

I would like to throw a little praise at the Miller’s Press team. The past three days have each been the largest days since we started the Press product line. Kristy, Stephen, Brittany, Dan, Kylie, Lindsay, Chris, Chris, John, and David are each to be commended for their commitment to completing the work every day, despite the large volume of last minute orders... and I mean LARGE volume of last minute orders!

This picture was taken about 45 minutes ago. Shows a small percentage of the incoming work orders to be completed today (so arrived yesterday evening or today). Go Press Team!

Turnaround

Jason Becking — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:53:00 GMT

It never fails to amaze me what our team members are able to accomplish this time of year, especially knowing how busy we are and how hard they are each working on a daily basis.

I'm fortunate that my wife (henceforth referred to as Sarah) is a photographer and one of our customers. If I ever want the customer's point of view, all I have to do is remember to ask. Yesterday, Sarah placed 5 orders with Miller's. Some big, some small, nothing unusual. Miller’s received the first one at 9:43 a.m. and the final one at 2:34 p.m.

When I walked in this morning around 8:00, each of those orders was waiting on me (packaged nicely). I grabbed them to save shipping costs and will bring home this evening. It's simply stunning service, which I am not the least bit responsible for, which happened on our busiest day of the year (thus far).

I was planning on writing this post today anyway, but then customer service received the following e-mail:

"I just finished shooting an annual family portrait event that I do every fall.... This time we shot 51 families.... I have already sent the orders into Miller’s and gotten them back and have over half of them already delivered to the families. Out of the 51 families that ordered all sizes between wallets and 16x20’s, I didn’t have one single error either on my behalf or Miller’s. The prints were printed absolutely perfect. The delivery time was nothing short of phenomenal and once again, Miller’s made me look like a super hero and earned many points to me and my business.

"I’m not sure how I ever survived before switching all of our business over to Miller’s. It really was the BEST decision I ever made." -- Tom Holloway -- ProImage Photography; Niceville, Florida.

Redundancy

Jason Becking — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:54:00 GMT

The biggest benefit to us having two separate labs relatively close to one another is that it provides some redundancy in systems and equipment.

Earlier this week the Columbia canvas/texture press went down, meaning anything mounted on canvas or with some of the finishing textures was impossible to complete. Because we have a duplicate of the machine in Pittsburg (or we have a duplicate of Pittsburg’s machine in Columbia, more appropriately), we simply sent the 150 or so orders that were impacted to Pittsburg.

While the Columbia group worked most of the day to solve the problem here, the Pittsburg group doubled their efforts in production and was able to complete those orders.

In my (biased) opinion, it’s times like those when our teams truly shine. No issues, no delay, just part of the deal with Miller’s.

A Typical Monday

Jason Becking — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:14:00 GMT

November is one of our busiest months of the year… Yesterday was our second-largest day of the year in sales. Here’s a look at some statistics from the day and what our team members did along the way.

One of the challenges about a Monday for us is that Monday actually starts on Friday evening. Any order we receive over the weekend has the same internal time lines as one received during the day on Monday, meaning a lot of work is flowing through the system. This time of the year, most departments are working weekends simply to get a jump on Monday’s work. While some places use weekends to recover from the previous week, our team members do a great job of working ahead.

In Columbia, we received 4,175 orders consisting of 155,778 files on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Of those orders, 23 didn’t make it to invoicing by the time we left last night. I don’t have all the specifics yet this morning, but approximately 90% of that 23 we purposefully held back for a call to you.

In Pittsburg, our Pic-a-Pac team members were the first ones to arrive, with much of the department here by 5:00 a.m. On an individual basis, we have one person in Columbia who arrives around 3:30 a.m. to get started on color correction. The majority of our 421 team members in both facilities arrive between 7:00 and 10:00, with times staggered as the production work flow dictates.

The last team members to arrive are typically the folks in Shipping. Many of that group will arrive between Noon and 2:00 p.m. So, our early-arriving color corrector is gone by the time this group arrives! By the time FedEx left, they restocked, cleaned up, and generally prepared for today, they were done around 11:00 p.m.

As we continue to get busier over the next 6 weeks, those times will simply stretch out. What we’re currently able to accomplish with almost no overtime will simply become more difficult and will require more work. Simply stated, we are prepared to do whatever it takes! We’re fully staffed, so all 421 of us will simply work more. For many (most) of us, though, it’s the best time of the year!

Measuring Our Service

admin — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 14:26:00 GMT

I have recently read several color lab ads that state something like “Nobody surpasses our…”. But they are so general in nature that it begins to resemble a political campaign. It makes you wonder just exactly how are they measuring their service?

Since 1991 (In March to be exact!), we have been monitoring ourselves in three distinct areas – accuracy, timeliness and productivity. However, we knew we needed some outside professional assistance – someone whose expertise is in this area. For more than sixteen years, we have been working with an outside consultant to measure our progress daily, monthly, and annually. And this is more than just lab-wide. It is within each department. Each morning when we arrive, we have detailed statistics awaiting us. We instantly know the condition of each department and can promptly react.

We are proud to announce that this is the best year we have since our consultant began monitoring. I won’t bore you with detailed statistics but we certainly can back up our claim (and here is a photo of some of the information that arrives on our (virtual) desk each morning).

ACCURACY - It is you who determines our accuracy. If you return something, it goes against our accuracy statistics. It’s that simple!

TIMELINESS - Our timeliness continues to lead the industry. If your order doesn’t leave by or before the time scheduled, it is marked against our timeliness. We have been told that, because you receive so many of our orders ahead of our published times, it is no longer a surprise.

PRODUCTIVITY - You may ask, “What does productivity have to do with service to you?” Because of our constant improvement in productivity, we have been able to hold our pricing for many years.

These three areas of measurement tell us whether or not we are improving and whether or not we are satisfying your needs. We know that constant improvement and measuring it in a consistent way are the only ways to properly measure our progress!

Dick Coleman