Mark Vruno

Can you help me become an educational book printer?
October 4, 2007

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Question: I’m considering starting up a book manufacturing company capable of producing 10,000 books per month to start. Books to be produced are:

•  8×6´´
• Use recyclable paper
• Hardcover - books for Pre-K thru 3rd grade
• Softcover - books for 4th thru 6th grade
• 20 or 30 pages
• Black ink
• Color illustrations

Can you provide/recommend information on printing equipment including vendors, costs, space and personnel requirements, and raw materials necessary/needed to produce the required 10,000 per month? 

—    Cindy Mirabile

Short of drafting a business plan, three industry experts offer their advice …

Answer by: Howard "Howie" Fenton, Senior Consultant, Technology & Production

It would not be hard to recommend equipment for book manufacturing but there is a bigger and more important question to consider. Is it worth it to manufacturer the books yourself or to outsource that service?

NAPL works with some of the biggest and best book manufacturers in the world, which includes the “Ann Arbor Book Mafia.” As a result, we have learned that companies that specialize in the creation of any printed product, such as a book, have spent decades driving costs out of their manufacturing process. Even with the best of equipment, it typically takes years to achieve that kind of performance.

When we are asked the question of whether to offer a service or outsource the purchase, we perform a "Make vs. Buy Analysis.” As independent industry consultants, we recommend you consider this analysis before moving forward with your decision.

Answered by: Clint Bolte, C. Clint Bolte & Associates

I do a good deal of this type product development engineering for the printing industry. The el-hi educational market is quite competitive and I'm familiar with the equipment used by virtually all of the dominant suppliers.

I would need to talk with this entrepeneur further to understand why she has chosen some of these unusual specifications. For example, the 8×6´´ trim is highly unusual and will create a good deal of unnecessary trim waste off of every printing process conceivable. Likewise, standard pagination options to utilize press sheets fully will typically result in 18, 24 or 32 page books, not 20 or 30 page books. The only hardcover book that I can recall of such few pages was the infamous Golden Books put out by Western Publishing of several decades ago. However, their volumes were logarithmically greater than 10K/month.

It might be prudent to design the specifications for the type book that will minimize production costs—and then find a strategic partner to manufacture these for a while until your marketing plan kicks in and you can get volume up sufficiently above this 10,000/month target. Once you reach the optimum economic threshold where a make-versus-buy analysis indicates a distinct savings to bring the work in house, then you will be also optimizing cash flow.
 

Answered by: Ray Prince, VP and Senior Consultant, Operations Management, NAPL

Questions beget more questions:

1. 10,000 books per month depending on run length is small for most modern equipment.

2. How many separate titles and what is the length of run for each title?

3. Why 6×8´´ why not 6×9´´, which is a standard size?

4. What is the percentage color books or will each book contain some color?

5. Will the covers be color?

6. Do the covers have to be laminated or UV?

7. What is the turnaround time?

Posted by Mark Vruno on October 4, 2007 | Comments (2)