Making Do With Less (CONT’D FROM PAGE 70)
software to visualize it allows production crews to print to the numbers and ensure color consistency • 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. – Inside the Minds of Brand Own- ers: Why We Care: Brand owners discuss the ways in which color is important and how its importance affects their package-branding decisions Wednesday, May 6: • 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. – Innovation & Technology Born from Frustration: How color is affected by ink, anilox and plate selection—and improved by cutting-edge technologies—along with finding the best combination of consumables • 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. – FQC: Exploring Technology & Defining Value in Packaging: Technology advancement born from in-depth research conducted by industry members and students of flexography The three remaining sessions from FORUM 2020 will take place later this year at Fall Conference 2020: • Evaluation, Optimization, Control: The Complete Plate Making Package • Print Quality Scoring: Friend or Foe? • The Defectives II: A “Virtual” Guide to Troubleshooting To learn more about Virtual FORUM 2020 and register to attend, visit www.flexography.org Ellis Packaging Increases Output With K&B-Iberica Die Cutter At the modern two-story facility for Canadian packaging specialist Ellis Packaging, a member of the Ellis Group, the country’s largest privately-held manufacturer of folding cartons, a wide variety of product formats race through the 85,000-square-foot plant on a daily basis destined for the food, confectionary, liquor, personal care and pharma- ceutical industries. What sets this manufacturer apart from its competitors is its ability to focus on customer service- --whether they be new or existing---each and every day. “Our customers demand short turnaround,” says Cath- ie Ellis, President, who oversees the business along with her brother, Dave, among three facilities. “To provide that level of quality service, we’ve invested nearly $15 million in new equipment. Most recently, we added our fourth high- speed Koenig & Bauer-Iberica die cutter here at our Pick- ering facility. Since the installation, we’ve seen our net out- put, which factors in press speed, makeready times, and down time, improve by an impressive 25-30 percent. Due to the significant improvement in our productivity, we’ve seen a major increase in the amount of savings because we’re not running the die cutters in overtime.” The post-press department at Ellis is critical to its suc- cess. Since nearly 70 percent of Ellis’s operation is sheet- fed production, it requires an efficient die-cutting depart- ment that is productive and reliable so that it can quickly process orders and move those jobs along into gluing in short lead times. Customer lead time requirements are continuously getting more demanding, says Ellis, and hav-
federal and state WARN notice requirements, depending on the circumstances and the state. As mentioned above, unemployment insurance benefits may also be available to employees who experience either a furlough or layoff, subject to the particular state’s unemployment coverage regulations 5. How should I decide which employees to layoff? Al- though layoffs are inherently economic in nature, the deci- sion of whom to layoff is far more complex and potentially risky. To bolster the company’s position in the event of a potential claim of discrimination or retaliation by a laid off employee, companies should consider and document the business reasons for each employee selection, make best efforts to use objective and consistent criteria for the se- lection of workers to lay off, and, if economically feasible for the business, consider whether to offer a severance payment in exchange for a release. When times are tight, however, and the layoffs are for economic reasons, sever- ance may not be a business option. Moreover, if an entire department or area of the business is being furloughed or let go, employees will have greater challenges that their “selection” was discriminatory. Joel J. Greenwald, Esq. is Managing Partner at Greenwald Doherty LLP. Reach him at (845) 589-9300 x108 or via e-mail at jg@greenwaldllp.com. FTA To Launch Virtual FORUM 2020 The Flegographic Technical Association (FTA) has an- nounced Virtual FORUM 2020, an online replacement for this year’s in-person conference, where content previous- ly planned for the event will be broadcast live in a webinar format utilizing FTA’s Zoom Meeting platform. FTA mem- bers receive complimentary registration for the three-day event; non-member registration is $200. Each day of Virtual FORUM 2020 will feature a pair of technical sessions spread between the morning and after- noon. The schedule is as follows (all times EST): Wednesday, April 22 : • 10:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. – An abbreviated version of the FTA Awards Banquet Presentation • 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. – Contrast in Print Technologies: Preprint vs. Postprint: Comparing preprint and postprint tech, and how corrugated printers and their customers can choose the right process for each job • 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. – Press Optimization: Straight from the Mouths of Printers: Establishing consistent print quality, workflow stability and efficiency of opera- tions, through press optimization Wednesday, April 29: • 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. – Color Consistency: Achieving the Target: How using hardware to capture data and
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March 30, 2020
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