A famous daily newspaper company uses Alpha and AlphaVision signs to improve communications between production departments and employees. This case study describes how displaying real-time information on Alpha signs increases efficiency, lowers costs, reduces shrinkage, improves production, improves the accuracy of the production counts, improves decision making and morale.

New York Times
College Point Facility--Queens, New York
Case Study document, including hardware-software connection flowchart - (PDF 1.4 MB)

Customer Need:

The publishers of the New York Times (NYT), one of the world's largest daily newspapers, desired to incorporate state-of-the-art communications at their new College Point Facility. In their other facilities, communication of changes or problems took place by both walkie-talkie and telephone. Those down the line heard the news through a 15-minute walkie-talkie grapevine from the control room managers to management, then to foremen, on to supervisors, finally reaching plant employees. Moreover, some employees might carry on two conversations or more at once, occasionally leading to confusion.

Solution:

The Times installed fifteen ALPHA LED marquees that acquire production statistics from the NYT's advanced Press Management System and display up-to-the-minute statistics, including:

• Press Messages: Current job running, total number of papers produced, papers remaining to be produced, and number of papers per hour currently being run (press speed).
• Inserter Messages: Jobs being run, total papers inserted, and the amount of papers left to be inserted.
• Inserter Summary Messages: Inserter messages on a per-job basis.
• Process Status: Tri-color marquee messages indicate red for "stop," green for "running," and yellow for "make ready."

Benefits:

1. Faster communication of Line Process Changes and increased efficiency - ALPHA marquees simultaneously and immediately (no 15 minute wait) inform employees regarding status changes throughout the production facility. Employees are empowered to make proactive decisions and respond more efficiently.

2. More tightly tracked and controlled inventory - ALPHA marquees display accurate counts around the plant, reducing shrinkage of printed inventory.

3. Enhanced communication by replacing walkie-talkies - ALPHA marquees reduce confusion. All employees have consistent and instantaneous knowledge about overall production statistics. Now they complain when the marquees are turned off for routine maintenance.

4. Improved employee morale - At any given time and at any given place throughout the plant, employees can look up and see the progress of NYT products. They are now more aware of the degree to which they contribute.