Below are samples of problems and solutions that I identified and implemented to help cut costs and increase team productivity.

Print Project Savings

Problem: Excessive funds spent on a project’s production.

Solution: Reduce spending by ensuring a minimum of 5% of all print projects are printed in-house while delivering the same quality.

Results: 10% of all print projects were produced in-house. Approximately $14,435.71 was saved in 12 months.

Competitive Print Pricing Savings

Problem: Excessive funds spent on a project’s production.

Solution: With the same printer specs, determine the best price for a project between multiple vendors.

Results: A 27% price difference was found among vendors. By choosing a vendor with the lowest price at the same quality, over $11,000 was saved within 12 months.

On-time Project Delivery

Problem: Projects were consistently delayed for various reasons.

Solution: Track and categorize each step in a project’s timeline to identify the points of delay.

Results: 5% of the late projects were determined to have hold-ups from project manager/client delays. 95% of all designs were completed on-time.

Creative Services Checklist

Problem: Project managers were inconsistent with the questions they were asking their clients leading to missing information and delays.

Solution: Develop a checklist with standardized questions to ensure the project manager collects all the information required of the project.

Results: At the onset of a project, any project manager that properly used the checklist experienced a smooth completion of their project.

Standard Templates

Problem: A majority of business partner requests were for unique projects that required an exuberant amount of time and diluted the identity of the brand.

Solution: Build a library of standard templates to help cut down on time and reinforce the brand.

Results: The templates ensured a quick completion of a project with almost no delays and kept the brand consistent.

Photography Catalog

Problem: Storage of photography was scattered and hard to find among team members.

Solution: Develop a catalog describing each photo so any creative can find them with relative ease.

Results: Less time wasted on designers looking for photos.

Recommended Word Count Guidelines

Problem: Requested projects were given excessive amounts of content resulting in ineffective designs.

Solution: Create a standard word count range for template projects.

Results: When team members use this guideline, less revisions are needed on artwork.

Identifying Projects

Problem: Due to the vast amount of projects, business partners had problems identifying old jobs for updates or to be used as a template.

Solution: Apply a job tracking number to the end of the copyright line on every project.

Results: Job tracking numbers are used on 100% of projects with copyrights. Source art is instantaneous in it’s location.