Staying inside of Service Level (SLA) starts well before dispatch. It starts with queuing and batching – two processes that are often treated as one. They shouldn’t be.
Queuing is about determining which items should be grouped together. Batching is about deciding the right size of those groups to move through production. Getting both right is how you stay on time.
Smarter Queuing Rules
Start by considering production constraints. Maybe the print device requires everything in the batch to use the same paper or lamination. That’s non-negotiable. But once those hard rules are set, you can start layering business logic on top.
Group by due date. Group by time of day. Group by delivery region. Every added variable sharpens the queue – but every variable also increases the number of queues, and that means smaller batches. If you over-segment, you’ll struggle to reach practical batch sizes, and that brings its own problems.
The goal isn’t ultra-specific queues. The goal is queues that align to smart, practical batches. That means fewer setups, better flow, and fewer delays. For example: trimming 50 batches of one book takes far more time than trimming one batch of 50 books. Multiply that kind of inefficiency across an entire production floor and you can quickly see why batching matters.
What Makes a Good Batch
A good batch is big enough to minimise setup time but small enough to move through production. That means physically move – lift, carry, print, or ship – and it also means moving within your operational tempo.
If a batch takes longer to process at a given stage than a target timelimit (e.g. the time available in a shift) it’s not a good batch. You don’t want to carry it over. You want to move it end-to-end in each production stage. So batch sizing needs to account for turnaround time, not just quantity. You also need to consider file sizes, machine limitations, and box constraints. If the file is too large to RIP, or the job won’t fit in a standard container, then your batch isn’t going anywhere.
Holding Batch Integrity
Once you’ve built a batch, you want to keep it together for as long as possible. The more steps that can process the full batch as one unit, the fewer setups you’ll need. Any stage that requires a setup – whether that’s a soft setup like RIP or press warm-up, or a hard setup like guillotine alignment or even scanning a barcode – should be batched wherever feasible.
Some stages don’t benefit from batch handling. QC, for example, still checks each item. Whether you QC a batch or each individual item, the time is the same. But guillotines? Laminators? Presses? All setup-heavy. That’s where batch integrity pays off.
The right approach is to maintain batch integrity as far downstream as your workflow allows. If the product and process permit it, you can hold that batch all the way to dispatch. More often, you’ll need to break it earlier, especially if you’re dealing with mixed orders or different shipping destinations.
Use setup time as your guide. Use turnaround time to define the upper limit. Use your floor’s physical constraints to shape what’s realistic. And use real data – tracked in ZenSmart or manually measured – to figure out what’s working.
Keep Iterating
None of this is fixed. New equipment changes your constraints. So does a shift pattern change, new staff, or a peak season. Queuing and batching rules are not set-and-forget. They need to be reviewed and adjusted and they need to be individualized to the facility, the department, the product line and the SKU.
What works for books may not work for calendars. What worked last quarter may not work next quarter. Keep watching. Keep improving. That’s how you truly stay inside of SLA consistently, even in an ever-changing environment.
