File Archival SOP

[zacgil]

Hey All,

We recently had a pretty big mess-up in our Prepress department.  We plated and therefore printed last months file, instead of the current months. 

Since we are using Prinergy, we have all of our "working files" on that server.  Every customer gets their own folder.  In that folder are dated folders where we have the press ready PDF, Imposition, and the VPS Proofs.  An example has been attached.

I manually archive all old files every Friday. But with daily pubs, you are likely to see 3 or 4 dated folders in a customer's folder at any given time.  This is where the issue occured.  One of the older folders was used. 

Are you guys archiving daily?  Or is there another way you guys make sure this doesn't happen?  IMO, this is just a human error that you can't really plan for.  But, I wanna do my due diligence and see if there are better solutions out there.  

[Joe]

If there is more than one option to choose from humans will occasionally choose the wrong one. The only way to stop it is to find a way where there is only one option for a human to pick from. Easier said than done. We've had the same thing happen before and the prepress person, plater, pressman, AND bindery all failed to notice the problem. You know who didn't fail to notice it? THE CUSTOMER! After it was printed and delivered of course! Luckily my name was not associated with that job!

[Farabomb]

Since I'M running EVO I don't have the archive option. I have to do everything manually. All jobs get their own job # and folder in the directory tree. If there is a reprint the bag gets pulled, the file pulled from archive and sent to the customer for approval. Then there is the constant battle that changing the paper size no longer makes it a exact reprint.

Depending on how busy I am it can be months before I archive anything. In fact since we are dead that's what I've been doing lately.

[zacgil]

If there is more than one option to choose from humans will occasionally choose the wrong one. The only way to stop it is to find a way where there is only one option for a human to pick from. Easier said than done. We've had the same thing happen before and the prepress person, plater, pressman, AND bindery all failed to notice the problem. You know who didn't fail to notice it? THE CUSTOMER! After it was printed and delivered of course! Luckily my name was not associated with that job!

Yeah, I hear ya.  I'm feeling some pressure to guarantee that this doesn't happen again.  Understandably so.  However, we have many opportunities to screw up a job.  So it's somewhat impossible to human-proof every aspect when there are so many touch points along the workflow. 

[mattbeals]

Archiving and backing up are different. Was this a prinergy archive problem or a problem on the prepress workstation?

Daily backups are normal. Daily archiving is not as normal. On the desktop/server that is.

There are tools to reduce the likelihood of a mistake like this, but it's really a human problem. You have to fix the humans, that's hard. Modifying the workflow is always a possibility and relatively easy to do.

[Ear]

I don't archive from the workflow and this is one of the reasons. I like to have the client verify art that I am printing, even if a reprint.

There will always be opportunity for a screw-up. And they will happen. I bet this one won't happen again. Don't worry, there is another variety of screw-up waiting for you down the line.

[Tracy]

We use Job numbers, I think it's one area "they" don't mess it up! :laugh:

[zacgil]

We don't have any automated archival of files.   I do that manually on a weekly basis.  Im with Fara in that we are running EVO.  We do backup our servers however.  The point was made that if we were archiving files as we go(after we plate the job), then this wouldn't have happened.  The problem was there were two dated folders in the customer's folder, and we chose the wrong one.  Granted, they were months apart(one was april, one was june).  

What I'm going to suggest is that after we plate a job, we just put an X or the like at the end of the dated folder.  That will break the link that the JDF needs to function and therefore make it harder to plate an old job.  I would like to stay away from archiving files on a daily basis.  That seems monotonous and a bit overkill.  

[Joe]

We don't have any automated archival of files.  I do that manually on a weekly basis.  Im with Fara in that we are running EVO.  We do backup our servers however.  The point was made that if we were archiving files as we go(after we plate the job), then this wouldn't have happened.  The problem was there were two dated folders in the customer's folder, and we chose the wrong one.  Granted, they were months apart(one was april, one was june). 

What I'm going to suggest is that after we plate a job, we just put an X or the like at the end of the dated folder.  That will break the link that the JDF needs to function and therefore make it harder to plate an old job.  I would like to stay away from archiving files on a daily basis.  That seems monotonous and a bit overkill.

That is the exact scenario that played out for us. The customer approved the files in the correct job but the operator output the files from a previous job. In Prinergy Workshop all of our operators have their own group for the jobs they do. Everyone was told to never have duplicate jobs in their group, ie...not more than one issue from the same customer. We haven't had the problem since then but like Ear said...there is something else that will happen. Plug one hole and another opens.

[Farabomb]

They way I do it here, right or wrong, is the only files resident on the server are the press files. If any modifications are made to the files they are done on the Mac then transferred to the EVO server. I may have it a bit easier as I'm a one man show so I control everything. In a shop with other people there is a chance that something shiny distracts them and they don't update the file after changes were made. Our mistakes are minimal (obviously not low enough for management) compared to other places I've worked at. I don't know if it's because of my german anal-retentiveness or my procedures but I just don't need to hear how "you're killing me" every time I manage to make a mistake. They have no issues binning plates if it gets a job on press 3 seconds faster than just waiting for approval but don't you ever make a mistake. 

Just like everyone else said, humans will find a way to screw things up given the slightest chance. My boss says make it idiot proof, not realizing the resourcefulness of idiots.

[David]

all of our jobs are listed by job numbers: one job = one number.

And we archive jobs about once a month (for jobs that are 90 days old), and we have incrementals done everyday.

[Farabomb]

I am now questioning my process hearing how everyone seems to do daily incremental backups. If the server has issues I do have copies on the Mac. I guess the reason I never considered it was because of the backups and the fact I'll have bigger problems if the server goes down.

[David]

hell, we used to do incrementals 4 times a day, the guys got used to the fact that if they ever screwed up a file, it was easy peezy to get it back.

Not anymore.  doomed.

[Farabomb]

I keep copies of the original files, any of the revised files in a trash when done folder and a copy of the finals on the Mac and the server.

Just in case.

[Joe]

We don't usually back up daily and weekly jobs. They are in and out so fast and will never be used again we just keep them on a 2nd Prinergy jobs drive for a month or two and them trash them. If that drive dies no big deal. For jobs we need to keep long term they have daily incremental and full weekly backups to a RAID 5 NAS. Hopefully we won't have two drives die at the same time in that sucker. Every few months we do Archive them to external HD and put it on the shelf.