BY PETER THIERJUNG
NEW YORK - The volunteer workers who operate Pathfinder's
printshop met May 15 to view a demonstration of plans to
computerize the factory floor and discuss how it can help
their efforts to increase productivity and efficiency. The
collaborative network system, using Lotus Notes and computer
work stations at each machine, will help track jobs, monitor
production rates and labor hours, transmit production
instructions and priorities, and monitor training and
maintenance.
Making it possible to tie together the production process is another step in the transformation of the printshop, complementing the plans now in progress to establish a single modern pressroom. Pathfinder is appealing for $250,000 in capital contributions to carry out these steps. So far $75,000 has been raised.
The printshop is the final stage in an international production line to keep all of Pathfinder's 350 titles in print. Printshop workers are scheduled to deliver 10 titles in May, which means all of the publisher's books and pamphlets that have been digitally prepared so far by volunteers around the world will be back in print.
This will immediately result in more than $2,000 from sales of books currently out of stock. These sales include 325 copies of The Truth About Yugoslavia: Why Working People Should Oppose Intervention that have already been shipped out. Other back orders that will now be filled - a total of 109 books - include Leon Trotsky Writings, 1932-33, The First Ten Years of American Communism by James P. Cannon, and Malcolm X Talks to Young People.
Capital contributions by supporters of the project ranging from $1,000 to $50,000 allowed the printshop to purchase a $350,000 computer-to-plate system last November. The new equipment has made it possible for the shop's volunteers to eliminate labor-intensive prepress tasks and reduce the overall staff by nearly one-third from 46 to 32, while keeping pace with the growing flow of digitized Pathfinder books coming through the pipeline. This lowers the cost of reprints and allows just-in-time inventories that save on materials and warehousing costs.
Architects are now drawing up plans for the renovation of the new pressroom that will house the shop's three printing presses. The shop's worker-volunteers plan to take down the wall between the web press, which produces the Militant, and the two sheet-fed presses, which produce the text and covers for Pathfinder books and pamphlets. The physical separation of the presses is an obstacle on the press crew's capacity to crosstrain and increase productivity, efficiency, and savings. This is a long-postponed project that will accelerate the necessary reorganization of labor in the shop begun last year with acquiring the computer-to-plate equipment.
Computer networking on the factory floor will complement the reorganization of the press department. "The network system will help make the production process transparent and accessible to all the volunteers in the shop," said Paul Mailhot, who is organizing this effort by shop volunteers. "It will provide us the objective data needed to meet measurable benchmarks that register our progress in transforming the shop.
"The network will also be a gateway to the Internet," Mailhot added. "It will tie together the shop and the international Pathfinder team's production lines, as well as connect the shop to commercial customers, vendors, and technical support."
Paul Pederson, one of the members of the press crew who operates the computer-to-plate equipment, reported, "We took further steps this week to establish a workflow that will allow the shop to more efficiently handle all aspects of a job - from the digital file that first comes in from a customer, to the plate that is generated for the press."
Pederson described working with technicians and a trainer from the manufacturer of the shop's computer-to-plate machine. They installed the most up-to-date software and conducted three days of training.
Another $175,000 is needed for the capital fund. Contributions of $1,000 to several thousand, as well as donations from those in a position to give larger amounts of capital, will be needed to complete this effort. Supporters of Pathfinder have made contributions from bequests, accident settlements, and other windfalls, as well as from bonuses and profit-sharing schemes that have been foisted on many industrial workers, often in return for concession contracts.
To find out how you can make a contribution, write: The Capital Fund Campaign, 410 West Street, New York, NY 10014.
Peter Thierjung is the head of the shop's bindery department and is a member of the Capital Fund Committee.