Background of the Business

Alcon Enterprises & Printing Services is a sole proprietorship

established on January 1991 by Rosauro S. Alcontin. The business is located
at Rizal Avenue, Ozamiz City and initially operated as a printing service
provider and supplier of printing materials to other local printing companies
with an original capitalization of Php51,000.00 (consisting of Php6,000.00 as
working capital and the first printing equipment worth Php45,000.00). Its
traditional business model is based on providing timely and best possible
outputs through innovation and advanced technology, thus building longterm business relationships to its customers.
In the management of the business, the owner is supported by his
wife, Cecilia B. Alcontin, who acts as the manager of the business. There are
eight (8) regular employees and a support staff of three (3) members from
the immediate family. Moreover, the company keeps an inventory of printing
equipments, materials, and supplier that for every two (2) years, inventory is
evaluated and updated to cope up with growing orders from the increasing
clienteles. Its major suppliers include corporations from Manila and Cebu.

1. What is the basic business process?

Its basic business process is printing and providing related support
activities. The printing process produces a variety of products such as
posters, invitations, books, calendars, receipts, newsletters, business forms,
stationery, and the like. Related support activities are comprised primarily of
services such as photocopying, book repairing, and bookbinding. The basic
business process includes three stages: the prepress, press, and the
postpress.
2. What is the purpose of the business activity?
The purpose of its business activities is to provide exceptional printing
services at the lowest possible costs and establish customer loyalty through
continued innovation and advancement in printing equipments and other
assets.

3. What steps are performed?

According to the owner, the overall activity process of their printing
business is not that complex but it requires a critical and careful execution of
each step for optimal workflow. Generally, the business performs three major
steps: prepress, press, and postpress. In the prepress, the business handles
what their customer needs by gathering all the necessary data from them:

from the type of printout, its layout, the form of printing, the printing
materials to be used up to the quantity of outputs. The final output of this
step is the final design in softcopy, ready for printing. The second step, which
is the press, involves the operation of the printing machine adequate for the
type of printout. After the printout design has been made from the first step,
it is then being transferred to the printing area wherein the machines are
being operated. In other words, most of the work in this step is done by the
printing and cutting machines. The final step is the postpress, in this step the
finishing jobs are being made to the printouts. This step includes the
examination or identification of any defects, product count, organization, and
lastly the packaging.
4. Where are they performed? Who performs them?
The aforementioned steps are performed in their respective office or
workplace since in this type of business the customers are the ones who
approach their business; put differently, the customers always make the first
move. Accordingly, each steps are performed by the specific persons
responsible for the job. Like for an instance, the layout artist is responsible
for the layouting or designing of the printouts. In the second step, the
machine operator will be responsible for the functioning of the facilities.
According to the owner, most of the jobs of their printing business do not
require a certain specialization; thus, some members of their family take a
part-time or even full-time participation in the business.
5. How long does it take?
The duration of each step entirely depends on the type of printout and
quantity of outputs the customer needs as determined in the prepress. The
speed of the job is done as quickly as possible assuming no problems or
errors occur most especially in the machines.
6. How often it is done?
The steps are actually connected and interdependent to the other;
hence, they are performed sequentially. As soon as the customer provides
the necessary information about what they need, the steps will be performed
consequently. Therefore, the frequency of these steps also depends on the
number of customers they have at the time.