Production Times
Calculating production times for album manufacturing can be done with reasonable accuracy as long as you are prepared to understand the ordering / production procedures and variables that effect production times.
'The long of it' explains in detail each variable(highly recommended). 'The short of it' gives you a table to help you quickly calculate a delivery date.
You may have figured out by now that determining production dates is not a “one size fits all” equation. This is solely because Albums Australia offers more designing options than any other album manufacturer in the world. In fact, we have over 14,000 stock items that can be mixed and matched in any combination and album size to enable you to create truly individual albums.
This gives you the ultimate variety of enhancement options to choose from and certainly allows you to create fantastic presentations for your bridal couples. It also means that every album you design and order will take a different amount of time, even if ordered on the same day as others.
Here is why.
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Many of our popular cover materials are made from exotic materials and are actually built and customised by the manufacturers of the materials. Many times, we are unable to begin production of the album until we have these important components.
These include but are not limited to …
Acrylic Photo Covers, Metal Photos, Photo Covers, Embossing Blocks, Translucent Covers, Metal Engraving Services and Laser Etching. |
Panorama pages, Keyholes and Gatefolds are very labour intensive and the more in an album, the longer it can take to make it. An “average” album will have only one Gatefold and a maximum of 3-4 panorama pages. (Please note that the highest ratio of panoramas to album pages in an album which we will guarantee is 1:3 page sides - one single panorama page side to every three page sides in an album). Designing non flush mount albums with more than this ratio is only available when the studio signs a warranty disclaimer form that we can provide you. |
The beauty of TDA and technology is that you are able to order any time you wish, morning noon or night from anywhere in the world. However the actual production of your album will only begin when we have everything that we need on hand to enable us to build it in an uninterrupted manner.
Items as listed above including prints for panorama pages will delay our ability to start your album in production. This is not the case when you use P&A services as we take care of all images on your behalf. |
This is determined by a few different variables. |
The cut-off for our weekly production run is 5pm (Melbourne time - AEST) each Wednesday for the order to begin production on the Monday. If you order arrives after this time (Thursday or Friday for example), your order will wait until the next production run (the following Monday) before it can get started. And then only if… |
All of the custom components stated above have been received by us in good condition for the order to be listed in the next production run. |
All orders must be paid in full before production can begin. “Successfully” meaning that even though we may have your credit card details on file, the actual transfer of funds must be successful before we consider it paid. |
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Don’t forget to allow at least 1 day for packaging and despatch and then take into consideration the normal time that it takes to transport an album from Melbourne to your studio address.
The following table is a guide to help you.
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To calculate a normal production time for custom designed albums, start by adding the value labelled “Normal Production Time” for the type of album you have chosen (highlighted in Red) and the single largest value of any of the extras listed that your album design contains, regardless of how many extras that the album has.
I.E. a Matrix album (15 working days) with an Acrylic cover (+5 working days) with the Print and Assembly service (+8 working days) creates a production cycle time of 23 working days because you add the normal album time of a Matrix 15 and the largest production time (print & assembly in this case +8) to get a 23 day cycle. |
Matrix album (15 working days) with an Acrylic cover (+5 working days) with the Print and Assembly service (+8 working days) Total 15 + 8 = 23 working days |
Don’t forget to add your transport days to the total.
TIP:
We highly recommend that all studios adopt a policy of ”over quoting” production times to avoid embarrassing situations that occur when albums take longer than expected.
It also helps to explain to you clients that their album presentation is hand crafted and highly customised which does take time. Also explain that the quality standards of Albums Australia are very high and that our policy is to correct all errors before shipping a finished album whenever possible. This can add to an increase in it’s normal expected production time.