Internal RFT as the standard
Measuring right-first-time inside the studio rather than at the client end changed where errors get caught, and how few of them reach the converter.
The agency ran artwork for a portfolio of private-label and branded ranges across three US retailers. Files were built in-house, checked once, and sent on to the converter, where a proportion came back with corrections that had to travel the whole chain again.
The resultMeasuring right-first-time inside the studio rather than at the client end changed where errors get caught, and how few of them reach the converter.
Where it started
The agency ran artwork for a portfolio of private-label and branded ranges across three US retailers. Files were built in-house, checked once, and sent on to the converter, where a proportion came back with corrections that had to travel the whole chain again.
Nobody could say how many. Right-first-time was measured at the client end, after the fact, from complaint volume rather than from anything the studio held. The number that mattered arrived weeks after the work that produced it.
We were brought in to take a share of the volume, and to bring the measurement inside the studio where it could still change an outcome.
How the programme ran
Ten months, ongoingBaseline the errors
Every correction from the previous six months was categorised by type, stage and cause. Four categories accounted for most of the volume.
Move the check inside
Automated preflight on release, then a named second checker per SKU who did not build the file. Both results recorded against the job.
Review weekly
Error categories reviewed every week with the studio, and the preflight profile tightened whenever a category kept recurring.
“We used to find out about a mistake when the converter did. Now we find out before the file leaves, and the number we report is one we can act on.”
Production Director, brand management agencyWhat changed in practice
Errors are categorised, not counted
A dropped legal line and a wrong trap are different failures with different fixes. Splitting them made the weekly review useful rather than decorative.
The checker is named
Second-pass review sits with a person, per SKU, recorded on the job. Accountability stopped being collective.
Preflight does the repeatable work
Line weights, overprint, resolution, colour space and barcode integrity are machine checks. People spend their attention on judgement instead.
The record survives the job
Output, proof measurements and the check record are archived together, so any file can be reconstructed and audited later.
What we carry forward
Read the full Internal RFT case study
Twelve pages: the error baseline, the four categories, the preflight profile we settled on, and the weekly review format the studio still runs.