Raw

Situation: TTW’s composing department accounts for roughly 40 % of hard‑back and 50‑55 % of paperback production cost, and the company is uncompetitive on simple titles.  
Complication: Productivity trails industry benchmarks by 20‑50 %, overtime exceeds budget by more than 50 %, and the department is overloaded with staffing shortages and recent employee losses.  
Question: How can TTW reduce its composing costs and become competitive on simple work?  
Answer: TTW should simplify the composing process for inexpensive titles and adopt higher‑productivity methods, then test and benchmark the changes to achieve at least a 10 % reduction in composing costs.

Top: TTW should simplify the composing process for inexpensive titles and adopt higher‑productivity methods, then test and benchmark the changes to achieve at least a 10 % reduction in composing costs.  
  1. Simplify the process for inexpensive titles  
     - Pilot selected simple jobs with fewer or differently timed quality‑control checks.  
     - Expected saving of up to 10 % of total composing cost.  
  2. Increase productivity through method change  
     - Replace manual composition bottlenecks with more efficient techniques.  
     - Current overtime > 50 % over budget; productivity 20‑50 % below benchmark.  
  3. Validate and benchmark improvements  
     - Measure quality and customer impact of simplified jobs.  
     - Compare results against three peer printers to confirm competitiveness.

**Omitted material:** detailed interview notes (Roy Walter, Brian Thompson, George Kennedy), the union’s new claim, the statement that managers disagree about cost levels, the suggestion to conduct broader printer comparisons beyond the pilot, and the explicit list of “Conclusions” headings from the original draft.