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**To:** Engagement Manager  
**From:** Consultant  
**Date:** October 26, 2023  
**Subject:** Reducing Composing Costs and Improving Productivity  

Composition accounts for 40–55% of hardback and paperback costs, and TTW is currently uncompetitive on simple work. The department is overloaded, missing deadlines, and faces rising union pressure, while productivity trails industry benchmarks by 20–50%. Despite these indicators, management remains divided on whether costs are excessive, delaying decisive action. To resolve these inefficiencies, we recommend simplifying the process for inexpensive titles and changing the composing method to boost productivity.

### 1. Simplify the process for inexpensive titles
*   TTW applies identical quality-control stages to every title, from complex references to simple novels, creating unnecessary overhead for straightforward work.
*   We recommend testing selected jobs with fewer or differently timed checks to measure the impact on quality and customer satisfaction.
*   Projected savings from this simplification could reach 10% of total composing costs.

### 2. Increase productivity by changing the composing method
*   Manual composition is capacity-constrained: TTW pays below local market rates, has lost staff, runs overtime 50% over budget, and now runs most jobs late.
*   Productivity lags industry benchmarks by 20–50%, indicating significant room for improvement.
*   George Kennedy is available to test the removal of specific stages and to analyze measured productivity data.
*   A separate methods study is recommended to identify further productivity gains and address the gap with competitors.

**Next Steps:** Approve pilot testing for simple titles and authorize a methods study to define the new composing approach.

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### Omitted Material
The following items were removed or demoted as they do not support the recommendations or are non-actionable:
*   **Comparative analysis with three other printers:** Demoted because the author doubts a simple comparison will settle the issue and it offers no direct path to action.
*   **Internal management disagreements:** Removed as political context that does not advance the solution.
*   **Names of interviewees (Roy Walter, Brian Thompson):** Removed as procedural detail irrelevant to the recommendations.
*   **General statement that composition is the largest cost:** Subsumed into the specific cost percentages (40–55%) for precision.