Sheetfed Productivity

Sheetfed printers sliced an average 20% off prepress time since 1998, according to preliminary findings of a major productivity benchmarking study. Initial results of PIA/GATF's Sheetfed Production Benchmark Study, presented last month at PIA/GATF/NAPL's Sheetfed Conference, found participants running a standardized test form handled prepress activities in an average 110 minutes, down from 138 minutes when a similar study was done eight years ago.

Some 250 attendees at the event were told average makeready time decreased a dramatic 50%—to just 60 minutes—a result of process automation and adoption of CIP3 and JDF file utilities to preset presses The average number of makeready sheets was 850, versus 1,250 in 1998. Process automation steps have also mitigated waste, despite increases in press lengths. (Battlefield Graphics, shown, was an early long-perfector adopter when it added this Heidelberg Speedmaster 12-color perfector last year (Story p.40.)

Analysis of the test runs was done for 20 firms, said Mark Bohan, PhD, PIA/GATF's director of research. Another 20 firms are completing it, with 10 openings for printers willing to participate. www.gain.net, www.napl.org.