SOFTSPOT: Got JDF? These Winners Do.

And The CIPPI goes to Ampersand Printing, Guelph, ON, 20 employees, for its investment and implementation of a JDF-enabled workflow that increased turnover 34.78% in its first year—and yielded a five-year ROI of 1815.8%.

What's a CIPPI Award? Since 2005, CIP4, The International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress Organization—whose purpose is to advance and develop standards relevant to process automation, such as JDF (Job Definition Format)—has recognized printers, publishers and premedia providers worldwide, for investments in process automation resulting in big rewards.

The commercial printer, located near Toronto, was the only North American firm this year to win a CIPPI, taking second place for the “Biggest improvement in efficiency and customer responsiveness as a result of process automation.”

Specifically, the firm won for integrating its business, prepress and postpress (cutting machine) processes. Ampersand uses the Hiflex MIS system to feed JDF to its Kodak Prinergy workflow and Heidelberg Polar cutter. The prepress department receives JDF job and customer data, as well as “JDF StrippingParams” directly from Hiflex that are generated from each estimate. Cutting parameters are extracted from prepress into a separate file containing JDF for postpress.

Ampersand's Damian McDonald, VP and production manager, calculates the present value of its JDF-enabled workflow is CAD $1.5 million (about the same in U.S. dollars). He also says the company increased sales 10% over two years without hiring staff or buying equipment. (www.ampersand.ca)

“The automation benefits gained from both Hiflex and Prinergy, paired with the ability to integrate the two systems has placed us light years from where we were previously,” he says. “We are just beginning to realize the true benefits of this level of integrated automation.”

He notes some of the many productivity enhancing features of Hiflex include entering job data only once, automatic reporting of material consumption at the machine level and accurate estimates.

“What differentiates Hiflex MIS is its ability to dynamically generate JDF for each estimate produced, and then feed those technical specs to other systems to automate makeready,” says Gary Marron, president, Hiflex Corp. NA. (www.hiflex.com)

Marron says those systems then generate JMF (Job Messaging Format) back to Hiflex that includes job status, process steps performed, labor time, material consumption and more, so 'what actually happened on the job' can be compared to the estimate, “delivering crucial costing data now unavailable to printers.”

Automating production with systems that “allow best possible JDF connectivity,” says McDonald, “is the only way to succeed in today's fiercely competitive market.” To read the case study that earned the firm its award, go to the online version of this story at www.graphicartsonline.com.

Digital printer RT Associates, Arlington Heights, IL, received an honorable mention for “Achieving an exceptional level of automation, from customer order to distribution, in digital printing.”

Past U.S. winner Action Printing, Fond du Lac, WI, received “Best cost/benefit realization as a result of process automation implementation” honors in 2005. Others receiving honorable mentions in prior years include Lavigne Inc., Worcester, MA, and Williamson Printing, Dallas.

The 2008 awards will be given at drupa. Firms entering can submit case studies detailing automation efforts and results. Applications are due March 20; entry fee is $150. Four new awards will be added to recognize process automation in Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and emerging markets.