Work N' Burn Returns

Work and turn, an age-old technique for optimizing runs, is back. But it is more aptly called “work and burn,” as a descriptor hurrying projects through print production today. Customer expectations are colored by instant everything—online ordering, real-time confirmations, immediate soft proofs, and work turned around in time spans that number hours. It's a FedEx economy where most everything—from consumer shopping to business services—absolutely, positively has to be done now, if not sooner.

So what are the keys to moving print jobs in and out quickly? Seasoned print managers are finding they must hustle, of course, but they must also work very smart.

This trend has had an impact on the selection process of tools for the trade from workflow, to prep through press to bindery. In conversations with managers across the country, we found a definite change in the process for assessing and adopting new equipment, especially printing presses. Not surprisingly, printers say traditional offset presses have become very specialized. No matter how much faith they have in a nameplate they've used for years, if a competitive model is a better fit for eligible for an RFQ. Printers say a new openness to switching brands stems not from any dissatisfaction with a machine already on the floor, but only because another platform makes a better solution for the very specific needs of print buyers they are serving.

Doing your homework is critical, they say, to knowing your customers' needs, and projecting how that will play out on the shop floor. Also important is giving weight to your firm's comfort level in running new equipment required to serve shifting demands.

No consideration is too small to include in the equipment assessment process: CIP3 ink key automation, auto plate mounting and press cleaning, coating systems, driers, ionizers, infeeds, roll sheeters, built-in densitometry and spectrophotometry. You may kick yourself later on if you miss selecting something that eases the work through the press.

Ultimately, printers tell us, it's all about buying a solution, much more than a mere piece of equipment. And that solution is viewed as a total package, one that will include service contracts, training or even OEM consumables and wear parts—not isolated components.

MWM Dexter, Aurora, MO, says the lion's share of its production is very-short-run business cards and postcards, in run lengths hovering around 250 copies. Quality is vital, but so is turnaround, since the company guarantees shipment within 48 hours or the job is free. That puts a cost on missed deadlines—something MWM employees avoid. “It happens maybe two times a year,” says company president Chris Dale. “We have at least a 99.8% on-time record.”

In July, MWM added a Mitsubishi Diamond 3000 with aqueous coater and SimulChanger plate changing system. It replaced a 40´´ press which, though it had CIP3 capability, was strictly manual when it came to plates. SimulChanger, which changes all plates on the press at once in 90 seconds, trimmed makeready by half, says Dale.

MWM aqueous coats most runs, even though nearly all of the work ultimately gets an offline UV coating. “The UV coating would otherwise 'soften' the ink, which hurts the final image,” explains Dale. “The aqueous coating seals and speeds up the drying time, and makes for the kind of finished product we are known for.” Why not use inline UV coating? “Inline coating requires UV or hybrid inks and we think you lose quality,” Dale says. “We also worry about the longevity of the press because of the corrosive nature of the UV inks. Off-line coating is another step, but it's a better product.”

Although good equipment is vital to efficient pressrooms, Associates Graphics Services, Wilmington, DE, has found that attitude is also important. The $12 million, 70-employee company adopted lean manufacturing in 1998, based on the Just In Time, Toyota Production System and Lean Manufacturing systems. The program is employee-driven, with everyone schooled in “Lean 101” training by the Delaware Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

This approach has helped them get the most out of a pair of 6-color Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 74 presses with coaters (one is a perfector). But one key to making the pressroom more efficient was getting a feel for what is really happening in it, says Dave Zamorski, COO.

His teams began videotaping live makeready and then reviewing them with press operators. After watching what actually took place, the operators themselves were able to discover new ways of production to speed up the process. Afterward, some tasks—making sure the paper stock was cut and in place well ahead of time, pre-mixing all the inks and queuing the plates—were shifted upstream. “It's a very visual system,” VP operations Bryan Taylor says of the new staging system. “Everything they need is there. They already know what they need to know before they start the job.”

One pressman who had initially viewed the tapes and commented that there was “no way” to speed up the process was an important part of initiating the changes that turned a typical 45-minute makeready into an average 20- to 25-minute process. “Our employees are a critical part if evaluating all the processes,” says Zamorski.

Running to the numbers is also part of the AGS solution. “We run to house ink densities, keep the CIP3 data on file [for automatically setting ink keys] and use a central densitometer to control both presses.”

By aqueous coating 95% of their jobs, AGS reduces drying time and allows for immediately backing up work-and-turn runs and gets jobs into the bindery quickly. Tom Gerstley, VP technology also exerts some computer power into the mix. “We run from pre-approved files and rules-based automation,” he says. “In many cases there is no need for proofs because we know what we are getting.” If there is ever a lastminute change or glitch or a change required during a press check, the automated system allows them to have new plates on press within 10 to 15 minutes. “OA [Objective Advantage OASymbio workflow software] will allow us to do that,” says Gerstley.

On the prepress side, the firm documented a 65% to 70% increase in prepress operator productivity when it switched to Adobe PDF from a previous file format. Customers are also submitting digitally printed jobs via the AGS Website, AGS Connect, based on iWay Prime from Press-Sense. They approve the Adobe PDF proofs online and then submit jobs for printing, avoiding time spent preflighting. “Customers like the fact that they can go to a single Website to obtain a quote, specify the information for their variable or versioned pieces, approve the Adobe PDF proofs, revise if necessary and send their piece to the appropriate people for approval,” says Zamorski.

Finlay Printing, Bloomfield, CT, is offering high-end customers a way to speed cold-foil production with MAN Roland's new Prindor inline foiler added as a peripheral right on its 8-color 4/4 perfector. Prindor turns the first two units of the press into an in-line foiling engine. The first unit lays down an adhesive “ink” (the plates look like a typical varnish plate) and the second lays down the foil, which adheres only to the adhesive. The system allows for extremely fine detail to be achieved in foil.

Prindor is attracting new clients with the ability to lay process color over the foil to allow for an array of colorized foil effects. The firm branded the name “Brilliance Foil by Finlay” for the process.

Says Kevin Kalagher, Finlay's CEO, “The initial response to this has been almost off the charts. I've never seen our sales force this excited in the 25 years I've been doing this.” He cites the MAN Roland ppiNet (formerly called pecom) system as a big reason for the firm's efficiency. “I'm a JDF fanatic,” says Kalagher. “It doesn't do everything yet, but it does a lot for us.” Data entered into an EFI Hagen MIS system flows directly into an Agfa :ApogeeX workflow, then to the presses. While many companies use the system purely to set ink keys, Finlay also uses the press set-up data to speed makeready.

“We were printing 1,200 copies each of a number of brochures,” relates Kalagher. “These were all 6-color jobs with coating. In one eight-hour shift we did 17 of those from start up to sign off. I had to check the press logs, because I didn't believe it either.”

Finlay's team found a unique way to proof the foil jobs, using an HP Indigo S2000 digital press printing on foil stock. The specialty Indigo can print white, so Finlay reverse-engineered the process, printing opaque white over the non-foil areas, then printing the process color over that.

An example of speeding “work and burn” production is Krishna Digital, with two locations in the San Francisco area. From its Berkeley, CA base, the $1 million firm is building a new Website, www.krishnadigital.com, as a way to create a center of attention.

“The new site will provide a sales tool designed to bring us into the world of online printing,” says Rajiv Rai, director of sales and operations. Incorporating Internet-enabled printing into its business processes was made possible by the installation of a new 28´´ Mitsubishi Diamond 1000LS sheetfed 4-color with aqueous coater. It replaced a used non-automated version 4-up Mitsubishi that was the first step into half-sized work. The firm had outgrown a Heidelberg QMDI direct imaging offset press, but the lack of workflow integration on the used 28´´ “seemed like a step backward,” says Rai. Fed by an EFI OneFlow workflow system driving an automated chemistry-free Agfa :Acento platesetter, the new press is rapidly filling with gang-run work imposed with a Metrix imposition system. The company is ready for its next step: the launch of an online storefront later this month. Rai feels the storefront will fill up the capacity of the 28´´ and set the firm on course for adding another.

“In this fast, online environment,” Rai says, “we decided to buy the brand-new press because it would provide a higher degree of automation and faster job changeovers.” The combination of coating and automation lets it turnaround work fast enough to fulfill orders they expect to flood in online.

“All the automation on the press gives us the flexibility to go from different sheet sizes to different finishes,” says Raj. “Sometimes between three jobs, we have to change over coatings twice. The functionality of the press is such that everything is accomplished extremely fast.” The thermal platesetter has automated loading and stacking. To simplify its workflow, Krishna Digital demands PDF files from its customers, accepting no original application files. A recent 64-page booklet job was preflighted, imposed and ready to print an hour after arrival. “It's pretty simple what we do,” says Rai. “The software tools are so essential to making things happen.”

DPI Commercial Printing, Rochester, NY, likes to do it all, from digital to offset to wide-format work. But the 50-employee, $8 million firm curtailed some offerings that broke its focus, when it retooled to narrow its production concentration last year. The firm began rejecting certain jobs to key into quality when it added a new 40´´ 6-color Komori Lithrone LS640 with aqueous coater. And it stopped writing orders for board stock runs. Not because the press couldn't handle it. In fact, it had printed 16-, 18- or even 20-point board on its previous Lithrone. But the occasional board work wasn't a core offering.

“We're known as a high-quality printer,” says president Jim Stanley. “That's our core business.” So he directed sales to play in that arena. “We want to do what best fits our clients' needs,” says VP Matt Kellman. This strategy brought a 15% bump in sales as the new Komori came on stream, just as DPI moved into a new facility. “We've also added a couple of new digital devices, but this press has really made an impact on sales,” says Kellman. October hit a record $1 million+ mark.

DPI centers it's workflow around the Lithrone as a baseline for color profiles from which all work is calibrated, creating a systematic workflow. The Komori sets the color standard for an Indigo 5000 digital press used to proof on the actual job stock; big job proofs are tiled on the HP.

“Our color management team came up with our own system. It's re-calibrated and our managers sign off every shift,” says Kellman. “This press is so efficient we can have it ready in 15 to 20 minutes. The new press is just eating up the work.”

Franchise printer Kwik Kopy Printing, Crown Point, IN, says it has the largest sales volume of any of the U.S. Kwik Kopy franchises. Owner Phil Ruschak attributes a portion of a 10% 2007 sales rise to a fully automated Sakurai 466SI press with CIP3 console, along with a Mitsubishi DPX4 dual cassette imagesetter. The 19×26´´ format made the shop one of the few in the franchise with a six-up press. Platesetter, autoplate and auto roller wash make the makeready and clean-up process significantly quicker than the 2-color Ryobi 522HXX it replaced.

“Set up on this machine might be 10 minutes,” he says. “It really makes a difference in the number of jobs you can get off in a day.” Ruschak reviewed both direct imaging offset presses and conventional. The firm finally opted for a Sakurai and bought through local dealer Fuller Graphics. Ruschak finds it easy to sell work on the new machine. “Our 4-color work is up 30% from last year. “

Doyle Printing in Landover, MD, was trying to solve a mismatch between its presses and its workload. The 50-employee, $8 million printer already had a dozen presses on the floor. None fit what customers were demanding: more color, shorter runs and quicker turnarounds. A lot of the short-run 4-color work was ending up on a 20´´ 2-color run for two passes. Register was one problem on two-pass runs, as was drying time before and after the second pass.

After looking into digital presses, operations manager Dave King opted for offset, choosing a new 29´´ 5-color Ryobi 755XLP with aqueous coater. “It seemed like a little overkill for what we needed, but it put out all the fires,” King says. “With the extended delivery and aqueous coating, we're getting a major improvement in drying time and great solids color coverage.”

Operators were unaccustomed to the automated press, so there was a steep learning curve since it went operational in October. The 755XLP has CIP3 integration, and it took some effort to get everyone schooled in setting up the ink curves on the front end. King restructured staffing this month to allow the press to be run for two shifts because of the volume of work being sent to it. “It has been a great fit,” he says. “We're in register within 25 sheets and up to color in a few more. The total makeready is much faster than anything we have on the floor, and the job can be worked on in the bindery within a half hour after coming off the press.”

Ashton Enterprises, a small print shop in Pensacola, on Florida's panhandle, defies conventional wisdom. When small mom and pop shops seem to be dying on an almost daily basis, Tom Ashton set out intentionally to start a very small printing business. His total start up cost for Aston and “a couple of partners” was about $450,000, a significant portion of which went into a Presstek 34DI press and the Fiery Momentum Pro workflow software bundled with it.

Ashton had a lot of experience in design and sales for printing, but he had never actually run a press. “I was looking for something for 20 years that I could get into without much investment and minimal staffing.,” he says. For most folks, that would not sound like a printing operation, but for Ashton, it made perfect sense.

He does everything himself, from sales to prepress to bindery, although he does bring in some part-time help. He has a folder that also does perfing and slitting, a cutter, the press and a digital front end. In the first six months he ran about 2 million impressions. At the end of December he was closing in on 3 million impressions because he had a 720,000 impression job to deliver.

For Ashton, a DI press configuration was perfect. He did not need to feed multiple presses and he did not need to buy any of the additional hardware for plate imaging. Plus, the automatic mounting, cleaning and removal of the plates meant he had that much less of a learning curve for operating the press. He could concentrate on what he already knew.

To keep things running smoothly, Ashton prefers that all jobs arrive in PDF format; he discourages native files. Since he is strictly a trade printer, he finds that pretty easy to control. He likes to import the PDFs into InDesign for the small amount of imposition that needs to be done for a smaller format press (13.39×18.11´´) like the 34DI. He exports a PDF to the Momentum Pro workflow for imaging.

LandmarkPrint in Stamford, CT, is a full-service general commercial printer that also offers digital printing and a full range of fulfillment and mailing services. The company already had a Komori 4-color SPICA and a 5-color Lithrone 28 with coater.

When it wanted to upgrade its automation it replaced the three-year-old 528 with a new Komori 24x29” 6-up Lithrone SX 529. It features automated plate-loading and blanket washing, a redesigned feeder, and console spectrophotometer that monitors color quality and consistency A 24% percent larger sheet carries an extra inch allowing gripper room on both sides—for work and turn.

“The press is so automated that makeready time is only 10 to 15 minutes. We do a lot of short-run jobs on that press, so it's important to have a press that minimizes set-up time,” says Carmine Iannacchino, a principal partner.

“As the pressman pulls sheets, the spectrophotometer can automatically scan them and make adjustments to the ink wells. It automatically compensates to give us consistent color control. Most importantly, our customers are very pleased with the results.”