TECHWATCH tm: Help Wanted: Robot Managers

Up to 50% of print production labor takes place during finishing. Startling as that may sound, in some Web-to-print workflows—where humans may not even touch a job until it reaches the bindery—finishing accounts for over 90% of labor.

But just as prepress has been automated, eliminating typesetting and stripping, we see computer-assisted mechanical systems and robotics rapidly moving to the plant floor. Expect this automation to eliminate hand jogging and many other unabashedly manual operations still seen in most plants.

This sophisticated technology still requires the knowledge accumulated in years on the line, as the bindery operator labor pool morphs into overseers of robotic systems. Finishing operators have valuable knowledge of the behavior of print materials through postpress, and their role will become even more critical, especially to take quick action if something goes awry. Just as a computer can make a million calculations per second, it can also replicate a mistake at a million times a second. This combination of efficiency with vulnerability increases the need for human supervision.

In the transition, some people will be promoted from trade and craft laborers to managers rather quickly. In other cases, new hires won't be needed, or head counts may be reduced.

The human managing the automation needs to know how to revert to manual processes, since automated systems inevitably fail, calling for manual backup at times. But generally, errors will be fewer: important because more than 90% of value added is contributed prior to finishing.

A striking automation example is the Polar PACE system (GAM Oct. 2007 p.38), a programmed cutter and paper pile transporter that runs nearly unattended. It automatically jogs piles to prep the cut, feeds lifts to the throat of the cutter, rotates trimmed stacks, even palletizes cut sheets while removing trim waste—all without human intervention. This replaces seven (or more) manual steps with automated consistency, precision and reduced risk of repetitive injury to human operators.

Before such automated systems, productive cutter operators had more or less the physical build of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Stronger individuals were faster lifting piles to the cutter, trimming and unloading, often aided by a second.

Automating cutting requires systemic changes to production workflow. Heidelberg says that at one user, a single automated PACE replaced up to three paper cutters. Instead of six people per shift, this firm operated with one driving two cutters. Customers using PACE report an average 250% productivity gain. At another site, a job cut manually took 12.75 hours; the PACE system took 3.5 hours—and one operator.

At 1,000-employee VistaPrint, five automated Polar LabelSystems SC-21 cutters have been operating in its two plants in the Netherlands and Windsor, ON. VistaPrint will add four more. Each cuts, then bands up to 1,500 jobs per hour. Vista-Print's 18 localized Websites, serving over 120 countries, automatically impose and gang-run print orders. In the newly ordered SC-21 system, the material is first cut into strips by a Polar 137 Autotrim M; then a Polar Autocut 115 cuts the products to the required size. Finally, the stacks are banded by a BM-105 multi-station bander—all carried out in a fully automated process.