Smooth Operator

“One customer recently wanted to add a digital press and a Kongsberg cutting table but when we explained how improved throughput would ensure the new duo would be constantly running and not waiting for work to arrive the press and table investment was put on hold for a few months. The customer then reviewed its prepress department to create the best production environment so when the table and press did go in it could maximise on the spend.

So is your workflow harnessing the full potential of your kit line-up and investment or is it dragging your business down? If it’s the latter, you’re hardly on your own – there are a number of common workflow ‘gripes’ that surface regularly, but for many of them there’s at least one solution as Bates points out.

What a waste
Being able to get more work printed on fewer sheets is a sure fire way to improve margins, which is why ganging software (such as i-cut Layout) can create a transparent ROI. Aside from reducing materials costs and cutting down on costly errors it also speeds up production and throughput. “Customers have reported they have saved up to ten percent a year on material bills,” states Bates. And those are the benefits without taking into account the environmental effect of employing ganging software. Any way of minimizing the amount of product required, as well as the resultant waste, is going to deliver a sustainable benefit.

It’s in the planning
MIS enabled print companies should look into automated job planning solutions. “We had one PoD customer who was spending an hour a day manually planning. i-cut Automate completed it in three minutes,” comments Bates. Of course jobs can also be stored and readily re-called so repeat work can be completed quickly and efficiently.

Press-ready PDFs
To many printers press-ready PDFs simply don’t exist but, increasingly, sophisticated software is making this so. Historically printers have had to waste, often unchargeable, time taking customer supplied PDFs back into Adobe Illustrator etc to make them suitable for print output.

With PDF editing software such as i-cut Preflight (which utlises Pitstop PDF preflighting software from Enfocus), preflighting and editing PDFs can be completed without the problems previously associated with having to take files back into programs like Illustrator, InDesign and QuarkXPress.

Printers can also make pre-agreed amends more readily, speeding up production and eliminating the need for repeated customer approvals. Text can be modified and even images can be altered from CMYK to RGB or vice versa. The ability to easily change languages also improves productivity.

Paul Bates says: “I like to use the garden wall analogy where a company produces a PDF that is then thrown over the garden wall to the printer. If they have to change it they throw it back. What we are saying is why not change it once it is over the garden wall. Why can’t it stay there?” Rather than having to convert files they can be proofed on Acrobat so there is no need for specialist software to make modifications. This helps to ensure the whole job is right first time, reducing errors and the need for costly reprints.

Bates adds: “One customer ordered a copy of i-cut Preflight with the idea it would be a first aid product but soon ordered seven licences so all its operators could access it.”

Entering a new dimension
Three-dimensional structural design is working its way into the print portfolio of an increasing number of large-format graphics operations – largely because there’s now the software to make it a viable proposition. Previously, the 2D process was time consuming and often it was only when a mock-up was produced that fatal flaws were identified. But, with software packages like ArtiosCAD, a 3D structural design can be developed on screen allowing ongoing amends to be made.

Now multiple elements can be brought together from the product shape and design to the substrate used. Changes can be immediately made to the shape and size for improved impact or to the amount of substrate used for a more economic result.

“At the moment curved creases are very popular but difficult to achieve and they impact the design of the whole product,” points out Bates. “With 3D software like ArtiosCAD, designers can be completely fresh and innovative in their work. With just a few clicks they can try something new whereas previously mocking up a design would have been too time and cost restrictive.”

Visualising success
There is nothing quite like seeing a proposed design in a 360 degree hyperrealistic colour image to help make final alterations and complete the approval process. However, the use of such software can also help printers show customers how further value can be added explains Bates: “We have a client using Studio that regularly gets a brief where price is set to a certain point. So our client delivers to the brief but then shows another solution that for three or four percent more can include special colours or embossing effects. 90% of time they will get the up-sell. The software allows printers to be more creative and offer clients more but without it costing them a lot of time and effort. This approach also helps them to retain business and build longer-term relationships.

Maximising workflow
We know that jobs can easily spend longer in prepress than on the printer and then back up in the bindery. An automated pre-flighting and print/cutter file preparation workflow system helps free up throughput in the first instance while high speed digital finishing keeps pace with the printed materials to reduce lead times. Smoothing out the administration process and eliminating human touchpoints through greater automation also eliminates repetitive manual tasks that can result in costly errors.

Using something like Automation Engine takes mind-numbing jobs such as trapping, approving files and emailing customers for approval away from operators, freeing them utilise skills more creatively. Bates states: “We had one customer who used to spend 15 minutes every job populating legends with information. Using Automation Engine and accessing the details that exist elsewhere this can be automatically populated.”

Wide-format printer Bluetree Design and Print cut its bottleneck with EskoArtwork’s workflow solution and managing director Bryan Shirley, says: "It will consistently get the PDF to the printers as quickly as possible. We are finding more and more with digital that people order work today and want it tomorrow. It had led to a blockage in the system at the front end because the digital machines are very fast; this investment evened that out."

Improving integration
In production there are often too many islands as many people think about the one thing they are directly involved with. As a result problems down the line are rarely considered so the answer is obvious – better integration. Software like ArtiosCAD for instance, generates a file that can be read by the Kongsberg cutting tables to enable fast set-up, increasing productivity by something like ten percent. It immediately recognises the optimum way to cut that file and passes intelligence backwards and forwards.

Automation, automation, automation
Increased software and PDF file automation equals enhanced productivity. The automation of files coming in so they are checked before the operator sees them reduces handling and administration as much as possible. This allows operators to do the job they enjoy rather than manual administration and enables files to be handled swiftly and accurately.

Taken collectively or individually, the points made above should go some way to ensure you become a smoother operator and improve your operational capabilities regardless of your budgetary constraints.