"Without Networking We Would Not Have Grown so Quickly"
Is it worth it? It is small print shops in particular that
generally consider workflow solutions to be a luxury. But
Jürgen Piper is quite different. The Managing Director of
Digital Design, a commercial printing company with a staff of nine
in the northern German town of Schwerin, has fully integrated his
company's various areas using a central "data hub."
Talking to Heidelberg News, Piper and his business partner Beate
Stabenow explain how they made use of the unique capabilities of
Prinect to produce quicker, better and more profitably and were
therefore able to move from being a purely prepress to a
full-service provider.
Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Piper, it is not just that you employ Prinect throughout your business; you have also always been one of the first to use new solutions such as the Prinect Integration System. Why does integration play such an important part in a smaller printing company like your own?
Jürgen Piper: Today there are only two options when it comes to growing. Either you have lean and efficient production, or you offer more and better services than your competitors. We pursue both goals - cost-effective production structures and innovative products. And this is where the Prinect solutions help us. We started in 1991 as a pure and simple preprint firm, with two staff members; but at the end of the 1990's we decided to print items we develop ourselves in house, so that we could become a one-stop service provider. That's why we bought a Speedmaster SM 52 four-color with perfector. Sure, it was a big investment for us; but when we do something, we do it properly. Still, when it came to processing jobs, we quickly hit our limits. Data preparation, such as trapping or conversion of Word documents took up huge amounts of time. For instance, standard document creation, including the font, is in CMYK. That is why we used to have to first reconvert the fonts back into black, whereas now our system just does it automatically.
Beate Stabenow: On top of that, we were still imaging on film at that time. This resulted in some spectacular bottlenecks in prepress since the printers had to fit the films themselves. Due to cost issues, we could not take on any staff specially for that job nor run an additional shift. So, to compete, we had no other option but to tighten up the processes and reduce throughput times. This is why we have changed over to CtP with the Heidelberg Topsetter, brought in Prinect MetaDimension as RIP software and installed the Prinect Signa Station for impositioning.
Didn't you acquire the Prinance management information system for calculating jobs at the same time?
Beate Stabenow: We were up to our necks in inquiries. And we were losing them as we were calculating. That is why it is a huge relief to have Prinance. The system automatically calculates the paper, ink and time requirements for jobs, even complex ones. This means we can calculate with greater reliability and considerably faster. What's more, in spite of our high growth rate - we are getting in around 350 inquiries each month - we haven't had to take on any additional staff. And of course we have not laid anyone off since we can employ our resources now to even greater effect by advising customers or building up additional services.
And how did you get your prepress up to speed to deal with your growth in order volumes?
Jürgen Piper: By using the Prinect Printready System. The great thing about this workf low system is that we can define and save the workflows for each customer order in terms of an individual "recipe." A "recipe" of this kind may, for example, contain the following sequences: First the sheets are imposed with the Prinect Signa Station, then the color vales (CIP4 data) are generated for color presetting, and then the data are ripped to match the preselected screen ruling and imaged on the plate. Many customers have their own idiosyncrasies, such as sending us their data and images in RGB format. A conversion of this type can also be saved as a workflow sequence. If a customer order arrives, all it takes is a click of the mouse and the job is being processed. Sometimes we get very urgent jobs that we just would not manage without Workflow. Our record is a 92 page brochure for which we first received the PDF in the afternoon, and yet, the morning after, we had delivered the 60 copies requested. This kind of production throughput can only be managed with technical aids such as the highly automated workf low solution, Prinect Printready, allowing us also to eliminate sources of error - in spite of the higher rate at which we are working!
Can you give an example of processes where errors can be automatically prevented by means of Workflow?
Jürgen Piper: Prinect Printready automatically checks settings that would otherwise not be checked at all or only with considerable sacrifice of staff time. These, for example, relate to resolution, object-oriented trapping and fonts - all of them important items that save time and also make production more reliable. In addition, a form proof is now created as standard for each job, and using this we can check if the cutting and folding marks are correct or whether the sheet has been properly imposed.
You can download the complete article on the top right-hand side.
Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Piper, it is not just that you employ Prinect throughout your business; you have also always been one of the first to use new solutions such as the Prinect Integration System. Why does integration play such an important part in a smaller printing company like your own?
Jürgen Piper: Today there are only two options when it comes to growing. Either you have lean and efficient production, or you offer more and better services than your competitors. We pursue both goals - cost-effective production structures and innovative products. And this is where the Prinect solutions help us. We started in 1991 as a pure and simple preprint firm, with two staff members; but at the end of the 1990's we decided to print items we develop ourselves in house, so that we could become a one-stop service provider. That's why we bought a Speedmaster SM 52 four-color with perfector. Sure, it was a big investment for us; but when we do something, we do it properly. Still, when it came to processing jobs, we quickly hit our limits. Data preparation, such as trapping or conversion of Word documents took up huge amounts of time. For instance, standard document creation, including the font, is in CMYK. That is why we used to have to first reconvert the fonts back into black, whereas now our system just does it automatically.
Beate Stabenow: On top of that, we were still imaging on film at that time. This resulted in some spectacular bottlenecks in prepress since the printers had to fit the films themselves. Due to cost issues, we could not take on any staff specially for that job nor run an additional shift. So, to compete, we had no other option but to tighten up the processes and reduce throughput times. This is why we have changed over to CtP with the Heidelberg Topsetter, brought in Prinect MetaDimension as RIP software and installed the Prinect Signa Station for impositioning.
Didn't you acquire the Prinance management information system for calculating jobs at the same time?
Beate Stabenow: We were up to our necks in inquiries. And we were losing them as we were calculating. That is why it is a huge relief to have Prinance. The system automatically calculates the paper, ink and time requirements for jobs, even complex ones. This means we can calculate with greater reliability and considerably faster. What's more, in spite of our high growth rate - we are getting in around 350 inquiries each month - we haven't had to take on any additional staff. And of course we have not laid anyone off since we can employ our resources now to even greater effect by advising customers or building up additional services.
And how did you get your prepress up to speed to deal with your growth in order volumes?
Jürgen Piper: By using the Prinect Printready System. The great thing about this workf low system is that we can define and save the workflows for each customer order in terms of an individual "recipe." A "recipe" of this kind may, for example, contain the following sequences: First the sheets are imposed with the Prinect Signa Station, then the color vales (CIP4 data) are generated for color presetting, and then the data are ripped to match the preselected screen ruling and imaged on the plate. Many customers have their own idiosyncrasies, such as sending us their data and images in RGB format. A conversion of this type can also be saved as a workflow sequence. If a customer order arrives, all it takes is a click of the mouse and the job is being processed. Sometimes we get very urgent jobs that we just would not manage without Workflow. Our record is a 92 page brochure for which we first received the PDF in the afternoon, and yet, the morning after, we had delivered the 60 copies requested. This kind of production throughput can only be managed with technical aids such as the highly automated workf low solution, Prinect Printready, allowing us also to eliminate sources of error - in spite of the higher rate at which we are working!
Can you give an example of processes where errors can be automatically prevented by means of Workflow?
Jürgen Piper: Prinect Printready automatically checks settings that would otherwise not be checked at all or only with considerable sacrifice of staff time. These, for example, relate to resolution, object-oriented trapping and fonts - all of them important items that save time and also make production more reliable. In addition, a form proof is now created as standard for each job, and using this we can check if the cutting and folding marks are correct or whether the sheet has been properly imposed.
You can download the complete article on the top right-hand side.
pdf Document
Here you may download the complete article in pdf format in English, French or Spanish.
