So what is JDF, where does it fit, what does it mean, and why should anyone care? And what is this thing called “workflow” anyway?

By the time this issue is in your hands, drupa 2008 will be history. We’ll see whether the promise of the “inkjet drupa” or the “green drupa” was borne out, and whether drupa 2008 will be more like the “CTP drupa” of 1995, where the impact was immediate, or more like the so-called “e-commerce” drupa of 2000 or even perhaps the “JDF drupa” of 2004, where it took longer for the industry to be affected. And make no mistake, although the typical hype and hoopla that accompanies a quadrennial show such as drupa may have overstated the case, JDF is being implemented and having an impact.

Although the term “workflow” really should refer literally to the way you get your work done, it is most commonly used to refer to digital prepress and is therefore a fairly recent concept. When digital prepress workflows started in the 1990s, “workflow” meant little more than the series of processes that were involved in getting a job from file to plate. More recently, however, the idea developed into a suite of productivity tools. With revenue growth difficult to come by, intense competition the norm, and margin pressure relentless, printers have to improve operating efficiency throughout the entire production process. A key piece of this is linking the various parts of production—prepress, print, and postpress—not only with each other, but also with MIS, estimating, and job costing.

JDF (Job Definition Format), a standard developed by the CIP4 (The International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press, and Postpress) organization, is an attempt to do just that. CIP4 was formed in late 2000 to extend the work of its predecessor, CIP3. CIP3’s Print Production Format (PPF) found some success in ink key presetting and postpress operations. JDF is an XML-based job ticket format that provides key information about the job to “JDF compliant” equipment and software.

Why is JDF important? The integration of production processes streamlines workflow. An automated environment tells when to start and stop a process, and it also communicates what functions should be performed. Anything that eliminates steps, takes time and cost out of manufacturing and, equally important, reduces the potential for error.

The lack of open standards allowing for communication within the print shop, and between production and MIS, leads to higher costs, slower production, and inefficiencies.

There’s been a great deal of misunderstanding about JDF. It is, first, an open technical specification, available to all. Second, not every piece of equipment, software, or production process will have to make use of the entire specification. By automating the “handshake” between devices, however, it provides the specific information for the particular step of the process. It provides a flexible methodology for building workflows and for producing jobs. JDF is a standard language for preserving the job data throughout the entire life cycle of a print job.

In addition to “informing” equipment and software of what needs to be done, JDF theoretically allows for the collection of quality control information as well as key production statistics about each process directly from the devices. These “MIS” functions allow management to identify differences between estimated and actual costs and recognize bottlenecks in the workflow. JDF thus can be used to improve overall efficiency and better allocate resources.

It’s important that communication be “two-way,” that is, able to send as well as to receive JDF specifications. The JDF-enabled workflow or MIS system must be able to actually implement the required task. And the JDF system has to be able to “organize” the job, that is, specify what actions are to be performed and what to do once they are finished.

As there are more than 300 companies developing to the JDF standard, you can imagine that implementation is a slow, laborious process. Not only do the products have to be developed and tested, the interfaces have to be tested with others to make sure they work. The certification process is long and arduous, but products are slowly and surely being certified as conforming to the Inter-operability Conformance Specification (ICS) by CIP4. But the good news is that the interaction is transparent, if equipment or software meets the specifications and is adequately tested. As a result, JDF-compliant or enabled equipment and software can be acquired in pieces. It is not necessary to implement a complete “end to end” JDF workflow or commit to one right away.

Another thing that’s important to remember is that JDF is not just for large printers. Indeed, all of the major workflow suppliers recognize that smaller and mid-sized printers are more likely to reap the benefits. Mark Wilton, Director of Partner and Sustainability Initiatives at Kodak and CIP4 Chief Education and Marketing Officer and Board member says, “More automation means you can be faster, more efficient. Every printer wants to get his Sunday back. [With JDF-enabled automation], you can be 10%-15% more efficient. Its real value is time. It cuts overtime, cuts process time.”

While all suppliers are facilitating automation, and supporting JDF, each has a somewhat different perspective and approach, or “unique selling proposition” in ‘vendor speak’. Although we discuss here only four major prepress suppliers, there are many other solutions available that may meet your needs.

Heidelberg was one of the four founding members of the initiative that developed the first draft specification of JDF and was involved with CIP4 from the beginning (and with its predecessor organization, CIP3). As one would anticipate from a supplier of prepress, press, and finishing solutions, Heidelberg’s approach focuses on the entire print production process. For Heidelberg, workflow does not revolve just around traditional prepress but incorporates everything from the print buyer through to finishing. Dennis Ryan, Prinect Product Manager at Heidelberg USA in Georgia, says “Heidelberg delivers on the end-to-end JDF workflow promise.”

Under its umbrella Prinect workflow, Heidelberg offers an integrated solution that links prepress, press, and post-press through a seamless system with a single master job ticket, workflow plan, and user interface called the Prinect Cockpit. This provides an advantage in tracking, archiving, and repeating jobs, according to Ryan. It is a single system, not silos with an interface. Also under the Prinect umbrella are press-based colour control and measuring devices. The JDF interface allows Prinect to link with and manage third-party applications and equipment such as MIS systems or digital print production devices.

The founders of Edmonton-based McCallum Printing Group, started in 2004, always had an appetite to be involved with the latest technology. With a target market that placed high importance on quick turnaround, the founders knew the importance of incorporating the latest workflow tools. Starting from scratch, but with extensive printing experience, the founders focused on implementing a highly-automated system and on establishing and meeting daily productivity benchmarks. McCallum Printing is the first printer in western Canada to incoporate CIP4 into its manufcatureing processes and last year received a CIPPI honourable mention for “Achieving Outstanding Customer Responsiveness As A Result Of Process Automation.”

McCallum chose Heidelberg’s Prinance as the centerpiece of their system. “We wanted to align our company with a vendor that would grow with our needs and have more at stake than just a MIS system‚Ķ.We believe Prinance has played a major role in our ability to provide exceptional service to clients. For our clients, sales, production or administration we have the information to create job data and manage production of the job data at a high level of efficiency creating it once and purposing it as needed.”

Using Heidelberg’s Prinect system, job details such as imposition, target press information, cutting, bindery, and shipping details travel with the job electronically via JDF. With Prinready, now re-named Prepress Manager, McCallum is able to process jobs much quicker than in the past and provide both online and hardcopy proofing. With the JDF enabled workflow and Prinance, McCallum has the ability to have precise schedules for the equipment and make effective decisions on equipment loading.

The JDF implementation has obviously been successful, although not without a few hiccups along the way. McCallum has grown in four years to 90 employees, sales of $17.5 million, and satellite centres at the University of Alberta and in Vancouver.

The profit margin has been “outstanding”, consistently in double digits as a percentage of sales.

Kodak’s approach is centered on developing workflows that are meant to be integrated or unified. According to Jon Bracken, Vice President, Marketing, Enterprise Solutions for Kodak in Vancouver, the goal is to combine traditional offset functionality and quality with digital print sensibility and cost structures. That means applying technology and automation to minimize requirements for operator intervention.

Bracken comments that the approach that Kodak is taking with its Unified Workflow is “not only the idea of a single workflow, but trying to identify the issues in colour, production, business, and data that affect the overall workflow.” Based on Prinergy and other existing Kodak products, it enables a printer to grow into digital print, including variable data, using the same workflow. Jeff Hayzlett, Chief Business Development Officer for Kodak, notes that Kodak’s goal with an integrated workflow is to provide consistent print quality, improve customer control, provide operational productivity and system output, and improve return on investment.

Kodak emphasizes flexibility. The core of Kodak’s workflow remains Prinergy. With its emphasis on database management, all activities in the workflow are tracked and managed, providing visibility to everything in the organization. Its rules-based automation (RBA) streamlines the production process by integrating business, data, colour, and production processes.

While there is tight integration with all Kodak products, the JDF linkage allows printers to incorporate non-Kodak solutions, or, through web-to-print programs such as Kodak INSITE, to communicate directly with their customers. “The INSITE System and PRINERGY Software offer print service providers a way to grow their businesses into high value services and capitalize on efficiencies via workflow integration and production automation,” said Bracken.

Ampersand Printing, a 30-year-old family-run company based in Guelph, Ontario, with 20 employees, is an example of a smaller printer already reaping the benefits of JDF. Last year, Ampersand was honoured with the prestigious CIPPI award for process automation. An early adopter of computer-to-plate to drive their two Komori presses, they also have an Indigo 5000 digital press and their bindery is fully equipped with Heidelberg JDF-enabled cutters and folders. Ampersand installed Hiflex MIS for order management and production planning and shortly thereafter began JDF implementation. Today JDF integrates the Hiflex MIS, Kodak Prinergy workflow, and the Heidelberg Polar cutting machine, and will soon be expanded to the presses and other departments.

Prior to implementing the Hiflex MIS System and the resulting automated workflow, Ampersand used several systems. Damian McDonald, son of founder Mike, says “As the systems were not connected to each other, the existence of multiple data pools inevitably led to inconsistent data at different stages of production and administration. Moreover, there was no online availability of up-to-date job information. We therefore lacked the transparency and flexibility to run production and customer responsiveness most efficiently.” The old paper-intensive system had redundant processes that were prone to errors and were not integrated. “With islands of IT application systems we lacked real time communication of job status.” Damian and Mike realized that if they were “to continue to provide our customers with the level of quality we were achieving, as well as remain competitive, we [had to] automate the process, make it as streamlined as possible and minimize errors.” Systems with JDF connectivity were “the only way to achieve this goal.”

They selected a Hiflex MIS system, which not only allowed them to capture detailed job specifications but also to generate and deliver JDF data and instructions to the production systems and equipment. The open standard of JDF allowed for standardized, cross-vendor communication among their many systems, from conception through production, delivery, billing, and job costing. Ampersand proceeded in phases, starting with the installation of Hiflex, then, using JDF, connecting it to their Kodak Prinergy Workflow System, proofing, finishing equipment, and, eventually, the pressroom.

McDonald concludes that “implementation of process automation helped us to realize considerable time and cost savings and significantly improve customer responsiveness.”

Agfa has a long history of workflow innovations, including being a leader in the introduction of PDF, integrated pre-flighting, and digital film handling, among others. At drupa 2000, they showed Delano, their close customer collaboration tool, and their recent developments have reflected this philosophy of moving upstream toward the document creator. Deborah Hutcheson, Senior Marketing Manager, Digital Solutions, says, “Agfa had traditionally started when [the] page [was] already built. We’ve always been strong in prepress. We’re now moving upstream into the design and creation phase, connecting to the customer‚Ķ. The intent is to create a good, printable PDF upfront. It makes it easier for the printer.”

This move extends the traditional benefits of :Apogee. :Apogee is modular and scaleable—the various components can be incorporated as necessary, thus making it appropriate for printers of different sizes, as well as specialties. Agfa, along with Heidelberg, MAN Roland, and Adobe, was one of the creators of the JDF standard. Recent revisions to :Apogee include full JDF integration and rules based automation; integrated colour management throughout the production workflow; and a flexible collaborative platform between printers and their customers that provides a more automated and integrated workflow from content creation through print and the web.

In addition to being able to output to the Web, Hutcheson also notes that :Apogee works well with digital presses; there is no need for multiple workflows. “Our workflow is not unique to any single press. :Apogee offers colour managed, imposed PDFs of all pages which can then be RIPed. It takes in [the press’s] imposition setups; colour and media profiles, etc. We can direct pages to various output devices, offset or digital.” She continues, “:Apogee provides one streamlined workflow. We are moving further and further upstream. Customers want to be involved in production. We not only drive various output devices but are connecting upstream to the customer and content creators.”

Fuji offers a number of different workflows, including Rampage, for which they are the exclusive Canadian distributor, TrueFlow from Screen, and Metrix from Lithotechnics. Jay Lalonde, product manager for CTP, workflow, and digital printing for FujiFilm Canada, says that the particular solution they would recommend depends on the target audience. Rampage is primarily for larger installations, while TrueFlow is good for smaller companies just moving away from film or perhaps acquiring a larger 4-page press.

Lalonde believes JDF compatibility is critical, as it saves labour costs, downtime, and reduces operator error. Fuji emphasizes the idea of setting up the right processes and web-based submission with Metrix JDF and the built-in JDF from Rampage Remote. Customer files can run through various ‘gates’ automatically, right to plating. They work closely with their customers to sell the idea of the web and JDF to their customers. “The less time the operator spends on a file, the more time there is to do something else, and there is less chance for errors.”

Workflow often gets short shrift. It is not as exciting as a new press or a new CTP system. It is more difficult to sell than FSC certification. But it is central to a printer’s profitability. Streamlining the production process lowers costs, increases productivity, minimizes mistakes, and shortens turnaround time. And that’s a good thing.

With all the doom and gloom in the industry it’s always great to hear good news and the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Howard Graphics was a really fabulous occasion. It was held on Friday, April 25th and was titled “People, Passion & Print.” Over 500 guests from the Printing Industry attended and it was one of the most enjoyable celebrations this industry has seen in recent years. The entertainment couldn’t have been better – Canada’s own comedy icon and television personality Rick Mercer. He kept the audience in stitches while the legendary band April Wine rocked the night away with their hits from the last few decades. Thanks to the generosity of guests, donors and sponsors, over $10,500 were raised for the Special Olympics. Congratulations to Howard Graphics and K-North Inc. for a great event.

I’m happy to announce that we are now certified to use the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) logo and we are doing our part to support the environment and promote responsible forest management practices.

As you go through this issue, make sure to read John Zarwan’s comprehensive lead article, “JDF and Workflow for your company,” on page 18. On page 24 there is an excellent article by Jeanette Clinkunbroomer on making your shop “leaner” and implementing reduced-waste and high-efficiency strategies as found in the Kaizen corporate culture. With profit margins as thin as they are for some shops and everyone looking for ways to be more efficient in their operations, reading this article may prove to be quite useful for many of you. On page 28, don’t miss a report and photos from the Western Grafik Arts Show in Abbottsford, B.C. by Gail Nickel-Kailing.

Speaking of shows, by the time this issue is delivered, a lot of you will be at Drupa – the biggest printing and graphic arts trade show in the world, with 17 halls covering an incredible 765,000 square feet. Watch out for a full report on Drupa in the upcoming July/August issue.

Enjoy the start of the summer and, as always, stay positive and stay focused.

It all comes back to flour sacks

After reading Jeanette Clinkunbroomer’s article on lean manufacturing, which starts on page 24, it occurred to me that perhaps the problem with waste in printing—and in so many other areas—isn’t that we waste. Instead, the problem is that we’ve forgotten (or never knew) exactly what waste is.

Which brings me to flour sacks.

My grandmother’s mother died when my grandmother was still a young girl, and she and her siblings often had to figure out for themselves many of the things that their mother would have taught them, had she still been around. I know it was a hard way to grow up, but something in their childhood produced five of the most resourceful people I’ve ever met.

When my grandmother wasn’t much over twelve, if that, her younger sister needed a new dress. Fathers can be clueless about womanly arts in the best of times, and raising five children without a wife does not qualify as the best of times. So my grandmother took what she had—namely, two flour sacks, one in red gingham and one in blue—and made a red dress with blue collar and sleeves for her sister. She couldn’t wait to show her father how thrifty she had been, and I’m sure he was proud—and sure my great aunt looked simply stunning in her new outfit. To her, those flour sacks weren’t waste, they were raw materials for something new.

I know many of you have heard similar stories about your forebears, but they are not only endearing tales. The principle exemplified by my grandmother—that we control how much we waste, that waste is not inevitable—can spur you and your colleagues and employees on to greater productivity and efficiency. Jeanette Clinkunbroomer has further wise words on waste: “waste is not necessarily what is thrown out, but what is not thrown out. It’s all the time, space, activity, and even excess inventory that doesn’t support the bottom line.”

So start looking around and trying to figure out what you waste, what you throw out—either actively or passively—and figure out how it can be repurposed. Think about how the resources—time, money, raw materials—that you aren’t using to their fullest could be used better within your organization or how they could be freed up for others to use. Find out where the flour sacks are, and start turning them into beautiful dresses.

The term “lean manufacturing” implies that many businesses are running “fat,” that is, operating with too many employees, too many distracting non-core operations, and too much time and money invested in too many irrelevant or downright useless activities. While printing companies that operate on shoestring budgets and find themselves running 24/7 just to keep up would probably object to being called wasteful, the very fact that they work so hard for never enough return may be one indication that there is too much waste in their operation. The challenge lies in defining “waste” and in learning to recognize it.

Ford Motor Company often is cited as originating the lean manufacturing concept with its creation of the moving assembly line in the early part of the 20th century. Ford had already been using interchangeable parts and “the American system” of assigning its production employees to specialized tasks, but it was the moving assembly line that compelled Ford employees to find ways to work as efficiently as possible in order to keep up with the assembly line conveyor as it passed through their work station.

Lean manufacturing as a distinct way of thinking and a method of production was fully developed in Japan by the Toyota organization. During the 1930s, Toyota was just beginning to produce cars, and inferior parts were posing a significant challenge to the firm. Recognizing this problem led the company to the concept of “Kaizen,” or putting teams of workers together to study and analyze every aspect of the production process, in order to make continuous improvements in quality. After World War II, again at Toyota, the notion of producing cars to fulfill orders rather than producing to sell inventory became another tool, known as “pull,” in the lean manufacturing arsenal.

Toyota employee Taiicho Ohno is credited with bringing all of these elements together into an integrated production philosophy aptly titled the Toyota Production System or TPS. The central theme behind TPS and Lean Manufacturing is eliminating waste—but “waste” encompasses much more than what most people might think of as waste.

The seven deadly wastes
Under TPS, waste is not necessarily what is thrown out, but what is not thrown out. It’s all the time, space, activity, and even excess inventory that doesn’t support the bottom line. According to TPS, waste can be categorized as one of seven types:

1) Over-Production, which may fill warehouses but does not respond to actual customer demand. In response to over-production, lean manufacturers produce only what is needed, when it’s needed. Lean businesses may also find out what the customer wants and produce only that. For printers, all jobs are done per-order, so over-production would take the form of over-runs.

2) Transportation, or having to move products or materials around inefficiently during the production process. This relates to the floorplan of the production site and the physical workflow as a job moves through the plant.

3) Waiting. When a production employee is waiting for parts or waiting for another task to be finished upstream, or waiting for a repair or an approval, that employee’s time and labor is wasted.

4) Inventory refers to all unused parts as well as to all unsold finished products. They must be stored and kept somewhere, and until they’re used or sold, they’re a liability rather than an asset. Think of “just-in-time” deliveries, to printers and from printers, as a common solution to inventory.

5) Motion. One Toyota savant noted that “only the last turn tightens the screw.” Having to hunt for the screwdriver and/or the screws wastes time and effort. Wasted motion might be thought of as the difference between being busy and actually working productively.

6) Over-Processing. If workers have to do something two or three times before they get it right—perhaps due to poor or inappropriate tools, poor training, or redundant processes—they’re over-processing. The solution is to streamline the process and make it “idiot-proof.”

7) Defects waste time and money both in inspecting for them and in correcting them.

While these seven wastes were developed in an automobile manufacturing plant, they can be applied across the board to just about every production process, including the executive office. In fact, at Dollco Printing, based in Ottawa with services across Canada and in the northeastern U.S., white collar operations have been a key focus for the company’s lean manufacturing efforts.

Neil Byrne, Dollco’s lean manufacturing facilitator, joined the company less than four years ago to help implement lean manufacturing at the firm. Dollco offers high volume web and offset printing, digital printing, and a full range of supporting services, including bindery and finishing and mailing and distribution, all in one facility.

“When I first came, I was asked to spend about three months as an observer,” he said. “After watching and talking to Dollco employees, we found two areas of concern: office workflow and shop floor workflow. Of the two concerns, we’ve focused on office workflow.”

Because Byrne takes a lean manufacturing approach, he’s not in a position to order changes himself. Change must come from the employees affected by it. Key people were selected from each area of Dollco’s business operations and together, they mapped out an improved system for office and informational workflow.

“It was highly difficult to get real-time job information to the shop floor, as various MIS systems across the company were not as integrated as they should have been to effectively respond to fast changes in client resources,” Byrne said. “We had to develop documentation on how office workflow is organized, but once that was done, we blue-skied it. We decided that this was one area of the business where we were going to wipe the slate clean and introduce a brand new fully integrated MIS system that could be adapted by each department. But it was important that we keep the focus always on the customer. You ask, how can we do our jobs more efficiently to produce better products and services for the customer? And then, what processes do we need to do that? What tools do we need?”

This is the essence of Kaizen—employees identifying the challenges and working through them toward improvement. A Kaizen can be a single conversation or a months-long project, and all processes are subject to periodic review for continuous improvement.

“It was challenging because we had about 16 members on our team,” he said. “They were from the Receiving department, Shipping, Bindery, Press, Prepress, Customer Service, Accounting and Planning. We had a mix of manufacturing and office staff that would meet to communicate, discuss, and understand each others needs.”

Getting everyone involved in a Kaizen is a significant feature of lean manufacturing. The objective is not to simply add new equipment or provide more operator training, but to focus all employees on the company’s common goals and what each worker has to contribute to achieving those goals.

“If you do not have leadership commitment, everything tends to fall by the wayside, “ Byrne said, adding that Kevin Nicholds, Dollco’s president, is committed to the program, as is Randall Pope, vice president and general manager.

“And it’s important to have the operators involved, because if they’re coming up with the solutions, they’re more likely to take ownership of the process,” Byrne noted. Without the hands-on participation of employees at every level, finding solutions and implementing them tends to become “someone else’s problem” and would never get done.

More lean tools
Dollco’s office MIS system was a top priority to support the lean manufacturing initiative, and the new system is integrated, covering every aspect of workflow from job estimating to shipping the final product. And the company has made other changes, too.

“We’ve relocated whole departments,” Byrne said. “We moved Shipping from where it was to the end of the production line, and have also moved Receiving closer to the upstream work area, to the roll warehouse. We reduced the distance that paper has to travel by 55%, and also relocated some offices. That helped to reduce job setup time by at least an hour per job.”

Determining that the physical floorplan of the shop was wasting production time and effort, and deciding what to do about it was the result of another Kaizen. However, the task of making the necessary changes was, in lean terms, a “Kaikaku.” A Kaikaku is a radical change that must be done quickly. It requires intense planning, and it must be executed as quickly as possible to avoid disrupting production all together. Lean manufacturing advocates say that a Kaikaku won’t work unless it’s undertaken within a Kaizen culture. Everyone should understand why the change is necessary and support it.

And how do you get to the root of a problem in the first place? Lean principles suggest using “The Five Whys,” particularly in relation to quality defects. The Five Whys take a problem back to its source. For example: Why does this paper crack on the fold in the Bindery? Because it’s dried out. Why is this paper dried out? The process compels looking for the cause of the problem. Did the drying occur on-press? Under heat lamps? Has the paper been stored too long? Is the work area too hot or too dry? Is it a fault in the paper? Is it the wrong grade of paper for the job? What can be done to solve the problem?

Value Stream Mapping, another important tool, means drawing a picture of the production process. This can take the form of a visualization of the complete workflow, from the time a job comes in until it goes out the door. The Value Stream Map is basically a kind of flow chart, including all production points, and showing how the job (or communications and information) moves to and from each.

Another tool is “5S.” This can be applied to a number of processes, but Byrne spoke of using 5S to arrange a workstation.

Sort through what is needed and what is not;

Straighten things out for convenient placement;

Shine it up by cleaning and tidying;

Standardize by keeping things always in the same place on every shift;

Sustain it through the commitment of employees.

Standards Work is another important principle in lean manufacturing. Printing is a craft, and is sometimes even thought of as an art form. Standardizing the many processes that go into quality printing is a challenge—some employees may feel they’re being required to sacrifice their individuality or creativity—but standardization makes the process repeatable and is necessary for producing reliable quality. For example, a prepress employee may perceive blue a little differently than a press operator, and both may see it differently than the customer does. There is no right or wrong here, and the way to solve any discrepancy is to determine exactly which shade a blue the customer wants, and then devise a standard for it, a measurable percentage of cyan, magenta, and yellow.

Lean as a scalable process
Many of the companies, including printing companies, that are implementing lean manufacturing strategies are among the largest corporations in their fields. However, lean manufacturing may be easier for smaller firms to adopt because the Kaizen would have fewer members working in a less complicated organization.

“You don’t have to hire a consultant,” Byrne said. “You can go look at other companies that are doing lean manufacturing. I’ve yet to be turned down when I’ve asked to see other lean facilities. Usually they want to show you how lean tools have been applied.”

He also offers a simple way to get started: “Look at your company and your products from the perspective of the customer. Look for the workflow bottlenecks. Train employees in the Kaizen process. It may be slow at first to overcome resistance. People tend to go back to their old habits, even after they’ve done Kaizen. You can do briefings at the end of each shift, asking what went well, and what can we do better?”

It’s also important to maintain a positive attitude and avoid assigning blame for what goes wrong. Blaming will turn employees away from the process and lose their support. Rather than finding fault, concentrate on what can be done to improve performance. Consider that every department is the client of another department, for example, Prepress ships its work to the Press Room, which ships its work to the Bindery. Can Prepress do something to solve a challenge in the Press Room? Is there something the Press Room can do to make the Bindery more productive? Every employee must be involved; when they take the initiative in problem-solving they own and control the process.

This kind of thinking can work in a company of any size. A single employee can approach his own position this way. Any number of books have been written about lean principles, and they may at least provide a few ideas to experiment with.

In the highly competitive printing marketplace, lean manufacturing principles make it possible to provide exactly what customers want at prices they’re willing to pay by dramatically streamlining management and production processes, optimizing productivity, and eliminating even hidden waste.

Coming off a season of mega trade events and facing drupa 2008, the biggest of all, the intimate setting of Western Grafik’Art, held April 11-13 at TRADEX in Abbotsford, BC, was a delight. The event’s debut attracted more than 1500 registrants.

For attendees, it was an opportunity to be “up close and personal” with the exhibitors and get the attention that can be lacking at a larger, more stressful event. For the exhibitors, it meant qualified—and committed—prospects, not waves of students attending on free “Student Day” passes.

To some, the drive to Abbotsford sounded like a trip to the end of the earth; however, one participant even trekked from southern Alaska to attend! Regardless of the distance travelled, it was a trip well worth making!

Anchoring the event was Konica Minolta, which displayed several pieces of equipment including the Digital Color Printer LD-6500, complete with online booklet making. The SD-501 saddle stitch booklet finisher can wrap preprinted covers around 50 sheets to create 200-page booklets. The fore-edge trimming function turns out nice smooth booklets regardless of the page count. (www.konicaminolta.ca)

The Xeikon/Punch Graphix booth, staffed by Guy Potvin and his team, was without equipment—British Columbia is a long way from all the excitement across the Atlantic. In post-event conversations, however, I heard that negotiations were already in place for a sale initiated by a new customer at the show.

The Xeikon 8000—which was launched at drupa 08 in Dusseldorf, Germany—was highlighted at this show as well. The roll-fed 8000 runs 230 A4 pages per minute and offers 5 colours—CMYK plus a range of specialty toners such as security toner, clear toner, UV curable toner, and MICR toner, as well as spot colours.

Most interesting is Xeikon’s development of white toner. Guy showed me samples of labels, printed in reverse with white overprint on plastic. They had great colour and really demonstrate the versatility of the machine. (www.punchgraphix.com)

A quick stop at International Binding and Laminating Systems’ booth meant a demonstration of binding both case bound and perfect bound soft cover books.

IBLS offers “one stop shopping” for anyone who wants to get into the business of very short run book production. Whether you are looking to produce very short runs of traditional books on demand or offering photo books, which are becoming more and more popular, the equipment is within the reach of print service providers of all sizes. With the wide range of solutions offered by IBLS, it’s possible to create very nice quality hard and soft cover books in cost-effective short runs. (www.bindingandlaminating.com)

Stretching across several spaces, All Graphic Supplies had both Roland wide format printers and the D.GEN Direct to Fabric Printer set up and running. An eye-catching display of fabrics—brilliantly colored images printed on each one—offered soft suede-like microfiber, meshes, poly-cotton blends, and more.

Cled DeSouza, VP Sales and Marketing for All Graphic Supplies is an expert in new and unusual substrates. Whether you want to produce banners, trade show displays, or prototype fashion fabrics, he can help you out.

After moving to Toronto just 20 years ago, the DeSouzas (Charles and Cled) launched a small sign company. In 1995, they sold their production company and focused on providing supplies and equipment to the industry they had grown to love. (www.allgraphicsupplies.com)

As I came around a corner, Pacific Studio Supplies caught my eye. Run by photographer and inventor Mike Lu, PSS provides supplies and tools for the professional photographer to market his or her work.

Modifying a traditional piece of laminating and dry mounting equipment, Mike has made it possible to attach images to boards of nearly any thickness—even several inches.

He has also invented a beautiful means for displaying photographs embedded in a block of polished crystal. They are perfect for wedding photographs, awards, retail applications, and more.

Mike told me that it was a steep learning curve and he spoiled a lot of expensive crystal before he got the process right! (www.pss2001.com)

Phoenix Media Direct, paper merchant and supplier of a wide range of HP printers, is staffed by photographers and colour experts. Who better to know what combination of paper, ink/toner, and equipment will produce the most beautiful photographs and fine art prints?

I picked up a flyer describing the company’s Green Planet Partner Program. Over the last 13 years, Phoenix Media Direct has had its own recycling program known as the “core pick up,” which has the company collecting empty paper cores and rewinding paper on them to reduce waste sent to landfills.

The company has expanded that service to include cardboard cores, plastic wrap from rolls of paper, end caps, and empty ink and toner cartridges; labeling it the “Green Planet Partner Program.” (www.phoenixmedia.ca)

Green themes also appeared in spaces manned—or shall we say “personned”?—by representatives of printing companies. Gord Kornelsen, owner of Fraser Valley Custom Printers, takes his commitment to the environment seriously saying, “the choice is clear—environmental responsibility without compromise.”

Proud owner of a 28-inch, five-colour press, Gord and his crew can print anything from business cards to books. If you run an Internet search for the company, you’ll find a lot of references to books that the company has printed. (www.fvcustomprinters.com)

Printer Gateway is more than a trade printer. Brian Armstrong, president of the company, clearly believes his job is to make his resellers and trade clients successful.

By using technology—hardware and software—that allows Printer Gateway to gang like jobs, Brian and his crew can eliminate waste and deliver products quickly and efficiently. (www.printergateway.com)

I was sure I was seeing double when Brad Wallans, of Trade Secret Printing, appeared in two places at once! Appropriately named, the company provides trade printing services across the country; pledging to use the latest technology to deliver jobs quickly, efficiently, and securely.

Using the “real time” online quotation system, buyers get instant quotes. At the same time, they are able to track the progress of their jobs, approve proofs online, and get notification of various events in the workflow. Especially good for a trade partner who needs to let their customer know “where is my job?” (www.tsprinting.ca)

Brad appeared—after a change of clothes—in the Intuitive Solutions Group booth. Intuitive Solutions offers software solutions for marketing executives, creative agencies, and print service providers.

Over the last 10 or so years, internet-enabled ordering of print—what we now call Web to Print—has matured and flourished.

What is web to print? It’s an online tool to create, modify, proof, approve, order, and pay for printed materials. On the back end, it provides workflow automation to simplify the production and delivery of those materials.

Printers today are finding that web to print is necessary for doing business.

Intuitive Solutions integrates solutions from companies such as Extensis, a digital asset manager; iP3, also provider of content management tools; iWay’s Press-sense, an automated workflow for web to print; and Quark’s QuarkXPress Server. (www.intuitivesg.com)

Software solutions can be pricey, but Pierre Fournier, of Printing e-Procurement, offers print e-pro, an online service that makes it possible for companies of any size to take advantage of the speed, accuracy, and sophistication of online printing procurement.

Pierre has more than a quarter century of experience buying and producing print, and he set out to develop an e-commerce solution that is easy to use and very reasonably priced—less than $10 a day.

At Western Grafik’Art, Pierre launched a new solution that should prove to be very successful, especially with the photographers who were both attending and manning booths. epro-ft is an inexpensive and secure application that allows the transfer of any size file without the use of an FTP site.

While most graphics companies offer FTP sites, it requires that the sender have additional software and knowledge of passwords and directory names in order to complete the transfer.

At the same time, designers often try to email files and meet size limitations of email servers or ISPs. With epro-ft there are no size limits, no special software to buy, and no need for passwords or folder names. (www.printe-pro.com or www.epro-ft.com)

BC to Host Western
Grafik’Art in 2010

Launching a trade event like this is like raising a child. It starts small and grows! This debut event offered a wide range of equipment, supplies, and technology to buyers who may not have a chance to go to major events like drupa, Graph Expo, or Print 09, the next edition of North America’s largest graphic arts event. It was clear there were attendees who clearly wanted to learn more, to talk about new products and services, and—in some cases—to buy!

In 2010, after the flurry of excitement from the Vancouver Winter Olympics has settled down, the city will host the second biannual Western Grafik’Art. Put it on your calendar now; it promises to be a terrific event!

JDF is not a silver bullet. But imagine the payback if you can save 2 to 5 minutes per job – on every job. That’s “what’s in it for me”: process more jobs on time with fewer people.

The PIA/GATF annually publishes survey results highlighting their members’ financial results. When you look at the financials of the profit leaders and compare those to the rest of the pack, two numbers in the 2007 data really stand out: the average revenue per employee is fairly consistent across the board (see table); however, there is a clear difference in the profit per employee between the two groups.

These profit leaders may be better negotiators but in reality, ink is ink and paper is paper. Look deeper at the numbers and you see that the real way they influence profitability is through their people – they just get more done with less manpower.

But how? Every time someone touches a job, you lose profit and increase turnaround time. So, one way to improve profit is through automating as many steps in your workflow as possible. The challenge is getting different software applications and different pieces of equipment to talk to one another. And that’s where JDF kicks in.

Most printers that I talk to couldn’t care less what JDF stands for. As my friend, Mike Rogers, the owner of Spectrum Printing says, “I know JDF stands for Job Definition Format and that’s about it.” But if you visit Spectrum, you find a 30- person shop that has leveraged JDF to completely streamline their workflow. Rogers’ team can automatically transfer job information between their Avanti Print MIS system, their Rampage Prepress system, CREO Preps and Komori K-station.

A glance at a list of 2008 CIPPI Award winners highlights a recurring theme as well: automate everything possible. AGS, a Delaware-based full service print provider, won its first CIPPI award this year. The judges’ comments (on their submission) tell the story: “This is not what everyone else is doing, but it really is at the heart of what this is all about. They put the tools together and created an environment that allowed them to avoid hiring 10 (more) people. This was a great tool, maybe less complex than some of the offset alternatives, but all of the pieces fit nicely. It was not just automation in the processing stage and the printing; they set it up to use barcodes to process things as well.”

Feeling the pressure from its customers to constantly reduce turnaround times, AGS is perpetually looking for ways to make their lean print shop even leaner. The key to this, according to David Zamorski, AGS’s COO, is automation. “Wherever possible, we need to eliminate as many steps as possible in the workflow that don’t add value”, says Zamorski.

What Spectrum and AGS both understand is eliminating “touches” boosts profit.

One way to eliminate touches is by implementing a JDF-enabled workflow as part of a company-wide management information system (MIS). In this environment, the MIS is a central hub that moves JDFbased information around the shop. The workflow starts with the customer’s request for a quote which drives the estimate, job ticket and imposition. From there, the MIS system automatically transfers job information to prepress. Prepress JDF information is then captured and sent back to the MIS. Information can then be passed to the press, and subsequently on to finishing. Since information is passed automatically, two benefits are immediately realized: time savings and fewer mistakes.

Everyone is telling you that streamlining and integrating your production workflow must be one of your top priorities in 2008 and that JDF is the way to do it. But while some printers are still asking, “What is JDF?”, others have moved on to the question that really needs answering, “What’s in it for me?”. The good news is that some print shops have discovered that answer. It’s profit!

Making the transition to a low-VOC wash doesn’t have to cause undue sacrifice or frustration. The following steps can eliminate some of the problem areas and make the changeover successful.

VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) are unhealthy for many reasons—they can harm the environment by helping form smog, which damages crops and forests in addition to being harmful to lungs. Some blanket washes also contain chemicals called Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs), which may also harm human health and the environment.

By using blanket washes containing fewer VOCs, you can significantly reduce the impact that your printing operations have on employee health and the environment. You may also be able to reduce your regulatory requirements. To find out the VOC content and other components of your current blanket wash, ask your supplier and check the product’s Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS). Suppliers can recommend substitutes containing less VOCs.

Press Washes: Solving the problem
History tells us that the best press washes are those that break down and remove ink quickly, evaporate fast, and are easy to use. History also tells us that these traditional washes typically contain 90% to 100% petroleum distillates (VOCs).

Today’s environmental climate and the issuing of increasingly stringent regulations are creating a situation where these traditional, high-VOC washes are no longer acceptable. The current target for low-VOC washes is that they contain less than 30% VOCs (by weight), which equates to approximately 2.5 lbs. per gallon.

The obvious question is how do we move from efficient, high-VOC traditional washes to the more environmentally acceptable low-VOC products?

Unfortunately, none of the alternatives are perfect. The surfactants typically used to formulate emulsion-based washes, if not properly removed, can build up on rollers and blankets, causing poor ink transfer, stripping, and emulsification. The vegetable oil washes often require a rinse step, leave a greasy residue, and are also slow to evaporate. With wash-ups sometimes taking place up to 15 times a day, this can have a substantial impact on production costs. Include periodic deep cleanings using a wash such as Unigraph’s Color Change Wash Setp 1 and 2 to eliminate surfactant build up.

Washes containing exempt solvents are efficient and sacrifice little in productivity, but they present problems and frustrations for the press operator. If you attempt to go from a solvent-based wash to a low-VOC alternative overnight, the most practical and cost-effective approach is to do the changeover in several steps. While reducing VOCs is critical, cost of restarts, paper, and quality of printing must all be considered.

How to make low-VOC washes work
Making the transition to a low-VOC wash doesn’t have to cause undue sacrifice or frustration. The following steps can eliminate some of the problem areas and make the changeover successful. While this procedure doesn’t completely eliminate VOCs, it significantly reduces them without sacrificing cost effectiveness and print quality.

Choose a good quality, low-VOC wash from a reputable manufacturer.

Begin using on rollers. Periodically deep clean them with a traditional two-step colour change wash to eliminate surfactant buildup.

After a period of successful use on rollers, begin using as a blanket wash, always following the manufacturer’s recommended procedures. In cases of unusually difficult cleaning, a traditional wash should be used.

To help avoid problems, continually monitor rollers and blankets. Look for signs of surfactant build-up, such as greasy residue, ink emulsification, poor ink transfer or slow cleanup.

While this procedure does not completely eliminate all VOCs, it significantly reduces them.

To date there are no perfect low-VOC washes. But with a strong commitment and an understanding that these washes perform differently and require more attention, a pressroom can effectively eliminate a substantial percentage of VOC’s from its press washes without sacrificing efficiency and print quality.

The development of higher-performance, more effective low-VOC washes is always continuing—find out which one is right for your shop.

The world is speeding up—no doubt about it—and a faster world requires faster manufacturing, which means rapid prototyping is necessary to get products to market more quickly. Past methods for rapid prototyping included casting, molding, and stamping. In the 1980s, new technologies, such as lamination and stereo lithography, appeared to make the rapid prototyping process cheaper, easier, and quicker. Since the 1980s, other new technologies have appeared, including inkjet. I.T. Strategies projects that vendors’ revenues from inkjet systems, consumables, and services used for rapid prototyping will grow from $78 million in 2007 to $148 million by 2012.

Rapid prototyping systems across the range of applications—up to and including short-run manufacturing—can eliminate the costs of die and tooling creation. According to Mark Hanley, president of I.T. Strategies, “This is analogous to the elimination of the platemaking process in printing with digital print, except that the economies involved in manufacturing are on a greater scale where, for example, the cost of a relatively small part for an electronics system might be $80,000, not including the delays involved in waiting for the creation of the die. Our forecasts in this area are conservative and assume an increasing share of inkjet sales against competing technologies. They also assume no major new market breakthrough, no major new vendors, and an organic slackening of growth over time.” (I.T. Strategies Report)

If you’re new to rapid prototyping, don’t worry—we’ll start with a review of how it works, and then look at a few systems currently on the market.

How it Works

• Software “slices” a CAD (computer-aided design) file into thousands of thin layers
• Physical model is built one layer at a time
• Ink-jet print heads deposit binder into powder to create layers

ZPrinter 310 Monochrome Plus
Z Corporation commercialized its range of devices in the late nineties and has grown rapidly over the last few years into a leader in the rapid prototyping industry. The company’s products are priced very competitively, particularly when you look at the build volumes available and the total running costs (the materials are relatively cheap and reusable). Their machines can also be used very efficiently, and the build chamber can be stacked, which enables the building of more parts than with other systems, particularly at the entry level.

While the 310 plus is branded as a monochrome machine and can’t handle full colour like the Spectrum Z510, it can still jet a single colour binder into the part. This means that if your products have a signature colour or a project-specific requirement that you’d like to replicate easily, it is possible to do so. The 310 Plus comes with a range of pre-mixed coloured variants of the binder fluid—Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. You also get instructions on how to mix colours with the clear binder and how to mix up the colour you want, so there’s no ordering of new materials for a specific project, wasting build etc. It’s a very elegant solution.

The ZPrinter Full Color 450
This printer makes colour 3D printing accessible to everyone. The lowest priced colour 3D printer available, the ZPrinter 450 outputs brilliant colour models with timesaving automation and an even easier printing process. It is the ideal introduction to colour 3D printing for a wide variety of applications, from product design, production prototypes, and architectural concepts to education, healthcare, and the arts. Companies such as figureprints.com are creating one-eighteenth scale figurines of action characters developed by players of the World of Warcraft multiplayer online game. CAD slices are built one upon the next using processes including heated powders, extruded plastic filaments, and resins precisely cured with lasers. When figureprints.com first offered these action characters to gaming customers, they were overwhelmed by the response. Within 2 months over 100,000 people had signed up to buy a figurine of an action character for $99.95.

Spectrum Z510 Full Color System
This system promises to be the next generation in high-def 3D colour printing. The Spectrum Z510 produces high-definition, full-colour prototypes quickly and affordably. Superior inkjet printing technology creates parts with crisply defined features, enhanced accuracy, and precise colour, so you can print and evaluate physical models of design concepts in their nearly finished state. Rapid 3D printing of high-definition models means you no longer have to wait for prototypes. Its 24-bit colour, 3D printing capability produces colour models that accurately reflect your original design data. Colour models communicate more information than any other type of rapid prototype, providing you with a strategic advantage in product development.

For more information see - www.zcorp.com or www.dccltd.ca

I’ve developed many different automated workflows, but I couldn’t have done it without some key resources at my disposal. There are too many resources to list in one article, but the ones discussed below are great to start with if you are keen to further automate your workflows.

The homepage of Crossroads (http://Crossroads.Gradual.com), announces that “Crossroads is a unique communication platform that draws together a large ecosystem of software vendors offering automation products for publishing workflows”. Here you can see the workflows readily available for the open automation platforms SWITCH, FullSWITCH, and PowerSWITCH, which are all ready to automate at first click. The latest version of SWITCH, a major upgrade, is chock full of new features. There is a dashboard, variables (which I use to customize email notifications and more), more scripting capabilities in PowerSWITCH, and shortcuts in the designer end of the program.

EskoArtwork recently acquired Gradual Software and created the Enfocus business unit. Information about it is available on the Enfocus business unit at http://www.gradual.com/Home/EskoArtworkacquisitionquestions.php. Enfocus maintains that the open nature of SWITCH will not change and that they will continue to proactively support third-party products, even if they compete with Enfocus or EskoArtwork products.

The whole point of gradual automation is to start small and continually improve, update, and upgrade your workflows. You needn’t do everything at once, but you can always find a better way to do something as you go along.

Begin with an open automation platform, then add the ingredients needed for your workflow, such as XML, JDF, XMP & XPath, SQL, Applescript & Javascript, Automator, Creative Suites with Acrobat Pro, Quark, PitStop Server, and Microsoft Excel. This list is a good start, and you probably have most of these programs on your Mac.

The tutorials at www.w3schools.com are very helpful and cover XML, XPath, Javascript, and SQL.

The online tutorial for XML and XPath shows you how XML describes the data and XPath steps you through an XML file to find the data you want. XPath is used in Apple and Javascripts to pick out pieces of data from an XML file and pass it to the script.

SQL is the language used to talk to your MIS database and can also be used in Apple and Javascripts to pull data or enter data automatically. A fully automated workflow can enter information into the docket system as well as prepare files for RIP or Press.

Applescript information is available at http://macscripter.net/unscripted. There are many categories to check out and lots of items for beginners. Applescript is very useful as it can talk to almost anything on your Mac. Use it when you need flexibility to talk to programs like Excel, TextEdit, and Events that are part of the system. It can even control keystrokes on the keyboard, which can come in handy when the rest of the tools are unavailable.

At http://automator.us there are step by step tutorials on Automator. There are ready-made automator actions you may download at macscripter.net and a movie at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq2lEsG68JU . Automator on its own is a great place to start creating workflows. They can be saved as a folder action for an instant hot folder workflow.

Learning Applescript or Javascript will open up the possibilities for automating Creative Suites, Quark, Acrobat, Excel, Word, the Finder, and the list goes on. Going through some tutorials about XML and XPath will give you a basic understanding of other forms of data like the JDF standard and XMP data in Photoshop images.

You don’t have to become an expert on everything that is listed here. Learning one or two items well is often enough to create an automated workflow that makes a difference. The point of automation is to transform some action that is done the same way every time, and it’s best to start with something small. Put the steps into a script, action, or flow and use the automation every time for that process. Then you add more and more bits to your system. This is where an open automation platform can come in and organize processes, control programs, talk to servers, and communicate with users. Automation is best when introduced gradually. After all, we are all learning something new in every job we do.

Q. I recently upgraded to Leopard and I wanted to use “Quick Look”, but I cannot find it in the Finder. How can I load it in the toolbar?

A. There is an unfortunate side affect to upgrading your Mac from either Panther or Tiger, and it is that the new features of the Finder don’t appear as advertised. The reason for this snafu is that your preferences are preserved when you choose “Archive and Install” when upgrading to Leopard on your Mac.

“Quick Look” and the new “Cover Flow” features normally appear in the toolbar at the top of the new Finder Windows. Quick Look allows you to read a text file, view an image, or even play a movie without having to open the application that created it. Cover Flow allows you to “flip” through your files and quickly preview them.

The upgrade installer preserves your preferences and doesn’t replace the toolbar items. To correct that or to customize the toolbar, choose “Customize Toolbar” from the “View “ menu while you have a Finder window open. To get the standard Leopard settings, choose “drag the default set into the toolbar”. You could also add any other items from the dialog box that you would like.

Q. I have a colour laser printer, and I would occasionally like to print in grayscale to save the colour toners or when colour output is not necessary. How do I do that using Leopard?

A. Apple has redesigned the Print dialog box to make printing easier. The print dialog includes a preview of the page. Some programs, such as those from Adobe and Microsoft, use their own styled Print dialog; however, the standard Apple dialogs have been improved.

At the top you can choose which Printer to use, and load any presets you have saved. Enter the number of copies, the page range, and the paper size. You can set the orientation and scaling, which will be previewed on the left side. There is also a pull down menu specific to the program that you are using.

What you will see depends on the type of printer you have selected. If you have chosen a colour laser printer you may see “Print Character” (or something like that) where you can choose more options. In the case of my Lexmark printer, a radio button appears labeled “B&W”—which, when selected, outputs the page in grayscale using only the black toner.

Q. I’m curious about using Time Capsule to backup my Macintosh wirelessly. How long does it take?

A. That’s a really good question. One of my pet peeves as a roving IT consultant is how many clients of mine don’t appreciate how important backing up their data really is. The problem is no one can tell you when a hard drive mechanism will fail. Tape backups can be damaged by exposure to heat, cold, or magnetic fields, and CDs and DVDs can get scratched, dirtied, or broken, leaving them useless. Unfortunately the majority of users are oblivious to the dangers of data storage.

Last year Apple introduced “Time Machine”, which can automatically backup your data to any attached hard drive. “Time Capsule” is an Apple Airport Base Station (internet router and wireless access point) complete with a server-grade hard drive with a special network version of Time Machine.

All computers using Mac OS X 10.5 can connect to the Time Capsule and be backed up on the network. By entering a password, older Macs and PCs can connect as a network drive for manual backups and file sharing. Like most backup technologies, Time Machine starts by backing up every file on your Mac (you can decide to exclude files or folders.) After a complete backup it then backs up incrementally—backing up new files or files that have been modified.

The initial backup takes over 10 hours. The backup over Ethernet took much less time. Afterwards, Macs back up about once an hour. Each backup is only accessible by the Mac that created the backup, and Time Machine can restore your Mac in case of a disaster. Your data is important to you, so get a Time Capsule or at very least use Time Machine with a removable drive.

Is your head trash piling up? “Head trash,” if you haven’t heard of it, is the mental garbage that affects your performance. It’s a collection of limiting thoughts or ideas that prevent you from generating better results. It’s something you need to take out of your life.

In a sales training workshop I conducted for a specialty retailer, several people stated that they didn’t bother trying to close any business before 11:00 a.m. because they “knew” that everyone who came into their store before that time was just comparing their price with that of a nearby competitor. A salesperson in a manufacturing company told me that her customers would not pay full price for her products because a major competitor sold similar products for less money. As a result, she consistently offered her customers a discount even before they asked. Another sales rep confided that he believed that the lowest possible price was the only thing his customers wanted from him and his company. He had held this belief for so long that nothing could dissuade him from this line of thinking.

Head trash can affect you in different ways. During a morning workout, I caught myself thinking that I could not complete a particular exercise, and this self- limiting thought prevented me from continuing—even though, on most other days, I breezed through the workout with little strain. From a sales perspective, if you believe that a prospect will not be receptive to a new product, idea, or solution, your ability to present that idea positively is greatly reduced. I have seen sales people talk to customers at great length and at the end of their conversation ask, “You don’t want to order this do you?” They have convinced themselves even before they ask for the sale that the customer will not be interested.

The causes of head trash vary. Lack of sleep or illness is one common cause—your physical well-being contributes to your outlook. Another cause is associating with negative-minded people. I once worked with someone who always saw the glass as half empty instead of half full, and even a brief conversation with him left me drained and pessimistic.

The most common cause of head trash is the experience you have had with a particular task or assignment. For example, you may be required to cold call to generate new leads and prospects. However, if your experience with cold calling has not been positive and you have failed to find qualified leads, then picking up the telephone will be a grind and you certainly will not enjoy making the calls. And, when you do eventually pick up the telephone, your tone will not convey the desired message to your prospect.

To achieve the results you deserve and are capable of, it is essential that you dump your head trash.

First, focus on what you can do. Instead of thinking of the negative aspects of the task, concentrate on the best possible outcome. Let’s return to the cold calling example for a moment. If you put yourself into the mindset that making these calls will generate new business, or, at the very least, that they will help you connect with new and interesting people, your willingness to invest in the task will dramatically improve.

Next, take action immediately. Most people procrastinate when head trash invades their thinking, and this prevents them from moving forward. However, taking one step or small action supersedes the desire to remain complacent. I believe it was Confucius who said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” I have learned from experience that making a difficult telephone call eliminates the need to procrastinate and stimulates my desire to take further action throughout the day. And, as I continue to take action, the trash that may have collected in my head is emptied.

It is also important to associate with action-oriented people who support your goals and objectives. I start the week by talking to a good friend of mine every Monday morning. During our conversations we discuss the challenges of the previous week and explore options and ideas. I also belong to a Mastermind group and, when we meet each month, we help each other look for new opportunities within our respective businesses. All of these conversations help eliminate my head trash and motivate me to try new approaches and apply different ideas.

Take out your trash and watch the difference in your results.

When trying to achieve better results with fewer marketing resources, knowing that your exhibit program is achieving a positive ROI is crucial.

When you examine your results, you want to be sure you have answered the question, “How do we know if our exhibit program is doing what it is supposed to do?”

Simple measurement does not tell you the whole story. For example, if you set your objectives too low, meeting them does not really prove anything. If you set them too high and miss them, you still have an information shortfall. In either case, you do not have enough information on how to improve your performance in the future.

While there are excellent formulas and guidelines to help you set focused, measurable, and realistic objectives, it’s not an exact science.

One of the biggest mistakes many exhibitors make is going back to the same event year after year and doing the same thing. I am not suggesting you have to go back to the drawing board and start over each time, but subtle changes can often fix what is not working and strengthen what is. Effective evaluation will ensure that you know what changes to make.

There are two methods of evaluating your exhibit program that you might want to try, and the first is internal post-show evaluation.

There are many people associated with the show who would be able to provide meaningful feedback on your exhibit performance. These can include your staff, senior executives, show management, or suppliers. Prior to the show, contact the people you would like feedback from and ask if they are up to the challenge. Then send them a list of the criteria you are interested in getting feedback on.

Criteria can include such things as:

• How you compared to the competition
• The look of your booth (eg signage, lighting, general appearance)
• The flow of the booth
• The use of draws, giveaways, and collateral
• The proficiency of your booth staff
• The quality of the event visitors
• The quality of the show as a whole
• The quality of related activities such as the show’s educational seminars

Give each item a scale of one to five, with one being less than satisfactory and five being excellent. Then create a form which includes all the questions and evaluation criteria you want your volunteers to look at. Remember to also include an area for additional comments and observations.

Prior to the show, send the form to each person who has volunteered to help, along with instructions on how it is to be completed and when it is to be returned to you.

As soon as the show is over, get in touch with each person and ask for their feedback.

With information from a number of different perspectives, you can analyse your overall performance and identify your strengths and weaknesses.

A second method for evaluating your show is an independent evaluation.

This type of evaluation can be described by a variety of names, including mystery shopping, booth auditing, or performance auditing. Regardless of the label, the procedure is the same.

You contract with an experienced independent consultant who will work with you to create the criteria, visit your booth and your competitors’ booths as a show attendee, and report back on how you fared with respect to the criteria.

Using an outside consultant means you will receive unbiased information. After the show, the consultant will provide you with a quantitative report on how you measured up—based on the weighting of your criteria—and a qualitative report based on personal observations. The report should also include photographs. The results of this independent evaluation will help you set benchmarks for future performance.

Both techniques work well. You can choose one or the other or both—it all depends on how seriously you wish to evaluate your trade show program.

Either of these evaluation options will provide you with many constructive ideas to incorporate into your future plans. Take the information you glean and file it somewhere where it is easily accessible when you are planning your next show.

The currently-forecast economic slowdown is the perfect time for businesses to seriously consider lean manufacturing. A slow season is an ideal time—though any time is good—to figure out how your company can do more with less.

Before lean manufacturing the traditional way to look at your bottom line was “Cost + Profit = Price”, but these days, consumers have a pretty good idea of what they think the price should be, which means that “Profit = Price (fixed) – Cost”. The only true way to increase your profit today is to decrease your costs; that’s not easy in our industry, but it is doable.

There are several approaches that you can incorporate to help trim the fat on a process, but be careful that you don’t implement something too dramatic too quickly. These ideas are meant to improve your bottom line, and any movement in the opposite direction should be examined immediately.

Let’s begin with the Kaizen approach, which is simple and easy to implement. The idea is to empower employees to help recognize, identify, and eliminate wasteful behavior. While one would think that employees would voice concerns about waste on a regular basis, it is easy to fall into a routine. Try mentioning the point in a memo or email, and include a small reward for those who find significant savings. Be sure to look at the overall impact of any suggestions and explain why those you reject are not being used. This further understanding of the process in general may improve productivity on its own.

SMED is an approach which emphasizes zero set-up time. In print this seems far fetched—if not impossible—but reviewing all your set up procedures, and the productivity of crews and operators, may be valuable in identifying where productivity is lagging. One of the main approaches behind this method is good ergonomics or space set-up. Eliminating distance travelled or backtracking that needs to be done with materials helps reduce the time needed for the process in general. The movement of materials is also part of the set up. Unfortunately this may not be best observed in slower times, as some operators tend to take their time when they are not rushed, and rightly so. I would much rather take a few extra minutes to get something right than rush through it and have to do it over again.

Poka-yoke is the idea of zero waste. Again not totally possible in print, but certainly an area where minimums can be achieved and reducing waste can save a company hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages, materials, and time. Even the smallest savings here can add up over the course of a year; multiply savings across a few departments and the number becomes very staggering. Poka-yoke can be examined in detail during slower times, as it’s a great time for operators to be meticulous in finding ways of reducing waste. It may be best to attempt experiments of this nature with jobs that are easier to run before gambling on new methods with a critical quality job. Zero waste refers to both make-ready waste and failure waste. Saving sheets on the make ready isn’t saving them at all if they are wasted during the run.

Finally, there is Just In Time or JIT. Many of you are familiar with this idea from Dell Computers, who make PCs to specific specs as they are ordered. JIT reduces the amount of inventory kept on the floor in order to save space and time. Customers are increasing their time demands on the print industry—which makes inventory of standard items increasingly essential—but too much inventory may take space away from other, more valuable things that could be done with the space. JIT would be applied very differently in web and digital shops.

There are several other methods of Lean manufacturing that I have not mentioned, and I encourage you to do your own independent research on the subject. Your plant, your jobs, your customers, and your employees are the forces that will allow or not allow any of these methods to work effectively in your operation. Lean is doing more with less, but you must implement it across the board, and not just in one or two departments. So tighten up those belts—it might be the best thing you’ve ever done.

For the 4th consecutive year, HP Canada, the premier sponsor of the 2008 CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival, has managed to showcase its industry-leading technology and products, while at the same time giving local photographers and artists an opportunity to show Torontonians their unique creations.

“Technology continues to make a major impact on the photography market, changing the way we capture and preserve photographic images. Thanks to digital printing, the way in which these images are produced is also undergoing a process of transformation,” says Danny Ionescu, Vice President, Graphic Arts, HP Canada.

“HP is committed to providing photographers of all skill levels with imaging and printing technology that enables them to get amazing results. When they print with HP, photographers will be assured of image accuracy, fast printing speeds and unvarying colour reproduction.”

The world’s largest photography Festival ended May 31, but the visual memories still linger. HP hosted a number of special events during the Festival at Red Bull 381 Projects on Queen Street West in Toronto’s entertainment district.

These included the HP Lecture Series, the Portfolio Reviews and Exhibition and the HP Print Centre, where many participants had their ‘masterpieces’ printed on HP’s state-of-the-art printers, including the HP Designjet Z3100 and the HP Designjet Z6100. HP also printed supporting materials for the Festival using its Indigo 5000 digital press.

The festival’s high-profile public art installations (also printed by HP) were displayed throughout the Greater Toronto Area, including the Gardiner Expressway, the CN Tower and Pearson International Airport.

A big hit this year was the new Magnum Photography Workshop and Exhibition which saw 6 photographers from the Magnum Photography Agency provide one-on-one instruction, critiques, discussion, group and field work to registered Festival attendees.

HP also worked with CONTACT on its prestigious Portfolio Reviews program where curators, art dealers, directors, publishers and photo editors provided one-on-one critiques for photographers over a two-day period. Participants received a print of their files, courtesy of HP, and some had their work displayed at the Portfolio Reviews Exhibition that reflected the best work seen in fine art and commercial and documentary photography.

Sustainability pioneer Printer Gateway boldly leads industry into new environmental era
Never mind that last year Printer Gateway (PG) saved enough trees to fill a large city park, or line every hole of an 18-hole golf course, or keep 3,050 houses cooler in the summer, or produce over 2,300,000 lbs. of oxygen. Just as important, PG’s innovative green strategies are still putting its clients in the black—and proving each day that sustainability can, and does, work.

The figures above, though conservative estimates, are staggering.
In 2007, Printer Gateway, a Toronto-based trade printer, saved 9,152 trees, 57,200 printing plates and 21,450 hours of press-related electricity (totaling $123,766.50). The company’s use of printing inks, fountain and cleaning solutions, varnishes and so on, was also drastically reduced.

At first glance, these numbers, independently verified by DePaul University of Chicago, seem almost surreal. But when you delve into the company’s background, and the extraordinary vision of President Brian Armstrong some four years ago when he founded Printer Gateway, you’ll quickly realize that these breakthroughs were really just a natural progression of a sustainability strategy that was brilliant in its simplicity—gang printing!

Last year the company averaged 5 different gang runs (combining up to 131 jobs) per week involving everything from business cards to flyers to larger marketing materials.

For example, let’s say you’re printing 56 individual CMYK jobs (flyers, business cards, postcards, etc.) the traditional way with a run of 500 sheets for each job (56 x 500 sheets = 28,000 sheets). Combining (i.e. gang-running) all 56 onto one press run and one larger sheet (1 x 500 = 500 sheets) will save 27,500 make-readys, which translates into 35.2 pine trees saved, according to PG. You also have to consider the paper that’s trimmed off and ends up in the trash bin if you print odd-sized jobs individually.

Instead of using 224 printing plates (56 x 4), you only use one larger plate (1 x 4) and save 220 plates, not to mention the energy you save from the plate-making process.

The 84 machine hours of electricity (56 x 1.5 hrs. = 84) can be reduced to 1.5 hours (1 x 1.5). It’s clear from this small example how a printer’s costs and impact on the environment can be dramatically reduced.

Needless to say, there are a couple of downsides to gang printing, but they’re minor in the eyes of those that count the most—his clients and their end users.

First, the final colour may not be as exact as the intended colour. With so many jobs running together, overall colour control is reduced. However, the vast majority of clients are satisfied with the ‘pleasing’ colour that results. Companies or agencies that insist on perfect colour matching are accommodated and their jobs are printed separately.

Second, some clients have less flexibility in the time they have to prepare jobs. However, the resulting deadline problems can often be overcome as PG educates clients on the environmental and financial savings of the gang-run process. In the end, says PG, most clients and their customers understand that working to a more flexible deadline schedule is a small sacrifice to make.

A leader in eco-friendly solutions
“The fact is that very few Canadian printing companies are as environmentally conscious as we are while remaining profitable and positively impacting our clients’ bottom line,” says Armstrong. “We’re showing our customers each and every day that being ‘green’ really can put them in the ‘black.’ From day one, we took a pro-active approach about energy conservation and environmental responsibility.”

Of course, another key aspect of PG’s success is its reliance on some of the finest presses on the market—in this case Heidelberg and Komori—and its whopping $400,000 investment in the latest and best pre-press workflow solutions. When you combine this technology with a staff of 28 experienced, hard-working professionals who work hard to maintain close client relationships, you’ve got a winning formula.

The statistics speak for themselves. Today, Printer Gateway averages $10 million in gross yearly sales and about 98% of its work is still gang-run printing. Also, the company has just expanded into a new 45,000-sq.-ft. headquarters, formerly the site of several businesses, in the picturesque district of Long Branch, west of Toronto. You might say that the company is growing like the trees it’s saving. Its other two locations are in Mississauga and Markham.

In a way, Armstrong has passed his success on to his clients—not just via more competitive trade prices, but also in the form of his company’s ‘Environmental Seal of Excellence’, which he’s quite proud of.

“This is really a reminder to our trade partners that the products they’re passing along to their customers have addressed virtually all critical aspects of environmental responsibility. Each and every printed piece reflects our eco-friendly commitment in saving not just trees, but air, soil and water as well,” he says. “The seal also helps our clients to further educate consumers, many of whom now demand these products.”

It took foresight
In the late 1990s, Armstrong was already shaping his vision of corporate sustainability—long before Prime Minister Stephen Harper introduced Canada’s Clean Air Act to the House of Commons in October of 2006. If you’ll recall, Harper’s goal was to move industries from voluntary compliance to strict enforcement to fight air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions—the printing industry was no exception.

On top of that, a few days before, the Forest Product Association of Canada asked the federal government to encourage a future business climate that linked competitiveness to environmental performance. By 2004 when Armstrong founded PG, he was already well ahead of this emerging trend.

But that’s not surprising. In its relatively brief lifetime, PG has been at the forefront of positive change. In 2005, the company became Canada’s first and only 5-over-5 card specialists utilizing MetalFX technology, which made it possible to print up to 104 million metallic colours simply by adding one MetalFX base silver to the CMYK mix. Today that technology is used Canada-wide.

PG a breath of fresh air
Consider this: there are an estimated 7 million trees growing within Toronto’s urban borders. Also consider that strategically placing just 3 broadleaf trees around a house can reduce cooling demands in summer by up to 40%. The appropriate mix of trees can filter out 85% of air pollution in a park and 70% on a street. Finally, an average tree produces nearly 260 lbs. of oxygen in a year.

Environment Canada has defined sustainability as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Given that definition, Armstrong and his company have indeed created a “gateway” to the future—a legacy that will likely be the model for future generations as each year brings more pressure on the printing industry to be environmentally responsible.

Printer Gateway doesn’t just talk the talk, they walk the walk—and that walk is lined more and more with green trees, clean air and fresh water.

For more information, please visit www.printergateway.com.