Experts gather to offer solutions for America's postal dilemma

Edited excerpts from an article by Clint Bolte, Growth Management Consultant to the printing industry worldwide (www.clintbolte.com)

The fourth annual Print Oasis conference for the print buying and specifying professionals had more than 700 in attendance May 22-25 at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago, Sponsored by Print Buyers Online.

Suzanne Morgan, President of the PBO e-community, spoke on the Trends in Print Buying as reported from a recent survey involving 265 print buyers. With a five to one leverage (increase versus decrease) half the respondents expect print purchases to increase in the next six months. Fourteen percent of the firms have bought less than 5% of their total print requirements from overseas. Most of these were experimenting with the global sourcing opportunity. When asked to describe the most effective buying practice for their companies, 77% reported “establishing partnerships with a core group of print suppliers.” Morgan remarked that the most significant trend indicated from this survey was that 47% of print buyers reported consolidating their print procurement among fewer print suppliers.

Print Oasis 2005 also had its largest number of exhibitors at 64 with more than 40% of them first timers. Two of these print vendor exhibitors had unusual offerings that serve the global print buying market.

The Johnson Group, headquartered in Illinois and having five midwestern general commercial plants, discussed a strategic alliance they have had for over a year with a printer near Shanghai, China. They have two Johnson Chinese national employees on site and another two Americans who make frequent trips to China to coordinate major projects. A typical Chinese printed project is the collateral materials that would be inserted in the packaging for goods manufactured in China for export to the USA. The owner and designer of the goods is an American corporation for whom the Johnson Group provides much of their stateside printing and fulfillment needs.

The largest printer in Latin America, Posigraf Printing & Publishing Company from Brazil was an exhibitor. An ISO 9001/2000/14000 certified supplier, this high quality printer touted PDF workflow via worldwide FTP transmission. While they offer general commercial printing capability, their niche is signature products produced primarily via a battery of 8 web presses. Their primary client is their sister division, the Positivo Educational System, which is a network of 2,200 affiliated schools throughout Brazil. When asked what benefit he offered USA publishers, sales representative Ricardo Salini Abrahao responded, “Quicker delivery (than the far east) at China prices.”

Consultant Dick Gorlick offered tips and guidelines on structuring supplier relationships. He gave a series of reasons why printers lose accounts as reported by a recent survey. Here are five in the list: (1) general buyer frustration at something the printer thinks is small, (2) not being dependable, (3) pricing inconsistency, (4) slow and incomplete estimates versus the current 24 hour standard and (5) slowness of billing. He reminded the audience that the billing practice of advertising agencies of not paying their bills until their clients pay them is called “sequential liability” and it is not legal.

While Gorlick advised against reverse auctions, he asked the audience if they could report any successful print reverse auctions. A number of hands went up but here are the experiences of two. John Coudriet, Print Procurement Manager of Nationwide Insurance in Columbus Ohio, responded that his firm currently spends $50 million annually and has successfully used reversed auctions on 1,300 reprint projects valued at $50 million over the last 18 months typically realizing 40% savings in their first effort.

Mike Kontek, Allstate’s Procurement Governance Sourcing Manager, also reported unqualified success buying repeat print via reverse auctions. Because of the overall 40% savings realized, their firm has decided not to rebid many of those same projects for several years or until the designated supplier cannot hold his prices due to inflationary pressures. In other words awarding substantial volumes in exchange for the windfall cost savings to proven solid vendors. Another Allstate procurement consultant Ron Mitiu stated that Allstate’s early overwhelming success with print reverse auctions has led to more complex, multi-color, variable data projects involving higher value transaction printing documents.

Joe Duncan, Vice President for Print Innovation & Technology for Chicago’s Leo Burnett USA, gave a keynote presentation based upon his firm’s strategic transition in realigning their print resources.

Leo Burnett became the first and remains (for the third year) the only advertising agency print department in the world to be ISO 9001/2000 certified. This has led to a credible effort at continuous improvement. This has been the cornerstone for standardized digital workflows to assure timely and great execution across the potpourri of pre-qualified vendors.

Embracing color management and profiling, Leo Burnett works with the fingerprinted presses of its approved vendors in establishing a Burnett Color Curve. They buy $25 million of paper directly from mills and realize volume-buying rebates eliminating the 10-15% paper distributor mark-up.

Duncan says that they are targeting a 10% reduction in print costs each year by providing digital asset management (DAM) services and pursuing virtual proofing.

While a big equipment trade show might typically inspire an article highlighting new product announcements, the panel discussions and presentations by leading print prognosticators were what piqued by interest at Graph Expo 2006. I hope you will find their insights as challenging and informative as I did.

Official Numbers For Naught
Economists covering the printing industry universally suggest that 2006 will see lower revenues than in the previous few years. Richard Romano, analyst and researcher for The Industry Measure, reported in their industry briefing that Merrill Lynch has downgraded their expectations for advertising expenditure growth from 5.1% to 4.7% for 2006 and from 3.5% to 2.8% in 2007.

In his annual “Renewing the Printing Industry” presentation, Dr. Joe Webb predicted that print revenues for 2006 would not be anywhere near 2003 or 2004 numbers. He expects the commercial printing segment to be $91–92 billion in 2006 and $87–88 billion next year. While total print numbers are actually higher, there is a continued shift to office superstores and desktops, which don’t report aggregate print values. On the bright side, average annual revenue per employee is up to $205 000 per production employee and $144 500 per employee on average due to continued efficiency gains and the disproportionate increases in non–print revenues from so called value–add services. Webb was quick to add, “Value–add is a myth. Buyers deal with the whole company.”

The annual PIA/GATF Financial Ratio Studies show both the industry profit leaders (the highest quartile) and the all–industry averages. In virtually every year for nearly a decade, the lower 75% of the industry is at or below break–even. To put it another way, about 30% of all printers are generating 100% of the industry’s profits. Andrew Paparozzi, NAPL’s Chief Economist, continually reports that printers in the highest quartile are consistently experiencing double–digit percentage growth. His results point to the conclusion that the leading printers are also generating all of the growth and progress in the industry.

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Webb contends that printers have a choice of seven different client–driven business strategies. The first four are communication–based: sender—design, creation based; message conduit—connects sender and receiver; receiver—database creation/management, publishing services, and feedback—warehousing services. The final three are production–based: communication logistics––managing the details of marketing services; corporate outsourcing—removing the logistics burdens from the shoulders of clients; and commodity printing—being a low–cost producer. Success in any area rests on recognizing which strategy you are following and building a corresponding and appropriate business model.

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The industry is abuzz with the success of VistaPrint and their Internet ordering and computer–integrated manufacturing business model. Webb noted that VistaPrint is taking advantage of two situations: every 0.1% jump in e–commerce retail results in a loss of $1.8 billion to commercial print and the US economy is currently generating 78,000 net new businesses every month, which are all are potential VistaPrint clients.

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A heavily automated printing plant facility that has been in the planning stages for four years was officially announced at Graph Expo by two of its major equipment suppliers, Muller Martini and Goss. Cox Target Media will be opening a 470 000 square foot plant in Largo, Florida to produce the proprietary Valpak coupon product. This plant has the capacity to more than double the current 20 billion coupon output to 54 billion in half the current manufacturing time in a near–“lights out” manufacturing environment. There will be minimal work–in–process, as rolls of paper will be converted into coupon–filled envelopes with no human hands ever touching the product.

Two Goss Sunday 4000 presses, each with eight units, will be capable of generating six signature streams of product; each stream will be accumulated into Muller Martini’s patented print rolls at 2 500 feet per minute. These press configurations are designed for “zero make–ready time” as four units will be running the 10 000 quantity process color order in concert with the other four units cycling through their automated plate removal and rehang tasks “off–impression” every 12 minutes. The double circumference presses will print as many as 88 coupons per cylinder revolution. Each press will consume 12 tons of stock an hour.

The Cox SAP management information system will be working in conjunction with the Dalfuku logistical system to manage the automated guided vehicles (AGVs) moving the print rolls on monorails to populate the eight–story, 200 000 square foot storage silo for interim and finished product. Robotic cranes pick up the print rolls and bring them to one of nine high–speed envelope collating systems to feed into one of four unwinding stations at each collator. The entire manufacturing cycle is designed to provide a four–hour turnaround, which is half the current manufacturing time frame.

Twice the capacity at half the throughput time with half the labor content is an audacious goal, particularly with the predicted start–up date of first quarter 2007.

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Heidi Tolliver–Nigro, senior analyst for The Industry Measure marketing research firm, reports that most of the printers making money in digital print treat the process as a compliment to their mainstay lithographic cash cow. The Industry Measure’s current annual survey indicates that the actual use of variable data peaked during the fourth quarter of 2004 at 21% of the printers surveyed. The current regular usage is down to 17%, with a full 63% of those firms limiting their variable data printing to simple address lists for mail distribution purposes. Thirty–six percent of printers acknowledge doing some variable data printing at some time in the past while 11% actually outsource the requirement. Of those firms doing variable data production printing, 80% do it on small desktop units with only 32% of those responding doing any digital color copying. A full 97% of all digital color printing is static printing, not variable data.

NPES’ marketing research arm PRIMIR reported during the Executive Outlook 2006 conference the day before Graph Expo that digital print had doubled from the 2001 tally of $7.8 billion to $15.3 billion in 2005, for a compound annual growth rate of 18.6%. This is the highest growth rate of any printing process, but represents only 8% of all North American print revenues in 2005. Wide format printing has grown at 16.1% a year over that same time period to $4.9 billion. Be cautious about big print engines, though, until you can prove your expertise to a receptive local market.

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At least a half dozen major conferences in recent years have had featured speakers and/or panel discussions of successful print practitioners talking about lean manufacturing practices and culture. IPA, the association for graphic solution providers, hired consultants to develop a print–centric tutorial package comprised of webinars, a handbook, and coaching to help the industry to understand and adopt the powerful graphics workflow improvement program called e–LEAN™.

 For more detailed information, there is a 12–page downloadable file available here . David Haridan, Director of IPA’s Webinar programs, unveiled the offering at Graph Expo in a seminar sponsored by Kodak.

A simple and inexpensive way to get started on lean manufacturing is to hire a senior industrial or mechanical engineering student as a summer intern. This is an inexpensive investment of perhaps five or six thousand dollars for a brief 8–10 week summer period, which could yield excellent results.

These young professionals, reporting to the company’s e–LEAN Program Manager, could do the workflow data collection for the necessary (but time–consuming) value stream mapping task. Their ignorance of the printing industry is no deterrent to them doing an exceptional job in a short time period. Presentations to and discussions by the relevant departments would then take less of your staff’s time. These personal departmental successes can build enthusiasm and commitment throughout the plant to tackle more complex and difficult areas later in the year.

If this idea is attractive, contact the Engineering Department Chair of your local college or university soon, as most students begin looking for summer jobs before the Christmas break. Additionally, most schools have senior year projects for which the students scurry around looking for pertinent and live issues. Your chosen student intern will probably ask you for the opportunity to come back during the school year to document the progress of his or her lean initiative, which make take some staff time to help compile these results for the student. That additional time will be minimal compared to the work an engineer can do for your firm, and your staff’s helpfulness may even lead to a new hire upon your student’s graduation!   

C. Clint Bolte & Associates,
Chambersburg, PA.
T: 717-263-5768  F: 717-263-8945
E: cbolte3@comcast.net

This 14th annual gathering of sheetfed printers drew over 250 to Chicago June 11-13 to hear leading case studies of print technologies and innovations.

Jointly organized and planned by the Natianal Association for Printing Leadership, the Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation and an advisory board of sheetfed printers, this conclave continues to benefit from new formats and techniques to get attendees involved, while presenting stimulating content to help improve their profitability.

Candid and pointed attendee round table discussions and the four different tracks of production, operations, supervisory excellence and leadership, gave each participant the chance to get specific issues answered and take home actionable new ideas.

To have the same basic equipment and technology run by experienced operators might imply that the total amount of production time to produce an identical printed piece ought to be relatively close. Would 25 percent variation seem outlandish? How about three times the amount of time from most efficient to least? And even five times the range in spoilage? The 2006 sheetfed benchmarking study conducted by PIA/GATF with nearly 40 volunteer print producers, showed a marked improvement over a similar comparison done in 1998, but there were still staggering variations across the spectrum of plant participants.

The participants' profiles were $10-$50 million in sales with 50+ employees and mostly general commercial printers. Each was provided with a CD of the same image either as a PDF or InDesign (their choice) and a press sheet to match. Eighty percent chose PDFs. The 20 percent choosing the native files took the most amount of prepress time to prep files, RIP, trap, image and check plates.

The group averaged 110 minutes total in prepress to process the four-over-four poster imposed to 19" by 25" with the top guns taking about 70 minutes. The laggards took three hours. The 2006 prep throughput was a noticeable improvement over the 138-minute average of 1998 when most participants were handling film rather than CTP output.

There were four different press manufacturer models used, though most were 40" and ranged in age from new to a decade old. Hence, automation varied considerably on the presses chosen by the plant participants. Make ready averaged 60 minutes, which was a 50 percent reduction from 1998. The best performer took 35 minutes while two plants came in at 90 minutes. Each plant was allowed to use any paper and their house inks. Press spoilage averaged 850 sheets for the 1,000-poster press run which was a 30 percent improvement over the 1998 spoilage average of 1,250. The best performers had both low times and low waste.

The total manufacturing time ranged from 120-300 minutes with an average of 180 minutes. Printers using perfector presses performed the best as would be expected. This was a 25 percent improvement over 1998. Dr. Mark Bohan, who coordinated the PIA/GATF study, concluded that a third of the printers had waste issues while another third had prepress issues. Each participant was given a report showing his or her results against the average and the overall range of performance.

The digital press manufacturers should be most giddy over this study, since their entire portfolio of equipment could produce this same job in a fraction of the time of the best litho performer – much less the average offset plant – with a modicum of waste. However, the run length of 1,000 (two-sided) was selected by PIA/GATF to provide a relative benchmark for prepress, press make ready, start up spoilage and to be the least out-of-pocket cost burden to each participant. George Ryan, PIA/GATF Chief Operating Officer, said that the test could be taken by any printer on an ongoing basis to determine overall efficiency. This additional information, in turn, would increase the database, which will make the overall study more statistically significant.

The Director of the Chicago Manufacturing Center, Mr. Larry Gess, discussed the principles of "lean manufacturing." Succinctly stated, lean is "a systematic approach to identifying and eliminating waste or non-value-added activities through continuous improvement by flowing the product at the pull of the customer in pursuit of perfection."

For example, 95 percent of all lead time is non-value-added according to Gess. Further differences are highlighted in this table of assumptions.

A printer in the audience, Terry Remaly, who is Plant Manager of Columbus, Ohio's Hopkins Printing, described their recent successful implementation of lean manufacturing initially in their bindery. Considering the outside consultants to be too expensive and with no experience in the printing industry, his firm of 105 total employees approached the Mechanical Engineering Department at the local Ohio State University for help. Hopkins Printing (hopkinsprinting.com) ended up hiring a recent graduate who implemented lean manufacturing in about six months.

Tina Berg-Boldt, Associate Director of the Graphic Arts Training & Consulting Group (eicc.edu) of Davenport Iowa, offered a primer on "How to 5S your plant." 5S is a proven system of behaviors and activities that prepare and maintain the entire physical plant for lean operations by "simplifying the workplace and making it easier to distinguish wasteful from value-adding elements."

The "Ss" are actually the first letter of a series of Japanese words, where the practice has been perfected. In essence it's comprised of these five segments; 1S) separate/sort & scrap; 2S) straighten out/set in order; 3S) scrub/shine/sweep; 4S) spread & maintain (standardize) throughout the plant; and 5S) systematize and sustain. Berg-Boldt showed before-ond-after photos of plants that followed this structured approach to simplifying and cleaning up each employee's workspace. The result was a visual, safe, uncluttered workplace that allows products to flow on the most direct route through the plant and allows each employee to do his/her job in the most effective way each day.

Key performance indicators measured and monitored by printing profit leaders were presented by Tim Fischer, NAPL's Vice President of Finance & Member Services. Each of the separate functional areas had 4-6 indicators that allowed the management team to watch their "dashboard" to assure that the operation stayed on course. The following chart highlights a few of these tools and the range in which print profit leaders typically fall.

There is an interesting and seeming contradiction between these benchmark performance indicators and those recommended to be followed by the advanced manufacturers of other industries, as defined by the lean manufacturing concept previously described.

At this conference, the Sheetfed Executive of the Year is named. The eleven past executives are certainly a distinguished group of print CEOs. These gentlemen have given their time, served on print trade association boards and have been leaders and role models in their respective communities. Readers of my articles have seen a few names of executives repeatedly sharing their experiences on printer panels for newcomers and competitors alike in the print audience. Based on this key criteria of giving back to the printing industry, no one is more deserving of this honor than John Berthelsen, CEO of Suttle-Straus Printing in Waunakee, Wisconsin, the 2006 Sheetfed Executive of the Year.

While this sheetfed conference has always attracted printing companies larger than the industry average (and therefore presumably more sophisticated in their technology and operations), it's striking how different those operations can be. Capital is relatively easy to come by to purchase the latest technology. But garnering the right mix of skilled employees, good equipment and efficient procedures all synchronized and focused on serving the dynamics needs of a competitive market, seems increasingly difficult. This conference is certainly one that helps any printer solve this three or four dimensional tic-tac-toe puzzle.

C. Clint Bolte & Associates, Chambersburg, PA.
T: 717-263-5768
F: 717-263-8945
E: cbolte3@comcast.net

In recent years I’ve been asked to reflect upon strategic trends that if heeded might better position printers for improved long-term viability. I’ve written extensively through the decades of leading-edge technologies, benchmark manufacturing practices and some of the most innovative product development initiatives and case studies. There’s a vital trend that’s becoming increasingly clear that could truly spell the difference between mediocrity and corporate stardom. And the cost is not a financial commitment. As a matter of fact, the investment is nominal. But it requires a concerted philosophical shift in management’s organizational mindset.

A month ago I was invited to participate in the Sunbelt Graphics seminars. Since it had been a few years since I was last in Atlanta, I decided to fly in a few hours early and visit my alma mater, colloquially referred to as the North Avenue Trade School. During my college career in the 1960s, I was active in the Georgia Tech Student Government. I went by the current SGA office and was fortunate to find the administrative secretary there who had been in that position for the past 17 years. During her time there she recalled that nearly half of the student body presidents had been women. Officers in virtually all of the more popular extracurricular clubs and organizations represented a disproportionately high number of females as well.

I already knew that females had grown to 38% of the student body in this school that only offered technical degrees in science and engineering. But I found it interesting that young women were assuming the elected leadership roles in a higher proportion than their population. As proud as I am to be a Ramblin’ Reck, I really don’t see this demographic shift as being unique to this former male-dominated institution.

In the new millennium, I have attended two annual Print Oasis Conferences. They are the world’s only dedicated conclave for print buyers. I spoke to Suzanne Morgan, President of Print Buyers Online (printbuyersonline.com) and organizer of this conference, about the gender statistics of this vital professional niche. She remarked, “Female print buyers are now 70-75% of the total. A decade ago it was just the reverse!”

Lets look briefly at broader statistics. The National Foundation of Women Business Owners reports that women-owned firms, about 9.1 million companies, represent 38% of all firms in the United States and generate $3.6 trillion in annual sales. This has more than doubled in the past 12 years according to aphradmedia.com.

Internationally, women-owned companies are between 25-33% of the total business population. At the conventional 2%, which is the print proportion of total corporate revenues, these new-generation female entrepreneurs buy over $700 million of printing each year.

A couple other studies are worth considering. Since 1985, women have comprised over 40% of all law students. However, in 2001 their enrollment proportion surpassed men. In a 1998 study by Women Entrepreneurs, 51% of women said a desire for flexibility was the top reason they left their previous employer. In the same year Two Careers, One Marriage conducted another study indicating that 49% of women and 23% of men took advantage of formal flex-work arrangements offered by employers.

Lets return to the structure of the printing and graphic arts industries. While actual statistics are difficult to come by, in my experience, women are increasingly assuming a higher proportion of electronic prepress jobs, particularly in the smaller commercial printers and in-plant printers. This is because a higher proportion of them have commercial art design degrees and were the quickest studies for these emerging technologies. Larger printers meanwhile, may have their electronic prepress departments dominated by former Scitex operators who were all male.

Another source of technical skill growth, again for the small to medium-sized commercial printers and in-house prepress operations, has been the cadre of freelance designers. Virtually all are female and have worked at home to be able to be near their infant children or have more flexible work hours around other family priorities.

This computer-savvy group has been strongly considered as natural employee candidates when these smaller firms have expanded into digital printing and wide-format digital printing. Substrates and stock variations are easier to teach to electronic designers, than are computer networking and operating servers to lithographic pressmen.

This career progression is easy to follow and predict. PC-based database management software and expertise seems to be easier to learn by many of these former commercial design artists as the printers diversify into internet-to-print applications. Who then is the most logical candidate to sell the variable data printing and multi-media programs? Is it easier to teach the lithographic print salesman d-base file delimiters or the female computer operator who has a pleasant and helpful personality but has never sold before? That transition is not a huge stretch either, as most of these female computer and software experts have worked very effectively in customer service driven by that product development initiative.

Female leadership is finally being acknowledged in the printing industry. Printing Impressions has highlighted the highest-ranking female corporate officers at printing firms in annual feature articles for a number of years.

The magazine’s listing of the largest printers in North America will show one or two female CEOs out of the top 100 firms.

The National Association for Printing Leadership inducted their first female Chairperson of the Board this year in Joan Davidson, CEO of The Sheridan Press. The recently elected Chairperson for the National Government Publishing Association (an organization of State Printers) is Deborah Messina of Delaware. However, the fact still remains that the “good-old-boy network’ reigns supreme in Ben Franklin’s industry, which could pose a dilemma for a number of unenlightened firms.

This is not to suggest that this army of female print buyers mentioned earlier would discriminate against all of these print sales guys. After all, the results of their purchasing alliances must show good value, consistent quality and quick turnaround times.

On the other hand, if they went on a visit to qualify a new prospective printer and met the top three officers, at least one of which was female, female department heads in customer service, prepress, mailing and fulfillment, do you think they would categorize this printer as a good old boy throwback, or a potentially new millennium graphic solutions vendor? They might just give them the chance to bid on and produce a challenging project to test out their communications skills.

As my clients and publishers know, I don’t write many sales articles. I leave that to the master, the “Manna Man.” On the other hand, considering that he has three daughters, each of whom is quite sharp, I’m surprised that Harris DeWese has not written one of his popular monthly epistles on the print sales force of the future – one that’s not only empathetic and sensitive, but has more than a single storefront female among its group.

It was suggested earlier that this organizational human resource dynamic was really one requiring a philosophical mindset shift. With colleges and commercial design schools graduating more females than males and females showing increasing professional ambition, it might be as simple as top management being open and receptive to the best candidates for the job.

On the other hand, if your corporate policies are not sensitive to the personnel flexibility policies expressed in the earlier surveys, you might best wait until one of these female entrepreneurs offers to buy your company and get it turned around!

C. Clint Bolte & Associates, Chambersburg, PA.T: 717-263-5768  F: 717-263-8945E: cbolte3@comcast.net

Packaging printers have been sheeting SBS board stock from rolls on off-line, stand-alone units for half a century. Sheeting commercial paper from rolls has been a viable process improvement for sheetfed printers since the mid-1980s as the manufacturers designed smaller, more compact units. And yet, acceptance by mainstream general commercial sheetfed printers has never reached any appreciable degree of its potential.

New interest has been generated in the last few years, as the long perfectors have become mainline tools for more general commercial printers. As a matter of fact, the number of 8-12 unit sheetfed presses installed without an in-line sheeter is becoming more the exception than the rule.

In the old days “the difficulty of achieving accuracy of cut and squareness” from an in-house sheeter was possibly a concern. There is little doubt that if a printer was going to commit north of $5 million to buy a long perfector, there’s not a shroud of doubt about the quality of the sheet being delivered from the on-line or in-line sheeter.

Let’s look at the features of the on-line versus the off-line sheeter as far as advantages and disadvantages.

The on-line will save the labor of an off-line operation along with pallets and storage (regardless of how brief) of sheeted product waiting to move to the assigned press. The on-line doesn’t need the stacker that the off-line requires.

On the negative side, the on-line unit requires sophisticated electronic integration, a dancer accumulator to adjust for fluctuating press speeds, and can provide only grain long or short, but not both.

It achieves this grain direction by delivering the stock straight in, as grain long for the production of full size A4 signatures. When stationed at a right angle to the press, it delivers short grain stock for the smaller trim book signature.

The off-line unit can deliver both short and long grain stock simply by shifting the position of the pallet receiving the sheeted product.

The on-line unit delivers one sheet at basically press speed. The off-line unit can cut 60” wide, which means it can slit 2-out of a 56”-wide roll to deliver dual stream 28” by 41” sheets to a pair of pallets next to one another.

While the on-line is limited to the speed of the press or 13,000 sheets an hour (430 feet a minute), the off-line machine can run three times that speed (up to 1,300 feet a minute) plus deliver 2-out.

While both on-line and off-line units will be an investment in the $450,000 to $500,000 range, a single off-line sheeter running five ten-hour shifts can provide stock to keep three sheetfed presses busy round the clock six days a week. Or stated another way, a single shift on the off-line sheeter can provide stock for up to 8 press shifts. Instead of feeding only one press, every press in the stable can receive stock from the off-line sheeter.

The two factors driving the decision for sheetfed printers to buy roll stock and sheet their own are (1) the cost of the roll stock versus converter sheeted product and (2) the quicker turnaround times required to deliver the finished product. The $30 to $60 per hundred weight (CWT) savings is typically this roll versus sheet differential.

With more and more clients insisting on just-in-time (JIT) schedules, printers are examining every process element to attain control and reduce lead times. “Full service” has never before taken on such a broad context for its definition. Depending on make orders at the mills and the resulting cyclical demands at converters, lead times for sheeting can reach a couple of weeks or even more.

The recessionary pressures of recent years tend to keep that lead time down. The economic turnaround now underway will increase demand and could lengthen that critical waiting period. This factor could make the consideration of this equipment a very timely one.

It’s true that the specialty printers have tended to use in-house sheeters. These include packaging (printing on board), label (printing on coated one side) and envelope converters. The two things these firms have in common are stock standardization and the need for a variety of sizes, which is satisfied by the different roll length cutoffs. And yet, many of these firms deliver 4-6-8 color products with quality as demanding as any commercial shops.

The economics of the investment certainly must be considered. The areas of savings are the sheeting charge by the mill or the converters, the extended time needed for this extra outside service, and the extra warehouse space needed for sheeted skids rather than roll stock.

The sheeting process will incur spoilage. In the 1980s, paperboard surveys indicated that 3.6% would be an average while 70% of the respondents experienced 2% or less sheeting waste. In recent years, with the improved electronic controls and enhanced technology incorporated in these sheeters, users target 1% spoilage and some claim to come under that figure. This improved spoilage performance is realized despite the product-shifting trends of shorter runs, more frequent changeovers and multiple handling of rolls.

The warehouse space savings is certainly not an incidental advantage. The optimum operation would buy 50” diameter rolls to be sheeted. They would stack 40” wide rolls five high or 60” tall skids four high in a 25-foot-high warehouse (22 foot clear under the sprinkler heads). Precut skids are stored in racks possibly four high or two high if on top of one another.

With this scenario, calculations would show that roll stock to be sheeted would save 50% of the floor space of precut skids. In reality, the square footage savings is more like 20% to 25% because of aisle ways and work in process storage requirements between the sheeter and the presses.

The Operations Vice President for York, Pennsylvania’s Strine Printing, Dave Kornbau, said his firm has been sheeting rolls in house for four years. They now have three different sheeters manufactured by three different suppliers. These roll converters are running full out to provide sheeted stock to their 12 sheetfed presses that are running around the clock six days a week.

Their most recent press, a MAN Roland XXL, installed in November 2005, requires an unusual 80” cutoff. This is provided by their off-line Maxson MDH sheeter. “Currently, 95% of the stock printed has been sheeted in house,” says Kornbau. He feels that printers should realize a 3-year to 4-year payback as a conservative return on this investment if they have sufficient paper volume.

Printers consuming 80 tons of paper a month can realize a ROI on an in-house sheeter. This is the equivalent paper for production of two full shifts on a 40” press that nets 10,000 impressions an hour at the industry norm of 43% run time.

While used sheeters are readily available, the unusually low prices carry a caveat. The analogy is similar to the cheap prices quoted for used sheetfed presses manufactured prior to the mid-1990s.

That is, the latest electronics that lead the way for very fast make-readies and many automation features are simply not available as upgrades on older, roll-converting units.

In previous years, the sheeter manufacturers would primarily be exhibiting at the Converting Machinery Manufacturers’ (CMM) trade show. Because of the increasing interest by sheetfed printers, as well as their partnerships with press manufacturers in showing on-line operations, these suppliers will be at the Graph Expos and Print equipment shows.

A few of the well known sheeters are Bielomatik, Jagenberg, Lambs Gray, Langston and Maxson. If the prospective printer can’t wait for the Graph Expo 2006 October 15-18, she/he should call Brent Burdick, Maxson’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing, at 401-596-0162 (maxsonautomatic.com) and Ron Pueshel, USA President of Bielomatik-Jagenberg in Windsor, Connecticut at 860-640-0500 (biel-jag.com) for product literature.

C. Clint Bolte & Associates, Chambersburg, PA.T: 717-263-5768  F: 717-263-8945E: cbolte3@comcast.net

Nearly two hundred print technology aficionados gathered at the Pittsburgh Airport Hyatt Regency Hotel February 6-8 for the thirteenth annual PIA/GATF Tech Alert Conference. The Graphic Arts Technical Foundation puts hundreds of hours of staff resources into testing the latest print applications and sharing the results with attendees at this forum each year. Suppliers and manufacturers participate in advance by processing digital files through their leading edge offerings so that the Foundation can compare their results with those of competitors.

This year’s tests included 1) the impact of various PDF workflows on color management efforts, 2) the adverse impact of coatings on trying to match digital proof to press, 3) how to prevent blanket piling when stochastic printing, and 4) how to minimize the quality degradation on digitally printed products subjected to the high speed Postal Service sorting equipment. Additionally the latest information on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and its future role in the printing industry was presented.

The CEO of Electronics for Imaging (EFI), Guy Gecht, expects the future speeds of digital print engines to move logarithmically from the current top out of 200 pages a minute to 2,000 ppm. For printers to take full advantage of the most productive digital technologies they should 1) integrate content and business management systems, 2) build their IT infrastructure on the industry standards of Job Document Format (JDF), 3) web-enable their business and 4) link their output systems to their MIS systems.

Gecht projected that many printers will work with software vendors who offer the application service provider (APS) model. This means that all software is resident on the vendors’ large-scale systems with printers and their clients accessing the software and databases via the Internet 24/7. In this fashion the graphic solutions provider avoids much hardware and software investment while on site IT expertise is also less intensive.

The pressure to collapse total cycle time or turn the product out quicker has resulted in many printers coating their printed sheets so that these sheets can move more quickly into their various finishing operations rather than waiting in staging queues for the ink to dry. The various coating methods prevent the ink from scuffing as they rub against different mechanisms in folding, collating, cutting, etc. Unfortunately these coatings create a major color shift in the background, which can prevent the press sheet from matching the digital proof.

Dr. Mark Bohan, GATF’s new Director of Integrated Technology, presented the Foundation’s tests which will help printers know what to expect and to adjust appropriately to this densitometer reading variance due to this coating dry back phenomenon. For example, aqueous coating in line with conventional inks on gloss paper will experience higher densitometer data reads especially on black and reflex blue while all data reads on matte coatings will be significantly less on all colors. There is only a small difference in read data between in and off line-coated material, which would tend to reinforce the desire to coat in line as a productivity enhancement. With ultraviolet cured coatings the densitometer readings for all colors tend to increase with black and reflex blue experiencing the most significant shift. Regardless of which coating is used varying substrates will definitely experience different density read results.

Printers are universally eliminating moir' effects when printing certain textile images by incorporating stochastic screening software with their computer to plate technology. The use of virtually any of the various stochastic screening software used to generate the earlier film intermediary met with mixed print quality results. GATF tests presented to earlier Tech Alert Conferences also confirmed that stochastic screening results in less ink being consumed. On the negative side many printers have experienced an increased level of blanket piling which in turn creates delays and spoilage while the blankets need to be cleaned.

While color management has been slow to gain mainstream acceptance in the printing industry, there are clear advocates for the benefits of this discipline. One of the stumbling blocks has been the slow, yet evolving nature of the industry standards for a print-enabled PDF, namely PDF/X-3. GATF coordinated a series of tests among color-managed PDF workflows. The immaturity of this new X-3 workflow was reflected in the fact that only nine of the twenty-four vendors offering workflow solutions actually participated in the study. The reason is that most are simply not yet able to handle this element in their workflows. GATF’s Senior Prepress Technologist Joe Marin presented these test results.

The purpose of these tests was hopefully to verify that in a color management environment the same PDF/X-3 file should provide consistent output at different locations. Ad agencies clearly want consistent results at different printing plants. Unfortunately at this stage of development the tests concluded “the same color management system using the same profile renders color differently on different systems.” Hopefully further enhancements will allow the Foundation to present tests perhaps next year that verifies that this objective can be achieved.

John Parker, Director of Engineering for Graphic Solutions International (GSI) headquartered in Burr Ridge, Illinois gave the current status of radio frequency identification (RFID) and how it might impact certain print niche product applications. GSI (graphicsolutionsinc.com) started out printing labels a couple of decades ago and has evolved with their proprietary security printing technologies. They printed their first conductive product in 1995.

RFID is “a wireless transceiver (sends and receives) system used to track or locate goods or people. It is a wireless bar code” according to Parker. A radio and antenna transmits a signal to a label and then the label sends back its unique 96+ bit identifier to the radio. The radios, called “readers” are about the size of a cigar box, power their antennas, which can be placed at doors, within warehouse bays, offices, or secure areas. Readers operate from standard building power though they may have battery backup systems.

RFID can track inventory, control secure access, build reliable databases, record storage temperatures and track the drug distribution chain to name five high value uses.

The RFID tags may be “active” and therefore include a battery or be “passive” with no battery. Passive tags have a printed or etched antenna and a “chip” cost as little as 15 cents a unit, have a read distance of about 12 feet and a read accuracy of about 83%. The active tags cost as much as $5, can be read from 100 feet away and have a 100% read accuracy.

While the physics and electronics for RFID have been known since WWII, the “premium” applications for the past quarter century have been hospitals and toll systems, for example. Big box retailers and better microchip technologies have increased the demand as well as the potential supply of these tags resulting in cascading prices and many additional lesser valued applications.

The most lucrative future print production applications anticipated is variable data digital printing used in one to one marketing initiatives. While this is expected to be produced and dispersed via multi media, there is little doubt that the postal service will be a favored distribution channel. One potential nagging issue is that digitally printed products almost universally experience more transit damage than does conventionally printed direct mail. 

One of the longstanding traditions and in fact highlights of this Tech Alert Conference is the presentation of the annual Technology Forecast. Attendees receive the first copies with PIA/GATF membership receiving theirs in a subsequent mailing. This 104-page publication contains 49 articles discussing projections and trends pertinent to every firm in the graphic communications industry throughout the world.

It is easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day chores of running a business. There are hundreds of books written on how to get more done and be more productive, but where do you begin? One of the best ways to dedicate your time and resources is to follow the 80-20 rule.

Simply stated this means, for example, that 80% of your profits come from 20% of your clients. This rule can be illustrated by the bell curve of probabilities. On the right side are the outstanding examples of the hypothesis and on the left hand side are a comparable number of the worst examples of the hypothesis. So, using the example above, 20% of your clients could also represent 80% of your losses!

The global economy is in turmoil. The price of oil has reached an all-time high. The printing industry is facing unprecedented challenges. Economists balk at making any solid predictions of what may lie ahead. Is it any wonder that a sense of uncertainty abounds in our economy?

Press articles hyped the theme for this world trade show as the JDF or Networked DRUPA, the symbolic melding of IT and steel via the CIP4 bridge. The approximate 370,000 worldwide visitors scoured over 1,860 exhibitors from 52 countries that were spread over the 1.7 million square feet of exhibition space at the Convention Center in Düsseldorf, Germany. Along with the computer integration technology, there was ample product and process innovations to excite every industry participant.

Heidelberg introduced 50 innovations while MAN Roland cited 70 innovations for their sheet fed and web lines. And despite the lackluster global economy of the last few years, virtually every major manufacturer showed the results of their continued invested in research and development for product enhancements and new technologies.