"Plugging Cost Leaks with Prinect"

Many print shops fail to gain a competitive advantage because they don't know about the "hidden" costs and internal expenditures needed for the administration and processing of jobs. Prinect Product Manager Reiner Bachthaler explains how you can reduce costs and create higher margins with integrated print shop management.

Mr. Bachthaler, you claim that many print shops aren't aware of the time and costs associated with the administration they do for each job. If I may provoke you just a bit - does this mean that some jobs are produced blindfolded and without a plan?
Bachthaler: No. But many businesses only record expenses for materials, machines and employees, and not the administrative costs - for example the time and work needed to enter job and production data multiple times or to revise orders. Added to that is the time and effort needed to procure information from other departments, for example information for the sales and marketing departments on whether or not desired changes from the customer can still be factored in. Since these additional costs are difficult to record, the connected savings potential remains hidden to managers and therefore left unutilized.

Why isn't it enough to link prepress and the pressroom with one another in order to plug these cost and productivity leaks?
Bachthaler: The classic integration is limited to the automatic forwarding of production data, such as sending ink presettings from prepress to the printing press. Naturally, this saves an enormous amount of time. But only up to a certain point. First of all, a network only ever connects individual departments. Information is then sent between these bit by bit. This leads to frictional loss and mistakes between departments that aren't directly connected in the network chain, for example between order acceptance and finishing.

What is the frictional loss?
Bachthaler: When an order is calculated using the Management Information System Prinect Prinance, the software simultaneously stores all relevant job data, for example the colors and run length. As you can imagine, it's faster and safer to only have to enter data once and then be able to reuse this throughout production, as is the case with the integrated Prinect workflow. Without integration, you have to enter this data again manually at various points, which is both elaborate and increases the risk of inconsistent data. If job data changes and has to be reentered for all the production steps, it's easy to lose control once and for all. Without integration, it's nearly impossible to produce consistent production data, for example for analyzing the profitability of certain product groups or customers.

How does integration work with the Prinect Integration Manager?
Bachthaler: The predefined job data from Prinance is automatically stored in the Prinect Integration Manager - the workflow system for the entire production process. All areas of production have access to and use this central database. This leads to higher production reliability and reduces the time and effort needed to prepare, manage and analyze orders. The more departments that are integrated, the greater is the increase in efficiency. Our customer in Liechtenstein, BVD Druck & Verlag AG, shows us what this looks like in real life. For every order, a production plan is created using the Management Information System (MIS). This defines which process steps need to take place for which orders. The Prinect Production Workflow uses this information to automatically initiate the respective production processes or assign which machines will carry them out. All employees - whether the scheduler or the printer - can access the exact order information they need to carry out their jobs efficiently right from their work place. In addition, production data from all departments is forwarded back for post calculations and other analyses.

What else is hidden behind the new products Prinect Postpress Manager and Prinect Scheduler?
Bachthaler: The Prinect Postpress Manager integrates automated postpress machines like saddlestitchers and folders into the online production workflow. Using data terminals, older machines and manual work stations can also be integrated. The Prinect Scheduler is an electronic production-planning tool. Schedulers can plan more quickly and efficiently with the tool's comfortable planning templates and its ability to provide a detailed display of the current status of all jobs. In addition, using so-called checkpoints, the Prinect Scheduler shows whether milestones like proof releases have been reached. With a traffic light system, it also signals whether deadlines are in danger of being missed or there is a conflict with resources. In this way, the scheduler can detect potential problems early on and help employees avert or correct them.

What about the pay-off time?
Bachthaler: I've already mentioned our customer in Liechtenstein, BVD. BVD utilizes an integrated Prinect Workflow solution in their administrative department, prepress, the pressroom, and they will add it in postpress as well. Thanks to the integration, BVD is already saving around seven minutes per job and is reducing waste by five percent. On average, these kinds of integration projects pay off within two years. But the advantages don't end there. Heidelberg is the only manufacturer to cover all management and production processes with its workflow solution - from Management Information Software (MIS), to prepress, the pressroom and up to postpress. Drawing everything from the same source doesn't only have a big functional advantage. It is also noticeable in the form of cost reductions. This is because the effort needed for integration is much smaller and the individual building blocks are fitted ideally to one another.