15,000: This impressive number represents the amount of Prinect
demonstrations Heidelberg performed during Drupa. Customers from
around the world came to Halls 1 & 2 to see and believe
Heidelberg's print shop workflow.
Prinect is our print shop workflow and integrates the
complete range of print shop management and production processes.
Prinect optimises, simplifies and automates workflows based on an
open data standard - the central JDF document - that contains all
the job data. Virtually all Heidelberg presses, platesetters and
postpress equipment can be integrated into the Prinect print shop
workflow.
The potential for optimisation in workflow was proven by
Southern Colour (VIC). At drupa they were, presented with the
"CIPPI award" for the best process automation in Asia Pacific
during Drupa. The CIPPI award is given every year by the CIP4
organisation and recognises leading printers that have demonstrated
uncommon leadership in their pursuit of process automation
technology. Southern Colour uses Prinect components in their
Prepress and Pressroom.
During Drupa, Heidelberg featured 7 different areas with a
specific focus, for example packaging, small and medium format and
one-pass productivity. All areas were fully integrated printshops.
All production data from all equipment was sent back for analyses
and reporting and could be seen by customers while the equipment
was in production.
At more than 30 demo workstations across both halls customers
saw various new Prinect products and a number of enhanced
applications. One of the "HEI Lights" was the new reporting
function from the Prinect Pressroom Manager. It provides full
transparency of pressroom activity: allowing capacity analysis and
comparisons between different presses on the shopfloor and gives a
comprehensive overview from single jobs to the entire
production. Production data can be accessed live - while the
job is running. Capturing information such as how many good sheets
were produced for (say) the last 3 months or how much time was
spent on make-ready and on wash-up etc. This type of detail was
previously close to impossible to catch and report. With the new
functionality the data is captured automatically during normal
press operation. The same transparency and reporting functionality
can also be achieved in finishing with the new Prinect Postpress
Manager. This brings the old adage "if you can't measure it you
can't manage it" into focus providing information to assist making
decisions regarding new investments and resources. The
profitability of jobs and customers can now be analysed from real
production data at the click of a button.
How do you schedule your production today? How do you handle
job changes? For the majority of printers today this is a manual
process which involves meetings, walking from department to
department, phone calls and often without knowing where the job bag
is. To overcome this challenge Heidelberg has developed the new
Prinect Scheduler. The electronic scheduling board lets users plan
all production steps while keeping track of production activities
in real-time. It supports forward, backwards and priority
scheduling and gives alarms if plates, paper or customer approvals
are not on schedule. Jobs with same spot colours or same folding
sequences can easily be identified and scheduled together to save
make-ready time. The Scheduler also provides a capacity overview
for each production device to identify bottlenecks faster.
Maintenance times, shift durations and public holidays are managed
automatically. The production board can be accessed by everyone on
the network so they can see what's happening but security functions
ensure the ability to actually change the board remains with one
person, which is defined by user login. If a job changes e.g. to
use different stock, the Prinect Scheduler will adjust the length
of production automatically if the speed on press and in the
stitcher has to be reduced.
On the CtP side Heidelberg has extended the Suprasetter
family by the VLF format in line with its entry into VLF presses.
The VLF Suprasetter range images a maximum plate format of 1425 x
1915 mm with up to 25 plates per hour. The plate throughput for the
smaller Suprasetters 74 and 105 is now increased to up to 38 plates
per hour, along with a new and more powerful laser module to
increase the throughput of "green" plates.
The Suprasetter range has a great uptake and is well
established in the market. During Drupa, Heidelberg's CEO Bernhard
Schreier handed over the 2000th Suprasetter to John Della from
Pageset. The order includes a Multi Cassette Loader for up to 600
plates and the Prinect Prepress Manager for an automated prepress
workflow. The Suprasetter replaces the first of nine Trendsetter
units currently being used by Pageset across Australia and
receiving the 2000th unit was a great tribute to Pageset's success
and loyalty to Heidelberg CtP over the years.
While JDF and Integrated workflow have been the catch cries
of past drupa's, this drupa in our opinion was different.
Heidelberg showed a fully integrated Prinect workflow, that is
already working in the field and that's deliverable today. The
demonstrations showed live production data and customers responded
by looking beyond the novelty and focussing on how they could
benefit from investing in an integrated Prinect workflow, specified
and scaled for today's needs with room to grow.
Further Information:
Soeren Lange
Product Manager - Prepress & Workflow
Tel. +61 3 9263 3386
Email:
Soeren.Lange@heidelberg.com