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Manson Group Makes Front-to-Back Investment to Boost Efficiency

The Manson Group will move to CIP4 JDF-compliant production next year, when its building extension is completed and a front-to-back production and business system is installed.

The company will install a Topsetter 102 CtP system, a second SM 102-8-P eight-color perfector with CutStar reel to sheeter, Stitchmaster ST400 saddle-stitcher, Prinance MIS system and complete Prinect workflow. Neil Wass, Sales and Marketing Director, believes: "This will increase interest among many large publishing houses. We turned heads four years ago when we pioneered the move to PDF, showing how easy it was to use. I think the potential of JDF will interest a number of key people."

The whole investment is being made with customers in mind, in a quest to reduce the average job turnaround time from three to five days within two years. "We handle six weeklies which we turn around in less than 12 hours, but we want to take this JIT (just-in-time) approach to a broader spread of customers," Neil Wass adds. The company attributes 60 percent of its sales to magazines, 20 percent to exhibition-related print and 20 percent to general commercial jobs; about 60 percent of turnover arises from contractual agreements.

The new press replaces one of the UK's earliest eight-color models which has, since its installation three years ago, experienced the quality advance that the new long perfector jackets have brought. Therefore, it stays along with a B2 Speedmaster SM 74-4-L four-colour plus coater. The Prinect CP2000 Center on the new press will enable it to be linked to other departments easily and seamlessly. CutStar will allow it to handle lighter stocks, even down to 60 gsm. Aware that there will be an increase in throughput time as a result of the investment, the company is extending its warehouse by 60 percent to be able to store more raw materials.

At the finishing end, Heidelberg's most advanced and CIP4-compatible saddle-stitcher, the ST400, will be installed. It will have six stations and a cover feeder. It is the first item to arrive and will be followed, in a staged build up, by other machines until the installation is completed by the end of April. Production operates on a 24-hour, continental shift system. Prinect will link all areas of production together and tie in to Prinance which enables accurate business information to be generated and shared safely.

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