Häuser KG, Cologne - Internet-Based Printing and Growth |
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Growth rates of over 25 percent per year from Internet-based sales might sound like a much-vaunted vision of the future for the print media sector but at Häuser KG in Cologne this is already a reality. This family business employing approximately some 30 staff has been developing its Internet operations continuously since the start of 2003. As well as a sophisticated business model and an Internet solution developed in-house, a new Speedmaster CD74 eight-color press with perfecting device and a Prinect workflow are also helping support current success and future expansion.
The full-service company Häuser KG produces a variety of commercial jobs in two shifts on the competitive market in and around Cologne. Its spectrum ranges from simple business cards to lavish catalogs. Being able to offer customers what they want is the key philosophy and this requires maximum flexibility. In addition to traditional sales, the importance of the Internet as a sales platform has grown enormously in the last couple of years. At present, some 25 percent of sales come from jobs generated via the Internet platform Druckdiscount24
(www.druckdiscount24.de)
developed by Häuser. The company uses this to win orders from all over Germany. A sample book compiled in-house, "A little aid to the printing industry", offers corporate customers and agencies help in costing and placing orders online. "Our customers can cost jobs entirely online, input exact print runs, and decide on delivery times themselves," explains Managing Director Heiko Mazur. A secure customer zone also offers the option of saving details of customer-specific discounts. The use of the intellectual capital invested in the software will be intensified even further in the future, with Mazur planning to make the online platform available on agency websites for their customers, for instance. Printing, however, will be performed at Häuser KG.
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Further dynamic growth
Häuser KG achieved a year-on-year increase in its sales for 2005 of some 15 percent to around four million Euro. "We're expecting to hit the five million mark by the end of 2006. We're generating this growth almost exclusively with jobs from Druckdiscount24. Job numbers there are rising continuously from month to month," explains Mazur. "Conventional commercial printing, on the other hand, will continue to stagnate in our view. However, we're planning to double our sales within three years."
To make the most of the Internet, jobs have to be processed much more quickly of course. "Production times of four hours - from receipt of an order to the finished product - are no problem for us," explains Mazur. Production setup has to be just as fast and flexible. Most jobs are produced in short to medium runs on a scale of 5,000 to 10,000 copies. As well as immediate job setup - jobs are frequently in the press within 30 minutes - a permanently well-filled paper store housing the most common paper types ensures the necessary flexibility. Currently, around 10 percent of jobs are produced in mixed forms and this percentage is on the rise.
Central workflow - at least 40 percent greater throughput
Today, MIS Prinect Prinance from Heidelberg is the main system for preliminary and actual costing and for billing. Currently, in addition to the prepress and press stages, finishing operations are also being integrated into the system. Feedback to Prinance from the presses on how jobs are progressing is fully automatic, enabling the situation at any time to be taken into account in the actual costing phase. After implementing Prinance, Häuser initially operated without an integration solution. The prepress stage has been fully integrated since the launch of Prinect Printready in August 2005, thereby ensuring an end-to-end workflow.
The previously-used prepress software increasingly became a bottleneck in view of the rapid increase in incoming orders. "By using Printready, we achieved growth in throughput of 40 to 50 percent virtually right way," says Mazur, who is delighted with his company's success. The immediate popularity of IT-based production solutions among staff aided the launch, as did rapid provision of training by Heidelberg. "Because the workflow solution is easy to use, we were able to process the first jobs with Printready in just two days," adds Mazur. "The Heidelberg workflow is better suited to many of our needs today than the one we used previously, which we now only use for plate output on the two Fuji recorders. We were able to integrate the old prepress software into the Printready workflow without any major problems."
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Color management for maximum flexibility and capacity utilization
When jobs are received on the Internet, the number of faulty originals is naturally quite high and the quality of originals overall also varies very widely. Mazur believes that around 80 percent of originals need to be corrected. "We use Printready here for both automated checking of PDFs and fast gamut mapping. We can carry out corrections at an extremely fast and high level, consulting customers as necessary. But the color workflow solution also offers real benefits if we have to switch a job at the last minute from a five- to a four-color press, for example. This gives our flexibility a decisive boost."
Prinect Color Solutions at Häuser KG
Heidelberg Color Solutions - the company has installed e.g. Image Control, Profile Toolbox and the CP2000 Center press control system - are mainly used at Häuser for faster inking-up. "We need to be at the OK sheet stage one hour after the order has been received at the latest," says Managing Director Heiko Mazur, outlining the tight timeframe. Without his highly committed staff this would be impossible. "In launching the digital workflow, we had a clear vision. Integration was not designed to cut jobs - rather, we were committed to leveraging the additional production capacity to enhance growth," says Mazur, explaining the company's strategic positioning. Image Control is used to check that each job conforms to the color standard. "We print around 90 percent of jobs to the process standard. We regularly check all available screen and paper combinations internally using test forms. In the near future we'll be doing this by using Mini Spots developed by Heidelberg." Prepress units are profiled using the Profile Toolbox. "The increase in quality with Color Solutions is considerable," notes Mazur. "They also offer us key support in making our workflows even more flexible." According to Mazur, ICC profiles for instance can be created within one hour. "This means we'll also be able to create profiles quickly for new paper and ink combinations in future if the job requires it."
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Online jobs cut production windows
Print data for jobs from the Internet arrive on an FTP server. Jobs printed in mixed forms are transferred by the system directly to the Printready hot folder. They are thus immediately available for further processing in the workflow. The originals are also checked in the hot folders and the operator processing the job can work with the results of this immediately. The data is then available for production.
The new Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 74-8 plays an important role in this. This is particularly true for Internet orders, almost 95 percent of which are four-color jobs. "As regards color and quality, these jobs can be handled extremely well with an eight-color press. The high level of automation offered by the Speedmaster CD 74 allows us to cut setup times significantly. In perfecting mode there are no longer any limits on speed and printing stock thickness - throughput is over 40 percent higher than with a straight press. And with a view to the imminent increase in orders, the press still has sufficient potential to cope with double the throughput," explains Mazur. Even the increased volume of orders in the second half of 2005 would not have been possible without these new presses.
This year, Prinect Remote Access will augment the workflow portfolio at Häuser, giving online customers in particular transparent access to the status of their jobs. "In introducing the workflow, we are proceeding step by step throughout. The next expansion stage will not begin until all the functions and potential of Printready have been mastered properly. In the Printready workflow alone, Mazur sees potential for an increase in performance of around 20 percent when all the functions are used to full capacity. "But the eight-color press also still offers reserves in performance that we'll soon need for our future growth."
For further information:
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
Corporate Communications
Matthias Hartung
Tel.: +49 (0)6221 92 50 77
Fax: +49 (0)6221 92 50 46
E-mail:
matthias.hartung@heidelberg.com
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Buch- und Offset-
druckerei Häuser KG
Founded in 1922, this family business employing 33 staff generates sales of around 3.5 million Euro (2004). Heiko Mazur is the second gener-
ation to manage the com-
pany, acquired in 1976 by his father Günter Mazur. Häuser KG moved to its new headquarters in the north of Cologne in 1993.
Pressroom equipment:
Speedmaster CD 74-8, Speedmaster CD 74-5, Speedmaster SM-52 4, Speedmaster SM-74 2, Heidelberg Tiegel
Prinect workflow: Prinect Prinance (MIS), Prinect Prepress Interface, Prinect Image Control, Prinect Printready L, 6 Cockpits
Prinect Signa Station, Prinect MetaDimension, Prinect Profile Toolbox
Buch- und Offsetdruckerei Häuser KG
Köhlstrasse 45
50827 Cologne
Tel.: +49 (0)221 95 65 030
Fax.: +49 (0)221 95 65 039
druckdiscount24
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