The world’s biggest offset press manufacturer will exhibit the digitised future of the print media industry under the motto Simply Smart at the upcoming drupa next May
Heidelberg says the print shops of the future must be digitised to meet customer demands for speed and efficiency, and says their customers must be involved in the process.
According to Heidelberg the highly flexible production of a growing number of personalised print products is becoming a standard process. In the future, print shops will be embedded even more deeply into a digital supply chain with customers and suppliers, and will have to meet even greater expectations regarding additional services such as shipping and multimedia marketing.
Heidelberg will build on its collaborations under the strategy instigated by current CEO Dr Gerold Linzbach. In terms of digital solutions for the printing industry, Heidelberg says it is widening its range of offerings with co-operation partners Ricoh and Fujifilm, so as to meet customer requirements with added efficiency and speed. The company is combining its expertise with that of its partners to create one integrated system.
Heidelberg has not yet released specifics, but it is widely expected to show its sheetfed B1 inkjet press, co-developed with Fujifilm, as a key part of its stand..
The focus will be on pioneering innovations for offset and digital printing, prepress, finishing, the workflow, and the associated services and consumables.
The company is splitting its trade fair activities between Hall 1, which for the first time it is sharing with partners, and its headquarters in Wiesloch-Walldorf, which will centre on the broad Heidelberg portfolio. They are aimed primarily at customers who want to find out about the latest innovations, but also have varied needs in terms of productivity, automation, and capacity requirements.
“Presented under the motto Simply Smart, the Heidelberg exhibits at drupa will showcase the digitised and industrially organized print shop as an essential element for successful business models in the future. Working with our partners, we want to offer futureproof products and services that help our customers to be successful,” says Harald Weimer, member of the management board, responsible for Heidelberg Services.
“We believe that the integrated and networked print shop represents a trailblazing step for companies in our industry that want to move their businesses forward. By supplying automated processes and services, we are helping our customers to meet the demands that competitive print media production will face in the future”, he says.
The “Simply Smart” theme is the company’s response to the challenges associated with Print Media Industry 4.0. Heidelberg is offering specific benefits and making it as easy as possible to work with increasingly complex processes and technologies.
Heidelberg says most of its products are already suitable for integrating and automating processes in a print shop. The Prinect print and media workflow from Heidelberg forms the basis for integrated communication between systems and machinery. It focuses on the smart integration of offset and digital printing, additional automation of all production processes, integration of commercial processes, and the inclusion of print buyers in the workflow.
Through Prinect, Heidelberg also gives its customers the opportunity to run offset and digital technologies in parallel, based on a user-friendly and integrated process. What’s more, the company is continuously expanding its digital printing portfolio. As part of its ongoing work in this area, Heidelberg and Fujifilm will be exhibiting a joint development at drupa in the form of a new, highly productive inkjet-based digital printing system for industrial commercial and packaging printing.
“Prinect is the basis for integrated communication inside the print shop and between the print shop and their customers and suppliers,” says Stephan Plenz, member of the management board, responsible for Heidelberg Equipment. This integration is supported, for example, by the new Prinect Portal, which makes communication between print shops and customers much easier and more transparent; by the new Prinect Web Shop, which offers print shops an easy route into online trading; and by the Prinect digital front end, which can be used to integrate digital printing systems into the overall workflow of a print shop. “That is how we are helping make the digitized and networked print shop a reality.”
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