Managing and integrating the traffic to branch off to your platemaker and ultimately to your litho press on one route and to divert to your digital presses on another route is an important productivity and efficiency consideration. This is based on the time-honoured principle of avoiding double handling and reinventing the wheel, and using as much original content as possible in producing print across various output technologies.
Along the way, proofing and colour management should be a part of the integrated mix. Perhaps it is a good exercise to first consider where optimally integrating workflows is necessarily a priority. In enterprises where digital is now mainstream – such as Kerim El Gabaili’s OnePoint Media in Sydney – the focus is on multimedia, with print only at 35 per cent of overall services provided by the company.
Of that print, El Gabaili estimates some 20 per cent is offset. With the focus on a print and electronic mix, OnePoint is not a classic manufacturer of print, he says, and the efficiencies to be gained by carefully integrating the workflow to its Ricoh C7110x or alternatively to its two-colour GTO are not as high a priority as determining the best print/electronic package for individual customers. But in print-only or print-mainly businesses – the typical commercial print provider — it pays to recognise how different the various output technologies are — and how this limits integration. The name of the game is making offset and digital as compatible as possible, in order to make the choice of which platform is used as much of a business decision as possible, and not so much a technological decision.
Before an order is logged into an MIS, the differences between offset and digital already manifest themselves in how offset and digital are sold. One, of course, is essentially a volume proposition, based on price per unit, the other is sold on the basis of convenient, on-demand, short runs, no need to warehouse, VDP features added, and a premium price attached. But often, in static non-VDP work, the two technologies are interchangeable and the offset or digital nature of the job is left open with the client. As Michael Schulz of SOS Printing has often stated, determining whether a job will go offset or digital can be deferred to late in the workflow. “Sometimes we shuffle jobs – if, for example, it is a 500- run, we will perhaps put it on a digital machine, and when it comes to the crunch, we might just print it offset, or vice-versa.”
Generally the decision is made before the paper is ordered, but even then there is a degree of flexibility. Schulz believes a solution that sets up queues for a platemaker and also for the digital machines still faces challenges such as the use of different work trays and work being sent for different activities, such as stapling. He says, “Files needing to be programmed accordingly. That’s where offset and digital are just different”.
Device independence
But a lot can be done independently of the final devices used to print, says Heidelberg’s Dierk Wissman, product manager ANZ, and he points to preflighting, imposing and colour management as stages in prepress that are device-agnostic nowadays. “This provides the necessary flexibility to route a job at the very last minute from one device to the other depending on availability and cost,” he tells ProPrint. “On a management level for both types of devices, performance data such as sheets printed per job as collected provide excellent tools to monitor the performance of the entire production of a print shop.”
Wissman says that in principle, the main feature-set required for digital and offset production does not differ much, but the range of parameters which must be supported is larger. There are two key factors; on one hand it is the capability to adopt imposition to the format of the final printing devices almost automatically in case of a change of the production device, and on the other hand it is the same colour and rendering technology for both types of devices. These two factors give the shop owner the flexibility to select the production device purely on an economical base. “A complete workflow consists of a production pillar and a management pillar. In respect to production, the seamlessness of integration of the third party printing devices depends on their capability of remote controlling, ideally via JDF. In case JDF controlling is not available, some production parameters have to be set directly at the device. In respect to management, without a deep JDF integration, collecting production data is not possible in most cases,” he says. Wissman explains that in most cases, digital print engines have a dedicated renderer and colour management. It is important to use the same renderer and colour management technology for all imaging devices in case print applications are sold independent of the selected production device.
“Heidelberg provides the same technology for both Heidelberg offset press and Heidelberg Linoprint digital print engines, differences in colour are minimised down to the physical limitations which cannot be overcome,” he adds. For Wissman, the bottom line is that in a modern print shop, running the latest equipment for a hybrid workflow is the best solution. “The advantage coming with production flexibility and freedom of choice on which devices will be used purely on an economical base is incredibly high. Only in cases where printing devices in use cannot be integrated reasonably, even on a production level, a separate workflow will make sense and workarounds might be needed.” Heidelberg is teaming with Ricoh in a joint venture to release the new R-60 RIP which is specifically designed to fully and seamlessly integrate Heidelberg Prinect workflows with both digital and offset output, notes Bill Atta, Ricoh Australia’s product and marketing manager, PP & Graphic Arts. “This same R-60 RIP will also enable any Ricoh customers who have a Kodak Prinergy workflow to easily integrate and create a hybrid workflow,” he tells ProPrint.
Lindsay Yates manages the traffic
With the installation of a new B2 Agfa Apogee v9 workflow to complement its freshly minted, Currie-supplied HP Indigo 10000, Artarmon –based Lindsay Yates Group has ushered in an automated solution to traffic management of files to its various hardware devices. Aside from the Indigo 10000, there is a Konica Minolta 8000, while on the offset side, a Heidelberg Speedmaster XL105 and a 74, both six-colours with coater, complete the hardware line-up. Says LYG’s David Shoppee, who co-directs the 38-year-old, 60-staff company with Paul Richardson: “We reached the stage where we could not handle much more work with our previous workflow.” Under guidance from Printing Industries’ Future Print programme, the company has installed a Tharstern MIS, which Shoppee says is the driver of the hybrid workflow. A customer’s quote is entered into a Tharstern MIS, which generates a range of solutions, using Tharstern’s Estimate Pro module. “We have moved away from relying on the skill of an estimator. We put in the parameters of the job and Tharstern then produces a range of solutions across all our production devices, then ranks that in order of price, and lets us make our decision as to which quote we will submit to the client.” Shoppee says that the quote, once entered into the Tharstern MIS, will have a JDF submission attached, it will then preflight automatically and drop into Apogee imposition, before proceeding to a number of different proofing queues. “For example, if it needs an Epson proof, it will go straight to the Epson, if it requires a mockup, it will go to a different queue, or another queue for a PDF proof.
“We have integrated our production and prepress departments in the one room. We are adding an Apogee Web Approval process as well. The client will be able to log in to Apogee, place their quote number, it will retrieve the imposition and proof the job in real time.” If approved, the Apogee will then convert the quote into a job and send it straight to the output device. If it is going to the HP Indigo it will land in the Indigo queue, without anyone touching it. “Everything is predetermined within Apogee at the time of quoting. At that stage, the production device will have been chosen and the output will go to the respective queue. If it needs to head to the platesetter (in this case, a Heidelberg Suprasetter), it will head there automatically.” Operator intervention occurs only with bespoke jobs that require extra attention, such as multiple diecuts or case binding. “The philosophy is to have one system, one process, irrespective of the production device. From there, our stage two will be automating postpress, which will require an investment in JDF equipment, which is also part of our plan, but is a gradual process,” he says.
Starting with a single face
EFI’s Nick Benkovich, director, EPS portfolio product management, states: “A single workflow starts with a single face to the print buyer for job and file upload, and a single management system to handle billing, purchasing and ledgers. With a single workflow and scheduling platform, customers have the option to move jobs from one output medium to another easily and handle demand and volume changes and also schedule shared resources, such as cutting and binding, that can be used by both offset and digitally generated output. “The key is in the estimating of the production to determine the most cost efficient production route. Once the capabilities and running costs of the equipment and the costs of materials are entered, the system automatically calculates the optimal path for the user. There is no longer any guessing where the crossover point is on any given job, as this often varies based on type of job, machine capabilities and the complexity of the finishing processes required that can be inline or offline,” he says. Benkovich explains that colour management is typically handled by the final ripping process and controlled by managing ICC profiles. The reason it is done at ripping is that the linearistion of the device can greatly affect the colour gamut and the final result. “EFI Fiery even includes many tools beyond the standard ICC colour profiling standard to improve image quality.”
Comment below to have your say on this story.
If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@sprinter.com.au.
Sign up to the Sprinter newsletter
