Workflow
MIS achieves Internet to Press workflow
Wednesday 14. May 2008 - When it was released at PacPrint 2005, Davinci had a very big vision; "End-To-End Automation of the Printing Workflow" DRUPA 08 will see this vision dramatically sharpen.
The DaVinci team have been invited to be part of DRUPAs JDF Experience Parc; a prestigious gathering of world-leaders in JDF development. This is a very big achievement for an Australian company just three years old.
At DRUPA, DaVinci will be unveiling their “INTERNET TO PRESS” technology.
This technology, already in limited use by a couple of printers in Australia, allows printing workflows to be handled automatically, without intervention by staff at the printer, until the Job hits the factory floor.
In the INTERNET TO PRESS workflow, the Customer firstly logs on to the Printers web site and specifies the job to be printed. DaVinci then automatically creates an estimate and quotes the price back to the customer.
If the price is satisfactory and the customer wishes to proceed, they click a button, attach the PDF, enter a purchase order number and DaVinci automatically goes to work.
The original estimate is converted to a job and credit issues are dealt with. DaVinci then checks the factory schedule against the requested delivery time to ensure that the job can be delivered when required.
If the Job can proceed, DaVinci makes contact (using JDF) with the Printers Pre Press System sending imposition, job structure and other important information. At the same time, a JDF transmission is sent to the Press, Folder, Guillotine and Stitcher providing all setup information.
Purchase orders are automatically sent for paper and other materials. The arrival of materials into the factory is then monitored by DaVinci to ensure that work can start when scheduled. SMS and email warnings are sent to key staff members if there are any problems.
The whole process is monitored by DaVinci making use of JMF (Job Messaging Format) to access real-time production data from the various machines.
At all times, DaVinci is aware of how the job is progressing with key staff being notified if any exceptions occur.
INTERNET TO PRESS is designed to allow individual printers a lot of flexibility as to how they use the technology. For instance, the printer may choose to have the Account Manager, Rep or CRM (rather than the customer) at the top of the process tree if it is felt that all customer contact should be personal.
It is also likely that most printers are not in a position (because of the existence of older printing machinery) to have a completely JDF enabled workflow. In such cases DaVinci will use JDF where available in conjunction with its own communication protocols to automatically manage factory workflows.
DaVincis integrated accounting suite allows the printer to close the automation loop with all financial transactions automatically being posted to the General Leger.
JDF/JMF is a great tool but it must be remembered that JDF, in itself, is only a communications device; it does nothing on its own and has no intelligence.
The destiny of JDF is reliant on highly intelligent systems (such as DaVinci) driving it.
It is also largely reliant on all vendors establishing compliancy with the ICS standard (currently 1.3). This allows a more plug and play approach by MIS systems which, in turn, has the effect of drastically reducing the cost to the printer.
Although DaVinci has been JDF enabled since Day 1, the company has been reluctant to pursue the technology with its customers until a more stable version of JDF emerged. With a more general compliance having now been established, DaVinci plans to remain at the forefront of JDF/JMF workflow management.