Prepress
Mainfranken is Everywhere
Monday 24. November 2008 - The Internet is the marketing channel, Germany and other countries the market, flyeralarm the brand, and Druckhaus Mainfranken the operative production unit for printing. In just two years this printer has grown from a single-press site to a group comprising three facilities with a total of ten large-format sheetfed offset presses.
In a business where fast-paced order processing and delivery as well as ultra-low-cost production are everything, Druckhaus Mainfranken trusts unreservedly in CTP and workflow solutions from Kodak for its imaging requirements.
This is a story that would never have been written without the Internet. Admittedly, mail order printers were already marketing standard products nationwide through catalogs, mailings, and ads long before the start of the online era. Nevertheless, spectacular growth rates were only rarely achieved with mail order business in its traditional form. Druckhaus Mainfranken’s experience with the Internet portal flyeralarm.de makes a striking contrast.
In September 2006, Druckhaus Mainfranken GmbH – a joint venture between Schleunungdruck and flyeralarm – went productive in Marktheidenfeld, a small town to the south-east of Frankfurt. The first large-format sheetfed offset press in format 6 in Plant I was joined by a second machine in the fall of 2006. At the same time, a new printing facility – Plant II – was constructed on the flyeralarm site in Greußenheim, not far from Würzburg. Four format 6 presses were commissioned there between April and September 2007. Parallel to this rapid expansion, Druckhaus was already preparing its third coup. Klipphausen, a municipality in Saxony with premises available in the market, qualified staff, and a logistically favorable location was identified as a suitable target for the next print shop. Production in Plant III got under way in December 2007. Situated about twenty miles from Dresden, this facility meanwhile houses four sheetfed offset presses, each with four printing units which like the rest of the company’s offset equipment bear the name KBA Rapida 142. The presses run five days a week, 24 hours a day, in three shifts. Out of the Group’s current headcount of approximately 650, 75 are employed in Klipphausen. This figure will increase to more than 130 following the expansion of its postpress operations in Plant III.
Druckhaus’ phenomenal growth in the space of just two years is irrefutable evidence of the success of a business model that is only inadequately described by the term “online printer”. A large number of standard products are marketed via the flyeralarm portal in scaled, standardized versions and print run categories – at “unbeatably low prices”. The strategic development of the flyeralarm.de platform has been driven in a focused and vigorous way by Thorsten Fischer, company founder and Managing Director – always in close consultation with Schleunungdruck and taking advantage of its special printing competencies. The success model practiced by flyeralarm and Druckhaus Mainfranken undoubtedly derives its strength from this leveraging of synergies and expertise.
Time is another key factor alongside price. “Delivering a product to the customer on time is the single most important criterion. In addition to standard deliveries – usually within three or four days – we also offer a two-day express service and an overnight service. Overnight means that, providing we receive the data by 4 p.m. at the latest, depending on the product, we guarantee delivery of a customer’s order by noon the next day anywhere in Europe. We can only deliver this fast thanks to the support and dependability of UPS, our logistics partner,” reports Ulrich Stetter, a member of the Board of Management of Druckhaus Mainfranken. “This is one of the biggest challenges confronting our business: we have no control over when a customer sends us a job. However, when one does arrive, the timeframe in which to complete it is always very narrow. Overnight jobs have to be handled in the fast lane and given precedence over all others. At the same time, we cannot afford to neglect standard orders. In the end, we have no choice but to keep the necessary production capacities available, so that we are in a position to react promptly and reliably in any given situation.”
Economical mass production on an industrial scale
Workflows streamlined from start to finish and the highest possible level of automation and standardization represent the cornerstones of ultra-low-cost mass production on an industrial scale. This is why there is only a single press format for sheetfed offset across all sites and the printing process takes place in CMYK throughout. It also explains the policy of reducing makeready times to a minimum by equipping the presses with every conceivable meaningful extra. Moreover, the production conditions in all three plants are aligned with the Offset Printing ProcessStandard (ISO 12647-2). The range of products printed – such as flyers, leaflets, brochures, catalogs, magazines, billboards, posters, postcards, greetings cards etc. – is handled with just ten paper qualities.
Druckhaus Mainfranken’s decision to place its undivided trust in Kodak systems when it comes to CTP and the prepress workflow is likewise linked to the standardization philosophy. However, that is only one aspect. Ulrich Stetter points to the reasons: “We need maximum possible reliability, precision, and quality – as well as maximum productivity. This package of requirements is optimally met by our large Kodak CTP systems in conjunction with high-quality thermal plates. High productivity and reliability are much more important than with commercial applications, for instance.” The majority of jobs are printed with AM screens and a 170 lpi linescreen, although KODAK STACCATO Screening is also used for billboard and poster printing.
A total of five KODAK MAGNUS VLF QUANTUM Platesetters in the X Speed version are hard at work in the three plants. They are all fully automated, integrate high-precision KODAK SQUARESPOT Imaging Technology, and image plates exclusively in 1145 x 1430 mm format. As far as the plate type is concerned, a dominant role is played by non-preheat KODAK ELECTRA EXCEL HR Thermal Plates. KODAK PRINERGY Workflow Systems control the thermal platesetters in all three facilities and keep them extremely busy with a steady flow of output data.
Since considerable importance is attached to system availability, the KODAK PRINERGY Workflow Systems at each site are backed up by secondary and tertiary servers as well as failover concepts. For the same reason, Druckhaus Mainfranken has signed service agreements for all its Kodak systems – from workflow to platesetter. In addition to regular maintenance at the three locations, Druckhaus also benefits from priority treatment and prompt reactions in case of an emergency.
CTP automation taken to a new, unprecedented level
Whereas in Plants I and II the large-format CTP systems are supplied with plates by multi-cassette units (MCUs), the two KODAK MAGNUS VLF QUANTUM Platesetters installed in Klipphausen obtain their plate quota direct from the pallets. This task is handled by two KODAK Automatic Pallet Loaders with one segment each. The plates are loaded from the pallets fully automatically without damaging the plate emulsion, while the slipsheets are reliably removed and accurately placed. Each pallet holds 300 plates with a thickness of 0.4 mm. However, the printing house is meanwhile considering changing over to stacks of 400 plates, or possibly even more, to permit the pallet change intervals to be extended.
The two CTP lines at the Klipphausen plant alone image and process around 1200 large-format thermal plates in a single day. Two operators, who are mainly responsible for ensuring the supplies of data to the platesetters as well as the flow of plates, work each shift in the CTP department. Although there are two shifts in this department, the digital platesetting process actually runs for up to 22 hours a day – because the end-to-end automation of the CTP systems and the KODAK PRINERGY Workflow System allow unattended plate production for several hours at a time.
The rule based automation (RBA) concept of the Prinergy System helps Druckhaus Mainfranken restrict manual inputs to a minimum in the already lean prepress process up to the press-ready plates. Ready-assembled PDF gang files, in which the jobs are packaged according to type, deadline, run length, and sometimes similarity of artwork, are delivered to the various printing sites from the central flyeralarm office via FTP servers or dedicated lines. Based on the typical flyer size, each file can contain up to 120 different jobs. Owing to the complex presets and file IDs generated by the upstream system, the incoming PDF files make their way through the prepress workflow almost completely automatically. The RBA process ensures that each one is assigned to the correct job layout and paper format. Time stipulations, too, are automatically considered, so that the jobs arrive on the plates and in the pressroom strictly in order of priority.
The prepress operators are subsequently called upon to carry out a final data check. A very useful contribution is made by the Virtual Proofing System function of the KODAK PRINERGY Workflow System. This software instantly generates authentic color previews of the rendered and screened impositions, which can also be overlaid on the monitor for checking the front-to-back registration.
Large-format plates in large series
Michael Deml, Plant III Manager, is not one to beat about the bush: “It is not the job of our prepress operators to proof impositions. Their main duty is to keep the system running and ensure that plate production is maintained at the highest possible level.” Jan Barthel, his equivalent at Plant I, and André Eckert at Plant II agree wholeheartedly with this viewpoint and underscore it with an observation of their own: up to five plate changes an hour are required per press. In extreme cases, such as an order for the minimum quantity of posters, the machines need a new set of plates after only a hundred good sheets. All in all, Druckhaus Mainfranken’s plate consumption in 2008 will amount to well over 300,000 in format 6.
The fact that the stipulated professional quality is consistently achieved despite the enormous quantities involved is largely thanks to Kodak’s CTP and screening technology. According to Ulrich Stetter, the process stability and reproducibility of the KODAK SQUARESPOT Imaging Technology supports the company’s endeavor to deliver the same high-quality product to its customers not just today but also tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.
This inevitably raises the question of the factors that will drive Druckhaus Mainfranken’s future growth. Geographical market expansion? The first steps have already been taken with the establishment of flyeralarm portals and call centers for Austria, Italy and the Netherlands in addition to Germany. Other countries are currently in preparation. Parallel to this, the Group is also planning to develop the quality of its portfolio. “There is a definite trend away from simple jobs towards more demanding, more complex presswork,” Ulrich Stetter explains. “Our answer is a new, separate product line that will offer even higher value and greater professionalism than ever.” Since September 2008, for example, flyeralarm has been in a position to deliver perfect bound products. The company is determined to maintain its focused efforts to provide a full set of services to its customers and successively broaden its existing range of products.