Business News
CIP4 Announces 2009 CIPPI Award Winners
Friday 18. September 2009 - The International Cooperation for the Integration of the Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4) organization announced the 2009 winners of the Jürgen Schönhut Memorial CIP4 International Print Production Innovation (CIPPI) Awards at a reception held at Print 2009. The CIPPI awards are given annually to the printer, publisher or prepress service who applies with the most compelling case study in three topical categories and four regions.
The winners are:
· Best cost/benefit realization and improvement in efficiency as a result of process automation implementation
o First Place Druckerei Bauer GmbH of Pfedelbach, Germany
o Second Place Sirivatana Interprint Public Company Limited, of Bankok, Thialand
· Biggest improvement in quality production & customer responsiveness as a result of process automation
o First Place C. Maurer Druck und Verlag GmbH of Geislingen/Steige, Germany
o Second Place Druckerei Bauer GmbH of Pfedelbach, Germany
· Most innovative use of process automation technology in an implementation
o Shinkosha Printing Company of Tokyo, Japan
· Small Business Process Automation Implementation of the Year
o 5Sept Etiquette of Courthézon, France
· Best Process Automation Implementation Asia/Pacific
o Shinkosha Printing Company of Tokyo, Japan
· Best Process Automation Implementation Europe
o Cloître Imprimeurs of Saint-Thonan, France
· Best Process Automation Implementation North America
o Ampersand Printing of Guelph, Ontario, Canada
· Best Process Automation Implementation Emerging Markets
o Emirates Printing Press of Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Any printer, prepress service or publisher may apply for the CIPPI awards. Awards are determined by a Review Panel of judges without affiliation to any vendor, printer, prepress service or publisher. The five Review Panel judges are:
· Patrick Cahuet of 1Prime|Concept (France)
· Stephan Jaeggi of PrePress-Consulting (Switzerland)
· Tetsuo Kimura of PrinTechno, Inc. (Japan)
· Bill Esler of Graphic Arts Monthly (USA)
· John Leininger of Clemson University (USA)
Among the winners, there were some interesting examples of JDF being used in areas that had not been seen before. “Druckerei Bauer is the first CIPPI Award winner to demonstrate that JDF can be successful in the packaging industry,” said judge John Leininger. “In addition to increasing production by 20% with JDF, they also showed that costing data can be captured in postpress packaging operations directly from machines via JMF.”
Another interesting winning case study was Shinkosha Printing Company, which extended automation to DTP operations and even allowed management to set up production equipment remotely from the office. “Shinkosha Printing took automation one step further than anyone before,” said Jim Harvey, executive director of CIP4. “No simple summary could do their case study justice, but the one point that stood out is that management wanted a totally digital workflow, done by the numbers, to mirror the mindset of young people coming into the industry
so they would see the business as a digital operation, from beginning to end.”
As the winner of in the “Biggest improvement in quality production & customer responsiveness as a result of process automation” category, C. Mauer Druck and Verlag extended their JDF automation beyond the plant with help from HIFLEX and Heidelberg. They included Star Publishing, a print buyer working for a “premium automotive manufacturer,” to provide just-in-time production of car manuals as part of the auto manufacturers supply chain. Ramona Kaden, CEO of Star Publishing stated, “Errors are avoided before the expensive production process begins. Only 100% ready-to-print files and specifications are transmitted to production. By using JDF communication, the sources of errors are almost completely eliminated. This has an effect on: (1.) time?more orders are processed in a shorter time and lead time is significantly reduced; (2.) visibility?IT systems of different partners are talking to each other, which leads to better job tracking across company borders; and (3.) process workflow ? everything melds together, and the involved parties are efficiently connected.”
At the awards ceremony, Patrick Vreven, CEO of Gamsys and part of the winning Cloître Imprimeurs team that won the “Best Process Automation Implementation Europe” award said that, “For Cloître the goal of the project wasnt saving labor, but rather eliminating stress from the production process and making and impact on the environment. The improved workflow and automated data collection and reporting allows everyone to spend more time for better communication with customers, and even more time in training and professional development. More immediate information to the customer on job status means that Cloître can provide its customers with more flexibility in production for late changes. And better control of material usage means less waste and that is better for the environment.” Vreven went on to say, “For Cloître the best award is the return on investment and the ability to provide better service to their customers.”
The 2009 CIPPI award winning case studies may be downloaded from: www.cip4.org/cippi/ where you can also get more information on the CIPPI awards program. (Summaries of each winning case study can be found in the section below.)