Canon Debuts Automated Workflow Tool

Designed to help customers expand their creativity and printing capabilities, Canon Solutions America, Inc., has launched Conveyance, a JDF-enabled automated workflow tool to boost high-volume, short-run production. This intuitive software, developed by Canon Solutions America’s Boca Raton Software Development Group, creates opportunities to streamline operations, distribute prints faster, and develop new revenue streams.

Built to meet both customer and market needs for short-run digital print workflow management and automation, this software can bolster productivity and production printing through features like seamless file transfer and job information exchange via a standardized, comprehensive XML-based file format. Conveyance’s intuitive, rule-based workflow also allows complete automation of order submission, CIP4 impositions, job grouping and splitting, as well as routing, while tracking the integrity of each order.

“The new PDF-based workflow, Conveyance, from Canon Solutions America, provides publishers and commercial printers a single workflow platform to efficiently produce books, magazines, and book-like products,” says Ryan McAbee, director, Production Workflow, Keypoint Intelligence LLC. “The automation starts with onboarding orders through XML/JDF, and then follows intelligent processing for batching, imposition, output management, and the ability to make late stage changes. Users can modify the workflow to meet the requirements for new customers and their work, enabling sustained operational benefits. True to its definition, Conveyance can transport the operations of publishers and commercial printers from disconnected processes to streamlined automation,” adds McAbee.

Conveyance helps to further Canon Solutions America’s commitment to bring Industry 4.0 innovation to the automated smart print factory. For offset print providers expanding into digital print, this software offers coherence, predictability, and stability to help automate short-runs for both entry-level and experienced professionals in JDF workflows.

“Conveyance is the next innovative step in integrating automated simplicity into book manufacturing and commercial printing,” says Peter Kowalczuk, president, Canon Solutions America. “With a vast history of offering high-quality service and support, Canon Solutions America takes pride in its position of having a robust, innovative product portfolio, and I am equally proud of our Production Printing Professional Services organization for developing this offering that suits our customers’ needs for greater efficiency and customization.”

Additional customer benefits of Conveyance include:

• CIP4 compliance utilizing a common language to support the entire print production process as well as the print product life cycles.
• Features designed to quickly react to changes in the market and produce digital short runs to accommodate unexpected demand while eliminating warehousing costs.
• Ability to work more efficiently and profitably by reducing manual intervention, limiting paper changes, streamlining workflows, and steadily helping to reduce the cost of short-run digital production.
• Reduced operator intervention by minimizing paper changes with intelligent job grouping and sending feedback from devices to controlling software for real-time order tracking.
• Increased flexibility through dynamic bindery to impose signature layouts during runtime without returning to prepress, to meet rush jobs or tight production schedules. 
• Flexibility to manage inline and nearline finishing, covers to text block authentication, and reprints from the main production through a central system control panel.

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Source: Canon Solutions America