Digital On Down The Line

In-plants that have moved to a digital workflow have streamlined their operations—saving time and money and eliminating costly errors.

TO REALLY join the digital age and take advantage of all the benefits it has to offer—like faster turnaround times and fewer production errors—in-plants need more than just digital printing gear. Recognizing this, some shops have taken it a bit farther, receiving jobs digitally and often routing them directly to digital output devices.

For example, after the State of Maryland linked its two in-plant sites—one in Baltimore and one in Annapolis—last summer, it eliminated the need for courier services between the two. Sam Cook, director of visual communications and digital imaging, says that 90 percent of the shop's jobs are done on digital equipment. Of that 90 percent, 78 percent of the work is sent electronically to the shop.

The Baltimore-based in-plant houses three Xerox DocuTechs and a DocuColor 40, while the shop in Annapolis is home to another DocuTech. Three graphic artists are employed by the state; they receive files digitally, design them for printing, then electronically send them to the press area.

"Documents come into them via e-mail or through the net," Cook explains. Individual agencies have the ability to reach the in-plant through internal network systems, the Internet, and through PagePath's Launch remote file transfer software. Jobs go directly to the graphic arts unit, which uses Macs and Xerox DigiPath software to enhance them. Files are then electronically sent to be printed. The shop also utilizes an archival storage system through DigiPath, so customers like the Department of Education can store, retrieve, manipulate and print from existing files on-demand. The state currently has over 200 files stored this way.

Cook says the transformation from an offset operation to a digital shop has boosted the amount of work the shop does. It currently produces 35 million impressions annually, compared to about 20 million that the shop was doing just a few years ago. The amount of color work has skyrocketed since the addition of the DocuColor 40, although a 1960 Multigraphics press is still used to do some two- and three-color work. Cook feels his customers are comfortable with the quality and speed of the digital output, and the ease of ordering right from their desk.

Initially, to better understand his customers' needs and desires, Cook sent out a series of surveys. From the responses he received, he knew that digital was the way to go for his in-plant. He also took those responses and used them to justify the cost of the equipment to his superiors.

Long-distance Networking

Having a digital workflow is nothing new for Russell Johnson, production manager for The American Management Association. Johnson oversees two shops, one in Saranac Lake, N.Y., and one in New York City. The two in-plants are linked though a network, so the in-house creative department in New York can electronically send designed work to Saranac Lake to be printed. Files are either e-mailed or sent over the Internet.

The shop in Saranac Lake has four DocuTechs and the New York shop has a DocuTech and a DocuColor 40. Johnson notes that 98 percent of the work they do is done digitally, with only long runs of two-color work—1,000 copies or more—produced on a Ryobi press.

"The majority of our runs are runs of less than 50 or 60 copies, and our files are constantly changing," Johnson says of the management training seminar materials his shops produce, using three-ring binders or spiral bound two-color covers. "Before, it would take us months to change our inventory stock, so by the time our product got to the market they were three months old."

Since switching to a digital workflow, Johnson notes the in-plant has done away with its physical inventory management system, switching to an electronic archive of documents. He says the shop has more control over the jobs it handles, and can provide print-on-demand services. To top it off, Johnson says prices have gone down from what they were a decade ago, before the digital system was introduced.

Online On Campus

A number of university in-plants have implemented digital workflows. At University of California-Berkeley Printing Services, customers submit files via disk or by sending them to the file transfer protocol (FTP) server. From there, jobs are routed to a Scitex imagesetter that outputs plastic plates for use in one-color work, or film for the production of metal plates on multi-color work.

At Brigham Young University, more than 90 percent of all work comes to Print Services through the network. It is then output on a DocuTech, sent to an imagesetter or stored on a CD.

Though many university in-plants don't have the resources of these two giants, some have nonetheless made strong efforts to implement digital workflows. At Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, Calif., clients from off campus often send jobs to the in-plant over the network, where they are either put onto Zip disks by the design area to be outsourced for film, or RIPed and sent to the Kodak IS70.

Walter Leonard, director of general services at Sonoma State, says work is done using Adobe Illustrator, PageMaker and PhotoShop software. Most on-campus clients send jobs on disks, which are personally preflighted by Leonard. He says the in-plant has had problems with client files in the past, but the difficulties have been smoothed out.

To eliminate the outsourcing of disks, Leonard is currently looking at some new equipment so the shop can go direct to plate.

"We were thinking of getting an imagesetter, but the technology looks so good going direct to plate, I figure why bother at this point," Leonard says.

Find Out More

Agfa offers a publication called "From Design to Distribution in the Digital Age," a 32-page booklet detailing the changing steps in a digital workflow. For info call (800) 395-7007 or visit www.agfahome.com/publications.

Net Gains

For Oracle Reprographic Services (ORS), the in-plant for the San Francisco Bay-area information management software company, a solution was needed to ease the ordering process for its customers. After searching for a system that allowed customers to order printing online and route electronic files directly to the most appropriate equipment, Henry Mellegers, manager of ORS decided on PresseWare 2.0 from Impresse.

"The key is how easy it is for the customer to order what they need," Mellegers says. "Indirectly, our customers are really sending it right to the output device."

PresseWare 2.0 uses Internet technologies to unify and connect the business and production workflow process across supply chains—from corporate production departments to the in-plant. Oracle employees can now order jobs right from their computers via the Internet, choosing from a library of over 8,000 documents available for production. Jobs are then automatically sent to one of the in-plant's digital devices. ORS has four Xerox DocuTech 135s and an IBM InfoPrint 4000. Training customers on how to use the new process was easy, Mellegers reports—it took only about 20 minutes.

PresseWare 2.0 consists of three modules: PresseBuyer, PresseManager and PresseFactory. PresseBuyer allows customers to place and track print orders on-line. PresseManager manages accounts and automates the production workflow between customer and print shop. The PresseFactory module manages and automates the production and fulfillment workflow of jobs within the shop.

"One of the strongest points that they have is the dynamic scheduling—that is just an incredible piece of software," Mellegers raves. "We can actually see our whole shop floor on our monitors, and you can move jobs around. You can really run the shop from home."

ORS prints up to 23 million impressions per month to produce over 600 jobs monthly. Along with the digital printing equipment, it houses perfect binding and saddlestitching capabilities. Mellegers notes the 32-employee in-plant has seen annual volumes increase by at least 10 percent in each of the last three years. Jobs are now turned around in about three days at ORS, and errors have been eliminated since everything is automated.

by CHRIS BAUER