Modern Litho Focuses on Short-run Work with Speedmaster Press

Working to a common plate size between the two XLs streamlines prepress, greatly simplifies load-balancing, and lends the company a welcome measure of production flexibility. “Most of the work we do on the eight-color is 60-, 70-, or 80-lb. text,” Moore explained, “while covers, five-color work, jobs printing on board or requiring aqueous coating are ideal candidates for the five-color.”

Don’t Fence Me In
While Modern Litho’s success with the new Speedmaster XL 105 has relieved stress in some areas, it has created challenges and opportunities elsewhere. The removal of three existing presses to make room for the new Speedmaster XL 105, for example, gave Modern Litho the much-needed space to reconfigure its workflow for greater efficiency. The company was able to relocate its prepress department directly adjacent to the pressroom, meaning that plates need travel only 20 feet to the press, rather than the previous 200 feet. It also repositioned its bindery such that material coming off the press now goes directly to cutting and folding, binding, shipping, and mailing in an uninterrupted flow of personnel and materials.