San Diego Shop Bolsters Bindery, Improves Workflow

When making the decision to purchase a folder, ease of operation was important, points out Manager Leslie Rutledge. The nine-person in-plant runs a pair of digital presses: an HP Indigo and a Presstek DI. Employees are cross-trained to be able to pitch in wherever possible.

“If an operator is running a job on the Indigo press, he is able to take that job, go to the cutter and cut it, and if it needs to be folded, he needs to be able to put it on the folder and do the whole job,” Rutledge explains. “This [Morgana folder] seemed to be the way to go.”

Rutledge reports that the first day the in-plant employees were trained on the Morgana folder, they were running jobs on it. In fact, the shop used the new equipment to process 13,000 newsletters.

“In order to be flexible, my belief is that you have to have the right tools,” Rutledge maintains. “Having the DigiFold, having the Duplo, just having state-of-the-art, programmable equipment feeds into that belief.”

To further increase the shop’s efficiency, all bindery equipment has been situated in the same location, and the Presstek DI has been moved to the former bindery room, putting it in closer proximity to the HP Indigo press.

“We rearranged the shop for maximum workflow and less steps,” says Rutledge.

The addition of the Morgana folder allows the in-plant to produce jobs with gatefolds, tri-folds and half folds, and permits customers to order shorter runs.

“We can now totally print on-demand,” Rutledge boasts. “I tell my customers that if you need 200, order 200, then come back to me in a month if you need more. You will not pay a penalty.”