Optimize Your Workflow

A GOOD PRODUCTION workflow is one of the main factors in meeting deadlines and profitability. Historically, the answer to creating an effective workflow has been to throw people at it. Not only is that expensive, but with the increasing complexity of the tools and processes required, it demands very skilled operators. And finding and training these operators can be a big challenge in itself.

Now, automating everything is not always practical. For example, any process that requires some subjective decision making is not usually suited to automation; however, we should be using technology to replace many of those predetermined and repetitive tasks. That is where workflow software comes into play.

One of the most confusing problems with this type of software is the way it is marketed. You can look at many different workflow software products and they will address completely different parts of your workflow. There are MIS workflows, prepress workflows, design workflows, output workflows, etc. And contrary to the belief of many, workflow solutions are not “one size fits all.” So you need to look at solutions that will allow you to optimize your workflow processes to meet your needs.

Most, if not all, of the workflow software solutions that exist today were designed to address the requirements of mid- to large-size production organizations like commercial printers, newspapers, etc. In many cases this software was initially developed to address the needs of a specific company, and then adapted to the wider audience. These solutions include Agfa ApogeeX, Dalim Twist, EskoArtworks Nexus and Backstage, Kodak Prinergy and Xerox FreeFlow. And each of these solutions may have separate options you can choose to build the system from. At a very basic level, most of these solutions offer a communication bridge for your customer, preflight, RIP, proof and plate.

While newspapers have similar requirements to each other, and perhaps many commercial printers also have similar requirements to each other, the needs of in-plants are usually very different from one another. By its nature, an in-plant is designed to support the needs of the organization it services. These needs can vary widely from place to place. Some in-plants have very similar requirements to those of a mid-size commercial printer; however, all too often in-plants have a large assortment of machines and processes, including offset presses, banks of sheet- and roll-fed digital machines, wide-format devices and an abundance of finishing options.

Each of the vendors that produce these technologies probably also has a workflow software that addresses at least the functionality of their equipment and its corresponding process. In some cases, they may even support a wider group of production processes; however, they usually don’t offer best-of-breed or tightly integrated solutions for the processes outside the specific need of that device. In addition, when you upgrade one of the other devices/applications, your workflow may not behave as it did before.

The graphic arts industry, through the work of CIP4 using JDF and JMF, created an integration platform to support the interconnection of disparate solutions. And while many of the system solutions available today support JDF/JMF to a degree, they still don’t always play nice with all of the other tools and applications needed to complete your “workflow nirvana.” As a result, it may only go part of the way toward your automation goals.

Do It Yourself Workflows

One alternative to this problem has been to hire a programmer or programming staff and create either a complete customized solution or bridge solutions to glue the various workflow pieces together. This option, while usually successful, is very costly and requires an ongoing dependence on your programmers. Sometimes, minor updates in one of the various integrated applications can break your whole workflow stream, and you are back to manual mode until the problem is traced and fixed.

You are constantly chasing upgrades, and in a production environment this isn’t the safest answer—especially since the trend has been to bring your customers further into your workflow. Bringing your customers into a potentially unstable workflow can only exacerbate the problems caused by a workflow system breakdown.

Enter Enfocus Software and its Switch 08 (formerly Gradual Switch) product line of workflow automation software. Using a customizable pipeline workflow with open standards like XMP, XML, JDF and third-party configurators, you can address an almost limitless variety of workflow automation solutions, and even integrate with some of the larger workflow systems discussed above. The configurators are available for many of the standard graphic arts workflow applications like Adobe CS(x), Quark, Apago PDF Enhancer, Callas pdfInspektor, Enfocus Pitstop and an assortment of proofing solutions. It also supports hot folders and communications in and out to receive and send files, proofs, etc.

This approach allows the user, with limited training, to create simple and even complex workflows using FullSwitch without any programming experience. For those users who have some scripting experience, the capabilities of PowerSwitch are almost endless. It also supports JavaScript, Visual Basic and Apple Automator, the automating utility included in current versions of OSX. There is also a large support community to offer some suggestions and support.

There are so many workflow solutions available that they are just too numerous to detail. These cover almost every process in your workflow. In fact, they are being introduced and updated at a fairly rapid rate. There are also many new online publishing workflow systems being introduced. Some of these include general SAS (Software As a Service) offerings like those from Google, as well as some that support specific market segments like newspaper advertising production, real estate advertising and print production, to mention just a few.

Through the use of new technologies, there will be increasing opportunities for integration, automation and above all a need for flexibility; however, like most technologies, even though there are constant changes, there is no reason for you to wait. Just be sure that you choose a solution or set of solutions that will satisfy your requirements, streamline your processes, and be open enough to support other processes and changes as they occur.

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David Zwang is the principal consultant of Zwang & Co., a firm specializing in strategic business planning, analysis and related services to companies in the vertical publishing market worldwide. His experience includes an extensive background in electronic premedia and many printing technologies, including offset, flexo and gravure. Zwang also offers consulting services to manufacturers on product development and marketing in the field of publishing, with a specific emphasis on data-driven design, premedia and print production. Projects include global data management solutions, book and magazine publishing technologies, process collaboration systems and color management systems. In addition to writing many articles related to the publishing industry, he has developed a variety of courses in process benchmarking, color reproduction, PDF troubleshooting and service bureau management. He has been an active board member of a number of international graphic arts associations and standards bodies and served as chairman of the Ghent PDF Workgroup. He has lectured at many colleges and universities, as well as at major industry conferences. He can be reached at:

david@zwang.com