Pushing Finishing To Top Of Workflow Priorities

Duplo International chose the occasion of the re-opening of its Esher (UK) showroom to re-affirm its commitment to bring finishing to the top of the production workflow agenda.

Duplo International chose the occasion of the re-opening of its Esher (UK) showroom to re-affirm its commitment to bring finishing to the top of the production workflow agenda.

At the same time, Duplo International wants to highlight finishing's potential to make print more profitable.

Asserting the importance of finishing in the print production chain, Duplo International said it is introducing a multi-faceted campaign entitled 'Think Again', which encourages printers to consider the tangible business benefits that can be gained from taking finishing more seriously.

The first campaign initiative is the introduction of a series of educational guides, which aim to stimulate printers to 'think again' and find finishing systems to increase profits.

Duplo's new guides have also been awarded full accreditation by the British Association of Print and Communication (BAPC).

J an Jefferies, UK general manager for Duplo International, explained the thought behind the campaign: "For decades, finishing has been the poor relation of print and pre-press in the workflow, an afterthought when an investment has been planned and implemented.

This seems ridiculous when you consider just how much additional value can be added to a print job to turn printed sheets in to finished products." She added: "Furthermore, if you slip up at the finishing stage, the end product could be worthless." According to Duplo, printers should view finishing as an integral element of the print production workflow and consider it early in the process of buying equipment, whether conventional or digital, to maximise their overall return on investment.

Duplo believes that today's finishing equipment can eliminate production bottlenecks, keep pace with the highest-productivity printing devices, add value to commodity print items, and assist printers in maximising returns from digital applications, such as VDP.

As the majority of printing companies build their digital capability on 'conventional' offset foundations, Duplo's opinion is that the finishing departments of the future should offer the flexibility to handle the emerging hybrid offset and digital production environments and provide real productivity benefits.

Jan Jefferies continued: "The finishing process is the key to increased profit for many printers.

For those who currently outsource finishing, a decision to bring facilities in-house could lead to improved turn-around and control, with a positive impact on customer relationships and profitability.

Conversely, printers who already handle finishing in-house can harness the full potential of their finishing equipment to improve efficiency." She explained: "Printers who intelligently promote value-added finishing processes to customers can improve their bottom line performance by protecting margins, retaining customers, growing key customer accounts, and increasing their competitive advantage." Jeffries said that the company's mission is also to encourage printers to work with print buyers, designers and end users to take in to account the impact of the choice of finishing process on the overall look and feel of the product.

And she commented: "Printers should capitalise on the opportunity to consult with customers as to the end uses of the document and sell in value-added finishing processes.

This approach will help to differentiate them from competitors, de-commoditise print, increase the margin on individual jobs, highlight their full range of printing and finishing capabilities, and cement customer loyalty.".

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