KBA Presses And Workflow Maximise Print Potential

Alfa Print is an expanding sheetfed offset company in newly-acquired premises in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.

Alfa Print is an expanding sheetfed offset company in newly-acquired premises in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.

Because of its new 3,800 square metre space Alfa Print at last got a free hand to pursue its further expansion without constraints.

The company currently operates a four-colour KBA Rapida 105 press for 2/2 perfecting, a four-colour Rapida 142, a five-colour Rapida 105 with coating tower and an eight-colour Rapida 105 as a perfector press in a 4-back-4 configuration.

The work handled is for the most part commercial, such as advertising flyers, brochures, product catalogues, business reports and books.

Close cooperation with a local bookbinder ensures that the print can be finished and delivered immediately after production.

One of the company's specialities with its large-format Rapida is the printing of maps and marine charts on plastic substrates (Tyvek from DuPont) for customers in Sweden, Iceland, Norway and Finland.

Short runs dominate the production profile, with the result that 80,000 offset plates are used each year, whilst paper consumption amounts to 30 tonnes every day.

Turnover at Alfa Print is increasingly continuously.

The figure recorded for 2004 was SEK77 million (Euro 8.2m) but with production running three shifts, the company already expects to bring in SEK145m (Euro15.4m) this year.

One important foundation for that success has been the performance capabilities of the KBA presses, in conjunction with a company-wide JDF workflow system, which enables the staff to complete all tasks with the maximum possible efficiency.

All operations at Alfa Print are controlled with the print-dedicated Technologic management information system (MIS) from Rogler Software.

KBA added that a fruitful partnership has existed between KBA and Rogler for some years and it has produced a series of JDF workflow systems.

Technologic is an MIS that is said to visualise all the typical business and production processes of a printing company.

The core is an open calculation tool capable of depicting varied types of projects.

Automatic calculation is said to provide fast results for standard orders, though all output can be still be edited as required by individual circumstances.

It integrates customer data and customer relationship management (CRM) information, calculationa with graphics-based sheet divisions and electronic job dockets, as well as order management and process tracking, statistical cost accounting and invoicing.

In addition it provides materials and stock management, and purchasing, controlling and reporting.

Following calculation and confirmation of the order, the data at Alfa Print are passed via JDF/JMF to Logotronic, where they are entered in to the electronic planning chart as a print job.

In the future, the job data are also to be sent via JDF to the Fuji Celebrant Suite for plate-making.

Throughout the production process, all data from the networked presses and from the operational data records can be retrieved for realtime statistical cost accounting, added KBA.

The planning chart visualises the print jobs as block diagrams.

Necessary changes are performed on a drag-and-drop basis and the planner 'clicks' on the block representing the job concerned and can then move it to a new time slot with the mouse.

The system subsequently calculates the overall changes resulting from the planned rescheduling and also shifts the jobs accordingly in the Logotronic planning function.

Conflicts and status changes are indicated by changes in the display colours, whilst capacity overviews point to reserves and potential bottlenecks.

If a job is moved to a different press, the pre-setting data are also recalculated to reflect the print characteristics of the new press and a note regarding the rescheduled job is displayed immediately on the press control console.

Further planning changes are possible right up to the time a job is started on the press.

The job status (not ready, ready, started, interrupted, completed) is updated continuously on the basis of the status and error messages issued by the press control systems.

Logotronic Professional is the management system controlling KBA web and sheetfed presses at Alfa Print.

Data are exchanged with the linked MIS via the JDF/JMF interface and once the job data have been transferred in to Logotronic Professional, the corresponding CIP3 data can be loaded from pre-press.

Press-specific and colour-specific conversion curves, as well as all relevant substrate parameters, are then taken in to account in determining the pre-setting values for the ink keys.

At the press itself, a list of all forthcoming jobs is presented on the console.

The press operator selects the required job to call up all the available pre-setting or repeat-job data for the press.

At the end of a job, all relevant operational data, which are generated and recorded automatically by the press, are returned to the branch software and evaluated accordingly for statistical cost accounting, said KBA.

Lars Adolfsson, the managing director of Alfa Print, said: "Thanks to the electronic planning charts, we are able to track the precise progress of any particular job.

I can then react accordingly at any time to fit in important jobs received at short notice, for example.

Having automated so many necessary tasks, the system has paid back its investment in a relatively short time through the capacity to handle additional jobs." Data only need to be entered once, which not only saves time, but also eliminates sources of error, he added.

KBA and Rogler Software together supply the basis for a fully-automated workflow system, which can be expanded step by step in-line with growing demands.

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