Flexible Packaging asked industry experts
at EskoArtwork, Kodak and Radius Solutions about how digital workflow
management systems can increase automation, reduce human error and improve a
converter’s bottom line
Q: What are the top ways a digital workflow
management system can save a flexible packaging company money and resources?
Jan De Roeck, Director Solution Management Packaging
Software, EskoArtwork: One of the significant ways to drive the
cost out of the process is by using workflow automation to reduce the risk of
human error, by avoiding the need for operators to process repetitive tasks.
Another way is by implementing technology to provide better
quality while also reducing ink and substrate waste. For example, the latest
screening technologies, such as Groovy screens for flexo and Concentric screens
for offset can offer 15 to 30 percent less ink consumption with better color
rendition. Costs are lower, and the environmental footprint is reduced by using
less ink and by spending less energy to dry the ink.
Paul Bengtson, Vice President of Sales for Radius
Solutions: Digital workflow management can save flexible
packaging companies money and resources by 1) Automating more of their
processes in production (trapping, pre-flight, versioning, distortions for
shrink wrapping, etc. and 2) Reducing turn around time with more use of on-line
tools such as soft-proofing, automatic email notification, instant pre-flight
tools etc.
Steve Miller, Product Manager, Packaging Workflow,
Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group: Packaging prepress
suppliers are under constant pressure to improve the appearance of the finished
product, while lowering production costs, and reducing the time it takes to get
products to market.
The only way to achieve these objectives is to implement a
workflow solution that is highly automated, capable of being integrated with
other computer systems and provides innovative solutions for managing color and
screening that make the finished packaging product “stand out” on the shelf.
Savings are found through the elimination of redundant
manual and computing processes, and from the prevention of mistakes that lead
to increased labor and material costs. In addition to saving money, workflow
management solutions provide for improved services and product capabilities,
which lead to top line growth.
Q: Workflow management systems tend to increase
automation. What are the pros and cons of such a shift in operations?
De Roeck: By reducing the risk of
human error, a workflow can prevent mistakes that could end up on the printing
press—where it becomes very expensive. As work progresses from the prepress
department, platemaking, the press and, in the worst case, the store shelf, the
costs of an error increase not linearly, but exponentially. Workflow automation
significantly reduces the risk that an operator makes an error.
The cons of workflow automation are that it requires a
change of habit of everyone involved. They must be trained to think about
automated systems rather than manual steps.
Bengtson: The pros of increasing
automation is that it can reduce cost by getting the digital files much closer
to a production ready state, with less operator involvement. Also digital
workflow management systems can interface seamlessly with MIS/ERP systems, to
pass scheduling and job costing information without manual entry from the
prepress operators. The only downside of having a more automated workflow
management system is the potential for mistakes to be replicated faster and
caught later in the cycle due to incorrect job setup, and less time to recover
from errors due to more compressed schedules.
Miller: Automation increases
efficiencies and consistency within the workflow, and provides prepress operators
and managers more time to focus on needs of their customers and their
customer’s production files. Properly implemented, there are no downsides to
automating and eliminating redundant steps within any production workflow.
Q: If a converter is looking to purchase a new
workflow management system, what specifically should it be looking for?
De Roeck: The top priority is that it
must be packaging-savvy. It must understand packaging and its many nuances and
requirements. There are many systems that purport to be ‘one solution fits
all’, many of them inspired by commercial print. These workflow systems are
typically much different than packaging systems, dealing with different
parameters, such as a third dimension, distortion in shrink wraps, diecutting and
functions that go well beyond the press, such as filling, packing and delivery.
Bengtson: Look to purchase from a
company that has experience and references in the flexible packaging industry,
and can demo files that are specific to your company.
Miller: Automation functionality that
allows for conditional logic to be defined within the workflow that makes
decisions about how files will be processed based on job requirements,
addresses problems with files as they occur and efficiently routes work through
the shop un-attended.
Q: What is the next evolution of workflow management
systems, with regard to flexible packaging, and when do you expect that
innovation occur?
De Roeck: The packaging supply chain
is evolving toward fewer players. We see an ongoing consolidation of the
industry with fewer steps in package preproduction, integrating steps together.
The workflow will continue to add processes that seem disparate, such as
design.
Bengtson: The evolution to all PDF
workflows with on-line interfaces to pre-flighting and soft-proofing, on-line
ordering, real-time status and tracking, and direct interfaces to the MIS/ERP
system. If you observe the evolution and changes of digital workflow management
in the commercial print industry, packaging will typically mirror that same
evolution, five to 10 years later due to the more complex, trapping, editing,
layout and printing issues in the flexible packaging industry.
Miller: The next evolution in workflow
management systems will incorporate more interaction with upstream and
downstream computer systems, and the automation of workflow processes that have
traditionally been defined as steps that could never be automated.
EskoArtwork
www.esko.com
Kodak
www.graphics.kodak.com
Radius Solutions
www.radiussolutions.com
