drd 2012-05-06 - Drupa Report Daily

May 6, 2012 drupa Technology
33
Andreas Nielen-Haberl, Kodak
Andreas Nielen-Haberl, Kodak
■ How thoroughly do you understand
the imaging technology
inside the press you are thinking
of buying? Is it at the beginning,
the middle, or the end of its
technical lifespan in terms of
“headroom” (expandability)?
Can it grow as your digital
printing opportunities grow?
■ What about the company that
proposes to sell you the press?
Does it have a track record of
building equipment for industrial
print environments like
yours? Does it know the markets
that you will use the press
to print for?
Deep roots in the business
Kodak’s roots in the graphic communications
industry are deep,
and its understanding of the
needs of graphic service providers
is profound. Kodak offers
a full range of advanced EP and
inkjet press platforms with the
imaging quality, modular flexibility,
uptime reliability, and highvolume
capacity that success in
digital printing requires. Also
available from Kodak is inline
imprinting technology that can
turn a conventional offset press
into a cost-effective, hybrid variable-data
printing system.
Kodak’s Unified Workflow Solutions
include color, data, and
production tools to optimize digital
output and integrate its management
with the plant’s conventional
operations.
As transformative as digital
printing has been, it is not a break
with the past—it’s the next opportunity
for printers to promote the
value of graphic reproduction services
to their customers. It’s also a
bright green light to making more
money. Printers all over the world
have seen the light, and the wise
ones are equipping accordingly.
In der Industrie wird der Digitaldruck
verschiedentlich als eine
reife Technologie bezeichnet. Falls
diese Wahrnehmung richtig ist,
sind wir alle Zeugen eines erstaunlichen
Wachstumsschubs in einem
Prozess geworden, der kaum
zwanzig Jahre alt ist.
▶
pabilities has never been more attractive
for printing companies of
all types that are ready to break in.
Each shop will have its own set of
reasons for choosing one digital
press over another, but the following
considerations apply to every
investment decision:
■ The print market is changing
rapidly, and if a digital press purchased
today is the same press
(in terms of capability) one year
from now, it will have lost much
of its usefulness. This means
that modularity—the ability to
continuously upgrade and
retrofit an existing platform for
enhanced performance—ranks
high on the list of must-have attributes
in a digital press.
■ In most applications, the distinction
between offset print
quality and digital print quality
has vanished, and buyers of
print media expect the same
high-end printed results from
both processes. A digital press
must have the expanded color
gamut and the value-adding
special effects that buyers are
ready to pay for.
■ To maximize productive uptime,
a digital press must offer a
robust duty cycle, a straightforward
upgrade path, and many
components and systems that
can be serviced and/or replaced
by operators.
Deploy it
But, it isn’t simply about acquiring
the press and plugging it in. If a viable
business model—self-sustaining,
profitable, and capable of
growth—cannot be built around it,
the investment will not deliver the
desired return. That’s why there are
no substitutes for candid answers
to these preliminary questions:
■ If you acquire digital printing
capability, can you deploy it?
Does your marketing department
understand how to position
it to customers and prospects?
Can your estimators
price it? Can your salespeople
sell it? Will your billing department
know how to bill it?
■ Do you have the digital infrastructure—the
data storage capacity,
the front-end and workflow
software, the MIS backbone—on
which digital print
production depends?
■ If you are buying a digital press
for a particular application—for
instance, short-run books—will
you be able to advance to more
complex, variable-data-driven
projects later on?