IPAMA BULLETIN (May - June) - Indian Printing, Packaging and ...

IPAMA BULLETIN KNOWLEDGE BANK
Webs Roll on Workflow
Editor's Note: Workflow intelligence drives smarter press operations at Creel, and has considerably enhanced the product
quality and gives enough time to print-buyer to creat an efficient workflow to the printer.
By Roger Ynostroza
Improvements in the operation of massive press lines increasingly
come from workflow. That's been the case at Creel Printing
Co., where a technical presentation on a workflow application
quickly made apparent the potential for a better process.
"We realized within 15 minutes that this wasn't just a better
page-workflow system for us as printers, but a value-add solution,"
says Chris Evans, VP premedia and customer solutions
for the Las Vegas-based web printing firm. Evans saw in the
system a tool allowing customers to "streamline their page
processing, while creating an immediate
benefit for both of us in terms
of quality and throughput."
The efficiencies of the workflow
"have reduced our production
time—a gain we choose to give back
to our customers so they have more
selling time for ads or more graphic
production time in their facility,
without moving our original ship
date of their project." Evans says the
application, made by Dalim, elimin
a t e d t h e n e e d f o r C r e e l t o m a n a g e f i l e
preflighting—customers initiate that instead as a step in file
uploading. This, in turn, lets Creel "step up our own page
throughput by five or six times, all while improving print quality
and form compatibility."
Creel operates two plants in Las Vegas and a third 275 miles
away in Costa Mesa, CA. The latest and main plant, opened in
2004 in Las Vegas, encompasses 250,000 sq.ft. This location
handles data processing and color management remotely to
the other plants, transmitting ink and data files via point-topoint
T1 lines.
Typical national clients include Sony, and Greenspun Media
Group, a national publisher of locally targeted lifestyle magazines
such as Aspen Peak, Bar Harbour, Gotham, Hamptons, and
Michigan Avenue, as well as numerous business publications.
Last year Evans and his team were finalizing selection of a frontend
system to accelerate Creel's cycle time and increase plate
production. "We were literally a week away from choosing a
respectable, well-known page-workflow system," he says.
When a couple of guys from Blanchard Systems, Dalim's distributor,
stopped by for a quick briefing, "The clear customer
benefit just jumped out," says Evans. "I thought, now here's
something that will help us and our customers."
The system, which the printer has adapted and branded as
"CIPS," for Creel Interactive Publishing Solution, includes
enhanced customer software for file submission, along with
customizable solutions and workflows such as
uploadmyad.com, which can be tailored by Creel for its clients.
"Fortunately, we have a lot of programming expertise on staff
so our IT people work directly with our clients' IT people to
ensure the proper file management and system structures are
in place," says Evans.
Creel's CIPS system is also compatible with existing creative
workflow solutions, such as Kodak's InSite system for soft proofing
and approval, if customers want to stay with established or
familiar processes. Dalim's Mistral and Twist software, says
Evans, form the backbone of CIPS, letting clients see live publication
impositions ("virtual digital
books"), giving them the ability to
manage ads and pages, including flexibility
to make corrections, resubmit
pages, change page positions, and
make approvals at the last minute.
"A key to great production on press,
along with CIP4 technology and ICC
profiles, is our use of Co-Rés
advanced screening technology
from Fuji, which produces the highdefinition
print quality that literally
delights our customers," says Evans. Creel uses Oris digital
proofs from CGS Publishing to profile its systems from monitor
to inkjet proof and on to the press equipment.
To do so, says Evans, color specialists create ICC profiles based
on SWOP and GRACoL color specifications, which Creel
manages using closed-loop CIP4 ink data files for all its presses,
including two Komori sheetfeds, and Goss and manroland
webs. Thus prepared, Creel pressroom personnel are able to
produce accurate and predictable color from monitor to the
press equipment. This year, Creel is installing its third Goss
Sunday 2000 web press at its main Las Vegas facility, an 8-unit,
two-web system with 57" web width, with Goss pinless combination
folder.
In 2007, it added a Goss Magnum 4 single-width 4-page newspaper
press, with eight four-high towers at its original Las Vegas
location. Creel installed its first Sunday 2000 in 2003 and added
a second 2000 two years later; both are in the main plant.
Creel's CIPS technology with ad submission capabilities, plus
providing other services such as online digital editions,
retouching, design, layout, secure data storage, advanced CTP
and screening, and the imminent G7 Master Printer certification.
"The result is a unique value-add production solution for
our customers," says Evans. "In an equipment-centered industry
like printing, innovative software and technical skills have
now dissolved the old 'I print; you publish' relationship by creating
a new working partnership involving Creel and our customers,
to the benefit of both parties."
—Courtsey Graphic Arts Monthly
15 MAY-JUNE 2009