Kongsberg Precision Cutting Systems, Ghent, Belgium, a maker of digital cutting solutions, has announced the expansion of its C Series range of digital finishing tables with the launch of the compact C20 – the smallest high-speed production table on the market.

The Kongsberg C20 packs all the professional features of the market-leading Kongsberg C Series into a compact size of just 1.6m x 1.4m. While the C20 is the smallest in the Kongsberg C Series range, it retains all the same professional features and specifications as its bigger counterparts.

Stuart Fox, president, Kongsberg Precision Cutting Systems, said the company knows that industrial manufacturers, as well as small sign shops, require a high-speed cutting table to keep up with the manufacturing process, but floorspace comes at a premium. The high cost of owning or renting space is a serious problem for many in the sign and display market. With the Kongsberg C20, there is no longer any need for those businesses to compromise on production and quality due to a lack of available space.

State-of-the-art, rock-solid engineering ensures the Kongsberg C Series delivers the highest levels of performance. The cutting table utilizes aerospace technology, combining an aluminum composite tabletop, a rack and pinion drive system and dynamic table mapping, which together deliver the greatest cutting accuracy and consistency. Multiple tool combinations are available during production, and the tooling system includes a material thickness probe and an optional camera for registering printed and un-printed material.

For more information, visit www.kongsbergsystems.com.

Mueller Prost, St. Louis, Missouri, has joined forces with national accounting firm Wipfli LLP. With Mueller Prost having served more than 4,300 clients across the United States and Wipfli LLP being a top 20 firm, Mueller Prost hopes to amplify the company’s vision of bringing solutions to midsized entrepreneurs and business owners with their joining to Wipfli.

The two teams hope to capitalize on service synergies, including health care reimbursement and specialty tax services, while also deepening their industry specialization with complimentary niche industry concentrations. With the already strong alignment that Mueller Prost has with Allinial Global, all companies hope to fit together while providing their customers with the best service possible.

For more information, visit www.muellerprost.com.

PRINTING United Alliance, Fairfax, Virginia, a member-based printing and graphic arts association, has announced that registration has officially opened for PRINTING United Expo 2021, taking place Oct. 6-8, 2021, at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) in Orlando, Florida.

New this year is a three-phase Expo experience, which provides access to even more education, new product debuts and more, for the industry around the globe. Registration for PRINTING United Expo 2021 grants access to all three portions of the event — Expo Preview, Expo Live and Expo Wrap-Up.

The first part of PRINTING United Expo takes place online and gives attendees the world over an opportunity to see and hear what to expect in Orlando. Called Expo Preview, this portion of the event will go live this summer.

PRINTING United Expo Live takes place at the OCCC in Orlando on Oct. 6-8. Attendees will experience one million square feet of solutions across all industry segments, networking opportunities and events, and best-in-class educational sessions presented by top thought leaders.

Expo Wrap-Up takes place virtually immediately after the live Expo with an opportunity for attendees to dive further into any areas that may have been missed during the live event.

The first all-segment, in-person event in two years welcomes major new products from participating companies, including 3M, Agfa, A-Plus Printing, Canon, CWT Worktools, Durst, EFI, Epson, Fujifilm, GSG, Heidelberg, HP, Komori, Konica Minolta, Kornit, M&R, MBO America, Mimaki, Muller Martini, MultiCam, Nazdar, OmniPrint, Ricoh, RISO, RMGT, Roland DGA, Stahls’, Standard Finishing, StratoJet, TVF, Ultraflex, Vanguard, Zünd and more.

Special show highlights and Expo floor areas include:

Apparel zone on the show floor

The PRINTING United Expo show floor features a lively Apparel Zone, where attendees can make their own show T-shirt, grab a drink at the café, listen to live podcast broadcasts from leaders in the space — including Aaron Montgomery and Terry Combs (“2 Regular Guys”) and the Promo Marketing PM podcast — and more.

Education for the masses

In addition to the excitement on the show floor, leading educational sessions will be accessible online during Expo Preview, on-site in Orlando during Expo Live and after the event during Expo Wrap-Up. Featured sessions include topics covering economic trends and outlook analysis to equip printers with the necessary information to understand issues that have affected their businesses from the pandemic and how to navigate challenges; growth markets and opportunities by market segment; planning for profitability; sales and marketing insight; and convergence and diversification. A dedicated track of sessions also will be presented exclusively in Spanish.

Mark J. Subers, president, PRINTING United, said the Alliance has been talking to industry leaders and partners the entire way to understand how these events can best serve them. While virtual events kept everyone going during the past challenging year, the feedback the organization continues to hear is that people want to be together to begin getting back to business. In fact, according to a recent study conducted by Association Insights, 94.7% of respondents indicated that large industry tradeshows are important or essential.

To register for PRINTING United Expo 2021, which includes access to all three new event experience areas, visit PRINTINGUnited.com. For event sponsorship opportunities, email Jack Noonan, PRINTING United Alliance VP of business development, at jnoonan@printing.org.

Special note

PRINTING United Alliance is dedicated to keeping event attendees, sponsors and exhibitors safe. As health and safety are of utmost importance to our organization, and guidelines are subject to change at any time, updates to the company’s health and safety policy will be shared here.

In a recent IndustryWeek article¹, Jill Jusko distills information about five years’ worth of IW Best Plants finalists and winners, from 2015 through 2019. Among the characteristics common to these high achievers, Jusko identifies five operational practices that stand out as key to the plants’ success. These can be seen as top-ranked advice for any manufacturer pursuing excellence.

1. Quality counts

One of the most prevalent techniques used for sustaining high quality by the Best Plants standouts is FMEA, failure mode and effects analysis², which was developed to study problems in military systems. With this process, the components, assemblies and subsystems within a system are reviewed to identify potential failure modes, and to identify the causes and effects of those potential failures.

“Reduce Package Design’s Liability with Failure Mode and Effects Analysis,”³ a packworld.com article by Sterling Anthony, walks readers through how FMEA can be applied to the systems concept of packaging, and applied specifically to the design component. Anthony asserts that FMEA can be used to tease out potential design failure modes and to consider their causes, to gauge the likelihood of failure modes, to detect and rank the severity of failure mode effects, and to plan corrective/preventive steps.

2. The team effort

At the IW Best Plants, empowered work teams, rather than supervisors, handle many or all of the plant-floor responsibilities. As Jusko put it, “The plant-floor population is the one closest to where the value-added work is getting done, and (are) the folks most likely to see the problems and conceive of ideas to make things better. Moreover, responsibility and empowerment helps beget ownership.”

The Best Plants allow work teams to have ownership for and take care of responsibilities such as quality assurance, training, safety review and compliance.

3. Train, train, train

Training is crucial at the Best Plants, whether in a classroom, online or on the job. Most of these manufacturers also take advantage of training via local colleges, with whom they often collaborate to create curriculum and set up equipment. Every one of the cream-of-the-crop manufacturing plants emphasizes cross-training as a key aspect of the overall training plan.

Hugh Alley’s bite-sized but jam-packed plant.ca article, “High productivity gains: Achieve them with cross training,”⁴ presented a compelling argument for cross-training and addresses some of the common barriers to this practice. The argument? A cross-training project can deliver an immediate 10% productivity gain, boost the variety of experiences for employees, cut the risk of injuries and broaden the understanding of how seemingly discrete plant jobs are actually interconnected.

4. Everybody loves carrots

The majority of the Best Plants provide monetary rewards for performance, with individual performance rewarded at 75% of the plants and team performance rewarded at 83% of the facilities.

This one is a no-brainer: The potential for bonuses makes people perk up and step up. Who among us would turn down cash money for doing our best?

5. Organize

The majority of overachieving manufacturing facilities use plant floor techniques to speed production and foster flexibility. More than 80% of the Best Plants practice 5S and standardized work.

Jusko explained that with standardized work, the objective is “to provide operators with clear, documented instructions about how each job is performed, as opposed to having multiple operators using multiple methods. Moreover, standardized work is subject to continuous improvement, whereas a lack of standardized work makes improvement more difficult to accomplish.” 5S – Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain – is a technique for organizing a workplace that can boost productivity while revealing little problems before they become big headaches.

Jeff Sipes cited both 5S and standardized work in “How lean manufacturing stabilizes during disruptions,”⁵ on TheFabricator.com. Sipes argues that lean manufacturing allows plants to remain grounded and productive, even during pandemics. The author describes 5S as a technique that is often the first initiative for lean manufacturing newbies, but a technique that usually remains at the core as organizations adopt additional lean practices. Once 5S has become established, wrote Sipes, “The 5S audit keeps the focus and the resulting scores drive desired behaviors. And now 5S has become a logical place to fold in any additional cleaning and arranging specific to minimizing (COVID-19) virus transmission.”

Sipes viewed standardized work as a positive touch stone, especially during disruptions like pandemics. “Given the severe consequences of spreading the virus, everyone needs to communicate expectations clearly and effectively. Visual management and standard work are part of the answer,” he wrote. “Standard work and standard work instructions help clearly define how a job should be done while reducing the risk for virus spread.”

References

1. Jusko, Jill. “You Don’t Stumble into Excellence.” Sept. 7, 2020.
www.industryweek.com/operations/article/21141110/you-dont-stumble-into-manufacturing-excellence

2. Wikipedia. “Failure mode and effects analysis.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failure_mode_and_effects_analysis

3. Anthony, Sterling. “Reduce Package Design’s Liability With Failure Mode and Effects Analysis.” Dec. 2, 2020. www.packworld.com/design/package-design/article/21205053/reduce-package-designs-liability-with-failure-mode-and-effects-analysis

4. Alley, Hugh. “High productivity gains: Achieve them with cross training.” Dec. 15, 2020. www.plant.ca/features/high-productivity-gains-achieve-them-with-cross-training/

5. Sipes, Jeff. “How lean manufacturing stabilizes during disruptions.” March 1, 2021. www.thefabricator.com/thefabricator/article/shopmanagement/how-lean-manufacturing-stabilizes-during-disruptions

by Dianna Brodine, editor, PostPress

To answer calls by brands and consumers alike for sustainable and innovative packaging, Metsä Board has created an Excellence Centre in Äänekoski, Finland. The 1,500-square-meter building houses 30 employees and contains technology for research and development in both packaging design and performance, providing a collaboration platform for customers and technology partners globally, according to the company.

In a recent media event, Metsä Board offered a virtual tour of the new Excellence Centre and answered some questions about its investment in sustainability. The company has a reputation as Europe’s leading producer of folding box board, and growth has been healthy in the United States – driven by sustainability issues in the marketplace. It strives to create packaging solutions that respect nature – not just through its paperboard and liner products, but also via the services offered to customers. With the packaging industry facing a variety of challenges driven by the consumer – including excess packaging waste, reducing harmful chemicals in packaging and the reduction of single-use plastics – aggressive legislation is placing pressure on brand owners to increase their commitments to sustainability.

The excellence center is an active collaborative environment for research and testing. “It’s a functional place for innovation, co-creation and creative ideas,” said Marko Leiviskä, graphic packaging designer. “We need to speed up innovation because of growing consumption and a pressing need to reduce the use of plastic.”

Mark Beamesderfer, packaging services director, Metsä Board Americas, continued: “We are working to create more environmentally friendly and efficient fiber board packaging. Packages are often overengineered. We believe in simplifying packaging to create an easy user experience, and fiber reduction is inherent to Metsa’s lightweight paperboard.”

The centre offers package design services from analysis and improvements to current packages to design concepts and physical mockups, using conventional equipment or 3D printers. The research lab provides testing of a variety of factors, including barrier solutions, converting efficiency, product safety and performance simulations. And finishing isn’t neglected – the site contains a gluing device for water-based adhesives or hot melts to test glues used on packaging lines.

Onsite packaging-related consumer behavior assessment capabilities in a simulated retail environment allow for immediate testing of concepts. “When you think of branding, the packaging is a powerful tool for setting the level of branding and perception of value,” said Leiviskä. ”How does it compare to rivals? Putting those brands on the same shelves is one way to study shelf appeal.”

Leiviskä and Beamesderfer answered questions following the event.

Q: Why are sustainability and the circular economy so important to Metsä Board?

Beamesderfer: Sustainability is a longstanding mindset that concerns everybody at Metsä, as each of us plays a role in contributing to our strategic 2030 sustainability objectives.

Leiviskä: We see great value with regard to the circular economy by keeping resources in the cycle and being highly resource efficient. Resource efficiency is the foundation of sustainable and economical operations. We use raw materials, energy and water as efficiently as possible. In addition, being a forerunner in sustainability creates a competitive advantage. For example, improving energy efficiency creates cost savings.

Q: Among the variety of onsite equipment at the Excellence Center, what types of equipment is available for package design mock-ups?

Leiviskä: At the Excellence Center we have a printer and a plotter to create printed mock-ups. When it comes to embossing and hot foiling, those are tested with trusted converter partners in order to get an outside opinion about how paperboard works. Often these techniques require such deep knowledge and understanding on converting techniques and on specific machinery – or foil used – that only a professional can handle.

Q: In Metsä’s experience, what types of packaging decoration receive the most attention when studying eye tracking results?

Beamesderfer: What causes packages to get attention on the store shelf is effective packaging design combining both structural and graphical elements to differentiate the package from its competitors.

Leiviskä: It depends heavily on what kind of product group we are working with – cosmetics and cereals are very different from each other. Also, the consumer sets their own standards on packaging. Some product groups are more down to earth – and some more luxurious. We need to keep this in mind – for example, adding hot foil to the wrong category would not necessarily add to the sales – but it would add to the cost. Adding hits on eye tracking also is affected by the placement on shelf, so we are painting a very big picture.

For more information on the Excellence Centre, visit www.metsaboard.com.

Print Media Centr, which offers information and resources to print and marketing professionals, has announced that its print customer education initiative, Project Peacock, is now a free platform accessible 24/7 and available to print and marketing professionals around the world.

The new Project Peacock Platform, which is open for registration, is a one-click destination for print customers and printers to discover the latest innovations that level up print marketing and connect directly with partners that can help them bring new possibilities to life. Supporting research and sample requests, it is designed to help print buyers, creatives, marketers, advertising agencies, brands and students learn directly from the industry subject matter experts. The platform also makes it easy to connect with print service providers.

Deborah Corn, founder of Project Peacock and intergalactic ambassador to the printerverse at Print Media Centr, said print customers are actively looking for new partners and new ways to do things; printers are looking for new customers and new technology.

Project Peacock has partnered with The Advertising Production Club of NYC to share the platform, ongoing education and information with print customers from brands and agencies, and with Comperemedia to co-host live, online educational and networking events in 2021. Lily Harder, senior director of marketing strategy at Comperemedia, will be a featured speaker presenting up-to-date, exclusive consumer research data that drives marketing success.

The educational series kicked off April 29 with Project Peacock Postal and will be followed by Project Peacock Packaging on July 15, Project Peacock Publishing on Sept. 9 and Project Peacock Point-of-Purchase on Nov. 11, with more Peacock programming to be announced for Europe, printers, students and additional vertical markets.

The growing list of Project Peacock Platform Partners includes Canon Solutions America, Domtar Paper, DirectMail2.0, Scodix, Solimar Systems and Xerox; Print and marketing service providers Allegra Princeton, Creative Squirrel, DMR Graphics, GAM Graphics and Marketing, Gorilla Gurus, Specialty Print Communications, and Tampa Printer; industry partners Combiner, drupa, FoldFactory, Graphic Media Alliance, INKISH, National Print and Sign Owners Association, Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association, Printing Industries Alliance and the Printing Industries of New England with more to be confirmed in the coming weeks.

Visit projectpeacock.printmediacentr.com to see the Project Peacock Platform and gather more information, stay up to date on Peacock Partners and to register for free platform access and a free ticket to all live educational and networking events.

For more information, visit www.printmediacentr.com.

Sappi North America, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, a producer and supplier of diversified paper, packaging products and pulp, has released its 2020 Sustainability Report. The report highlights the ways that Sappi remained innovative and prosperous during the COVID-19 pandemic; its commitment to employee safety and third-party collaborations for sustainability initiatives; and ambitious plans to meet its strategic business goals for 2025.

Highlights from the report include:

• How Sappi responded to the pandemic as an essential business. Sappi’s mills continued to operate as an essential business during the pandemic and pivoted to creating new products at the onset of the crisis last spring. Its products are being used to create face shields, packaging for COVID-19 test kits and disinfecting wipes.
• A record year for safety. The safety and wellbeing of Sappi employees continues to be a top priority for the company. The company’s injury rates in 2020 were the most favorable in Sappi’s history, with a lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) of 0.16. This is the third consecutive year that Sappi set a new best-year LTIFR.
• Recognition of industry-leading sustainability performance. In 2020, Sappi North America was awarded a Platinum score by EcoVadis, a leader in third-party evaluations of business sustainability performance. Sappi scored in the top one percent of companies evaluated within its sector, alongside the company’s regional counterparts in Sappi Europe and Sappi Southern Africa.
• Personal and financial resilience. Despite significant challenges over the past year, Sappi finished 2020 on a positive note. Its operational flexibility, and that of its employees and stakeholders, allowed the company to partly mitigate decreasing demand in some sectors by meeting the unexpected need for other products, such as food packaging and pulp for tissue producers.

Sappi Limited’s 2020 vision was focused on lowering total energy consumption, reducing waste and increasing certified fiber. For 2025, the company will continue to focus on responsible operations and sourcing, driven by a refreshed corporate brand and purpose as a renewable resources company. Dedicated teams across Sappi evaluated the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) themes and identified seven goals where it can be the most impactful, while addressing broader global concerns. In North America, Sappi is answering the call to help build a better world, in partnership with other global businesses and local communities, to set and achieve ambitious goals for sustainable development.

For more information, visit www.sappi.com/sustainability-and-impact.

The Sustainable Green Printing Partnership (SGP), Sayville, New York, an NGO and an authority in sustainable printing certifications, has announced a pilot project to expand its certification program beyond the United States and Canada. SGP has been holding all audits virtually for more than a year. Using this method, the organization can expand internationally, allowing printers and industry suppliers worldwide to achieve SGP certification. Through its cloud-based SGP Impact Tracker, information for a virtual audit is quickly and effectively shared with SGP’s independent auditors.

Wendy Nadan, SGP lead auditor, said in 2018, SGP released the SGP Impact Tracker. With enhancements, the tracker provided a virtual audit solution for the current global situation. This inspired SGP to rethink how the group could extend the SGP certification to more distant countries. Everything from the initial planning meeting to the completion of document review including photographic evidence can be accomplished through conference calls with the local sustainability team. Each facility can meet the expectations of the audit as if an SGP auditor were physically on site.

The SGP certification pilot program will be launched in October 2021 with the next revision of the SGP certification criteria, which is adopted after a public review process every five years. More program details, including the application for pilot testing, will be released in August 2021.

Print facilities interested in eliminating waste, reducing energy consumption, transitioning to sustainable materials and winning new business from organizations that require sustainable printing practices should visit www.sgppartnership.org/certification to learn more about becoming SGP-certified.

For more information, visit www.sgppartnership.org.