2008 Fall

Innovations In Collating Equipment

November 21, 2008

by: Renée Varella

To meet customer demand for greater value, the quest for creative paper-handling and finishing technologies continues to accelerate. Advanced levels of automation remain key, shortening changeover times, reducing errors and labor costs, and providing more flexibility. Increased collaboration between conventional post press vendors and manufacturers of digital devices also has resulted in higher levels of post press workflow integration. Here, several manufacturers share some of the latest collating solutions.

Key Collating Challenges

While friction-feed collators use rubber rollers to grab the paper, air- or suction-feed collators use a vacuum pump to move the paper into the finishing system, whether it be a bookletmaker, folder, creaser, etc. Difficult substrates continue to pose unique challenges for collators – and the type of application can determine the most appropriate equipment choice. Joe Bondonna, product manager for Spiral Binding Company, Inc., based in Totowa, N.J., noted that although friction-feed systems are initially less expensive to purchase, the use of coated stocks and misfeeds or tracking problems are driving customers who can afford the higher price tag to consider suction-feed collators. “We can discuss a customer’s application to determine if a specific piece of equipment is correct for its application and if the customer has considered the downside of a friction-feed piece of equipment,” he said. “Some customers can deal with some tracking issues; others may not have heavy coverage where tracking will be an issue. Other customers may be using standard 20 lb. bond paper, where misfeeding in a friction-feed system is not an issue.”

For Duplo USA Corporation, based in Santa Ana, Calif., collating challenges come in the form of requests for collated tabs, laminated single- or double-sided documents, and carbonless NCR documents. Si Nguyen, Duplo’s director of marketing, pointed out that churches and schools, in particular, can more easily afford friction-feed systems but said a purchasing decision depends on the type of substrates used. “For newsletters and saddlestitch booklets, a friction-feed system is a perfect component for printing with ink and for normal bond paper and up to 110 lb. cardstock,” he said. However, to accommodate coated substrates, tabs, NCR stocks, single-sided lamination, and UV-coated applications, Nguyen solely recommends an air-vacuum system. Duplo’s patented, pumpless vacuum-belt feed system provides significant versatility, with its ability to feed up to 300 gsm and a variety of sheet sizes.

Mark Hunt, director of marketing for Standard Finishing Systems, based in Andover, Mass., noted how key it is for trade binderies to have collating equipment that can handle a wide range of materials, including Mylar, Braille, and other unusual substrates. “Standard Horizon collators can feed everything from very fragile 52 gsm tissue to 230 gsm cardboard to 16-page signatures and envelopes,” he said. “Due to such problems as static and marking, suction-feed collators have overtaken the market and now dominate the production end of the industry.”

The Footprint Question

Another issue for collators centers on equipment size. Depending on how you plan to finish the product, Bondonna noted that in-line as a collating option can be a great tool: “In most cases, perfect binding, coil, wire, and comb binding are being done off-line and having a pre-collated document saves time and money.” He said most manufacturers of digital copiers now offer in-line bookletmaking binding solutions, with their own set of pros and cons. “The disadvantage comes into play with reduced production speeds and limiting other jobs when a print engine is tied up running booklets,” Bondonna said. “Downtime also is a problem when either the copier or bookletmaking portion of the machine is down, because then you’ve lost two units, not just one.”

Hunt added that most suction-feed systems are now vertical, which offers a significant space-saving advantage. The trade-offs inherent with a smaller piece of equipment include reduced performance and speed, decreased bin capacity, and lack of commercial-duty robustness, making such units less suitable for a trade bindery. “Standard offers both a 10-station and a 6-station collator, which can accommodate 5.1 of paper in the stack making them especially suitable for longer runs,” Hunt said.

Nguyen noted that commercial printers want equipment made out of heavy iron and to be able to produce 5,000 books an hour, using larger buttons and knobs so they can see what they’re doing. “For smaller quick printers and family-owned print shops, floor space is at a premium, so if you can give them a high-quality booklet in a smaller footprint it really attracts them,” he said.

Automation Is King

The sources here noted that today’s bindery operations reflect considerably higher degrees of automation in finishing. “A well-designed machine interface helps operators make easy and proper set-up decisions, taking them through each step in the process, and allows previously entered finishing parameters to be instantly recalled,” Hunt said. He noted that for the last 10 years Standard Horizon has concentrated on advanced programming, error detection, and system monitoring, outfitting machines with state-of-the-art touchscreen-control consoles. “Automation is a critical way for our customers to reduce costs, improve set-up and changeover speeds, and attract suitable employees who can be trained and cross-trained more easily. We’ve designed our machines so that once they learn how to operate the collator they can pick up our saddlestitchers, perfect binders, or folders very easily.”

Digital print environments are drivers of automation. Spiral Binding offers the Plockmatic VF1008 feeder/collator. “In addition to being a straight collator, it acts as a feeder where the unit can merge pre-collated materials into a single document,” Bondonna said. ” the unit only has eight collating bins, by using it as a feeder you can merge these pre-collated sheets from offset press, black and white copies, and color sheets in any order into one book. The programming is intuitive with the touchscreen keypad.” While the VF1008 can be ganged together as a straight collator to produce a 96-page booklet, it also can produce a 96-page booklet with one tower by using the feeder function, with precollated materials coming off a digital print engine.

Small print shops also demand the efficiencies produced by greater automation, particularly when the collating function can be combined with other processes. Heidelberg’s Stitchexpert allows small print shops to perform both centerfold and side stitching of booklets from a central console. Sheets are collated in a tower, then jogged into neat stacks, stapled, folded, and face-trimmed. Formats and paper weights can range from CD booklets to 20½×14, and from 60 to 250 gsm. Stapling can be done at the top, on the side, or through the spine. Additional collator towers can be installed to increase capacity and facilitate replenishment of the hopper bins. The Stitchexpert also can be used as a dedicated collator.

Another example of collating equipment that is integrated with other functions on the bindery floor is MBM’s StitchFold bookletmaker and optional trimmer, which uses wire-fed stitching technology to produce up to 65,000 booklets from a single spool of wire. A collator interface is included. The FC 10 automatic 10-bin friction collator collates a variety of paper stocks and weights at speeds up to 3,600 sets per hour, with a 275-sheet bin capacity. The FC 10 Twin Tower Transport Unit allows two FC 10 units to be combined into a 20-bin configuration for high-volume production; the collators can be used in tandem or separately while connected.

The Campaign for Complete Solutions

So what’s next in the collating field? Standard’s commitment to “Intelligent Automation” has yielded several advancements – and a glimpse into the future. “Customers are looking for high levels of set integrity and security,” Hunt said. “Our systems must have high error-rejection integrity built into each feeding system and can be equipped with a camera to read each set for accuracy and to ensure no blank sheets.” The company’s CCD-VAC Image Checking System enables collated documents to be handled with full integrity and verification. For space efficiency, six high-performance CCD cameras are installed in the transport area on each VAC-60 collating tower. The CCD-VAC system includes a touchscreen console for centralized control, set-up, and system monitoring. The CCD-VAC cameras match and verify each sheet and then either alert the operator or stop the system if an error is found – such as wrong or improperly loaded sheets in the bin.

Nguyen noted that today’s post press device – perfect binder, creaser, and collator – must target complete automation, including at the front end. “A printer wants automation before he goes to the bindery area,” he said. “Such options are especially important, because printers define pre press as the bottleneck of the operation.” Nguyen added that Duplo recently conducted several case studies and determined that all of its customers were looking solely to automation to achieve efficiencies in the next five to 10 years. In response, the company came out with the Duetto “near-line” solution, an all-in-one configuration that merges uncollated sets and pre-collated sets from digital printers. The post press solution provides 100 percent set integrity and handles multiple print engines.

Hunt added that collating systems of the future will feature intelligent feeding, with set-up from a database or screen and an increased ability to provide dynamic content. He cited the example of an insurance document application that could be driven by a database or bar code so that certain clients receive a health club promotion in their packet.

Manufacturers like Standard Horizon, Heidelberg, and Duplo are offering another layer of communication by providing JDF-enabled systems that integrate the process of printing with the business of printing. For instance, Duplo is one of the finishing partners of Ultimate Technographics, which has developed connectivity with finishing equipment to limit paper waste and offer precise registration for cutting and folding throughout the job. The hands-free Impostrip On-Demand process – with defined parameters for Duplo’s equipment at the pre-press stage – builds in a custom bar code to automate the finishing equipment, freeing operators for other work. “Ultimately, a print line incorporating JDF from start to finish will dramatically cut both production costs and set-up times for the printer,” Nguyen said. “Only limited manual intervention is required to run the entire print line, making it easy for even the most inexperienced employee to successfully manage the print run.”

Horizon also has deployed “i2i,” its own JDF-driven system, in cooperation with a suite of approved MIS vendors. The i2i system consumes the JDF finishing parameters from upstream and transfers the data over a network to the appropriate Standard Horizon finisher – a cutter, folder, collator, saddlestitcher, binder, or trimmer. In addition to the benefit of automated setup, i2i reports real-time production statistics upstream, via JMF, providing visibility into work-in-process across the bindery.

The need for versatile and highly efficient collating equipment has spurred a technology revolution. The Binding Edge will continue to explore advancements in job set-up and changeover, servo-motor technology, and automation features to ensure your bindery benefits from the latest in user-friendly technology.

10 Steps to Providing Fulfillment Services

November 21, 2008

by: Tom Quinn, Mailing & Fulfillment Service Association (MFSA)

In the Summer 2008 issue, I discussed the potential benefits that might be realized through the addition of mailing and fulfillment services to a bindery operation. This article outlines the “How To” – a step-by-step process to starting a fulfillment operation. The following steps are presented in what is considered the optimal order. However, the incorporation of fulfillment services in non-fulfillment operations is very seldom orderly and optimal, so using the data as a guideline or checklist is suggested.

Step 1 – Type of Fulfillment

It is my recommendation that a bindery should focus its fulfillment activities on specific applications. There are many types of fulfillment, but the last two surveys completed in conjunction with the annual MFSA/NAPL Fulfillment Conference substantiated that fulfillment projects (handwork) and literature fulfillment are the top applications completed by printing companies and are therefore suggested for bindery operations as well. These applications are a natural extension of print and bindery work and represent basic fulfillment. It is important to understand that a literature fulfillment program, which requires the printer/binder to store and ship material for an infinite time period and maintain world-class inventory accuracy, also will bring other applications. These additional applications include database management, returns processing, tradeshow and special events support, premiums management, print-on-demand applications, lead inquiry fulfillment, and others. These applications are all a natural extension of “capturing the sales collateral material”.

There is a tendency for companies that are new to the fulfillment business to find fringe applications, which require either special software or additional capabilities. These applications would include product fulfillment, e-commerce, and other applications not associated with the material printed for the customer. The primary reason for a bindery operation to enter the fulfillment business should be to keep the bindery equipment running and – secondarily – to develop the customer as a partner. The survey previously referenced also provided important data illustrating that customers on fulfillment programs show a growth in volume and at higher margins. This is a good reason to keep your sales personnel focused on the literature fulfillment projects and programs.

Step 2 – Selecting the Right Software

It is extremely important that companies entering the fulfillment market select the correct software for their applications and company strategy. The fulfillment industry is fortunate to have five very competent and experienced vendors providing fulfillment software. Each of these vendors understands the back end of the business. The true test of fulfillment software lies in the ability of the software to guide the management of inventory and to provide the correct tools for world-class inventory accuracy for fulfillment customers. Listed below are the names of the five fulfillment software vendors that also are MFSA members. Each of these software packages has specific strengths, and I suggest having the companies provide detailed demonstrations. More information can be found on each vendor by browsing the MFSA web site at www.mfsanet.org.

Company Name	Software Name
Software Marketing Associates	Pro-Mail, version 5.0
Streamline Solutions	Printstream
InterlinkOne	ilinkone, version 8
Virtual Systems	3PF Manager
Direct Edje	Direct Response

Step 3 – Fulfillment Facility

If at all possible, the fulfillment facility should be located separately from the bindery facility. The primary reason is that bindery operations can function very efficiently in buildings with 8-foot ceilings and several dock doors. A fulfillment facility should have at least 20-foot-clear ceiling heights to allow installation of racking, which will stack up to 4 pallets high. Think high and don’t be afraid to consider large footprints for the building in the beginning. Once you get started in the fulfillment business, you will find it is quite easy to get up to 1,000 pallets in a hurry. A good migration strategy is to find a local developer of office/warehouse space with excess inventory. This developer will be glad to provide additional or temporary space for you in the future. See the diagram below for an excellent start-up 17,500 sq. ft. facility with the potential to provide up to $2 million in revenue. Please note on the diagram the number of dock doors (4), the material flow, the lighting in the aisles, the space for handwork, and the accessibility of telephones, computers, and electrical outlets. These factors are all important to the successful operation of a fulfillment center. Remember to “think high” when researching fulfillment facilities.

Step 4 – Equipment

The equipment requirements for a fulfillment facility are as follows: pallet racking and shelving, forklift, electric pallet jack, pallet jacks, hand trucks, picking carts, counting scales, floor scale, pallet wrapper, computer workstations, shipping workstation, receiving workstation, hand pallet strapper, work tables, and several sections of adjustable and expandable conveyors. Based on your individual fulfillment facility, you also may need a dock plate for receiving. Individual applications, such as large point of purchase materials, may require specific equipment. Most of this equipment can be purchased second hand, without fear of premature failure. It is important to start simple and to master the basics of warehousing and inventory control with the essential tools of the trade before proceeding into something more sophisticated. A start-up approach that keeps things simple and efficient has always worked in the past.

Step 5 – Supplies

The supply requirements for a fulfillment facility are as follows: packaging materials and tape, boxes, pallets, cleaning supplies, strapping materials, and specialized shipping containers for special applications. These are materials that are already available in the shipping department of most binderies. The only difference is the large variety of packaging materials that may be required, such as padded envelopes, Tyvex envelopes, and special corrugated boxes for kits.

Step 6 – Networks and Phones

The amount and type of computer hardware required will be dependent on the software vendor selected. Several software vendors require fully hosted applications in your facility, which require the procurement of servers and the installation and maintenance of software in your facility. Other software providers (Applications Service Providers or ASPs) are accessible through a web browser and store the operational program and software in a central location. In either case, make sure you follow the manufacturers suggested configurations for optimal operation. This is not the place to skimp. Sharing servers and telephone lines with bindery operations will slow the operation of your program down and adversely affect customer operations. This is a high-tech business and you need to respond in a high-tech fashion. Do not try to cut corners in providing the right access to web sites and operational equipment.

Step 7 – Personnel

Most fulfillment centers can be started with two or three people, namely a fulfillment manager, warehouse manager, and a warehouse/fulfillment specialist. The fulfillment manager should be a fulfillment industry expert and have a very thorough operational understanding of the fulfillment software package being utilized. This fulfillment manager also should have the ability to make sales calls and to guide clients through the fulfillment set-up process, serving as the initial customer service person. The warehouse manager should be hired at the onset of the operation, because that person will be responsible for installing the most important part of the fulfillment system – the warehouse management system – and will be responsible for writing all back-end procedures and training new personnel as the center grows. The warehouse/fulfillment specialist need not be a full-time employee, but can be a bindery person who can be trained and utilized as necessary. Fulfillment projects can be completed by temporaries with the warehouse manager or specialist providing needed supervision. Please note that there are no direct IT personnel assigned to the center. If you have in-house IT staff, they should only be utilized as necessary and not assigned directly to the operation. All IT time spent with the fulfillment center should be billable to the customer. A beginning fulfillment operation is just not profitable enough to sustain a full-time IT employee. The most common mistake made by start-up operations is over staffing – and that affects bottom line performance.

Step 8 – Sales and Marketing

Most companies are dragged into the fulfillment business by their customers. In fact, 88 percent of the companies responding to the last MFSA/NAPL Fulfillment Conference survey stated that as the primary reason. Getting into the business is not as hard as growing it and making it a profitable entity. It is imperative that company ownership and management make a concerted effort to market and sell the fulfillment capability to current customers and to use the fulfillment capability to add new customers. Utilize existing sales personnel to open doors, and then have management or the fulfillment manager drive the sale from that point forward. More sophisticated, larger operations may need a specialist in the business to provide establishment selling skills to the organization. The ownership also must provide a basic marketing campaign to take the new service and new company message forward to existing and potential client bases. Do not depend solely on existing sales personnel to develop their accounts, as there is often a general reluctance on the part of sales personnel to offer new services to their clients.

Step 9 – Pricing

Establish a pricing matrix for the fulfillment operation that includes all services completed. Some of these parameters, such as storage and customer service, will not have been charged by bindery operations in the past. Justification to the customer will have to be developed and presented by sales personnel. Following are basic pricing parameters that may be specified:

Storage – $/pallet/month
New Product Set-up – $/set-up
Warehousing – $/hour
Receiving – $/receipt
Cycle Counts – $/hour
Order Receipt – $/order
Fulfillment Cost – $/order
Shipping Materials – Cost + %
Reports – $/report
System Usage Charge – $/month
Customer Service – $/hour
Initial Set-up Charge – Total $

For more information on how to establish the values of these parameters, watch the MFSA web site for the How to Price Fulfillment webinar.

Step 10 – Commitment

A bindery can easily enter into the fulfillment business with a $200,000 investment. This is much less than the cost of most pieces of equipment utilized in the bindery business. However, there is an investment required in time and dedication to understanding, driving, and growing the fulfillment operation. A business can increase run size, improve margins, and decrease turnover (by up to 300 percent) by incorporating fulfillment into your service mix. So do it right – the first time. I wish you good selling.

Tom Quinn is the director of fulfillment services for the Mailing & Fulfillment Service Association. Quinn was a featured presenter at the BIA Mid Management Conference in May of 2008. This article is the second in a series of two which address the addition of mailing and fulfillment services to bindery operations. For more information, contact Quinn at tquinn@mfsanet.org.

80 Years Young at Dekker Bookbinding

November 21, 2008

by: Dianna Brodine

The printed word has staying power. It can convey thoughts and action through the simple process of putting pen to paper, with ideas enduring for centuries – or as long as the paper remains undamaged. However, in the process of binding paper together, a series of thoughts and actions can be created “a story can be told” generations can be affected – and the paper upon which the story is printed is protected by a cover.

A company in Grand Rapids, Michigan has been protecting the written word for 80 years. Four generations of the Dekker family have built a bookbinding operation that now employs 75, doing its part to ensure the future of books.

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.
~ Henry David Thoreau ~

Although Dekker Bookbinding is a fourth-generation American company, the family tradition goes back even further. Johannes Dekker was a bookbinder in the Netherlands during the 1800s. His son, John H. Dekker, immigrated to the U.S. around 1900, finding employment as a bookbinder in Grand Rapids. In 1928, John H. Dekker founded his own modest business repairing library books in his garage by hand. His sons, John and Howard, took up the family business at the ages of 16 and 14 when their father passed away. When the events at Pearl Harbor thrust the United States into World War II and took both boys overseas in service of their country, another Dekker family member became involved in the bookbinding trade. Mrs. John H. Dekker ran the garage-based bindery in their absence, providing library binding services for the libraries around town with two small presses.

Returning after the war, the brothers decided that new edition bookbinding had more business potential than hand binding library books. This was most likely influenced by the desire for machine-made products that swept the country after the war. After a long period of “doing without” or “making do” with handmade versions of everyday items, the American people were ready to buy new. This was true of books as well. By the 1950s, new publishers and printers were arriving on the scene and the Michigan market was growing. The Dekker brothers decided the time was right to move out of the family garage, so space was rented and used machinery was purchased to create the company’s first hardcover book production line. It was 1955 and on a good day, Dekker Bookbinding was producing 5,000 hardcover books.

The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.
~ Joseph Joubert ~

In 2005, more than 172,000 new book titles were published in the United States. That’s approximately one new title every 30 minutes over the course of a year. While that’s bad news for even avid readers (who can’t possibly keep up with the influx of reading material), that’s good news for bookbinders like Dekker which partners with printers nationwide. Dekker Bookbinding made an early and conscious decision not to venture into printing to avoid competing with its best customers. Instead, the company has worked to build relationships with printers who needed to outsource their hardcover bookbinding.

“Our print customers typically supply us with folded signatures to be either smyth sewn or adhesive bound,” said Chris Dekker, a fifth generation member of the Dekker family. “Many of our customers ask us to get involved early in the project to answer production questions, often at the quotation stage. We can lay out a manufacturing format that involves schedule, process, and materials. The focus early on is to avoid obstacles and mistakes.”

As the relationships grew and the print market expanded, Dekker Bookbinding recognized the need to upgrade its equipment and space. The company moved into its current facility in 1965, expanding through the decades into what is now a 100,000-square-foot plant. Many of the old handwork processes have been replaced with automated equipment, including two complete Kolbus high-speed case binding lines that take materials from bookblock to book jacketing – specifically a Kolbus 270 Casemaker and a Kolbus SU 631 Jacketer that are the first installations in North America for both machines.

Installing the latest technology is key, as up-to-date automation adds the ability to keep up with another industry trend – the demand for faster production schedules. “We rely on our printers for early information on fast-track projects, setting no-surprise schedules ahead of time, and overlapping component manufacturing before assembly and shipment.” Even though Dekker Bookbinding has two complete production lines, the company gains flexibility by not connecting the production pieces in-line. Binder trimmer lines, compact casing-in lines, and jacketing and packing lines are separate. Fast tracking allows Dekker to build components and, when the signatures arrive from the printer, bookblocks are made and the final assembly can take place, often in 24 hours. This strategy works because no single component waits for another. “There are too many components to bookbinding that we can customize,” explained Chris Dekker. “In-line makes sense to a point in relation to overall cost on large runs, but you are not getting the efficiencies, especially with smaller runs. There are too many variables to control. When one piece of the line shuts down, the whole line shuts down. An idle machine adds to your cost base.”

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.
~ Walt Disney ~

Dekker Bookbinding prides itself on the variety of jobs that come across the shop floor. As a small, independent bookbinder located in the middle of the country, Dekker quotes book projects from all over the United States. The company has experienced a surge in printers – both sheetfed and web, one color and four color, small shops, commercial printers, and digital printers – asking for quotations. Many of these titles have a local or regional interest, and sizes range from as small as 35/8″x51/4″ to oversized coffee table books. On the low end, Dekker has seen runs of 500 books and, on the high end, run sizes have reached 500,000. Typically, the binder will do 2,500 to 25,000 books per run, reflecting the industry trend toward smaller initial runs and reprints as book sales increase. In fact, according to statistics released at the Book Expo of America in 2006, only 1,000 of the quoted 172,000 new book titles sell more than 50,000 copies through traditional retail channels. Only 25,000 of the 172,000 new publications each year sell more than 5,000 copies. For a bookbinder whose strategy is to support the printing industry, small runs are definitely the path to long-term success.

“The range of sizes that we can now bind, the selection of materials we can build with, the variety of binding styles, and the quality and flexibility we have in manufacturing components has kept us competitive,” explained Chris Dekker. “The partnerships we have with the printers who rely on us for their case binding makes both Dekker and the printer competitive in an evolving market.”

Although Dekker Bookbinding began as a handwork specialist, the company has recognized the efficiencies offered by today’s automation. Dekker’s capabilities include cloth, leathers, stamping, ribbons, PUR, sewn, and adhesive. But Chris Dekker acknowledges that everything the bookbinder does is custom, in terms of unique customer requests. “There are so many custom jobs that we can do. No job is the same.” The company has seen more requests for ribbons, tip-in pages, edge staining, bound in CDs, special editions, and other customizable “bells and whistles”.

Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends.
~ Dawn Adams ~

In 1973, John Dekker, Jr., the current CEO, joined the company as the fourth generation, and now the fifth generation is on board, namely son Chris, who works in management and marketing, and son Corbin, in production. Also key in terms of personnel is Jeff Richter, who joined the company in 1991 and fills the roles of vice president, CFO, and information systems “guru”. “Jeff joined us just as we were looking to put everything on computer,” said Chris Dekker. “He came in here and brought all of our paperwork up to date, put the company online, and got everything automated. Jeff computerized the entire company.”

John Dekker, Jr. offered his own contribution to modernizing the bookbinder’s operations, acting as the driving force behind a management style reorganization that eliminated the “top down” flow of information. “During the 1990s, when reengineering was popular, one of the mega book manufacturers publicized the idea that to fully utilize their capacity, they could print in one plant and bind in another plant,” explained Chris Dekker. “We knew we were on the right track because we already did that! However, it was time to change our management style.”

John Dekker, Jr. took his employees on a trip to one of the company’s printing customers. He wanted the entire bookbinding facility to see the book production cycle from beginning to end, understanding their part in the process as one piece of a whole. “Our people bought into the idea of getting involved and taking more responsibility on the floor, discussing ideas, identifying obstacles, and focusing on customer product,” said Chris Dekker. As a result of the reorganization, managers became coaches and the rest of the team responded in kind. Today, most of the people who talk to the customers during quoting, planning, and customer service started in production. When customers visit the production floor, they are introduced to the machine operators and crew, and the horizontal organizational structure encourages questions and dialogue. “Dekker Bookbinding focused on building up people,” explained Chris Dekker, “because people build the books.”

A book is a fragile creature. It suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements, clumsy hands.
~ Umberto Eco ~

The environmental movement toward “green” is driving new processes and papers in the printing industry, but Dekker Bookbinding didn’t need a trend to start recycling. In fact, the company has been recycling waste since the early 1990s when it built an addition to its binding facility. “We hooked up a huge vacuum on top of our building,” described Chris Dekker. “It connected to all of our machines – anything where the paper comes off – and we take that scrap and put it into balers. It’s not something we started because of the ‘green’ thing. We did it because it helped keep our plant clean, but it feels good now.”

In 2007, Dekker recycled 1,828,725 pounds of material, saving 15,544 trees and 6,400,538 gallons of water, and keeping 54,862 pounds of air pollution effluents out of the air. The base materials used in book production, such as binders board and most paper-based materials, are made from recycled materials. Recycling and a companys impact on the environment are important to the book industry, and Dekker Bookbinding has been ahead of the curve.

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
~Jorge Luis Borges~

Technology has revolutionized printing and reading. Computers can produce a manuscript on a disc and electronic prepress can produce an image, bypassing many of the traditional printing processes. Small vanity press organizations have sprung up, allowing almost anyone the opportunity to publish a book. Electronic readers such as Kindle are gaining popularity, with books downloaded to a portable handheld device in seconds and shown on screen on demand. But bookstores are still thriving and traditional paper and ink books are still selling.

“As new people enter the work force and take over the book industry, changes are inevitable,” stated Chris Dekker. “There will always be a segmented book market. Although I have yet to use either an e-book or an audio-book, I can accept them as part of the market.”

Dekker Bookbinding’s best long-term customers – the book printers who make high-quality books and have a long track record in the industry – agree that the future is bright for book manufacturing. The key is to stay flexible, understanding that changes will occur and reaction time will determine success.

The written word, despite rumors to the contrary, is not dead. For many people, books are old friends. “People don’t throw away books,” said Chris Dekker. “They collect them or pass them around. People have an appreciation for books, perhaps as an art form, but mostly I think it’s because the reader can hold and interact physically with a book.”

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.
~Charles W. Eliot~

Cover Materials Go ‘Green’

November 21, 2008

by: Dianna Brodine

Concern grows daily over the state of our natural resources and the impact is being felt in the printing industry. Driven by consumer desire for products that are “green,” companies are taking action to utilize forest and water resources in a responsible manner. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) advocates for sustainable forestry and is leading the environmental charge for green printing practices.

The Forest Stewardship Council

The FSC was created in 1993 in response to a worldwide need to preserve forestry resources, while at the same time meeting commercial product needs. Comprised of loggers, foresters, environmentalists, and sociologists, the FSC created standards for forest management that are now accepted in more than 55 countries.

There are two certifications issued by the FSC that apply to the printing industry. The first is FSC certification, which indicates that strict forest management standards were followed in harvesting trees for use in commercial applications. There are 10 principles, ranging from compliance with the laws of the country in which the harvesting takes place to respect for the rights of indigenous people and workers to minimizing environmental impact. FSC certification for the forestry source is the initial step for print industry members who want to be “green”.

Any product made of pulp or paper has the potential to be certified as long as the wood used in the product originates from FSC-certified sources. Wood is an important material for all paper manufacturers. The FSC certification system allows these professionals to know they are doing the right thing and taking business away from other companies that may still be supporting illegal, unsustainable, unverified logging activities. (FSC web site, www.fscus.org)

The second standard is Chain-of-Custody (COC) certification. COC states that the raw materials harvested from an FSC-certified source have been processed, manufactured, distributed, and printed through sources that also have achieved COC certification.

Again, to assure the credibility of claims on products, it is important to track materials as they leave the forest and become products down stream. This “chain of custody” (COC) certification process is quite simple. Like any inventory control system, COC allows products to be segregated and identified as having come from a particular source – in this case, an FSC-certified forest. FSCs model of certification allows products that flow from certified forests to enter the marketplace with a credential that is unique. (FSC web site, www.fscus.org)

Applying Green to the Marketplace

Gane Brothers and Lane, a 160-year-old materials provider in Elk Grove Village, Ill., is working with FSC Chain-of-Custody certified vendors to make sure the printing, binding, and loose leaf industries have access to “green” cover board and papers.

Jeff Carlson, vice president of marketing for Gane, confirmed that the trend toward green materials is motivated by the end consumer. “We are getting more requests for information via e-mail and phone, asking about FSC-certified materials. The people that are contacting us are the manufacturers and their questions are being driven by customers who have a particular interest in the green movement.”

Gane was fortunate in that it didn’t have to search out new providers of FSC-certified materials. Gane has been working with FiberMark and Eska Graphic Board for a few years and the companies have carton stock and board product that has achieved certification.

Since many of the consumable items labeled as “green” reach retail shelves at a higher price point than similar non-green items, it would be reasonable to assume that green printing materials would also have a higher cost. According to Carlson, that assumption is incorrect. “I don’t see any discernible difference in pricing between these materials and materials that are not certified.”

Paper products that are FSC-certified have the same physical characteristics and attributes as non-certified products, with no compromises in quality. “Compared to other board products that are used for the same purpose, the certified board is almost identical,” stated Carlson. “There’s no difference in performance.”

The movement toward green printing is just beginning and Carlson acknowledges that offering FSC-certified products gives the supplier an edge, but that’s not the only reason for Gane to offer environmentally friendly materials. “Obviously, a lot of people are looking into green products,” Carlson said. “To be able to offer those makes us a more valuable supplier, but we try to do our part, too. As a company, we recycle because we’re concerned about the environment as well.”

Environmental concern is a growing reality for suppliers and manufacturers in all industries, motivated by the desire of the end consumer for planet-friendly footprints. The Forest Stewardship Council is leading the charge in the print business by providing certifications that ensure responsible use of forestry resources. Material providers like Gane Brothers & Lane are doing their part by making COC-certified materials available to print and bindery customers.

Cutting for Efficiency

November 21, 2008

by: Rob Kuehl, Director of Product Management, Heidelberg USA, Inc.

Don Quixote had Sancho Panza. Batman had Robin. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto in his hour of need. Like these famous pairs, automated cutter workflows are more efficient and more productive with a partner – paper-handling peripherals.

Nothing is more fundamental to the success of a job than the efficient cutting of paper. Waste or inefficiency at the cutting stage invites error and injury, and can give rise to expensive bottlenecks. Sheetfed operations, in particular, can benefit from the use of labor-saving devices that reduce operator bending and lifting.

In the bindery’s cutting department, emphasis has shifted from conventional stand-alone guillotine cutters that traditionally have relied on manual loading, offloading, and adjustment to sophisticated systems. These new systems are designed to protect operators from injury, reduce the occurrence of bottlenecks, slash the time that printed materials must wait on the cutting table, and ease the transmission storage and repurposing of job-specific data throughout the plant.

New cutting solutions meet the need for:

Networkability
Ergonomic integrity
Minimal makeready
Simple maintenance
Operational readiness
Faster turnaround
Higher quality
Simplified processing of shorter runs
Fully automated production of large-volume jobs
Integrated materials handling
Complete cutting programs generated from prepress data, avoiding multiple input of complex job parameters.

The difference between stand-alone cutters and these more sophisticated systems is twofold. First, paper cutters have a limited ability to network with the rest of the plant. Second, a wide range of peripheral components are available to help ease the movement of paper to and from the cutter.

In any bindery department, the goal is to get material to and from the cutter quickly, easily, and reliably. Accordingly, the newest generations of high-speed cutters and cutting systems have been designed to be capable, productive, intelligent, user-friendly, ergonomically sensible, and infinitely configurable. However, equally important is the cutter workflow. An automated cutter workflow has two equally important parts: cutting and paper handling. Cutting is the main attraction, and it is performed by the cutter or diecutter itself. Paper handling is more easily overlooked. The default position of most bindery departments has been to rely on manual resources. Current options, however, are designed to standardize and automate as much of the grunt work as possible. Some of these paper-handling options include front- and rear-loading stacklifts, joggers, conveyors, and pile-turners.

It Takes Two

Both the cutter and paper-handling peripherals are necessary to achieve a fully automated system that maximizes the operator’s cutting time and the number of cuts delivered by the knife while also minimizing the volume of paper handled and the time and labor needed to handle it. The aim is not to eliminate the human element but to increase the utilization of both man and machine. Automated cutting and paper-handling systems can improve the workplace environment and promote the health and well-being of bindery employees. (See Figure 1.) Cutter peripherals promote better utilization and increase the efficiency of the high-speed cutter and cutter operator. Repetitive motions, including but not limited to bending and stooping, are responsible for many bindery injuries.

Automation can reduce:

Time lost to cumulative trauma disorders, including back injury and carpal tunnel syndrome
Accidents caused by operator fatigue
Workers’ compensation claims

Well-designed mechanical solutions also can yield production efficiencies and drive growth by:

Reducing shifts and overtime
Redeploying workers
Enabling fast turnaround
Eliminating backlogs
Taking on more jobs without increasing overhead

Additional benefits of automation include reductions in:

Product damage
Material waste
Production and shipping delays
Wasted floor space

Moving Toward Automation
While the bindery offers the biggest opportunity for realizing the benefits of streamlined materials handling, few printing company owners and managers see it as a means of reducing their manufacturing costs. Many hesitate to invest in post press upgrades because they dont consider the bindery a profit center and instead reserve the bulk of their capital investments for the pressroom and prepress department. The reality is, whether through benign neglect or ignorance of their costs, too many printing company executives treat cutting and paper handling as a necessary evil.

Cutting and paper handling are far from “top of mind” in all but the most highly industrialized printing plants – and sometimes not even there. Consequently, after a company installs a new press or piece of bindery equipment, jobs start piling up at the cutter because the bindery’s paper-handling solutions aren’t fast enough to keep up with the increased load. This is more likely to happen when people are considered the paper-handling “solutions.”

Given that the most expensive variable in any cutting operation is labor, replacing manual lifting and repetitive-motion tasks with streamlined mechanical solutions makes more sense today than ever. The task for vendors is to demonstrate how automating their customers’ manual practices can benefit employee health, safety, and morale, as well as throughput rates. Viewed in this way, the automation of manual practices can literally pay for itself.

Don’t overlook the gains that can be realized by reducing cutter operators’ stock lifting and handling

Laissez-faire Is Best

Virtually every sheet of material to be cut needs to be handled internally before and after it winds up on the cutting table. Depending on the application, paper might need to be lifted, jogged, aerated, turned, and repeatedly moved. If an operator has to do the bulk of the labor involved, he or she risks back injury, especially with large sheet sizes and heavy stock. In addition, the likelihood that errors will occur increases the more materials are moved around by hand.

The addition of automatic loaders and off loaders, stacklifts, in- and offline joggers, trim-removal and banding devices, sorting and inspection devices, electronic counting scales, pile-turners, robotic arms, conveyors, and buffering systems can significantly reduce turnaround times and reduce or eliminate operator fatigue and back-related problems. (See Figure 2.)

For example:

Automated transport systems can regulate the efficient loading of materials to the clamp opening, reducing labor and promoting high productivity.
Operators using a fixed or freestanding stacklift can raise loads to a convenient height for loading uncut sheets to the cutter or jogger, or for unloading finished sheets. (See Figure 3.)
Automatic in- or off-line joggers can reduce the time it takes an operator to jog the stock into proper alignment for cutting, which makes for better product quality especially for high-quality, long-run jobs. (See Figure 4.)
Automatic off loaders or palletizers can help increase throughput during cutting for large-volume applications.
Pile-turners can facilitate preloading, work-and-turn applications, skid manipulation and aerating, and they can boost throughput by reducing or eliminating misfeeds due to double or missed sheets.

All of these peripherals are designed to increase the efficiency and utilization of the cutter and to make work easier and safer for the operator because heavy lifting is minimized or no longer required. Finally, graphic touchscreens and other user-friendly features of advanced cutting systems enable binderies to enjoy the benefits of computer-enabled technologies without depending on bindery employees’ high-tech capabilities.

Leverage Your Human Resources

Take steps to transform your cutting department from a loss leader to a profit center by automating as much of your cutter workflow as possible. Don’t “cut off your nose to spite your face” by overlooking the gains that can be realized by reducing lifting and handling by operators who are responsible for moving heavy stock to the cutter.

Consider an integrated, high-speed cutting system with flexible, modular paper handling. Cutting operations should not be balanced on the backs of your bindery employees. Do them and yourself a favor by installing systems that will help you leverage your human resources to their best advantage.

Rob Kuehl has been with Heidelberg in Germany and the U.S. for over 24 years. He was the first U.S. citizen to complete Heidelberg’s first-class machinist’s apprenticeship and moved up through corporate Manufacturing, Engineering, Procurement, Research, and Development. He can be reached at rob.kuehl@heidelberg.com or (770) 419- 6636.

7 Keys to Creating a Customer-Focused Culture – Walking the Talk of Your Mission Statement

November 21, 2008

by Jeff Mowatt

“I’m just doing this until something better comes along – like retirement!” If that sums up the attitude held by some of your employees, then imagine the negative impact on teamwork, productivity and especially customer loyalty. Chances are that you, as a business manager or owner, are committed to satisfying customers. But what are you doing about employees who see their jobs merely as “fillers”? Business leaders need to create an environment that motivates employees to want to take care of customers. Unfortunately, the conventional methods to create a customer-focused culture through mission statements have often fallen short.

In the late 1980s and early ’90s, a lot of managers and business gurus seemed to think that if companies just had a corporate mission statement, all of their customer service and teamwork problems would be magically solved. These mission statements almost always touted the organization’s undying – “commitment to satisfying customers”- Blah, blah, blah. If only it were that simple. A mission statement is a good idea – provided there’s ongoing real-world implementation of the principles and values it conveys.

Managers need a fresh approach to ensuring that customers are satisfied and that employees are personally committed to making it happen. After working with dozens of corporations over the years that have been faced with this challenge, I developed the concept of CAST Meetings© (Customer Service Team Meetings). Think of it as a way to breathe new life into your corporate mission.

At CAST Meetings, managers and employees gather for a couple of hours once a month to focus on enhancing customer satisfaction. You may think you already do something similar in your organization. Perhaps you call it a “staff meeting”. The problem is that staff meetings end up focusing on workers’ needs and managers’ needs – not on those of customers. So, erase the notion that CAST Meetings have any connection to your current staff meeting. Everyone attending CAST – front-line employees, support staff, and managers of all levels – will focus on the most important person, the customer. When introducing CAST Meetings to our clients, we include these seven key elements.

1. Spread Your Customers’ Words. At CAST Meetings, everyone learns the latest results of your customer surveys, letters, and comments. One of the most useful, least expensive ways to collect customer feedback that we teach in our seminars is to ensure that employees directly ask customers a magic question, “What can we do to improve our service?” Asking that question and bringing the responses to CAST Meetings not only provides valuable information, it also reminds front-line employees of one of their most valuable roles – being the eyes and ears of the company.

2. Get People Thinking. Prior to introducing the first CAST Meeting, we conduct training sessions for our client’s management and staff on ways to enhance customer satisfaction – without working harder. As part of these seminars, we brainstorm ways to boost customer satisfaction at each Point of Perception©. Here we generate a list of ways we might enhance customers’ experience at every point where they form an impression of the company – on the web site, when they phone in, as they enter the parking lot, while waiting on site, and so on. Later we bring those ideas to CAST Meetings. We’ve found that employees share ideas that are often realistic, innovative, and create tremendous value for customers. As Sam Walton said, “Listen to everyone in your company, especially the ones who actually talk to customers. They really know what’s going on out there.” The bonus is that since front-line employees are the ones coming up with the ideas, they are more committed to implementing them.

3. Sift to Find the Nuggets. At the monthly CAST Meetings, we sift through the feedback generated by both the customers and the employees. Just because we’ve collected a list of ideas from these groups, doesn’t necessarily mean that we can or should act on each suggestion. At the CAST Meetings we use two primary tools to evaluate the suggestions. One way is using a feedback grid that we discuss in our management training seminars. This grid reveals how your customers rate the various services you provide and how important those services are to them.

Another approach to evaluating the suggestions put forth is simply to ask all CAST Meeting participants to come up with as many pros and cons of the idea as possible. The result is everyone – not just managers – does a preliminary assessment of the suggestion. That way, when ideas are rejected, it’s not just managers rejecting the concepts (which is demoralizing for everyone). Instead, everyone understands why certain ideas won’t be acted upon. This goes a long way to eliminating the “them vs. us” attitude between managers and front-line staff thats so prevalent in many organizations.

4. Implement Now – Perfect Later. Pilot. Pilot. Pilot. When you identify an idea that on the surface looks like it has merit, the next step is to launch a preliminary test run, or “pilot”. So, let’s say for a 30-day trial basis you are going to give several front-line employees in a specific department the authority to make a decision that typically requires management approval. Those same employees volunteer to try the program, monitor the results, and report their findings at the next CAST Meeting. If they indicate that the pilot went well, then at the CAST Meeting it can be fine-tuned and expanded to other areas within the organization.

One of the great hidden benefits of conducting a monthly CAST Meeting is that those participants who agree to test a pilot project suddenly have a deadline. Moreover, they’ve committed to present their findings to their peers and supervisors. Giving a public report of what they’ve done serves as a tremendous incentive to actually get something done without pleading, nagging, or cajoling.

5. Replace Policies with Parables. Perhaps the most critical element of any CAST Meeting is “story-time.” During this part of the agenda, managers call upon selected front-line employees, who recently provided exceptional service, to share a specific on-the-job incident, and explain why they did what they did. These stories become your organization’s parables – living examples of your beliefs. Parables have been used to teach history and values since before the creation of the written word. They endure because they are interesting, teach us lessons, and are easily remembered. These stories become your “code” – the way you do business. In other words, these real-life stories not only reflect your organization’s mission, vision, and values – they become its living and breathing embodiment.

6. Coach Instead of Fighting Fires. We often hear one of the roles of the manager is to act as a mentor or coach. Yet managers get so busy that the only time they “coach” people is when a subordinate fouls up. Worse still, only one person at a time learns from the mistake. That’s not our idea of being a mentor. An effective coach is more proactive.

One of my colleagues, fellow professional speaker Joe Bonura, told me, “Spaced repetition is the mother of memory.” At CAST Meetings, one of the roles of the manager is to take one of the customer service ideas that we’ve shared in the training seminar and reinforce its application. That way, simple vital customer service tips are repeated and are more likely to be remembered and applied. So rather than reacting to individual crises, managers help all employees to prevent customer service problems before they occur.

7. Celebrate Service – Not Seniority. In a study of Fortune 500 corporations, researchers found that the number one motivator of employees is recognition – knowing that they are appreciated. CAST Meetings give managers a forum to provide recognition that’s not based on seniority – but on exemplary customer service. Perhaps even more important is that the recognition doesn’t just come from management – it comes from the workers’ peers. That means you’re creating a shift in culture right at the grass roots. Add to that a few words of open praise from the senior manager to the team, and everyone feels like they are part of a greater good. Combine it with pizza, snacks, or lunch and you’ve created a customer-focused event that employees look forward to.

Bottom Line – It Gets Results.

It’s easy for corporate leaders to pay lip service to the importance of customers. Mission statements may play well for advertising purposes and look good on the boardroom wall. But employees see beneath the veil of slogans. They need to know that you as a leader actually mean what you say – and that you’re willing to back statements with action. Simple logic dictates that if that kind of integrity is missing, even the best employee will eventually become de-motivated and start marking time.

With CAST Meetings employees discover that the company indeed practices what it preaches. That’s the kind of trust that translates into improved performance for everyone. One of our clients found that within six months of using CAST, morale had noticeably improved and employee productivity increased by 34 percent. Meanwhile, the client reported that the number of customer complaints plummeted fourfold. That’s a corporate culture where all the stakeholders benefit. After all, ensuring that everyone wins is very likely what your mission statement is all about.

This article is based on the critically acclaimed book Becoming a Service Icon in 90 Minutes a Month by customer service strategist and professional speaker Jeff Mowatt. To obtain a copy of his book or to inquire about engaging Mowatt for your team, visit www.jeffmowatt.com or call (800) 566-9288.