by: Trish Witkowski, foldfactory.com

It’s no secret that the business of print has changed. Though the commoditization of print has been disappointing, something very interesting has been happening to a sizeable piece of the printing pie. A surge in interest in specialty print projects, such as unique folding configurations, dimensional solutions and innovative direct mail is in essence de-commoditizing print, due to the level of skill, preparation, creativity and equipment required to execute on these types of projects.

Printers have taken on specialty projects with enthusiasm or dread – iron cross folds, unique shapes and sizes or unusual formats – but it can be hard to accommodate all of the possible scenarios for specialty work, so many printers outsource the finishing to trade or specialty binderies. Binderies take on what a normally-equipped finishing operation cannot do effectively, due to a limitation of equipment, knowledge or capacity. I asked Jack Rickard of Rickard Bindery, a specialty bindery in Chicago, what makes a job “specialty”. His reply included the following:

• Size: large or small format
• Paper weight: very light or very heavy
• Quantity: large quantity in a very short time frame
• Quality: quality of product or procedural requirements (ex: pharmaceutical procedures)
• Complexity: number and configuration of folds or multiple finishing technologies

It’s fairly subjective, but I would argue that these days, specialty also includes highly critical in-line finishing processes that eliminate the need for multiple passes through offline equipment (I believe this would fall under Rickard’s “complexity” bullet above). Specialized formats for direct mail and dimensional and proprietary folded solutions, in my opinion, also would fall under this category.

The Influence of Technology

Technology has had the greatest effect on the surge in interest in specialty folding. First, there has been a sea change in direct mail philosophy with regard to refining and managing mailing lists. This leads to printing smaller batches of targeted direct mail communications. People are starting to realize the value of their data, and they’re using software and services that can effectively leverage this valuable asset. The money saved by printing fewer pieces can be applied to producing a smaller amount of high quality, eye-catching print materials. “The cost of the product is irrelevant,” says Norm Beange, president of Specialties Graphic Finishers, a specialty bindery in Toronto, Canada. “The question is – how many lawnmowers is it going to sell? A well-designed, unique piece will be remembered, and sometimes that means reducing your quantity to fit your budget. In my experience, it’s better to send 15,000 wows, rather than 100,000 yawns.”

The ability to merge different technologies with a print piece, such as complex variable data and images, personalized URLs, QR codes and more, now gives the sender multiple opportunities to create touchpoints, initiating a two-way conversation with the audience. These technologies also increase the sender’s confidence in the chance of a response, which can influence the sender’s willingness to spend more on that special piece.

The other technology-related influencer of this surge in interest in specialty pieces is the incredibly dramatic advancements in folding and finishing equipment, as well as in-line finishing for digital print. Recently, Hunkeler Innovation Days in Lucerne, Switzerland drew a record crowd of over 5,000 people anxious to see the latest in digital print finishing. Automation of complex processes has brought the unusual and unique within reach for customers who may not previously have been able to afford the cost of specialty projects, and has given printers and finishers the ability to sell this work and execute it in-house without sacrificing profitability. “It used to be cost-prohibitive to set-up a manual folder for complex, short-run jobs,” says Mark Hunt, director of marketing for Standard Finishing Systems. “It was too expensive to amortize a 90-minute (or more) set-up time on a run-length of 50 units or fewer. Today, Standard Horizon automated folders can perform that changeover in under 10 minutes, so you can be cost effective on ultra-short run lengths. Personalized, variable-data products are now inbounds too, because these folders have virtually no set-up waste.”

In addition to complex automated folding, demand for additional in-line finishing processes has really raised the bar, while increasing margins. “Some of the trends we are seeing include customization of folding machines to perform more folding and gluing applications that add value to the customer and create greater margins per piece than traditional folding,” states Mark Pellman, director of sales and marketing for Baumfolder. “BAUM has incorporated the capability on both our tabletop and floor model folders to adapt various gluing applications to meet these needs.”

When Automation is Not an Option

Automated specialty finishing is ideal, if it can be done skillfully and efficiently, but many companies choose to finish by hand because it’s not worth the time and setup to try to automate the job – a decision that makes sense. But, what happens when the quantity and/or the complexity of the job warrants a massive hand assembly effort?

Structural Graphics in Essex, Connecticut is a full-service integrated marketing services company, but because of its niche specialty in high-impact dimensional marketing formats, the company owns and operates its own hand assembly, lettershop and fulfillment operation in Piedras Negras, Mexico. The facility operates with an average of 500 skilled hand assembly workers, but the operation is scalable to accommodate larger projects. Ethan Goller, president of Structural Graphics, provided me with a few things to think about when considering offshore large-volume hand assembly work (including Mexico):

• As a rough guideline, if there is less than 200 hours of handwork, you should consider doing the assembly locally (e.g. U.S. domestic in your local market).
• If you don’t have a big enough project, the freight costs of moving the materials to Mexico can be greater than the cost savings of doing the assembly work there. This is especially true if the units being assembled don’t drop into the USPS, because typically the assembled piece takes up more space than flat press sheets. If the quantity is significant, you may be moving a lot of “air.”
• Quantity isn’t the only factor … “complexity” also must be taken into consideration. Goller recalled one project that was only 1,600 units, but the job was so complex that it required nearly 4,000 hours of handwork.
• Bottom line, the more hours of handwork, the greater potential for cost savings by doing that work offshore.

Selling Specialty

Specialty folding and finishing offer a world of opportunity from a selling standpoint, but it’s a different beast than conventional print work. Specialty projects often require extra lead time, and it can be very difficult to convince clients that they can’t push the envelope on the delivery date like they might be able to do on a standard print job. “The biggest issue we have is with timelines,” says Beange. “Customers are always talking about delivery date, but their date doesn’t matter. It takes what it takes to create a high-quality specialty product. We’ve actually re-engineered our quoting system, and it’s getting a lot of attention. We give a price for a normal production schedule, and then we count backwards, adding overtime, so that our customers understand that if they want to push the limits of the schedule, this is the absolute maximum that they can push it, and here’s what that will cost them. It can be a real eye-opener for people, and once in a while it’s even a deal breaker when they realize they can’t get a complex three-week job done in four days.”

Although there are great opportunities in specialty, printers, binders and finishers are finding that they not only need to consult on the production process, but also educate designers about the creative possibilities. “Perhaps the greatest challenge is the (arguable) paradigm shift that our industry has gone through,” states David Bailey, Jr., president of Lithographics in Nashville, TN. “Historically, it seems as though ad agencies and the like were solely charged with the responsibility of bringing these new, creative ideas to life. With the influx of freelance designers, there has been, to some degree, a loss of knowledge – as far as what is and isn’t doable from a print and finishing perspective – and an overall stigma that every print project must be done as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible. This translates into ‘anything fancy or unique must be expensive so I won’t even investigate it.'”

Kevin Ness, sales executive with Innovative Technologies in Print in Elizabethtown, PA, has had a lot of experience in selling specialty projects over the years. He offers this list of sales tips for success with selling “the unusual”:

• As a print service provider, let your customers know of your capabilities in this area. They may not currently view you as a provider of creative finishing ideas or services.
• Drop off samples of unique specialty projects once in a while to “plant the seed” and to start the conversation. Designers are visual; sometimes they have to see and experience the piece to understand the potential.
• Express your willingness to help explore options.
• Offer to attend preliminary meetings to discuss thoughts, ideas and solutions for the project.
• Outline a plan for production to include file preparation, paper selection and “testing” as necessary.”

The Power of “Special”

Specialty folding and finishing create impact, and I can tell you that the most highly trafficked section on my foldfactory website is the specialty/exotic section. The most popular folds featured on my “Fold of the Week” video series are the specialty folds, and we’re seeing demand for more resources, tools and information on the topic. Designers want to do exciting things, but they don’t know their options. They need your help to see the true possibilities that are within their reach.

Trish Witkowski is chief folding fanatic at foldfactory.com. An educator, author, speaker and award-winning designer, Witkowski has a specialized expertise in folding. She is the creator of the FOLDRite™ system and host of the weekly e-video, “60-second Super-cool FOLD of the WEEK.” Also available as a source for more folding ideas is the Fold Picker, produced by foldfactory.com and Sappi Fine Paper. This 2-sided fanbook offers 30 low-to moderate-budget “frugal” folding options in one direction, and with a simple flip, offers 30 high-budget “fabulous” folding splurges in the other direction. All of the folding styles featured in the picker have coordinating videos posted on foldfactory. Visit foldfactory.com/shop to order. Contact Witkowski at trish@foldfactory.com.

by: Trish Witkowski, Finishing Experts Group, Inc.

Just about every step in the print production process has been modernized – but the one real holdout is folding. Yes, programmable folding machinery has been around for several years, and there are automated folding systems that can do incredible things. However, until folding itself goes digital, automation alone will not be enough to truly maximize production efficiencies.

Now, I want to be clear – I’m reaching for the stars here. We’re talking about the Holy Grail of print production – end-to-end total process automation. In my opinion, it’s an attainable goal, but we have work to do to get there. Before we get started, if by some chance you aren’t convinced that we even need to “go there,” here are a few compelling reasons to aggressively pursue total process automation for folded materials.

• Demand for “lights-out” automation is growing with the steady increase in digital short run printing, web-to-print, and print-on-demand business models. The technology exists to achieve this goal. However, implementing a fully automated end-to-end workflow is not a plug-and-play endeavor.
• Shorter run lengths and faster turnaround times require frequent makereadies, so manual tasks waste a lot of time that we don’t have. Build in the likelihood of human error, and things can get backed up, costly, and off schedule very quickly.
• There is a growing need to automate folding because skilled bindery operators are getting harder to find – folding as an “art” has become a thing of the past as a generation of trained bindery experts is slowly phasing out of the industry.
• A downturn in the economy, the commoditization of print, international competition, and pricing pressures demand a more efficient and cost-effective process.
• Fold placement is math, and because of this, standardizing the file set-up process for folded material is a real possibility. We cannot automate a process that has not been standardized, and therefore without a standardized file submission process for folded materials, we cannot even hope for total process automation.

Assessing the Scenario

Turning folding into the streamlined, standardized, computerized process it should be is a fairly ambitious task. Here’s the problem as it stands:

• Currently, there is absolutely no control over the digital document creation process. A printer basically has to work with whatever file he gets from a client. And since file set-up for folding can be a fairly complex task, who knows what you’ll actually get from the client, and how long it will take the print provider to fix the file. That’s problem number one.
• Problem number two is that once you have a press-ready file, and that file can be sent through to the MIS system as a PDF in a digital workflow, that file does not currently carry the information necessary to communicate with the system to tell it what the folding style is, the placement of the folds, etc. which leads to problem number three.
• Even if the folding machinery is a whiz-bang programmable JDF-compliant monster, it will still require some degree of manual adjustment because the file does not hold JDF folding intent information. Without the JDF data, the MIS cannot send precise settings to the automated folding machine. The file stops at the bindery and waits for (fancy, motorized) machine set-up.

Looking at the problems laid out above, the path to fully automated folding can be boiled down to two major issues – the need to control the file submission process upstream at the design stage, and the need to embed JDF folding intent into the file to enable communication downstream to finishing.

Assessing Current Technologies

Let’s take a look at existing technologies as they relate to the two major issues we’ve identified:

JDF folding intent – There have been dramatic improvements in the folding section of the latest iteration of the JDF specification. Previously, there was a library of set folding styles, which really limited the scope of JDF for folding. Folding is varied and broad in its spectrum, so a more flexible solution is required to accommodate for this. The JDF 1.4 specification has expanded to not only offer the standard set of folding styles from the previous version, but also offers the ability to define your own folding settings. This is a huge step forward.

Control over the file submission process – By now, we’ve realized that there will never be a day when all designers understand how to manually set up a file correctly for a folded product. As a matter of fact, we won’t see a day when 20 percent of all designers do it right. It’s not their fault – file set-up for folding is a precise process that is not currently taught in any graphic arts program anywhere, and manual file set-up (by the designer or print production person) almost welcomes human error. With that said, the only viable solution is through widespread use of custom automated folding templates.

The template is critical, since it virtually eliminates human error, and offers a file that is set up precisely for the folded process – the designer can just start designing. However, the file also must accomplish another goal: it must carry JDF folding intent, and this data must be populated at document creation. There must be no manual data entry, and it must work in the background. Designers do not know, nor do they care to know, anything about JDF. If we can embed it in the file under the hood, the file can talk, and we can understand it.

A Call to Action

For folding to truly go digital, making way for “lights-out” automation, it will take an aggressive, industry-wide push to make it happen. Collaboration is key, the tools are sitting in our laps, and the time is right.

Trish Witkowski is the president of Finishing Experts Group, Inc. She is the creator of the FOLDRite™ software system, a 2004 GATF InterTech™ Technology Award winner that builds dynamic custom digital templates that are mathematically adjusted for the folding process. These templates also have been proven to populate and embed JDF folding intent, standardizing the file submission process for folded materials. Witkowski holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in graphic design and a master of science degree in graphic arts publishing from Rochester Institute of Technology’s School of Printing Management and Sciences (now the School of Print Media). Current publications include: A Field Guide to Folding, Folding for the Graphic Arts: A Teacher’s Handbook, and FOLD: The Professional’s Guide to Folding. For these publications, and for custom digital folding templates, videos, and more, visit her online folding community at www.foldfactory.com. For more information, email trish@foldfactory.com.

CASE STUDY: JDF Works! Print Shop Live, Graph Expo 2008

At Graph Expo this past October, FOLDRite participated in the first-ever end-to-end live JDF workflow collaboration at a show between multiple vendors. Other participants included Adobe, Avanti, Kodak, Xerox, Duplo, EFI, Canon, Heidelberg, and CIP4.

The product produced was a folded brochure, created with a FOLDRite template in Adobe InDesign. The challenge was figuring out how to embed custom XMP data tags into the Adobe InDesign template that was generated. These tags would indicate fold placement and would communicate this information downstream to the automated folding machine. The brochure layout was exported as a PDF, and the XMP data stayed with the file. JDF data also was built in from the other vendors by request, including trim, etc. There was a web portal to upload the PDF, and upon upload it exported a JDF file that could then be absorbed by the MIS system. After that, it was up to the MIS system to communicate the information to the workflow software, the digital color printer, and ultimately to send the folding intent and related information to the automated folding machine.

How did we do it? There was a lot of back-and-forth in building and testing the JDF file, since different systems process JDF differently, so a lot of adjustments were made to make the file palatable for all systems. Valid JDF files were passed back and forth, but just because the file is technically correct does not mean that it works on all machines. Further testing was provided with files to support this process and collaborate across the workflow requirements for communicating the job intent and job messaging.

The end result was a success. The collaboration demonstrated that it was possible to embed JDF data into a custom digital folding template and to pass the data through the entire workflow to ultimately control the set-up of an automated Duplo cutter/slitter/creaser machine for end-to-end automation.