The new rules of business planning

Apr 1, 2001 12:00 AM, BY DICK GORELICK President of graphic arts consulting firm Gorelick & Associates, and Graphic Arts S

THE FACT IS, CUSTOMERS AND PROSPECTS MAY NOT CARE WHAT YOUR COMPANY DOES BEST Probably no practice is as widely misunderstood and poorly executed as business planning. Here, successes and failures have nothing to do with company size: Some Fortune 100 companies are awful at planning and fail to understand its objective. I've seen brilliant and brilliantly executed plans written on napkins, and I've

Perfect binding that's slower… but faster

Mar 1, 2001 12:00 AM,

DOWNTIME SOLUTION

Jan 1, 2001 12:00 AM, AMERICAN PRINTER STAFF

IST America Corp. introduces Reduced Down Time technology, which minimizes the downtime that occurs when blanket washers are used with interdeck UV drying and curing units. Utilizing standby power technology, the Reduced Down Time concept permits operating sealed, water-cooled drying units without exhaust air evacuation in standby mode. Units can be automatically placed in standby mode when blanket

INLINE CREASING/CUTTING/PERF

Jan 1, 2001 12:00 AM, AMERICAN PRINTER STAFF

Carton Craft is distributing the PrintLine RSP Inline System, a creasing, cutting and perforating system currently for use on 40-inch Heidelberg Speedmaster presses. The product, developed in Germany in cooperation with Heidelberg, enables printers to print and finish jobs inline at full press speed. A grid sheet is put on a base plate, then wrapped around the impression cylinder. Offset creasing

Midsize sheetfeds: just right

Jan 1, 2001 12:00 AM, ALLISON K. MCLEAN

Full-sized press features at half-size prices Good things come in small packages, and even medium-sized ones, especially when it comes to half-size presses.Printers and press manufacturers seem to have recognized that bigger isn't always better - sales of half-size presses continue to rise and manufacturers are sinking considerable funds into developing and advancing them."The medium-format press

WORLD-CLASS MAKEREADIES

Dec 1, 2000 12:00 AM, AMERICAN PRINTER STAFF

In the face of increasingly shorter runs and turnaround times, printers discussed how they've improved makereadies at the Research & Engineering Council's 26th annual "Progress in the Pressroom" seminar in Chicago.At web printer Fry Communications, Inc. (Mechanicsburg, PA), paid performance and plate changers are shaving time off makeready. Press operators are awarded fixed bonuses when the presses

GRAPH EXPO ORDERS EXCEED $150 MILLION

Nov 1, 2000 12:00 AM, AMERICAN PRINTER STAFF

With more than 46,000 Graph Expo attendees, Heidelberg received orders in excess of $150 million. "This has been an extremely strong show, even after a very successful Drupa," says Niels M. Winther, president and CEO of Heidelberg USA.Heidelberg debuted new products to the North America market like NexPress 2100. NexPress four-color digital press is a joint venture between Heidelberg and Kodak.Heidelberg

SHEETFED PRODUCTIVITY: PICKING UP THE PACE

Oct 1, 2000 12:00 AM, SAMANTHA HOOVER

AUTOMATION, MAINTENANCE AND OPERATOR TRAINING CAN ALL HELP Ask a printer how he or she improves productivity on a sheetfed press, and the response can range from training to preventive maintenance to installing a new, fully automated machine. Ask a press manufacturer how printers can boost productivity, and you'll get similar responses. Pressroom efficiency is a complex issue - it's dependent on so

FIRST 40-INCH DI PRESS DEBUTS

Oct 1, 2000 12:00 AM, AMERICAN PRINTER STAFF

Komori's Project D, a 40-inch direct imaging (DI) press was announced at Drupa and made its North American debut at Graph Expo this past month. Several weeks prior to the show, the press manufacturer hosted a demonstration at its Rolling Meadows, IL, headquarters.Project D's imaging system was developed jointly with CreoScitex. It features 830-nm heads capable of simultaneously imaging no-process

SKILL TESTING

Sep 1, 2000 12:00 AM, AMERICAN PRINTER STAFF

The National Council for Skill Standards in Graphic Communications (Kennebunk, ME) is offering exams for national certification in flexo and litho press operating. Testing dates for multicolor press operator certification are November 9, 2000, February 22, 2001, and May 24, 2001. Group testing is available by special arrangement. For more information and a free examination registration kit, contact

Clean your way to profits: The company that cleaned up the pressroom brings its white glove to prepress

Sep 1, 2000 12:00 AM, AMERICAN PRINTER STAFF

Since its introduction to the printing industry, the JDS Airtech 2000 has cleaned up hundreds of pressrooms.By removing spray powder residue in the pressroom, printers had fewer hickeys and less press maintenance. This resulted in greater productivity and higher profits. These customers were also able to reduce waste and the wear and tear on their heating and cooling systems.Prepress successNow the

MANAGING A MIXED PLATFORM

Jul 1, 2000 12:00 AM, DAVID L. ZWANG

An integrated solution can provide maximum flexibility.Over the years, mixed platform management issues have both fascinated and frustrated me. Early on, I was a techno nerd. I started in the graphic arts in the 1960s and got involved with computers in the late 1970s. Initially, using a computer was an emotional, almost religious experience, but it soon became just a tool.Which platform is best for

RAISING THE QUALITY BAR

Oct 1, 1999 12:00 AM, AMERICAN PRINTER STAFF

With the advent of digital technologies, mediocre printing is something that few print buyers, ad agencies and customers accept from commercial, catalog and publication offset printers. Now, national retailers are raising the quality bar on the most disposable of printed materials--the insert.Retailers know that high-caliber printing of these multi-page advertisements helps lure customers into store

SOMETHING'S BURNING

Aug 1, 1999 12:00 AM, KATHERINE O'BRIEN

The dream is always the same. You are walking through your sheet-fed pressroom. Not a sound can be heard. No one is there. The silence unnerves you. You stop to examine pallets of paper near the end of a press. Only it isn't paper. It's money. Stacks and stacks of it as far as you can see. Just as you are about to grasp a handful of bills, the money spontaneously combusts and Johnny Cash is standing

ALL TOO HUMAN

Jun 1, 1999 12:00 AM, KATHERINE O'BRIEN

There's something wrong with the majority of today's sheet-fed presses. Automation is not the issue--the blanket and roller washing, plate loading, hickey picking, etc., works just fine. We can't fault bearer-to-bearer ring contact, or plate-to-blanket squeeze, or the shore hardness of rollers or water and fountain solution pH and conductivity, either. So what's the problem? We are. Old-fashioned

PRESSROOM OPERATIONS; MOVING RIGHT ALONG

May 1, 1999 12:00 AM, KATHERINE M. O'BRIEN

If today's web presses had a theme song it would be "Ride of the Valkries" (a.k.a. That Superman Music). Modern iron might not be faster than a speeding bullet, but at 3,000 fpm it would be a close race. New technology--including an arsenal of automated features--figuratively lets printers leap tall buildings in a single bound. However, just as Lex Luthor and the occasional pocketful of Kryptonite

PRESSROOM: INTRODUCING UV INKS

May 1, 1999 12:00 AM, DWIGHT ZILINSKAS

Introduced in the early 1970's, UV inks are showing steady growth in offset applications. These inks produce vibrant, high-gloss color on substrates from metal to plastics to paperboard.At one time reserved for auto brochures, corporate annual reports and high-end cosmetic packaging, UV inks are now used in virtually every printing process and market. RadTech International, the trade group for the

PRESSROOM: ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, MAKEREADY!

Apr 1, 1999 12:00 AM, KATHERINE O'BRIEN

An inefficient sheet-fed makeready is similar to driving a car with a flat tire. You can bump along for awhile on the rim, but you'll run up huge repair bills. Plus, you will probably cause a massive traffic jam as fellow motorists slow down either to savor your misfortune or shower you with abuse for slowing them down.Efficient makereadies, on the other hand, are like a pitstop at the Indy 500. "It

PRESSROOM: A COAT OF MANY COLORS

Mar 1, 1999 12:00 AM, WILLIAM C. LAMPARTER

A printer's ability to utilize a growing range of press-applied coatings is evolving into a central production capability to meet increasingly demanding customer requirements. Today the question is not whether or not to coat, but rather which coatings to apply in order to achieve specific results. The pervasiveness of on-press coating is illustrated by the large percentage of new sheet-fed presses

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW

Jan 1, 1999 12:00 AM, JIM KINGSBY

John Glenn's recent return to space as member of the space shuttle Discovery crew provides an apt metaphor for thermography foil stamping and embossing and holography. Even though NASA's cutting edge technology now enables us to peer deep into the cosmos, we retain a certain mixture of awe, gratitude and nostalgia for the pioneers who made it all possible. As space shuttle missions have become routine,