Automation Engine - worth it or not?

[shvo]

Hello everyone
I am new in this forum. Found very interesting info and topics so far so decided to ask a very simple question here: „Esko Automation Engine – worth it or not?“
We are seriouly considering in byuing automatione engine. And still I have to prove AE is woth buying to the company owner. Having a hard time here since I have lots of calculations to make to prove its effectiveness.
Company is producing cardboard packaging only. Ofset printers, CTP, die-cutting, embossing, foiling etc.. We have got everything really.
Means a prepress department has a lot stuff to handle. And eventually we mostly do it manualy. All and I mean ALL operations here and being done using Impact and AI,PS CS3.
Sound like allot of room to improve. But still I wish to hear any stories or experiences after AE instalation and workflow changes. Did it helped to save time? How, where?
Anyone to give me a hand?
Cheers

 

[PrepressDan]

Its hard to evaluate the need of workflow without knowing your business / company better. I can tell you that I work for a large Corrugated / Primary packing provider. We have a fully licensed Automation Engine in each of our facilities. We also have our workflow integrated with our MIS system for lights out automation. On the corrugated work we have actually replaced our whole prepress department with automation and CSR's for QC. So, for us it is definitely worth it.

While we are very automated keep in mind that it does not do this out of the box. Automation Engine has some incredible tools but it really takes time to figure out what and how you want to automate. If you have any specific questions please feel free to send me a message via this site.

 

[chevalier]

I can confirm what jeffkin15 is saying. The "automation" part is really up to you. Esko gives you (most of) the tools and you have to take advantage of utilizing them to your advantage. A few years ago I evaluated all of the workflow solutions marketed towards packaging. Sadly, Esko is the only vendor with a purpose built solution that's thought all the way through. Heidelberg and Kodak are a far behind 2nd because they are basically commercial printing workflows with packaging features glued on. I switched to Esko from Heidelberg and it was a huge move forward for us.

I see that you are using Impact for CAD. My CAD department also uses Impact. Impact does not integrate and Esko and Arden do not cooperate at all in any way (I cannot stress this enough). You don't have to have ArtiosCAD but if you're looking to go super automated it's almost required. I know of facilities that run both CAD systems just to harness automation.

 

[shvo]

Chevalier, jeffkin - thank you both for the post. We had Esko salesman visiting us and showing what AE can do. It is helpful as I can imagine. But yet "imagination" might be different from real experience.
So I really wonder - in which operations it has saved most of your time? What were the options that helped drastically?
Cheers

 

[michaelejahn]

So I really wonder - in which operations it has saved most of your time? What were the options that helped drastically?

shvo - do you Preflight PDF files manually, one at a time ? Do you often make specific modifications manually within an app ? do you paginate / impose / nest manually ? Do you have to open and print using a mouse and menu selection ? Do folks have to drag files into hot folders ? Kinda hard to understand what could be automated at your shop. We have customers who have systems set up where their customer uploads PDF files and the files are batch imposed and printed without any human intervention - yeah, in certain types of customers and projects, it can be storefront to press. So, in these cases, to discover your ROI, you would need to examine how long a task takes ( so, what does that "cost" ) and see if you have enough workflow steps that can be automated to afford the software. Something as simple as setting up a system to automatically email and invoice with the ship tracking number when the order status is changed to *shipped* can save a TON of CSR / Sales persons time.

Hope this helps !

 

[arossetti]

Think of touch points, then eliminate them. E-mailing customers, calling customers, saving files into folders etc. Add up how much of that you do per job and extrapolate.

 

[Prepress_Sam]

I would contact your Esko Sales person and, if they haven't already, get one of their Application Sales Managers, ASM, involved. They can do a workflow audit and give you an ROI. This will save you the headaches of crunching the numbers yourself.

 

[chevalier]

I would contact your Esko Sales person and, if they haven't already, get one of their Application Sales Managers, ASM, involved. They can do a workflow audit and give you an ROI. This will save you the headaches of crunching the numbers yourself.

I'm not sure if this colloquialism will translate in Lithuania but I'd use extreme "air quotes" around ROI. They can give you numbers but this is akin to the county fair where you guess the weight of a cow. That said, the ROI is typically heaviest in the decreased problems on press, bad flexo plates, etc. and not in the billable prepress hours.

 

[chevalier]

So I really wonder - in which operations it has saved most of your time? What were the options that helped drastically?

The licensing has changed quite a bit since I signed my contract but the "Processor Module" was something the sales people did not think that I needed and I very much needed it. It really should be a core part of the workflow and not an optional module. PowerTrapper is hands down the best and most intuitive trapping software I've ever seen. I also have virtually all of the DeskPack products on our prepress workstations and they are very much a lifesaver.

 

[FileJockey]

we have actually replaced our whole prepress department with automation and CSR's for QC. So, for us it is definitely worth it.

On the plus side, maybe you can look for a job setting up other shop's automation engines after you are replaced.

 

[Luvdgoof]

We have been using AE for about 3 years now and it has been a huge help to our production. Like with everything, there will be growing pains at the beginning if you have a prepress department like mine, with 9 people that had gotten used to doing most things manually, there will be some resistance. However, once you have the workflows setup to meet your specific needs and get everyone on board with using it correctly, it will be well worth it. Even now, we are not using it to its full potential, but the time savings are still great. The previous posters are right on about it's effectiveness being based on what your specific needs are. We have it setup so that once we do the basic preflighting on the file, AE will add trapping and create a PDF proof populated with appropriate information that's taken from the information within the specific job. From there we have options setup to print a color proof or email the proof to the CSR, which can be selected before the workflow is launched. What we are working on now is including other modules and workflows to create the layout and have it fill in automatically with marks and info as well. AE can be as powerful as you make it and there are additional modules and programs that can be added on to make things even better. The main thing you'll have to worry about is setting up the workflows and getting everyone that will be using it to utilize it correctly. When all is said in done, you would be able to take your preflighted file and with a single workflow, trap, send proofs, print color proofs, create layouts for printing, output plates, and keep a log of the steps along the way. That's IF you want it to do all that. Like I said it is very customizable and once you're familiar with it, I'm sure you could find other creative ways to automate other tasks as well. There are quite a few costs, and you'll have to decide whether or not it's worth it based on your needs, but for us it has been very beneficial.