Digital Workflows

[MIBUK]

Hi,

Interested to know what software solutions you are using to automate your print worflows in digital print ie. Enfocus, Prinergy, Fiery Central etc.

I'm interested to know what parts of the print process you automate and with what software. Is there such a thing as a totally automated workflow out there today? If so, what are you using? What would you like to automate, but haven't found the right solution?

Note: I have nothing to sell......I just want to educate myself on what is happening in the real world, rather than what the Marketing depts are telling me.

Regards,
MIB

[X33]

I'm curious about this too. Who in the real world is automating their workflows? why, how?

[CSimpson]

We have a job we do weekly that is composed of up to twenty separate documents that is given to us in which we have to impose, print, and saddle stitch specific counts of each document for over 90 locations in which each location could get as many as 200 copies of an individual document and some locations might not get any copies of certain documents.

The way we did it in the past was to run the total count needed of document A, the total count needed of document B, and so on. Then we hand counted and built the packets as we boxed them up by following a list. As you can image this took a lot of time and had potential for a lot of errors.

Our current procedure is as follows: A macro in Excel converts the spreadsheet with the counts to an XML document. That XML document is created in a hot folder that Impostrip reads. Impostrip then grabs the PDF documents in a folder and creates the imposition, with a data matrix barcode (very important since not all documents have the same sheet count) for our Duplo DSF5000. When it finishes the end result is a PDF for each location. The PDF will have the exact quantities of each document for that location. We print the PDF files with a banner sheet so that it separates each location. We load the output stack into the Duplo’s feeder it runs and creates booklets till it hits a banner sheet at that point that location is complete and boxed. You remove the banner sheet from the feeder and continue the process until complete. With this method counts are always correct and labor time was reduced by 80%.

[Niko]

We are using the Xerox Process Manager software to create an "almost" automate workflow.
You can create as many flows you want and naming them for the work it starts ex. Igen3 - 4 A5 up on SR-A3 115gr.
In the flow you can convert tif, jpg, eps and many else in PDF and creating a flow for repeting n-up, creating booklets and all the impositions you usually do in your daily work. Finally you can choose if only saving in PDF or sending directly to a printer queue with media,stock and if F or F/B assigned and you only need to put paper in tray. You can publish your hotfolder all over the network (mac, pc, linux). So, let's suppose you receive a business card in jpg by mail. Just save it in the flow named for example Xerox 250 - Business Card on SR-A3 300gr and the process starts. Just go to the printer, put paper in and click PRINT. That's all.
You can create almost any flow you want using conditions to start and action if a condition is matched else starting a different one.
We are using PM since one year and we are completley satisfied. We have around 25 flows for the most common works but creating a new one is really simple and incredibly fast. It's a software created having in mind the usual problems and bottle-necks of digital printing.

Here's a link for more info:
http://www.xerox.com/digital-printin...ager/enus.html

Hope it helps.
Nicola

[mattbeals]

We've (I've) got SWITCH in front of Prinergy systems, Harlequin RIP's, RAMPage, Dalim, etc. All sorts of automation can be done. What needs to be determined is what automation makes sense for you. Some shops just want to automate file reception and preflighting so that operators can make better use of the their time and better choices about scheduling. Others want a more automated system to deliver "ready for press" files. SWITCH can even help extend the life of older workflows. Even "highly automated" workflows like Apogee and Prinergy can be more productive with SWITCH as part of the overall workflow.

[arossetti]

We are an all digital shop with a lot of back door business - we get on average 50 e-mails daily for job submission. We just opted for Xerox (Presssense) Web Service, Process Manager, Output Manager. We have not started installation but we are looking forward to automating the tasks that take up so much of our time - file retrival, preflight, proofing, imposition etc.

[che.c]

First thing, that made for a really interesting read CSimpson (yeah.. I'm a bit sad.. let's move on ) and I bet twas an entertaining challenge working out how to automate it, then making it happen.

Now, I have zero to none automation going on, so thought I'd just chime in to say er. That. Well, I'll expand a bit on my opinion of automation in digital print, at least at the lower end of the equipment market.

I find myself remapping colours, tweaking sim and o/p profiles and making adjustments to a/w on quite a lot of the jobs. This partly speaks of the type of file I receive, and the (non)reliability of the machines.
My 'automation' consists of a few catch-most presets that I can take an educated guess at making a certain type of job look good. I know plenty of places that have lost customers due to trying to automate too much - there is no substitute for an experienced operator paying attention to the job they're running.
With a 260/240 everything is printed on a job-by-job basis, can't trust the printers to just do it right...

Of course, it does have its place, CSimpons' tale being a prime example. I'd do most imposition manually, except for high-page count books (over a hundred, say).

[KMMichael]

First of all let me say that I am a KM rep.

We have a package that far too few people have heard of called Printgroove, which automates the entire workflow from front to back with all of the modules set up.

It includes web2print job submission, payment and quoting, customer notifications, job archiving, job ticket management from order to shipping, make ready and print queue management.

For what it does it also is priced very well compared to other options out there.

It may or may not be what you are looking for but have a look. I'd be interested in your feedback.

Actually at the following page there is a link on the right side to a flash presentation. Konica Minolta Printgroove.

I'd be interested in the forum's thoughts on this solution.

Michael