Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine
I guess part of the issue here is which part of the plating process is being placed in the pressroom responsibility. If it is just a case of the physical plate output process, then there should be no reason why either party (i.e. prepress or press) owns the process - we have considered both but stuck with prepress having responsibility for plates for the time being.
However, the role of prepress has changed over the last 5-10 years. In simple terms, 10 years ago, prepress plated from (usually) film supplied, and the pressroom got what they got - plates were exposed with little or no thought for dot gain - as long as the plates were exposed correctly then the pressroom just printed what they got.
today, a lot of print/press control is decided in prepress. e.g. CIPS data is sent and controlled from prepress, prepress are responsible for plate and press curves/process control, proof matching etc. consequently, the clear demarcation between prepress and press responsibilities has either blurred or dissappeared. this is likely to grow even further over time with better and clearer integration of JDF/Prepress/Mis with much of the press (and other downstream process) presetting being controlled from prepress or from MIS data (estimators running prepress and presses - now theres a thought).
At this moment in time, I believe that where plates are output is academic, its where they are controlled that is important. There is a bit of a conundrum here in that (generally speaking) prepress have the better 'technical skills' to monitor and control the whole plating process e.g. imposition, dtp and IT ablilities but lack the in-depth understanding of press and print, and vice-versa for the pressroom. However, taking into consideration 'Lean' principles, the level of JDF automation that will (probably) permeate the whole process over the next few years, and improved colour control on press through anilox (or similar) and 'on-press' colour control, this position isn't satisfactory.
As such, will we be seeing a different type of animal, where press operators will migrate towards prepress (e.g. utilising their skills where they are put to best use) leaving the presses to be run by fewer skilled operators (as I see it, One skilled operator responsible for all presses, with assistants responsible for loading/taking off paper/ink/plates etc.
I think that part of the issue is that although we are adopting Lean principles, we still view the whole process from the traditional viewpoint of departmental Silo's rather as a complete workflow. Perhaps this is holding us back, causing us to be defensive of our departments/positions and not as open minded as we could be.
Edited by: seejay on Jan 25, 2008 5:35 AM