Press Room Manager for CTP machine

PeterA

Well-known member
I have always had plates as the repsonsibility of the Press Room (as well as the flat paper warehouse) - Do others do this

peter
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

I amj not sure I understand you completely. Everywhere I have worked stocking and using the plates has been a prepress duty....
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

THats what I thought

I heard of a large printer - where if a plate went down the press would stand idle while the pre press manager decided which plate to make. I have always had my Press Room Manager take overall responsibily for making them - Its his fault then if the plates ar'tt made in time

Peter
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

hello peter,

i have worked a three medium sized printers and all have had warehouse managers to handle stock, and pre press managers to handle plates and a production manager to shout at whichever manager created a situation which lead the press to stand idle.

Hope his helps but i have never herd of a company to do things that way but as they say "innovate not immitate".so if it works.........

Paul
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

Totally Agree Paul..........The prepress Manager should be in control of platemaking, working very closely with the production planning - This relationship is crucial.
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

As the printing industry continues to adopt the concepts of Lean manufacturing, is it possible that we'll see more manufacturing "cells"? In a cell, the platesetting device would probably be physically placed "in-line" with, or, in front of, the press or perhaps even several presses. Who manages the cell?
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

Brian I agree wholeheartedly

I work on - if it matters to you then u should own it

Plates/Paper/Ink and Coating matter to the pressmanager - he should own it


You then dont need platesetter on site 24 hrs a day your press room assistant can image plates

Peter
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

Hi peter,

I work on - if it matters to you then u should own it

Plates/Paper/Ink and Coating matter to the pressmanager - he should own it

I see your point but communication is the key to any operation and prepress should be guided by the pressroom manager (In terms of plates required). If this relationship fails to deliver then let people know there responsibility and what is expected of them. Your pressroom manager must be a great guy but i bet he feels like the world is on his shoulders some times.

Paul

Edited by: Paul Green on Jan 23, 2008 6:27 AM
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

In our facility we're implementing lots of "Lean" tools except we haven't yet created any production cells in prepress or press or both together.

Interesting thing is that we are currently considering a switch from thermal ablative/water wash-only plates BACK to "chemistry-dependent". Prepress and press both want more of a grained plate that satisfies our printing needs, but press is primarily driving the move back to "chemistry dependent" plates.
Prepress (that's me) suggested that we place the new "chemistry dependent" system in line with the presses. (I wanted to see the reaction). This action would move toward a LEAN "cell" arrangement which is the direction the company is headed anyway. However, the "pressroom" more than likely would become responsible for the platesetter and chemistry changes. The excitement about "chemistry dependent" plates subsided quite a bit when it was looked at that way. It all sounds good when you don't have to deal with the mess.
Back to the subject, if LEAN principles get involved, printers may well see press employees handling the plating. It depends on facility layout, space, end in mind, takt time etc.

brian
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

We have a pressman that doubles as a platemaker most of his time is spent making plates and making sure stock/inks/plates etc..are all pulled together and ready and staged per the schedule in a centrally located spot for the presses, when he's making plates he asnswers to prep when he's on the press he answers to pressroom.

It's been a great situation for everyone, we don't have to make plates ;) and the pressmen don't have to hunt for materials plus they have coverage for sick days and vacations.
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

Hello Brian,

sorry to jump a bit off topic but why do you want to move to a more grainer plate? what press problems do you hope this will solve.

Cheers paul
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

Paul:
re: off-topic subpoint...
As I alluded to in my novel a few entries ago, the press manager has a multi-point list of reasons for desiring a "grain-ier" plate: i.e. pre-wetting on current plates wastes time and sheets during initial roll-up. Consistency in maintaining color during the run is evidently more difficult. (That's probably because more "water" needs to be applied to plate). Deleted image on current plates sometimes becomes sensitive.
From prepress angle, our equipment is seven years old and it's becoming necessary to do what we call "zone balancing" more frequently. If a zone is out of balance, it usually is more easily noticed on press. Then press has to stop and plates re-made and so on and so on....

regards,
brian
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

G-Town:
Very interesting. I can relate to what your saying. Just last October we brought into prepress one of the press operators. He's running the platesetters daily. When we hit our peak season in May, he'll go back to running a press fulltime and I'll be obligated to train another seasonal or two to make plates. I'm not thrilled about that aspect especially the constant annual training in plating, but this is our first serious effort at this approach so we'll see...

brian
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

Brian

With my Press Room Manger being responsible for plates - he would get the existing operator to train the replacement -

Peter
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

Peter: I understand what you're saying; especially the ownership part. You've got me thinking "outside the box" in terms of managing the plating process. As we've seen in this thread, your approach is probably not very common in the printing world at this point in time. Sounds like G-Town does things in a similar fashion to what you're describing.

So, just to clarify, are you saying that you have a press assistant that makes all the plates all of the time and all of the plating activities are managed by the Press manager? Is plating in a separate room, miles away from the press room or right next to press or in the pressroom?

brian
 
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
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

seejay: Very well articulated. The company I'm with is definitely embracing "Lean" and we are experiencing some of what you're describing in your last paragraph.
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

Brian

We just have to forget old workflows they change every 10 years , when you think 30 years ago we were just moving away from Letterpress, then in the 80's we had to learn about cameras and then in the 90's dtp and imposed punched fim and in the last 8 years.CTP .

I live in a short run commercial print world where Customer Services have to be king.

So each of my Customers team have also estimating and pre press in. The CSR manager of the team knows that when he says to the client you can have your estimate or proof now - he doesnt have to go through other ego's -

So my press operators impose files before they proof - and when approved just send the files to plate.

So in rooom 1
I have three teams each containing CSR EstImating and Pre Press - Each team sits togther. eadh team looks after about $3m

Next to room 1 is room 2 Scheduling and platesetting

In my case they need to be together as press shedules are continually changing .
My Scheduler sets the plan for the press room and the bindery using a planning baord with tickets.

I have two trained dedicated platemakers (not machine assistants)
My platemakers not only are responsible for plating , but low level mechanical breakdown and cleaning processors.
They also check plates, identify them and mark the press scheduling tickets the plates have been made.
This are works 8am - 10pm - during the night my printers have been trained to remake plates.
The only contact (apart from making the tea !!) they have with pre press is if they have a problem - or a job is scheduled and they cant see that the plates have been sent down.
THey are not pre press people - one was a die maker and the other from a Quality Assurance company

When a printer has completed a job he comes into this room marks the press ticket it is complete and is given his next job.
No lists are written for the press operators - they follow the board.
Room 3
Has 3 28" multi colour presses with coaters - each producing 30 sets of colour in 24 hours

For me it works

Peter
Plates are responsibilty of my Press Room Manager - scheduling is overseen by my Customer Services Managers
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

mmmmmm my pre press operators impose the job - not my press operators.


BUT all our impositions are approved by the bindery - because pre press no nothing about imposition.

Peter
 
Re: Press Room Manager for CTP machine

Interesting ....

we tend to split out DtP and Imposition. DTP guys preflight and prepare files and liaise with the client in conjunction with CSR's. Then, on approval, the job is passed on to plate output - at this point, the schedule can be finalised and locked. We have been in similar situations where the schedule is in a constant state of flux, we find that this situation does work for us. There can be issues, as often a job will be passed back by the impo guys for 'better' working methods and suchlike but on the whole it is reasonably successful.


all our imposition guys come from a film planning background, consequently they have a solid grounding in imposition. In this respect, although they couldn't finish/bind the job hands on, they have a far better understanding of the complete process than the majority of bindery operators doing the job full time. The relationship to press is similar, the plate team are not and never have been hands on press operators, but they have a solid understanding of what works for the pressroom and what is likely to cause issues - although the minders may not always agree!!! MY take is that a good imposition will be optimised for the complete process and not just for one part of it - the traditional view has been make it easy for the presses and keep them running, whats best for finishing is secondary. I don't fully agree with the print mantra of as long as the presses are running we make money - in my view there are occasions when this can create waste.
 

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