Recommendation Request, HP Indigo or Other for Our Needs?

[jpzeroday]

PrintPlanet Community,

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts. We are current considering purchasing a used digital press. See below for our profile and basic requirements:

Profile:
1. Manufacturer of mobile electronics accessories.
2. We have vinyl printing experience on Roland Printers.
3. We currently outsource printing for nearly 1M pieces/year on 14pt up to 12"x18" for use as packaging elements.

Issues:
1. Our outsources have been at times unreliable.
2. We do a lot of short runs (20-300 units) with very tight turnaround requirements.

Our goal is to bring our paper printing in-house by purchasing our own digital press.

Basic Requirements:
1. Ability to print variable data like barcodes and text blocks.
2. Our buget is $10-20K.
3. Cost effective for 500K-1M impressions a year.
4. Good print quality and color fidelity.
5. Integrate into a lean/on-demand manufacturing process.

Thoughts/questions:

1. I have been looking at used HP Indigo 1000 units on eBay in the price range. Is this a good solution for us? What other options are there?
2. We are completely inexperienced with this type of machinery, but are generally very proficient with digital manufacturing systems. Would we be in over our head?
3. What are typical yearly maintenance costs for a system like this? What are the risks in terms of high cost failures? Should/could we purchase a maintenance contract?

 

[Brian Coats]

I would be wary of purchasing a used unit on eBay - especially since you are jumping into this w/out previous experience. You will need good support to get the unit running correctly and then help with the variable programming and all sorts of other little issues. Given the little background I have regarding your company, I bet you and your organization could figure all the 'stuff' out. But the learning curve may be longer than you think.

A few points to keep in mind...
-What do you do when the unit goes down? 3rd party (and OEM) maintenance contracts are all over the board on price and service time response.
-You not only have the hardware to learn how to run, but the software that drives it (which may actually be the 'easy' part if you have the support and tech types in-house).
-Consumables to manage and inventory
-Installation costs
-Sure, you can purchase a machine for 15 grand, but what assurance do you have that you won't need to stick that much or more into it in 6 months? 1 year?
-What is your company's core competency? Is it really printing? Is that the best spend of company resources?

I am not trying to sway you from purchasing equipment, jut be aware that there are many little hurdles that add up to a long-distance steeplechase instead of a 110 meter sprint hurdle race. You may want to consider starting smaller to do the shorter run items in house.

There are many smaller machines from OEMs (Xerox, Cannon, Konica/Minolta, etc...) that may fit the bill and give you the support you need. You could then find a new partner (or work out the kinks with your current supplier) for your medium and longer runs. There are many companies out there that would love to help you out with outsourcing those other print runs.

You could consider a used equipment purchase from a reputable machine dealer that will offer support. Or a lease may be up your alley as you figure out how this type of equipment will integrate into your operation. I am just concerned that acquiring an Indigo (or any other production print engine) used on eBay may leave you struggling and pulling your hair out for a while.

Good luck,

Brian

 

[cosmo]

Our buget is $10-20K.

you will get nothing at all for that price that wont be an old hunk of junk that looks like its from the 80's