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 Production manager Ralf Hasford, new user of HIFLEX Print Support, discusses the advantages of the novel processing system. HIFLEX's Management Information System (MIS)
controls print and media projects to the sum of 2.5 billion euros per year. Above all, these are orders that are requested, quoted, manufactured, delivered and billed at print
shops; orders that primarily encompass the value-added supply chain of print shops. But print jobs do not appear "out of thin air." They are created in agencies, prepared
and coordinated by production managers and per customer order, assigned to print shops and vendors. Within this process, creative staffs like production managers are rarely
(or rather not at all) integrated into the digital workflow. |
| For 20 years, HIFLEX has been a leading provider of systems for administrative and technical processing of print jobs. In the fall of 2006, HIFLEX expanded its product portfolio
with the web-based application HIFLEX Print Support. HIFLEX Print Support optimizes business process development by using a shared supply chain platform to link print buyers
and print manufacturers. Print Support is an internet and e-mail based tool that serves as a processing system for the administration, quoting, assignment, and management
of print jobs. |
| One of the first users is Ralf Hasford, production manager at a Berlin medical device manufacturer. His role is to oversee the processing of the numerous print jobs that the
organization assigns. This includes instruction manuals, packaging, labels, marketing and sales documents, sales folders, data sheets, presentations, and much more.
With 120 models in over six languages, and an annual distribution of over 100,000 devices, this represents a substantial volume. |
| In addition to processing print jobs, the internal agency and external designers must be adequately supported to ensure that all documents will be ready for assignment by deadline.
The organization's purchasing department conducts the actual assignment of orders centrally. |
Ralf Hasford sees his role in this process quite pragmatically: "The designer should be creative and find artistic solutions for communication problems. The production manager
has to solely supervise the entire workflow." In that, he realizes that there are ample factors that can delay a project. To a certain extent, one can keep track of project
status on his own, says Ralf Hasford, but this can "easily deteriorate into chaos" whenever several print jobs have to be processed simultaneously.
Ralf Hasford thinks clearly, structured, and analytical, and negotiates accordingly as production manager: "For years I was in search of software that reflects the processes as we need
them, and revitalizes the work flow," says Ralf Hasford. "Now I have found all of this in the Print Support solution from HIFLEX." |
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Ralf Hasford is a skilled media technician with a wealth of practical experience in agencies and print shops. As production manager, Ralf Hasford loves standardized processes and
workflows that allow for creative space within production. Creativity is also a high priority in his free time. The one-of-a-kind pictures he creates are part handcraft and part
technology, but with the creative mark of an artist. But his pictures leave little to chance, since everything is planned. He describes his work as "pigmented paper Mache with
4c UV-Print" (in photo with one of the pictures), which are a symbiosis of photographic technique, the alienation of a computer image, and large format printing on hand-made paper.
This emerges from shredded magazine and office paper ("which may include one or two tax statements"), which is then processed to paper pulp, permeated (imbued) with color pigment,
and formed with a trowel. Never before seen, not yet known, the interaction between paper and print creates singular works. |
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| He feels this type of production tracking is too unreliable. Because a pre-press workflow does not come ready-made, he used Excel files to organize workflows in the past and
by his own account, only partially alleviated the situation. |
| But with his "hand-made" Excel sheets, he had only created an isolated solution for the internal organization. His great attempt did not succeed, which Ralf Hasford attributed
to a few elemental things. "The workflow in a print shop is technically-oriented and follows a mandatory sequence: data checking, exposure, printing, finishing.
Although the design process is managed according to logical parameters, the creative process is mainly a communicative affair composed of briefing, brainstorming, design,
and presentation, with an endless number of repeating loops. Therefore, I don't think it's possible to convert this workflow into a software. But one can define the time,
when the actual production begins. And this is where HIFLEX steps in with Print Support." |
| "Nearly 100 percent of our printed matter is standardized: paper, format, finishing, and processing. Any exceptions are relatively rare," explained Ralf Hasford. While that does
simplify the product definition, the large number of different projects continues to make a detailed tracking necessary. |
| With HIFLEX's Print Support tool, the communication and ordering system have become easier, both within the company and with the print shops. As Ralf Hasford reports: The request
for quotation has become distinctly more transparent, and I realized simultaneously that the print shops are at least one day faster with their bids. |
| Print Support offers production managers and buyers a wide range of functions that can be matched to their individual needs. "I can maintain the print shops I would like collaborate with,
on one printed material or another and in my own supplier database. Moreover, I can import additional print shops from the Print Support database. Thereby I can gain an overview of
which supplier is qualified for certain orders." This strikes Ralf Hasford as all the more important, because some orders are gravitating towards increasingly smaller circulations and
digital printers may become widespread in the future. For Ralf, the quality and qualifications of a print shop weigh most heavily in the selection process. "Berlin alone has experienced a
massive print decline in the last ten years." In the words of Ralf Hasford, the variety has suffered, but not the quality. "The printers we now collaborate with offer a standardized
production, so that we know in advance how the print will appear. For us, printers without defined standards are immediately out of the running." |
| HIFLEX Print Support also lightens the workload by the defining of the printed matter. A job is defined by basic data (title, product type, etc.), detail data (editions and deadlines)
and a technical specification. Technical benchmark data is entered free or structured. Furthermore, Print Support offers a database of printing and finishing specifications, which can
be applied as a template. According to the job definition, the quote can be sent to the selected supplier with the push of a button. Any documents can also be attached. |
| Using an e-mail link, the supplier, printer, or service provider responds with either a quote or a cancellation. The greatest advantage of this system: "All quotations have a standardized
structure and the automated function in Print Support color highlights which print shop has the lowest-price quotation for a certain circulation," explained Ralf Hasford.
I can accept the supplier's quotation, re-negotiate, assign the order, or cancel the project. And, what users to this point have rather rarely, if ever, done: I can thank the supplier
virtually at the push of a button, even if the quotation will not be considered for the order. With this process, a completely new and superior culture of communication is developing." |
| The input deadlines like "Quotation Expected By," "Order Assignment," "Data or Proof Delivery" and "Delivery Date" are saved in the Print Support
database and routed to a deadline list.
Reminders, cancellations, orders, and other documents encompassing printed matter procurement can be sent from the application and will be thoroughly archived.
Finally, Print Support also provides an analysis report of jobs, suppliers, and executed actions. |
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| An important feature of Print Support is the optimal integration
of one's suppliers. After registration users can directly start to
build up their personal supplier database. |
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| Once the print & media job has been defined, the request can be sent by the push of a button
to the suppliers of one's choice. The suppliers respond to the request for quote via a link in
the e-mail that is initiated by the print buyer. All quotes will be received online and are
of a uniform structure. They are displayed in the window "Execution (Workflow)".
The offers are compared and contrasted and the system automatically highlights
which supplier offers the best price and for which quantity. |
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| Ralf Hasford sees HIFLEX Print Support as a first important administrative step in integrating type, design, and production into the entire production process. Currently, technical
specifications, cutting dies, and similar documents can be attached to the Print Support e-mails, to help clarify the quotation. "The feature that I was still looking for was an upload
and download function, for the released jobs. For this requirement, I can rent server space from HIFLEX and be able to utilize it accordingly and efficiently in conjunction with each
job I print," said Ralf Hasford. Ralf adds: "What impresses me so much is the flexibility that HIFLEX offers, because HIFLEX was already planning on releasing a solution that met my
needs in this area and that is quickly becoming a standard feature offering of Print Support." |
| "All of this put together saves me valuable time, which I can then use on other tasks. The HIFLEX program makes the processing infinitely simpler and more transparent.
And above all eliminates mistakes. Now I have a very clear picture of where the quotation is, who has the data and where the printing is taking place." |
| Ralf Hasford has since parted with his Excel files and admits: "For years I was in search of software that reflects the processes as we need them and revitalizes the workflow," says Ralf
Hasford. "Now, I have found all of this in HIFLEX's Print Support solution." |
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