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 PDC Tangen in Norway is completely networked - from administration to bookbindery.
When a Norwegian child picks up a schoolbook or children's book, it has most likely come from Aurskog, a small city about 20 miles east of Oslo. This is where PDC Tangen,
the largest Norwegian sheetfed offset printer, is located. Annually, PDC Tangen prints about 1,500 books and illustrated books, circa 120 periodicals, as well as brochures and
annual reports. PDC stands for Print Data Center and Tangen is the name of a recently acquired print shop. The company is larger than the second and third ranking firms in the
Norwegian market combined and the first Scandinavian printer that implemented JDF. |
| Norway has about 900 graphic arts companies, which generate revenue of around 1 billion euros. The sheetfed offset printing field represents 375 million euros of this revenue
and PDC Tangen, in turn, maintains a share of over 7 percent with approximate revenue of 26 million euros. "As you see, there is still considerable market potential for us,"
says Halvor Borresen, the company's Production Manager and responsible for automation at the print shop. And they are already on the right track with the targeted continued
growth. The company's growth rate is remarkable, with 20% revenue increase in the last year while maintaining the same number of employees. |
| It makes sense that this is only attainable with considerable optimization and automation efforts, because a good 20% more orders are connected to the two-digit revenue growth rate.
And they need to be administered, produced, and delivered. "For us, this means that we have to increase the administrative efficiency, maximize technical processing productivity,
and minimize the error rate," says Halvor Borresen. To do so, PDC Tangen literally "turned the entire company inside out." |
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Halvor Borresen with one of the 104 cm x 144 cm printing sheets, which are typical for production at PDC Tangen. |
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| As one of the first steps, the print shop installed a HIFLEX MIS in 2005. "The previously implemented system was admittedly not bad, but it didn't offer us enough possibilities,
particularly that an integration between the administration system (order management), the applications used for production planning, and the production systems was not possible,"
explains Halvor Borresen. He states that various criteria spoke for HIFLEX: in addition to good references, the existing JDF installations and E-Business modules convinced the
document handling department. And after all, they were not looking just for a supplier, but for a partner. "We found all of this with HIFLEX and we are, above all, pleased with
the performance, commitment to on-time delivery, and future prospects." |
| The MIS has since become a fundamental part of the 110-employee company and the lynchpin of the integration. For Halvor Borresen, the conversion to the new MIS was one of the most
complex procedures in the company. Because it was not just about estimation or materials management - it was preparation for the complete integration of the company. Furthermore,
the various options in the production department were standardized in the process. "As a guideline for all who are involved with automation and JDF - it is 80% planning and 20%
implementation," knows Halvor Borresen. Because hourly rates, prices, product structures, technical norms, reports, routines, production steps, and workflows must all be compiled,
planned, and mapped. "And after all it is important to distinguish what one needs, what would be nice to have, and what makes sense financially." |
| Today the integration is a reality and only an insider may recognize the consequent effort that lies behind the "workflow as if by magic." |
| The jobs are created in the HIFLEX MIS with all production-related parameters, including customer data, job name and number, signature number, imposition data, paper data, processing and
refinement specifications, and delivery deadlines. The department-specific data is formatted and made available to each department. |
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| Visualization of the complete production flow in a network chart and of the measurements of the folding sheet (basis for transferring imposition information to Prinergy) are part
of the HIFLEX Estimate. Several final products containing many product parts can be defined, and product parts may be combined freely on collective printing forms. Also, complex
production jobs are handled technically correct in one process which is the key to JDF connectivity and to Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM). |
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| Accordingly, prepress receives via JDF the job's accompanying data and the content files. A premiere innovation is the acquisition and interpretation of the "JDF StrippingParams" in
the Kodak PDF-Workflow System. Prinergy receives the job information from HIFLEX MIS, searches for a corresponding imposition template, and assigns the pages automatically.
The prepress operators thereby save around 40 minutes with each automated job. |
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| Screenshot from HIFLEX scheduling application (digital planning board) as used at PDC Tangen. HIFLEX Scheduling displays the planning of the job sequence as well as JMF feedback
from production (right bottom corner). |
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| In 1997, the Norwegian company had already installed a Creo CTP platesetter. Today, the plates are produced with two Creo 3244 and a Magnus VLF system for large-format printing presses
from Mitsubishi, Komori, and Heidelberg. Further evidence of the effectiveness of the integration: after 100,000 printing plates were manufactured in 2005, the prepress department at
PDC Tangen produced around 130,000 plates in 2006 -- with 8 employees instead of 9. Out of the 39 printing units, 37 are networked through JDF with the HIFLEX MIS. |
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| The press hall of PDC Tangen features presses from Mitsubishi, Komori, and Heidelberg. Of the 39 printing units 37 are networked with the MIS through JDF. |
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| "The period from start to the operation of networked production was surprisingly short," sums up Halvor Borresen. The kick-off was in June of 2005; the main implementation was
completed in November of the same year. The JDF workflow further progressed in several steps. Today, the Kodak prepress, the Komori and Mitsubishi printing presses, and the MBO
folding machines are integrated with each other using the HIFLEX MIS through JDF. |
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The Data Manager at the MBO folding machine receives the positioning data from the HIFLEX MIS. |
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| Due to short approval processes with customers, extensive automation with Kodak InSite, and the integration with HIFLEX, the company saves a lot of time and, thereby, money.
According to calculations from Halvor Borresen, the competitive advantage due to process automation amounts to 5.18 million euros (calculated for five years.) This high figure is the result of
a company-wide increase in productivity (over 20% in the pressroom alone), increased process reliability, which is also calculated in decreased waste paper (80 tons), and
by avoiding previous manual and time-consuming work processes. |
| "The automation benefits everyone involved. The customer receives his print products faster, pays less, depending on the job, and we nevertheless produce a higher profit.
Because JDF and the integration are faster, we save time in all departments, deliver better information, and offer considerably more transparency," sums up Halvor Borresen.
It is logical that the path to continued automation is a declared goal for PDC Tangen. "We still expect even more productivity through JDF. Furthermore, we want to reduce e-mail
communication, make it more transparent, and increase the automated allocation of emails to jobs and customers. And we want to incorporate the paper suppliers and freight
forwarders into our workflow," says Halvor Borresen. "Automation is a long-term commitment for us. We are a high-tech supplier with automated processes. Our customers
know this and value it." |
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| "One actually never has time - but one simply has to make time for the work flow," sums up Halvor Borresen (left). The head of the company, Gaute Hartberg (right), is not the
only one convinced that he does a perfect job - the results prove it as well. |
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