Discount Printing: How to Pay Less for Quality Prints

Carla San Gaspar asked:

Could there be any truth about the great offers of discount printing? With almost every print company claiming that it could offer the best quality prints at the cheapest cost, how come people still end up paying more than what was advertised?

Are such claims at discount printing just advertising gimmicks designed to lure starry-eyed clients in search for bargain deals? Or could it possibly be that the real discount printing is a another term for cheap, substandard printing?

If not for the actual evidence, one could just dismiss discount printing as nothing more but a myth.

What most fail to recognize is that with the advancements in technology, certain services such as printing can be made simple, more efficient and less costly.

It is technology that makes it possible for companies to offer discount printing for premium quality prints. And this is where technology continues to make its mark. It effectively cuts down the overhead costs and pricey human error in printing though innovations and streamlined systems.

Online, printing have modernized itseld and has automated the process to render quick and efficient print jobs.

Still not convinced? Let us try and see how and what exactly makes for discount printing and how you can take full advantage of it.

Do it in Bulk

No business strategy provides the needed leverage in saving more than buying things in bulk.

You can definitely stretch the value of you money with bulk printing. Through this, you get cost-effective printing you otherwise won’t get using short print runs.

You can refer to online printing quotes to monitor just how much prints you get for the price you are paying. You can easily notice that with only a few extra dollars, you can double your prints without paying two-folds.

Full Color is Four Color

This is where you need to be vigilant with other company’s false claims of discount printing. Discount printing provided by professional printers offer full color printing, and anything less than full or four color printing can be considered as deceitful.

With four color printing, your images are set for quality prints. You will enjoy the benefits of colors without spending too much unnecessarily.

Four color process gives you value for your money. This is what true discount printing is all about. It is the ability to accurately reproduce your images and graphics in pure, vibrant colors.

Aqueous Coats

Professional printing company, by default, use Aqueous coated paper stock, wherein your print automatically enjoys a film of protection and added gloss. If you don’t have this option, you might want to think twice.

Free Proofs

Whatever your print project or design may be, professional printers give you a free review of your design. No charges whatsoever. If, however, you want a hard copy proof, your printer can have that arranged for you for a small fee.

The Wonders of Online Services

The internet has greatly altered the way businesses traditionally work. Efficiency and convenience have certainly brought in a new era for printers and printing clients. Anyone, almost anywhere, can now make and complete transactions all in one go.

Nevertheless, it is advances in printing technology that had made a great impact in shaping discount printing – errors are virtually non-existent and printer wastage are greatly reduced as well. Put simply, it means more savings both for the company and the client.

Still, it will be best to compare prices online given the number of online printers competing for your printing project. This gives you a higher chance of finding the best price for the best services and products.

Yes, it is possible that premium quality prints need not be expensive. With careful planning, you can save on costs without compromising quality. Just focus on what is essential and think of your options, see how you can save money by making wise choices.

Discount printing is intelligent printing. By weighing everything your options, you can have your printing project done by only the experts at a low, low price. You can now afford to have the luxury of a premium quality prints for a lot less than what you normally pay for.

The Quick Business Printing Solution: Online Printing

charen smith asked:

If you are like any competitive business these days, you are probably quite bogged down with a lot of work. Everyone needs to tighten up their business model and be competitive so that they don’t get taken down by this recession. From managing supply lists and inventories, meeting investors and dreaming up new promotional techniques, the work list just goes on and on. If you are doing most of these tasks, then you probably have little or no time to manage the smaller details for your business like printing office and promotional materials. This is where online printing comes in. With this recession occurring, it is best to outsource your printing duties to printing companies that specialize in particular kinds business printing. Of course one of the best ways to work with them is through their online services. Online printing offers several advantages that can really help you manage all your printing tasks faster and easier.

Save time: The best and most valuable advantage that online printers boast about is the savings in time. Going for an online printing company means that you will be dealing with a printing service that is open 24 hours a day and is available by just turning on your computer. You can order prints to deliver any time of the day, and you won’t even have to waste time traveling to the printing house.

Working convenience: Besides the savings in time however, the convenience of online printing is another top seller. Since it is “online printing”, you can access the printing company’s website anywhere in the world, as long as you have a computer and an Internet connection. This means you can coordinate all the design decisions and other business details in your home or office without leaving them.

Fewer worries: Since most of the work is done by the printing company, online printing can really free your time, and lessen your worries. You don’t have to go through a lot of decision making and coordination with the printer. This lets you focus more on your business itself, and mind those pesky printing questions.

Immediate delivery or distribution: Lastly, online printing companies offer delivery and mailing services. If you are printing your own printed materials then these will arrive via a courier from the printing service. You can even specify the date and time of delivery for some of these establishments. This virtually lessens your work even further since you don’t have to pick them up.

Besides that however, some printing companies also offer the delivery of your printed materials to your actual direct mail marketing clients. This means you can use the online printers as your postal service as well. If you let it take over the distribution, then the printing company becomes a one stop shop for mail marketers.

So as you can see, online printing is really the best option outer there when printing. Try and search the Internet for best online printing deals, and I promise you, it will be well worth the effort.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit Online Printing and Printing Companies

Significant Ways of Printing Postcard

Carla San Gaspar asked:

Business printing had primarily become one of the sought after printing service known at present. This is because it had brought in tremendous changes in terms of fast printing service and turnaround time. It had efficiently worked to print quality materials and deliver materials on time like postcards, business cards, brochures, catalogs and a lot more.

Taking part with postcard printing, it is a process in which businesses are able to share the newest and latest updates their businesses have. Through printing card, businesses are able to leave an impression that people and customers will remember. Moreover, in printing postcard there are several ways on how they can be developed. One of which is digital printing and the other is offset printing.

Do you know the difference between offset and digital printing?

1. Digital Printing

Digital printing is known as a process that is actually closer to photocopying than to printing. This is because the prints are made directly from a computer file without film or plates. This method is ideal for lower-quantity and customized needs but can only print CMYK images and files.

The process that digital printing wants to share is that you can have your cards printed in short turn time but limited number of copies. The advantage of printing card through digital printing is that you are able to have your materials printed on a rush job and delivered before the given deadline.

2. Offset Printing

On the other hand, dealing with offset printing is also a good choice. Offset printing postcard is a widely used printing technique where the inked images are transferred from a plate first to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface.

The advantages of using offset printing for print postcards results to bring:

•Consistent high image quality – it brings sharper and cleaner prints because the rubber blanket conforms to the texture of the printing surface.

•Usability on a wide range of printing surfaces

•Quick and easy production of printing plates and

•Longer plate life for the reason that there is no direct contact between the plate and the printing surface.

In addition with the advantages that offset printing gives, it can also print high volume commercial printing materials and as well as bring quality and efficient high volume jobs. Although digital printing is said to be influencing more of the print jobs still offset printing is the one preferred when it comes to high quality of work.

Generally no matter what printing method you apply in printing postcards, both are good enough to be applied and used in developing quality prints.

What Can A Typical Online Printing Company Can Do For You?

Kaitlyn Miller asked:

It is understandable if you are a bit unsure when it comes to an online printing company. What truly are its advantages? What are the services they offer? Are they like any other printing company? Or are there special services that only an online printing company have? This article will help you answer some of these questions. We have listed down the typical services that an online printing company has. Hopefully this should help you understand how they work and if it is beneficial to do business with them.

Design Help: One of the key features that an online printing company has is online help. Specifically, some online printers offer design or layout help for various printed media. This may come in two forms. The first form is the design template. Online printing companies sometimes may offer free downloadable templates that people can customize and use as their own custom design. This is a great service especially for people who do not know a lot of printing designs yet. All they need to do is to enter their important material into the template and then they are virtually done.

Besides templates though, online printing companies may also offer actual online help through a design consultant. Most will offer free advice on what applications to use, and the relevant properties and settings that you should set once you do send your own printed design. Since everything is done online there is no real trouble with this setup and you should gain great insights on how to really design for online printing

Digital or Off-set Printing: Of course the main service that online printing companies have are its printing services. Most online companies offer digital as well as off-set printing for various print media. From booklets, brochures and flyers, to posters, folders and business cards, most online printers have no limit on what they can do with published prints. Just look through most of their websites and you should see a list of their printing services. Some may even offer specific printings like plastic poster printing, or table tent printing.

Delivery Service: After printing, most online printers offer a delivery service for their products. This is one of the best features that an online printing company can offer you. You can even set a delivery date for your printouts so that you can really set your schedule for the use of your prints. Online printers may even offer overnight printing if you want for an additional cost.

Distribution Service: Also, besides delivery, some printing firms offer distribution services for their prints. This is basically like a courier service that is attached to the printing company. For example, you can have your marketing postcards or catalogs made and then delivered immediately to the marketing addresses that you specify. You won’t need to mail them yourself, or you won’t need to hire a separate courier service. So if you are a direct mail marketer, this service is particularly useful when hiring an online printing company.

24 hour Online Customer Support: Lastly, most online printers offer 24 hour online customer support. This is extremely useful especially if you are doing rush printing jobs, or if you have extensive printing needs or issues that may come at night. With the online nature of these kinds of businesses 24 hour customer support is basically a must.

Those are the typical services that an online printing company may have. As you can see there are several things that traditional printers do not offer, that make online printing unique and very useful for a lot of people. So, if you like any of these services, you may want to look for your own online printer to help with your printing needs.

Recession Printing Guide: Cheap Notepad Printing

Kaye Z. Marks asked:

Everybody needs his or her stationary. Even in a recession, lawyers, doctors, and other business professionals still need to give out memos, notices and other printed material that require personal notepad printing.

If you are one of these professionals, it is very likely that you are on the hunt for advice in cheap notepad printing. Well, search no more. In this recession printing guide, we are going to give you a few tips on how to save money when you start your notepad printing.

The first tip that we can give you is to search for the best printer out there that gives the best deals. Since we are in a recession, chances are good that printers will offer reduced and discounted prices on most printing packages, which can save you a lot of money. They all do this because they want you as a client. Any client out there these days will always be welcome since it brings business to the printers.

To help you in your search, you may want to try looking for an online notepad printing company. By using the World Wide Web, you can search thoroughly for the best deals and packages that are available out there. You can do your search quickly and efficiently and all at the convenience of your own home. With the power of the Internet at your hands, you will surely find the best and cheapest rates for notepad printing. Of course, be aware that some sites may offer bogus information, so always try to confirm the authenticity of online printers by looking at reviews and blogs that talk about them.

Once you have found the cheap printer of your dreams, it is time to talk about cheap printing options. The best tip we can give you on this is not to be afraid of printing in black and white. Many articles out there may be emphasizing on full color notepad printing as the best choice, but at this business climate, you may be better off in black and white.

Black and white printing is several levels cheaper than full color prints. You can cut your notepad printing costs by half just by doing it. In fact, you can even print more just because you saved that much money. Eventually when your business picks up again, you can consider printing in color. In the meantime, tighten that belt and print black and white. It is not that bad.

Another cheap printing tip is to print in bulk. Bulk orders for pad printing are usually given large discounts by printers. If you have been printing your notepads at a mere five pieces per order, you can try doubling or even tripling that order to save money. You will be surely using those notepads for some time, and you will not need to print again as quickly as you would normally do. In fact, you can even order a lot now to save money in the long term. Hopefully it will last until the recession is over.

Lastly, you can also try to save printing costs by using normal uncoated paper. The most expensive pad printing jobs usually have a glossy coating in the paper of the notepad itself. To save money, you can just print in uncoated paper. This of course may look less appealing, but it will save you a lot of money. Do not worry too much now about its appearance. Many people are more practical these days since we are in a recession. They will understand.

Great! Hopefully these tips can help you in your quest for cheap notepad printing. We just have to sacrifice some more and tighten those belts. If you are determined, enough you can survive this recession unscathed and you will reap the benefits of the eventual recovery.

Learn more about notepad printing or cheap notepad printing industry.

Printing Services: are you Getting the Complete Printing Package?

Abejuela Jennifer asked:

Print services is a composite of everything. Printing service involves all kinds of effort in order to meet the most demanding print requirements. It offers not just services that immediately produce print results but more importantly, it provides innovative printing solutions customized to the clients’ needs.

Printing service can mean a lot of things. For printing companies, this means having the right equipment in order to offer clients a particular printing service. Hence, it involves printing machines and tools, and even the skills of the personnel.

As another example, printing services too can offer shorter turnaround times and more cost-effective prints. Printing services too can be all about high-quality output that rivals other printers.

Printing services, as commonly seen, is all about the variety of services it offers. This include different kinds of products, offset printing, digital printing, custom printing, large format printing, variable data printing, and inkjet printing among so many others.

Everything about printing services is connected to printing solutions, products and even expertise. Such matter may be a bit complicated, but know just exactly what kind of printing services you are getting for your money when you’ve acquired a printer.

1. Customer Service

A printing company with skilled, courteous printing staff values customers. For printing companies know that they aren’t doing merely a business transaction but building a relationship with you, as clients and partners.

Customer service comes in many forms such that they entertain complaints and gives actions to them. But other than this, they have services just to assist clients in printing and completing the whole transaction.

To this, there are printing companies who provide free technical help and even has 1-on-1 live support to make printing easier and faster.

2. Quality

Printing service too can be quantified by the quality put into your prints. Highly-professional looking prints which are consistent and accurate are one of the strongest assets a printing company can have.

3. Consistency

Consistency occurs when a printing company demonstrates and delivers on their word. Print which arrive on time are signs that the company is efficient. This makes them a reliable choice since they can work well with deadlines.

Time is always of the essence in business and it would do well to have a reliable printer as a business partner.

4. Real Value

There are professional printers who provide you with the kind of quality you need. Real value for your money means that you have the distinguished prints you need for the right price. No overcharging. No hidden charges.

You can see if what exactly you will be getting by asking for printing quotes or printing estimates. You can readily obtain this online or you can get in touch with a customer service representative via phone or email. Nonetheless, a printing quote gives you a specific idea on what the materials are and the quantity you will be receiving.

5. Premium-Grade Materials

You know you are getting what you paid for when you can easily see what materials your printer is using. Printers who do not scrimp on materials can give you a fuller and more satisfying print job, especially since paper stock holds the designs together.

To give you some idea on what are the ideal paper stocks for printing, these are as follows: Business cards and postcards use 14pt cover stock; brochures use either a 100lb Cover or Text Stock; and for stickers, it is 70lb crack-n-peel.

Be objective and study your choices well when selecting a printing company. Printing services, after all, isn’t just what your printing company delivers, it is how they deliver it. A printing experience is all the more enjoyable when you do it with the right people.

Screen Printing Tips, Helpful Info on Silk Screening White Ink and Screen Print Technique. Learn how to Screen Print White Ink Like the Pro’s

Ryan Moor asked:

It seems that one of the most common problems new screen printers run into is printing white ink. I’ve heard a lot of questions like: Why do all my other colors print fine and white is so tough? Why is it that my white ink is so thick? Why can’t I get a smooth white ink? It’s always rough and seems to have texture to it. Is there anything I can do to thin my white ink to make it easier to print? Also comments like: “Our white ink is bad, it comes off after only a couple of washes.” “There’s something wrong with my press, it prints fine when I am printing on white shirts, but when I print on dark shirts the white ink is very blurry.” Unfortunately, the answers to these quarries usually lie in the printer themselves. No, your white ink isn’t defecting, your press probably works fine, and you shouldn’t need to thin the ink. Yes, you probably need to change some variables and techniques during the printing process. The truth of the mater is, the answer is in the question all along.So why does the screen printing process work fine for a while and then as soon as you start printing white ink, smash, a road block. The truth is, you may have been doing the wrong things the whole time, it just didn’t show up yet . It’s like swimming, sure you can dog paddle and flounder around the pool all day. However, when it comes to swimming a long distance, without the proper techniques you’ll work twice as hard and get half as far. Printing on light garments is much easier than printing white on dark garments. On a light garment, not as much ink is required to achieve good coverage. Also many times you’re working with thinner inks. Ink varies in viscosity according to how much pigment it has in it. For instance, a black ink is almost always going to be printed on lighter colors, the pigments needed for the black to show up are considerably less then the pigments needed for a white ink to cover a dark garment. Thus, you’re black ink is much thinner and easier to work with. You can do almost every technique wrong when printing black ink on a white shirt, and there’s still a good chance that your final print will look pretty good. Since the ink is thinner, it passes through the screen mesh much easier, with less force, and clears the screen better. (For those unfamiliar with the term “clearing the screen,” this defines the point when all ink is cleared out of the screen mesh and properly transferred to the shirt.)So basically when setting up a screen printing job that requires black ink on a white shirt, you can use the wrong screen mesh, have no off contact, and print with the completely wrong squeegee technique and still get an “OK” looking final print. However, if these same wrong techniques are tried when printing white ink, uh oh, game over! The unfortunate thing is, many printers start out this way and teach themselves completely wrong. In fact, this is how I learned. It’s not the end of the world though! The first thing you’ll have to understand and come to terms with is the fact that white ink is probably going to be the thickest ink you’ll ever use. To achieve a bright white image on a black shirt, the ink has to be opaque which in turn means thicker. Sure you can find thinner white inks, or try to reduce the thicker ones, however you’re defeating the purpose and you’ll end up printing twice as much to try and achieve the same result. On the other hand, if you learn how to print correctly, then printing white is like taking a walk in the park.Over the past several years, every ink manufacturer in the country has been on the hunt for the “best” white ink on the market. Yes, they’ve come a long way. In fact twenty or thirty years ago white on black looked more like a light tan or gray than white. Now with inks available like Triangle Phoenix White or International Coatings White, you can achieve maximum coverage with minimal passes. Still, white ink has to be loaded with pigment which means it will always have a high viscosity.So what’s the trick? How can you print white ink like the

pros.? The answer usually lies in a few simple changes to your setup and

technique. Apply these changes and really, it’s not that hard.Before we delve into techniques, let’s first discuss a little bit about pre press and setup.To properly setup a job using white ink you first must

understand a little bit on how to select the proper mesh size. Because white is

thicker, you want to print through the lowest proper mesh size that applies to

that print. If you try and print white through a higher mesh screen which has

much smaller holes in it (SEE MORE INFO on Silk Screening Mesh Sizes) its going to make it much harder to push the ink through the screen. It’s also not going to allow as much ink through the screen as a lower mesh would.Typically you want to print white through mesh sizes ranging from 110-156. Granted sometimes the image dictates a high mesh count. For instance, since a half tone or fine line drawing cannot hold on a lower mesh screen, you’ll have to use a high mesh frame and apply more passes to achieve a bright white. For the most part however, you’ll want to use the lower meshes so that a larger amount of ink is deposited on the shirt.The second part of setup is to insure the screen is adjusted properly on the press. You want to be sure that you have a proper off contact of about 1/8-1/16 of an inch. Since white is a little thicker, you may want to go with a slightly higher off contact then normal, perhaps around 1/8 of an inch. Off contact is the height between the screen mesh and the substrate you are printing on.Proper off contact also allows the ink to be cleared from the screen mesh easily by releasing the mesh upward directly after the print stroke leaving all the ink smoothly on the shirt. One thing that you also want to be sure to apply when printing white ink is an off contact tab. This is a small piece of material (ie. a penny, cardboard, paper, a piece of plastic) that is the height of your off contact. This tab is placed on the end of the screen frame where it hits the top of the neck platen and not the shirt. By using an off contact tab, you insure that your off contact will remain through the entire print stroke. The tab keeps the end of the screen up although you are pushing down on the mesh during the stroke. Without an off contact tab, you may find that you have a harder time clearing the mesh because the screen wants to stay flat against the shirt with ink stuck in it.If you don’t have the proper off contact a few problems could arise. If your off contact is too low then you will not be able to clear the screen properly. You should see the screen mesh bounce off the shirt and be able to see the ink and the shirt through a cleared screen mesh. If your ink stays in the screen mesh and the screen mesh sticks to the shirt, when you pull the screen up your ink will look very rough and parts may pull back off the shirt. If you’re having this problem you may need to raise the off contact a little bit. Also, this problem could arise from your actual print stroke which will be discussed later.On the other end of the spectrum, if you’re off contact is too high; you’ll have to push down extremely hard on the squeegee in order to get all the ink down onto the shirt. I’ve been out to shops to help customers who literally had almost a half of inch of off contact. If your off contact is too high, not only will it be hard to transfer the ink onto the shirt, but there’s a good chance that your screen won’t come down in the same spot every time. This could cause a blurry image or double images after a flashing. A proper off contact is extremely important for a good looking image and an easy print.

Next let’s take a look at technique. The majority of the technique in the screen printing process involves the print stroke. This includes squeegee angle, pressure, speed and release. That standard tendency of a new printer is to literally smash the ink through the screen by pulling the squeegee across the screen with an extremely low angle.When using thin inks, this impropertechnique could work because the ink passes through the screen so easily. However, if tried with white, you’ll not only have trouble passing the ink through the screen but also have very blurry images because you’re pulling the screen mesh so hard. Your squeegee should actually be about an 80-85 degree angle facing toward you. You should also focus your pressure over and down on the print and not on pulling the squeegee against the mesh.

SEE THE RIGHT SQUEEGEE ANGLE PICTURE

Many new printers stand back from the press, you actually need to stand over the press to focus your pressure down and not back. When your pressure is focused down, then you simply move the squeegee back over the print. With the proper squeegee angle, all of the ink will properly shear through the image and over your screen. In fact you should be able to run your finger over the design after its printed and barely any ink should show up on your finger.Now let’s talk about the speed of your print. When we instruct printers to use the proper squeegee angle and pressure, the first impulse they have is to move the squeegee about the speed of a turtle. If your speed is too slow you won’t be able to properly release and clear the screen. After a print stoke, many beginners tend to sit back and look at their print, then slowly pull up on the squeegee not allowing the screen mesh to bounce back up leaving ink still stuck in the screen. After a faster stroke, you need to almost give the screen a little pop in order to get the mesh to bounce back up leave a smooth crisp print on your shirt. This is achieved by a simple flick of the wrist, the same flick you would make to insure that you pick up all the ink on your squeegee blade. Only to create this pop and release the screen, the flick must be done a little faster.Finally, when flashing in between passes, you must wait until the shirt cools down a little until you print again. This is much easier to achieve on a multiple station press because it allows the pallets to cool down. On a single station press you may have to wait a few moments and wave your hand across the pallet to cool it down. If the ink is too hot from theprevious flash, you may have trouble clearing the screen because the ink will want to stick instead of release the mesh. It could also cause ink to partially cure in the mesh. Since white ink is thicker and you apply more layers of it, you MUST insure a proper final cure.White ink tends to reflect heat away instead of absorbing it in. This means that the ink and the entire print area must be cured from top to bottom at 320 degrees for about 45 seconds. Obviously the best way to cure white is in a conveyor belt dryer, however if you are using a flash dryer you want to be sure that the whole design gets the same amount of heat.One of the best ways to insure a proper cure is called the stretch test. Since your white image will be a little thicker, this test is easy to read the results. After your shirt is cured, simply take a small section of your design and stretch it slightly between your fingers. If the design sticks together like plastic and stretches well, then it is cured and you can continue with those curing parameters. However, if the ink cracks or breaks apart, this means the base of the ink is not cured properly and you need to increase yourcuring time for the shirt.

By following these steps and techniques you should find printing white ink a little easier. Granted, because there are so many variables involved in screen printing, you may have to work a little at it and modify slightly. However, after a few times printing the right way, you’ll start seeing better results and have fewer problems.

Print Automation for a Correspondence Management System in the Financial Services Sector

Nicole Summerfield asked:

In this case study, we will explore how a financial services management company automated the printing aspect of their Correspondence Management System to improve the efficiency of the operation and reduce the costs associated with printing and distributing printed communications to their customers.

Company – This Company is one of the world’s leading providers of financial services for corporations, institutions and affluent individuals around the world. The specific entity within the company examined in this Case Study is one that provides fund management services for banks and financial companies around the United Kingdom.

Business Problem – The Company’s Correspondence Management System (CMS) requires many different types of letters to be printed on many different styles of letterhead stationery. Each bank they provide fund management services for has different letterhead paper and different business rules regarding additional pages of standard and/or variable information that needs to be bundled along with the letters being printed (this can be different by type of letter being printed within a single bank also).

To accomplish their letter printing, the CMS user would place the right number of pages of the appropriate letterhead and continuation sheets into a nearby printer, then print the document from within the CMS to the printer they had chosen. As they print they are hoping that:

Nobody else sends any letters to that printer in the meantime

They have inserted enough of the correct sheets of paper for the document being printed ensuring that the job is complete when printing is finished and the letter can be mailed to the end customer

This process is very labor intensive and time consuming, resulting in low productivity among the users of the CMS system, and is fraught with potential for error.

Key Challenge – The key technical challenge is the fact that the Windows Spooling system has no inherent functionality to determine if a particular form is loaded in a printer tray, which tray that is, and hold print jobs and only release them if and when the correct form is mounted in the printer. An additional challenge involved the low level of productivity of the staff utilizing the CMS because they needed to individually and manually manage their printed output to ensure it was correct before it was mailed to the end customer.

Technical Solution – The first step in implementing a solution to their challenge involved re-locating the CMS printers to a central location. Then they assigned a team of operators in the central printing department to remove the letters from the printers and assume the responsibility of ensuring that any other pre-printed documents or literature required is bundled with the letter before it gets sent in the mail. Additionally, the central printing department now manages the supply of letterhead paper and is in charge of mounting the paper in the appropriate printers as required. Note: There are over twenty different Bank’s the company provides its services for, each with their own letterhead, and some with their own type additional paper for multi-page letters.

Because the letter-creating employee no longer physically managed the paper and inserts that were appropriate for the letter, the customer also required the implementation of an Output Management System (based on OM Plus) to provide the overall control of the documents through their central printing department. OM Plus’ advanced print spooler software capability provides the needed central management and control to separate the creation of the document from the task of printing it on the correct letterhead and bundling it for mailing.

Example of how the Output Management/Advanced Print Spooler solution works

An employee creates a letter for an end customer for “Bank A” via the CMS application and prints the document to a central print queue.

The document is automatically searched and given a name that tells OM Plus:

a. Which bank’s customer is receiving the letter-Allowing OM Plus to know what form is required

b. What type of letter it is

c. Which department is submitting it

d. How the central print department operators must process it for mailing.

After the job has been searched and re-named the OM Plus Server scheduler system receives it.

OM Plus examines the arriving print jobs and applies business process rules based on what the name of the job tells it (see point 2 above). It does this by reading through a set of rules until it finds a match. The rules examine the title of the incoming document and apply attributes so that the OM Plus scheduler module will release the job to the correct printer tray where the appropriate letterhead is mounted. It also applies a more descriptive title to the print job so that central print operators can manage the jobs using the OM Plus management screen more easily.

This more descriptive title tells the print operators whether to print the job and mail it, or print the job and include standard enclosure documents or marketing materials or print the job and include specific other printed documents with the letter.

The operators monitor the printing via the OM Plus management screen to see what jobs are waiting, whether particular jobs have been printed successfully, and to tell OM Plus when letterhead has been changed.

When OM Plus is told that a certain letterhead is available in one of the printer’s trays, it then allows jobs requiring that letterhead to be released.

This OM Plus based output management/advanced print spooler solution results in much less reliance on the CMS users to have to manage the printing of their letters on the correct letterhead – leaving them to carry on with their work and improving productivity significantly. The central print management operators now focus on handling the letters being produced for the company.

Utilizing the Central Management screen within OM Plus, the central print operators review held jobs waiting for specific paper and load the paper into an available printer and allow the print to continue. No jobs are printed if OM Plus does not find the appropriate letterhead mounted in one of the central printers (eliminates waste, and removes the risk of sending letters to customers on the letterhead of the wrong bank).

Implementation – On site services including installation, system configuration, testing and user training were delivered by service engineers from our partner in the UK with offsite support provided by Plus Technologies. In this case, the implementation was completed and in production within two weeks of the order. As is the case with many implementations of our products, the customer requirements for handling of the documents and the processes associated with the documents evolved during the implementation. Due to the extremely flexible nature of OM Plus’ configurability, our service engineers and partner service engineers were able to address additional document delivery challenges quickly.

Plus Technologies Case Studies – The Plus Technologies case study series includes real examples of how companies use Advanced Spooling Solutions to streamline operations, reduce cost and/or add functionality to existing business processes. For more information on these case studies, contact Plus Technologies.

What is Offset Printing?

Frank Salsa asked:

Over 40% of all print jobs involve offset printing, causing it to be one of the most commonly used printing styles today. But just what is offset printing? Here is some more information to help you understand the printing process.

How Offset Printing Works

Offset printing is a simple, yet effective process. Three cylinders are used to transmit the image onto the paper or other material of choice. The first cylinder has the printing plate, which presents the image in the way it would appear normally for reading. The second cylinder is covered with a rubber blanket. The third cylinder, also known as the impression cylinder, has the paper or other material on which the image will be printed.

To start the printing process, the first cylinder is then given the proper covering of ink. This cylinder then transfers the image onto the rubber blanket of the second cylinder. This causes the image to become reversed or backwards. The second cylinder then transfers the image onto the third cylinder and the final product. This process ensures that the image will appear correctly, and that the final printed product can be read normally.

In some cases, offset printing is known as litho offset printing. This is because offset printing was created from the same technique as lithography. During offset printing, the image and the non-image areas are on the same level. Because water and oil do not mix, printing can be performed from a single surface level and still create the proper image.

Offset Printing Presses

There are two primary types of offset printing presses. The first is a sheet-fed offset printing press. With the press, the printing is completed on individual sheets of paper. The sheets are fed into the press one by one, and then the image is printed on to them.

The second type of offset printing press is a web-fed offset printing press. With this press, the printing is completed on one continuous roll of paper. Once the image has been printed, this paper can then be cut into separate sheets of the sizes desired.

Cost to Set Up and Maintain the Equipment

There is a fairly large investment required to set up offset printing process equipment, as the equipment itself can be quiet expensive. However, once the initial set up has been achieved, the management of offset printing is actually fairly inexpensive, allowing business to sell their products at affordable prices.

How Offset Printing Can Be Used

Offset printing has numerous applications. Since it is used in much of the printing world today, there is a good chance that you have something in your home or office that was printed using offset printing. Books, magazines, brochures, and other reading material are often done through offset printing. Even the daily newspaper that you read was probably printed using offset printing. And if you are considering having any type of major printing completed for your business, there is a good chance that it will be completed using offset printing techniques. Because the printing itself is very affordable, it allows business owners to create materials cost effectively.

Om Plus Print Spooler Solution is an Integral Part of the Toyota Production System at Toyota North American Assembly Plants

Bob Russell asked:

The Toyota Production System (TPS) is commonly thought of as the most powerful model for efficient design and management of large scale production environments. TPS has helped develop Toyota Motor Corporation from a struggling, small truck manufacturer after World War II to the world’s largest manufacturer of cars by April of 2007.

In order to produce world-class, quality automobiles at competitive price levels, Toyota has developed an integrated approach to production which manages equipment, materials, and people in the most efficient manner while ensuring a healthy and safe work environment.

The Toyota Production System is built on two main principles: “Just-In-Time” production and “Jidoka.”

“Just in Time”

The conveyance of only what is needed, when it is needed, and in the amount it is needed.

“Jidoka”

The ability to stop production lines, by man or machine, in the event of problems such as equipment malfunction, quality issues, or late work.

Toyota’s Business Problem: Print Related Problems Were Negatively Impacting Takt Time and Continuous Flow Processing

Printers located on the assembly line throughout Toyota’s North American Assembly Plants had been installed to print instructions for production line teams. These instructions (known as Kanban) ensure that the production line teams can correctly install parts and components on a vehicle as it moves into their production station.

In order for the Toyota Production System to be successful, a concept known as Continuous Flow Processing, which is based on “Takt Time,” must be maintained throughout the entire production process.

Takt-Time

Takt time is the time which should be taken to produce a component on one vehicle. The Takt time allows Toyota to produce numerous parts of many different types for use in vehicles on the production schedule and to supply those parts to each process on the assembly line at the proper time. This keeps production on schedule (Continuous Flow) and permits flexible response to changes in sales.

Print Spooler Process Problems Required Jidoka

Process breakdowns are not an option in order to maintain the proper Takt time required to ensure Continuous Flow.

However, we all know that printers will fail from time to time. Whether the printer problem is a print spooler problem, a paper jam, a media shortage, or a print job management or delivery problem, print problems do happen.

When a print process breaks down, Jidoka (the ability to stop production lines manually) occurs until the problem is resolved. This prevents quality issues or late work from occurring; however, it negatively impacts Takt time and greatly impaired Toyota’s ability to maintain “Just in Time” Continuous Flow production.

Defining the Business Problem through Kaizen

Improvements and suggestions by Toyota team members are the cornerstone of Toyota’s success.

Using the TPS system of Kaizen (continuous improvement) the Toyota IT team began to spec out a solution to their print process problems.

The IT team determined that a solution was needed to eliminate print problems altogether to prevent negative impact on Continuous Flow and Takt time.

The print spooler solution would need to:

1. Notify their Manufacturing (MRP) Application Help Desk within 60 seconds of any print job delivery failure. That notification must contain enough information for the problem to be fixed quickly and easily.

(a) This needed to be done by translating SNMP error codes from printers to Error Codes used by their MRP Application.

(b) This could not require any changes to their Manufacturing and Production Applications.

2. Be able to re-route the failed print job to an alternate printer at the production station so that Takt time would not be impacted nor would Jidoka be required.

3. Replace the limited print spooling functionality they currently had. (They knew from experience that neither the HP-UX environment that produced the Kanban text data nor the Windows system that merges that text with an electronic form had a print spooling system capable of solving their print job delivery failure issues.)

4. Work with virtually any network attached printer from any vendor

OM Plus Print Spooler Solution from Plus Technologies Eliminates the Print Problems

As a result of the shortcomings in their native print spooling systems, the Toyota IT team determined that they needed to augment their current system. Relying on the native print spooling systems on their servers just was not up to the standards by which Toyota runs their production system. There were too many cases of print job failures causing production line shut downs which translated into production delays and large costs.

The IT team approached Plus Technologies regarding their business problem, and we implemented a print spooler solution based on our OM Plus Advanced Print Spooler, Document Delivery and Printer Management software.

Technical Solution

The OM Plus advanced print spooling system is installed on the Windows System, along with their Electronic Forms package, augmenting the functionality of the Windows server print spooling system on that system.

OM Plus receives print jobs from the Electronic Forms software (without requiring changes to any form or the application), and then OM Plus delivers the kanban print jobs to the printers all around the production floor.

Assured Print Job Delivery

During the print delivery process, the OM Plus print spooler solution opens a bi-directional communications session with the primary printer at each production station and requests SNMP status information from the printer, which provides a detailed status of the printer. OM Plus then waits for the “job complete” status to come from the printer (indicating the job was accepted, printed and the pages were sent to the tray). If printing is successful, OM Plus marks the job status as “printed” and no further action is required.

Print Job Failure Notification

If OM Plus does not receive confirmation from the printer that printing was successful within one minute, or it receives bad status via SNMP from the printer, it updates the job status as “failed”, converts the SNMP status codes to the appropriate MRP Application error status codes, and then updates the MRP Application Help Desk regarding the print failure, in real time.

Automatic Print Job Re-Routing

Once the notification of a problem occurs, the OM Plus print spooler solution directs the print job to the alternate printer at the production station. The alternate printer now becomes the primary printer from that point on and no production line shut-down occurs. Production continues and Takt time is not impacted.

Easy and Fast Problem Resolution

With the information gathered and provided by OM Plus, the MRP Application Help Desk knows when a printer has failed and they know the nature of the failure. This enables them to rectify the situation very quickly and get the printer back online as the alternate printer at the production station, ready and able to take over when the new primary printer has a problem in the future.

Business Results

The first and most important business result that was delivered by the Plus Technologies OM Plus print spooler solution was that Continuous Flow was maintained. Print job delivery problems no longer occur that result in production line shut downs, stopping Continuous Flow and impacting their ability to deliver vehicles to customers.

Costs are significantly reduced and production processes are not impacted any longer when a print job failure occurs.

The MRP Application Help Desk team is now able to provide much faster resolution to printer errors. They know within one minute of a print failure and they receive error status information so they know what is required to resolve the problem quickly.

Finally, as part of the OM Plus print spooler solution, Plus Technologies recommended the installation of a second printer at each production station to permit an alternate delivery option to OM Plus if the primary printer had a hard failure. This ensured a much higher probability of a print failure not impacting the production line.

Customer’s Opinion

“OM Plus solved our problem so successfully that we implemented it in all of our North American Assembly plants.”