Software, Hardware And Management Help Remedy Packaging Headaches
Technology and careful planning go hand in hand as newspapers not only field a constant deluge of preprints, but also toss them onto increasingly specific driveways.
Judy Oliver, a process consultant for the Blevins Harding Group in Boulder, Colo., works with newspapers around the country to evaluate packaging centers and suggest ways to improve quality and productivity.
"The first thing I encourage packaging center managers to do is to recognize the dynamic nature of our industry and consider how well they are adapting to changes," Oliver told attendees at the NEXPO'98 Packaging and Distribution Workshop.
Association research shows that newspapers annually handle about 44 billion full-run preprints and about 42 billion part-run preprints. Oliver talked to managers at more than 50 newspapers of all sizes, including independent and group publications in all parts of the country, to gather data on packaging-center challenges amidst such numbers. The majority said advertisers want finer zoning--almost address-specific targeting, she said.
In addition to intricate preprint combinations, Oliver noted, local and single-page inserts, and the need to stitch and bind some products, add complexity.
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GMA Inc./Muller Martini inserters and Printroll storage (left) facilitate zoning. Quipp Systems (right) demoed bundle-handling equipment. |
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Jimmy Hamilton, operations director for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, said his paper's packaging center is one of its competitive strengths. The newspaper uses programmable inserters from GMA/Muller Martini, with ink-jet labeling capabilities, and zones material by ZIP code. Packaging and distribution staff work closely with the circulation department to ensure subscriber data are up-to-date. Hamilton said that workers can even program inserts so that one store's ad is not stacked next to another in the insert package, if the advertiser requests distance.
On the show floor, suppliers exhibited an array of equipment that helps newspapers automate zoning and bundle handling.
Pre-NEXPO, The Spokesman-Review in Spokane purchased a 14-head inserter from Heidelberg Finishing. The inserter will work alongside a Heidelberg inserter purchased earlier; workers will manage both with Heidelberg's Prima system.
The Dayton (Ohio) Daily News purchased an automated line-storage and retrieval system and other packaging and inserting equipment from Heidelberg. The equipment, to be installed in a new, 100,000-square-foot mailroom, "will have higher efficiencies, improving the quality of our products and service," said Stan Richmond, Daily News vice president of operations.
The automated system provides buffer storage between the pressroom and four inserting systems. Three overflow-buffer work cells can store up to two hours' worth of full-speed press backup. The preprint-storage work cell has a 340,000-copy capacity in 72 modules, and workers can program the system to feed inserts into jackets in order. In addition, inserters will allow the Dayton daily to zone and microzone as needed.
"The new mailroom equipment provides the beginning of our ability to be more flexible with our total distribution system," Richmond said. "It will allow more extensive zoning than we do now, and it will set us on the road to a future in address-specific and tailored newspaper products."
GMA of Bethlehem, Pa., exhibited its SLS-2000 inserting system as well as the Alphaliner and the Printroll insert-storage system.
Tolerans-Ingol Inc. of Wanamassa, N.J., offers stitching for television books and the kinds of commercial jobs many newspapers now seek. Tolerans provides both direct on-line stitching and flat staples with its Streamliner 2000.
The stitcher that carries the name of the MotterStitch Co. of Lanoka Harbor, N.J., operates at speeds of up to 100,000 copies per hour using paper from light-weight to coated. MotterStitch works with flexo, offset and gravure press folders on broadsheets and tabloids.