Because the potential benefits have long been obvious, a comprehensive operations-planning, plant-management and production-control system has been the dream of newspaper-operations executives for many years. At The New York Times’ College Point plant, the dream has become a reality with the evolution of SAM, the winner of the 1999 TechNews Best Practices Award for Post-Press.

A real-time monitoring and control system, SAM (Setup and Monitoring) completely integrates and manages all production functions at the facility into a continuous process. Combining a production- planning module (separately available from GMA Inc. through an arrangement with The Times) and a system-control module, SAM tracks and displays production and equipment status from the press through the delivery of bundles and pallets to the loading docks.

Harvey Morgenstern, Times director of systems and technology, points out that most newspaper plants consist of “islands of automation”—subsystems of software and equipment from different vendors that have very little (if any) direct communication with each other. Coordination between pressroom, mailroom and distribution department is usually accomplished through memos and phone calls, limiting the newspaper’s ability to react to complex, rapidly shifting production requirements.

At College Point, SAM communicates with eight plant-floor subsystems supplied by outside suppliers, including the press, automatic-guided vehicles, inserters and pallet loaders. Through an interface protocol developed by The Times’ staff, these systems are supplied with control information by SAM, and in return, provide real-time counts and equipment status updates to SAM. The

	The New York Times' SAM system communicates with eight once-isolated subsystems in the paper's College Point, N.Y., plant.

data is used to directly control production runs, and is also stored for sophisticated statistical analysis of equipment performance and the effects of various quality parameters.

NAA Post-Press Manager Harshad Matalia considers SAM a “great step forward in automation,” adding that the system’s ability to integrate communication between typically isolated devices like inserters, stackers and pallet loaders greatly improves mailroom efficiency and quality.

The approach and philosophy behind SAM’s development is as unusual as its capabilities. The customary industry practice has been to first build a plant, and then struggle to integrate the equipment inside of it. This wasn’t the case with the College Point facility, says David Thurm, vice president of production. From its inception, the plant was designed to be an integrated facility. Vendors were informed that they would have to bring their equipment into compliance with The Times’ systems protocols if they wanted it in the plant.

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The reception from suppliers was “interesting,” according to Thurm. Vendors from outside the newspaper industry saw this as standard procedure and were not fazed by the requirement. Some newspaper-industry suppliers were initially reluctant, but eventually saw the value in what the Times was attempting and made the necessary modifications. To facilitate the integration of various systems, the Times’ development team designed SAM using industry-standard software wherever possible, and kept the amount of proprietary software code in the system to an absolute minimum.

While Thurm says the SAM system is completely fulfilling its operational promise, he’s even more enthusiastic about the cultural change it represents. He strongly believes that newspapers have to follow the lead of other manufacturers, discard their traditional “gut-feel” style of operations management, and adopt a scientific approach to production. The technology is now available to do that, and the SAM system confirms that the goal can be accomplished.