Faced with issues like these, Offset Paperback Manufacturers (OPM), a division of Bertelsmann AG and one of the largest manufacturers of mass-market paperback books in the world, began looking at digital printing as an alternative to offset for short-run bookprinting jobs. In addition to needing the ability to print short-run books quickly and profitably, OPM required that books the company produced using a digital print system be of the same or better print quality than books produced on offset presses.

OPM began its foray into the world of digital book printing with a high speed, relatively high volume cutsheet print and make-ready system. This first solution met the needs of their initial operation, but as their digital printing business flourished, the cutsheet device and workflow simply couldn’t keep up with the growing volumes and productivity requirements. In order to handle a larger, more mainstream operation, OPM needed production-class automated workflows, more print speed, higher capacity and the ability to handle a wider variety of data streams.

OPM initially added an Océ Demandstream® 8090cx continuous form print system to their existing cutsheet workflow to address these requirements. The Océ print system proved to be a workhorse that successfully handled the majority of the company’s short-run trade books and educational books and supplemental materials for the next few years.

However, a five-year contract to take over the majority of printing for a major educational book publisher sent OPM in search of a solution that could handle volume increases from about 13 million to 75 million pages per month and produce the text and high quality photos the publisher required. OPM added three Océ VarioStream® 7650cx printers and an advanced Océ PRISMA® workflow solution to automate labour-intensive, time-consuming tasks from the receipt of files through finishing and binding.

 

After a selection process that included a head-to-head field trial of Océ and competitive products, OPM selected Océ PRISMA workflow to manage the huge volume increase. According to Steve Talacka, OPM manager of digital services, “Océ PRISMA workflow was the major factor in our decision to go with the Océ solution.”

With the new contract primarily focused on short-run book products averaging 150 to 250 copies, Océ PRISMA workflow provides two key advantages. These advantages, critical to successfully positioning OPM to win the contract by accommodating the greatly increased workload, are its ability to automatically manage a wide range of datastreams with Océ PRISMAproduction, and 100% accurate online proofing from Océ TrueProof.

“To be successful in meeting both our ongoing printing obligations and the demands of this new contract, efficiency in make-ready and set up became more important than ever,” Talacka says. “The files our customers supply us may be PDF, PostScript, Quark, TIFFs, or other data streams. We have to be able to set up and impose them rapidly—typically in two-up format. With Océ PRISMA, it doesn’t matter what the file datastream is. PRISMA accepts whatever the customer sends and automatically imposes the files based on predefined layouts for cutsheet and continuous forms printers. There’s no manual intervention required. ”

 

Prior to implementing Océ PRISMA workflow, setting up print jobs was a tedious process. “We used to have to position the printed page pretty much by trial and error,” Talacka explains. “We’d create a template in Preps®, drop the files into it, send a few pages to the printer, and look at the result on a light table. If it wasn’t right, we’d manually measure the misalignment, enter numeric values to shift pages and try again. A good operator could probably get it right in a couple of passes, but we still would spend two to four hours every morning doing set ups to get all the jobs for the day ready for printing.”

 

OPM short-run paperback printing today
“With the Océ PRISMA workflow we can set up in about two minutes,” Talacka says. “It really does a great job for us.” OPM sets up a complete shift’s work and loads up the print queue so the printer keeps running from job to job without ever stopping. This provides maximum productivity and utilisation of OPM’s Océ printing solution’s capacity.

A key Océ PRISMA feature that is making such a reduction in set-up time possible and allowing OPM to meet acceptable cost points for their new contract is Océ TrueProof. A component of Océ PRISMA, TrueProof is an electronic viewing system that lets OPM do an on-screen verification that a book will print to the exact quality and alignment requirements, eliminating the need for a hardcopy proof before the print run can begin.

“I’m not sure we could have put this business model together successfully without Océ TrueProof,” notes Talacka. “Without TrueProof, the only way to check to see if a book is right is to print a copy and measure it. That takes a lot of time, and the printer is not available for printing books, which means we’re wasting production time to run a proof.”

“With TrueProof, we can RIP the file, see it and know that the pages are where they are supposed to be. If we see any issues or problems we can correct them by shifting the post-ripped pages in PRISMAproduction  before we ever send the book to the printer. That’s not to say that we don’t check the book when it comes off the printer, but we’re 99% sure when we send it that it will be correct—without running a printed proof first. That’s a huge plus because we can stack up jobs and keep the printer running with complete confidence.”

OPM still prints hard-copy proofs for customers, but now that just means an additional copy added to the print run. There’s no production time lost except the minimal amount of time it takes to print another book, which in most cases is less than one minute. OPM also uses another Océ PRISMA component—Océ DocSetter make-ready software. “Publishers typically send one or multiple PDFs for a book,” notes Talacka. “With DocSetter, we can easily import and manipulate headers, footers, margins and other attributes to ensure that the final book is assembled correctly and ready to go to print.”

Implementing the new workflow and printers took place along with a move from a 7,500 square foot facility to a new 27,000 square foot location. According to Talacka, implementation of the Océ solution went very smoothly. “We had already mapped the solution while we still were using our Océ Demandstream 8090cx, and were very confident that we would be able to do this the way we expected,” he explains. “We started the installation of the three Océ print lines and Océ PRISMA workflow on a Wednesday and produced our first live job on the following Monday.”

Most of the work OPM is doing under their new contract with the educational book publisher was formerly printed on offset presses. The Océ PRISMA workflow and Océ VarioStream 7650cx printers are making it possible for OPM to solve a business problem for their client using digital printing that equals the quality of offset but at a much lower cost. Also, books are stored electronically so reprinting is a simple matter of calling up the file and running the printer. With this model, no physical inventory is required.

 

Business benefits
According to Talacka, only a small percentage of paperback books in the US is produced digitally at this point, but he thinks that will soon change. “A lot of people in the industry are watching to see how well this model works. I believe that before long, publishers of various book genres will be interested in moving shortrun printing from offset to digital technology. Digital technology gives them the flexibility to test how a book will sell without spending thousands of dollars to set up an offset press and then produce and warehouse huge quantities.

“This is a completely different process from what graphic arts printers are accustomed to do to produce books,” Talacka continues. “I think digital printing is on the brink of a big boom and from my point of view, Océ PRISMA is unique in its ability to automate workflow from file intake right through to binding and finishing. PRISMA makes it possible for us to move our digital printing business to the next level and handle huge volume increases without missing a beat.”