More efficiency, more work
That governmental printing is a high-demand industry goes without saying. But Parliamentary Press must always be reliable and capable of high performance, whether it is producing a black & white loose-leaf stack with drill holes or the London Gazette, the newspaper that contains the official record of government information. Where deadlines can be linked to crucial government business there can be zero tolerance of failure, but neither can the Parliamentary Press afford to apply a uniform solution to its portfolio. Which is why it has signed a new five year agreement to use state-of-the-art printing presses supplied by Océ that will both improve efficiency and marshal a growing workload.

More than 90 per cent of the TSO pages are produced in the press hall, but there has been an increasing volume coming into the digital printroom—a process that is ascribed in varying degrees to demands for flexibility, cost and waste reduction, quick turnarounds, and pressure to deliver the very first copies of print runs. Terry says Océ was “the only company to offer a complete solution, including an innovative inline finishing option”.

The overnight challenge
Things have changed for the better since the introduction of the new Océ VarioStream 9000 machine at Parliamentary Press' 2.5- acre site in south London at Mandela Way: The overnight challenge in satisfying customers often means printing more than 1,200 individual A4 pages in runs of between 1,000 and 5,000, and the Océ VarioStream 9000 machine is able to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Parliamentary Press uses Océ's advanced PRISMA technology to produce economical short runs (from one to 100 copies) of a wide range of statutory and other documents for the Government, as well as printing small page-content items.

With the innovative finishing technology and ground-breaking PRISMA digital datamanagement software, Parliamentary Press can use the Océ solution for a variety of contracts, including for training materials, polling station material, leaflets, booklets and other government material. Some materials are printed overnight, while customised documents are now available on demand for a range of customers. The contract delivers what Terry calls “unquestionable print quality” while allowing the company to expand into the fast-growing digital print market.

“The Océ solution remains crucial to Parliamentary Press,” reveals Terry. “The bigger picture is that our deadlines are linked to crucial government business and failure cannot be tolerated, so we need the Océ guarantee of high performance and reliability. Time is critical when the presses roll at 11 pm and you must deliver by 7.30 am.”

The value for TSO
“We estimate that productivity has gone up by at least 20 per cent with this new system and we're delighted at the results,” enthuses Terry. “It was a seamless changeover from the old system and we're now looking forward to some more savings in costs, while improving quality even further.”

Parliamentary Press is now looking at putting more of its existing litho products into the digital environment and is aiming to increase annual production on the Océ line from 60 million A4 pages in 2005 to 80 million in 2006. Crucially, Océ’s increased involvement is helping the Parliamentary Press to move to 'digital government', in which governmental information can be made available more quickly and in a variety of accessible forms.