Installing an effective workflow does not have to be complicated. Within
a week, Denver-based Blair Labeling, Inc., installed Esko Automation Engine
QuickStart for Labels, and was able to reduce its manual prepress workload by
more than 30%, feeding its five flexo presses and new digital press.
Blair Labeling, Inc.
(Blair), a 100% woman-owned and minority-owned business, has been providing
multicolored, prime, promotional and industrial pressure sensitive labels—as
well as decals, tamper evident constructions, thermals, patterns, tags, hangers
and card products—since 1986. In addition to working on the presses, their
staff of twenty performs die cutting, perforating, punching, lamination/UV
coating and graduated screens—all in-line. Blair also has a full service art
department capable of providing excellent graphic design and prepress services.
Deciding on an easy path
to automation
A few
years ago, Blair was using a workflow system that was very difficult to
operate. “When we were doing custom trapping, for example, we were manually
creating pull-backs on the white undercoat. It was a nightmare,” remembers
Marco De La Vega, CFO, Blair. There was a slow transition to Esko tools. “We
liked working with Esko because their tools were built into Adobe Illustrator; not as separate software. Once we had some experience, we looked at
automating prepress, and decided to invest in Automation Engine QuickStart. The
pre-configured, easy-to-use workflow solution addresses the key challenges that
constrict throughput and cause inefficiencies in label manufacturing. It
includes tasks such as packaging preflighting, checking barcodes including full
quality report on the barcodes, trapping, step-and-repeat, Smartmarks and
control strips as well as automated job reports.
“The integration was seamless; probably one of
the easiest I’ve ever been involved with—and I have worked on many,” remembers
De La Vega. “I thought we would need months to set this up and I even called an
outside company alerting them that we may need their help for emergencies.
However, we never used them. It was all installed and in full production within
a week.”
“I spoke with Esko
a week before our installation. I told them what we do, our process. They did
not challenge it. They did not change naming conventions. They visited and
configured Automation Engine QuickStart to how we run our shop,” notes De La
Vega. Esko installed the workflow, configured it to specific parameters,
database queries and smartmarks Blair required and trained De La Vega and his
artist on how to operate the pre-configured workflows. Within just one workday,
De La Vega was very comfortable with the system.
More capacity, better management, and fewer errors
Blair has been working with
Automation Engine QuickStart for about three months. “One of the primary
problems we had was managing products. I particularly love that now I can
search our product database and use it as reference—not necessarily just for
art. I can easily search for a product, based on a key word on the label. It’s
incredible. The system pulls up everything. We can find the job ticket of the
last time we ran a job, which shows us if there were any changes—the most
up-to-date version of the product. For example, we have a customer that has the
same flavored product, but different nutritional copy. It was previously error
prone because it was tough to know what copy to use. This system now shows me
the correct proof and approved changes made to the copy across the entire
board.”
De La Vega was also
looking for a system that was foolproof. “It’s nice that 98% of all our jobs
can be done automatically. We manually work on 2% of our jobs that involve
difficult tasks, but this is the work we would want to do, anyway,” adds De La
Vega. “Our prepress artist is very capable and can figure out most issues
without help. It’s nice that we do not require a workflow expert.”
Automation
Engine QuickStart has effectively eliminated an artist. “I was working on art
for all of my accounts; 30% of our business. Our artist completed 70% of our
workload,” says De La Vega. “I am now removed from the system and she does it
all—and still asks if there is anything else she can do.”
On average, Blair processes
about 20-25 individual jobs per day—and each job has 3-4 pieces of artwork on
it. Since they added their digital press—around the same time they installed
their Esko workflow—the number of jobs has not increased: they have just moved
more accounts over to digital to help accommodate the demand on the flexo
presses. “The number of copies has increased per job. Per die size, we run
anywhere between 20-35 pieces of artwork on digital,” considers De La Vega.
”However, overall we anticipate 6% growth over last year, while platemaking has
decreased 10% because of our digital press. As a result, we expect to grow
while also realizing cost savings. We select multiple pieces of artwork and the
system steps them out. It used to take a long time in prepress. I would
absolutely attribute this to the efficiency measures taken in prepress as well
as moving a lot of work over to the digital press.”
Blair prints private label water bottle labels on
their digital press for a company that, in two months, has required 86
different products. Blair likes to gang the products and run different labels
concurrently. “It has saved us so much time. We print five different labels
across—whatever five products require the same quantities—and two around,”
comments De La Vega. “Before, we could only print labels of the same product.
Even with only fifteen minutes development work per file, the time adds up. It
has allowed us to remain competitive, assuring us that art time is covered in
the cost.
Blair has
eliminated many operator errors. “The system does exactly what you tell it to
do. It will knock out work and show it to you. Before, working on step &
repeat, I would sometimes pull the wrong copy. Now the system shows us the
correct artwork—and, of course, with the correct parameters, it will print
correctly,” says De La Vega.
“Automation
has helped us become very productive—and it has been easy to do. And, as we
grow familiar with Automation Engine QuickStart, we continue to grow and implement
new capabilities,” concludes De La Vega. “Without a doubt, if I were doing this
again, I would install Automation Engine QuickStart, and would be willing to
risk my job on its reliability. I am confident that there is nothing the system
can’t do.”
