Towards Fixing Performance Bottlenecks in Transactional and Transpromo Printing

Part Two in a Series of Three Articles

By Danny Mertens, business development manager document printing, Xeikon (a division of Punch Graphix)

The transactional and transpromo markets have become digital print markets par excellence. Advances in digital print technology have eliminated the need for the combined use of digital and offset printing, enabling full color personalization of statements without having to revert to offset-preprinted color shells.

As pioneers and trendsetters in the digital printing arena, we count a number of high-profile service bureaus and transactional and transpromo printers amongst our customers. Over the years, we have gained a deep understanding of the needs of the transactional and transpromo markets, and we have developed technology and solutions to meet those needs. As in any market, but perhaps more so in these than in other markets, today’s keys to success are quality, workflow performance and environmental responsibility.

In the second of a series of three articles, we focus on workflow performance and on how digital technology can contribute to improving it. We have sounded out some of our expert users on their requirements and the perceived relative importance of the individual components on overall workflow performance.

More, better and faster!

One of the points raised by our panel when commenting on the future requirements of direct marketing in general and transactional and transpromo printing in particular, was the need for speed. Or as Lucy Edwards, assistant managing director at Howard Hunt, put it, “The future lies in the intelligent combination of data and print. Direct marketing in general will be trigger-based and this means that, quality being a given, speed will be of the essence.”

In this context we would like to reiterate the following: “Will transpromo printing continue to be a market in its own right, or will we see a blurring of the boundaries between transpromo and direct mailing?” As we learned from our previous article on image quality [scroll for Segment One of this Series], one thing is certain: the level of sophistication and the quality requirements will converge. In fact, they already have. Elaborating on this statement, not only quality requirements have converged, performance requirements seem to have as well.

This is a view shared by Per Larsson, sales and marketing manager at Parajett. “We no longer need to build the business case for transpromo printing,” says Larsson. “What we are trying to achieve today is intelligent transpromo printing, offering relevance rather than mere personalization, which essentially boils down to the quality of your data bases and mining programs. When we were contacted by one of our big customers to develop a sophisticated transpromo application for six million fully-individualized A4 full color prints and ensure a turnaround of five or six days, it was immediately apparent that our existing solution combining offset printing with black-and-white variable data printing was not up to the task. We had to find an alternative solution that would help us produce a much more complex and data-intensive application, but within the same deadlines.”

And this is where the transpromo market, and the direct mail market for that matter, is heading: towards increasingly complex, high-quality prints and even tighter deadlines.

The production of such complex, high-quality, high-volume, micro-versioned campaigns not only poses challenges in terms of print quality and productivity, but also in terms of data processing. Indeed, while simple black-and-white personalization limited to the recipients’ contact details generates message files of just a few gigabytes, full color individualization requiring the merging of variable high-quality graphics and other data causes file sizes to increase to several hundreds of gigabytes, presenting a great challenge to the entire workflow.

As the saying goes, ‘a chain is as strong as its weakest link’. So, we asked our users about the weakest link in the entire process, but first we probed them about their requirements in terms of performance in general.

There is more to performance than speed

“We need 100% reliability. Of course everyone knows you will have glitches and downtime now and then, but when you have a total maintenance program in place like we have, you can reduce the risk,” says Keith Whitehead, production director at Howard Hunt. “Another way of reducing the risk is the use of multiple machines. When you have to do a job of, say 60 to 70 thousand A4s, which is quite a substantial job, and you could do 150 thousand A4s a day with one machine, then obviously you could do twice as much with two. So, if a client runs late -as they do- and you have two machines then you can do the job in one evening and get their mailing out on time. My point is this: two good machines are better than one faster. There is the extra cost, but at least you have a contingency!”

“As far as variable data transactional printing is concerned, we typically have peaks of around 0.5 million A4 pages per day towards the end of the month,” explains Michael Kokkoris, director of production at First Data in Greece. “And our print volumes keep on growing every day, so we need to make sure we have enough capacity. Deadlines, however, remain tight. Therefore, we also need to make sure we have fast machines so that we can cope with the peak demands that are so typical for our business.” Continuing, “As Keith mentioned, there is definitely an advantage in using multiple machines. We work under strict SLAs. Sometimes we have to use several machines at once in order to be able to meet our deadlines. But there is another advantage: because we use our machines in roll-to-roll as well as roll-to-cut sheet configuration we can have two different configurations at once, so we don’t waste time reconfiguring a line.”

Says Frédéric Louineau, key account manager at Data One, “For us it really depends on the customer and its application. We serve customers who send monthly statements, such as bank or loyalty card statements, investment portfolio overviews... for those customers and applications we need very fast presses as these jobs are all about peak performance. However, other customers, for example those active in the telecom business, communicate daily. For those we need presses that are not only fast, but that can be fast every day.”

Per Larsson agrees, “We serve three to four large customers with extremely high demands in terms of volumes and turnaround. In order to meet their requirements we have to use all our equipment. Our systems should not only be fast but also guarantee a 24/7 fail-safe operation during those peaks. But we do need overall high productivity as well.”

The weakest link

Now, which aspects of the workflow impact productivity and what is the weakest link, as far as overall productivity is concerned? And has this always been the same?

“It is tempting to say that printing speed has the biggest impact,” says Per Larsson, “It’s easy to compare this specification for different presses. But while it is important, it is not only printing speed that matters to overall productivity. We use large images, lots. And these take time to process. It is no use having a printer that can print 200 ppm if your RIP can only produce 100 ppm. All the elements of the workflow need to be geared for one another, the RIP, the printing speed, and the online finishing.” Adding, “The finishing is very important to us –we use folding and self-stitching. The finishing equipment should have the same speed as the printer.”

“And that is the problem,” says Frédéric Louineau. “The bottleneck is neither the software nor the press, it is the finishing. In our business it is typically the enveloping, or as we say, ‘la mise sous pli’. This is why we try to be as fast as possible in all the upstream steps to compensate for the loss of time during the finishing.” Per Larsson adds, “The weakest link used to be upstream, the RIP could not follow. Now the RIP is no longer a problem and we have to focus on the finishing.”

Keith Whitehead has a somewhat different point of view. “The RIP indeed used to be a problem, but this has now been solved by most vendors, he says. “The biggest impact on overall productivity is the speed of the digital output device.”

Michael Kokkoris nods. ”When we were processing Postscript files, the RIP used to be the bottleneck. Now that we are processing AFP files, the RIP-ing is much faster. So I’d agree, in our processes too, the weakest link has become the productivity of the press.”

“The speed of the press definitely has the biggest impact. You can never be fast enough,” concludes Keith Whitehead, “As for the weakest link? I’d say it is our education. Too often a lot of time and effort is wasted in the earlier stages of the process due to a lack of knowledge. I believe our industry needs to be better educated about the benefits of combining data and digital print and about how data and artwork can be made to work together effectively, so we can all better communicate with our customers.”

There seems to be a consensus as to the fact that the bottleneck has shifted from the RIP downstream. Just how far downstream it has moved remains open to debate.

Removing the bottlenecks in data processing

Xeikon was one of the first to develop fully integrated digital workflows. The latest generation of our X-800 digital front-end is the result of continuous improvement and innovation. Increasing volumes and increasing quality demands have caused data volumes to soar, but with the X-800, data processing will definitely not be the bottleneck.

The X-800 digital front-end enables the implementation of fully automated workflows in any production environment and has been developed with productivity and performance in mind. The heart of this front-end is an object-based streamer for fast and reliable streaming. Chase RIP-ing or RIP-while-printing allows you to already start printing a job while part of it is still being RIP-ed, or start preparing and processing a new job while the previous one is still being printed. Intelligent load balancing and parallel RIP-ing and compression also speed up the processing. The streamer being object-based, all the individual objects from a page are kept separate until they are actually printed, which is the basis for a powerful post-RIP imposition function, offering maximum flexibility for last minute corrections and changes. In addition, the page picking functionality allows you to combine already RIP-ed page information from previous jobs into a new job, again saving precious time.

The X-800 fluently processes PPML and PPML/VDX files allowing you to easily manage, process, and print complex variable data jobs. Being object-based, the X-800 also makes optimal use of reusable objects, which greatly enhances the efficiency and speed of such jobs, while fast and scalable RIP-ing provides all the power you need to tackle even the most demanding jobs.

For complex transpromo applications, the Xeikon IPDS Controller has removed any bottlenecks left. It handles the IPDS input data stream directly without any conversions in-between and allows RIP-ing on the fly, enabling us to maintain rated engine speeds.

“This is exactly one of the reasons why we have chosen the Xeikon 8000,” explains Per Larsson. “It has a great performance and Xeikon has a unique knowledge of IPDS. It is no use providing fast equipment if you cannot control the IPDS flow.”

“Absolutely,” agrees Frédéric Louineau. “We too needed machines capable of handling IPDS data streams. Our decision to buy a Xeikon 6000 was subject to it being able to process IPDS.” He adds, “In this context I’d like to come back to one of the points mentioned earlier, namely the use of multiple machines. We work with IBM Print Manager for AFP data streams (see insert/box), which allows us to distribute jobs over different types of machines. So, our architecture facilitates the use of multiple and/or different presses. This is not only useful to boost productivity, but also allows us to route only part of job to a specific machine. For example, if our customers identify part of the addressees as being ‘very VIP’, we can print those documents on a Xeikon to ensure high quality.”

* * *

Sidebar on FP/IPDS and open standards

AFP is an open source, device-independent job description language, originally developed by IBM and used mainly for black-and-white mainframe applications, translating gigantic amounts of data to presentation-ready formats. As AFP is a device independent format, it needs to be translated in order to allow printing, which is where IPDS comes in. IPDS is the data stream sent to the press. Because it is a two-way data stream, it allows feedback loops, and security and data integrity checks. Postscript files used to be RIP-ed to a print-ready file and then printed. The Xeikon IPDS Controller allows RIP-ing on the fly, greatly enhancing productivity.

In keeping with our belief in open standards, we are a member of the AFP consortium, a cross-industry initiative with participation from many companies in the industry. The purpose of the AFP Consortium is to develop, define, and promote the AFP architecture. Its goals are to develop AFP as the best-of-breed presentation architecture for monochrome and color production variable data printing, to ensure seamless interoperability of AFP products from the various AFP Consortium members, and to provide for compatibility between AFP environments and other presentation environments such as web and view.

* * *

The great leap forward

“We really need fast machines. All vendors have gradually increased their speed, and they have made a huge jump. Just look at the Xeikon 8000,” says Keith Whitehead. “But again, I guess you can never be fast enough,” he adds, smiling.

As far as printing speed and productivity is concerned, we believe Xeikon’s web-fed presses have one up on the competition. It is a well-known fact that web-fed presses are intrinsically faster and ideal for heavy-duty print jobs. No wonder newspapers have since long been printed on rotary presses. With the Xeikon 8000 we have indeed made a giant leap forward in terms of printing speed: it prints full color multi-page documents at a top speed of 230 A4 pages per minute or 13,800 A4 pages per hour.

However, we realize that speed alone is not enough to ensure maximum productivity. This is why our machines are designed to be robust. With the Xeikon 8000 our engineers have created a rock-solid reliable engine for high-volume applications, offering an exceptional uptime of 90 percent and achieving duty cycles of 8.5 million A4 pages per month.

Another productivity-enhancing feature is our patented One-Pass-Duplex technology, enabling simultaneous double-sided printing and perfect front-to-back registration. As well as improving productivity, it also ensures 100% data integrity, which is crucial for documents containing critical financial information, as may be the case in transpromo applications.

Fast to the finish

As the cliché goes, no job is finished until it is finished. By design, Xeikon engines can be part of virtually any workflow and by design, the X-800 can work seamlessly together with any third party application.

The first fully integrated solution goes back a long way in the history of Xeikon. Years ago, we recognized the importance of providing seamless integration between our products, finishing or converting equipment, and state-of-the art workflow tools. And today, these integrated solutions are what sets us apart.

Through partnerships with third parties not only do we offer integration with variable data authoring and other workflow tools such as dedicated web-to-print applications, and sophisticated MIS, we also work with renowned finishing equipment manufacturers, allowing you to extend and adapt your workflow as your business evolves.

So, while we have no impact on the speed and performance of the finishing equipment itself, we do make sure our equipment smoothly integrates with any third-party finishing solutions, be they in-line, near-line or off-line.

Looking ahead

Looking at today’s digital workflow, it is fair to conclude that the remaining bottlenecks are being pushed downstream in natural progression, as a result of the ongoing dynamics of technological development. 

Where we cannot anticipate, we follow the demands of the market. We, and our competitors are moving in the right direction, but as our panel correctly points out: there is always room for improvement. This is exactly what keeps our business alive and challenging!

In the third and final article of this series, Danny Mertens, business development manager document printing, Xeikon (a division of Punch Graphix), will discuss several ecological aspects of digital printing.

Segment 1 >>>

Environmentally Responsible Transactional and Transpromo Printing

By Danny Mertens, Business Development Manager Document Printing, Xeikon (a division of Punch Graphix)

The transactional and transpromo markets have become digital print markets par excellence. Advances in digital print technology have eliminated the need for the combined use of digital and offset printing, enabling full color personalization of statements without having to revert to offset-preprinted color shells.

As pioneers and trendsetters in the digital printing arena, we count a number of high-profile service bureaus and transactional and transpromo printers amongst our customers. Over the years, we have gained a deep understanding of the needs of the transactional and transpromo markets, and we have developed technology and solutions to meet those needs. As in any market, but perhaps more so in these than in other markets, today’s keys to success are quality, workflow performance, and environmental responsibility.

In the third and final of a series of three articles, we reflect on environmentally responsible printing. And again, some of our expert users were asked to share their opinion.

Image or moral obligation?

Against the backdrop of more stringent environmental legislation and growing public awareness, an increasing number of businesses engage in ecologically responsible behavior, or have even adopted environmental sustainability as part of their corporate identity. The printing industry cannot and does not escape this trend.

What drives a company to engage in ecologically sound production? Or what keeps a company from doing so? Is it a matter of image? Is it a cost issue? Our panel was unanimous: while most countries do have environmental legislation in place with regards to carbon emissions, recycling, wastewater and waste production or disposal, the decision whether or not to adopt ecological principles is not based on these regulatory restrictions.

Lucy Edwards, assistant managing director at Howard Hunt, is passionate about the company’s motives, “As a company, we have a social responsibility, a duty of care towards the environment and the people. We strive to minimize our impact on the environment, which is why we have been ISO 14001 accredited since 2005. We have also achieved carbon neutral status and gained FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody accreditation[i].”

Keith Whitehead, Production Director at Howard Hunt, adds, “We’ve got a responsibility towards the people working here. We need to provide a safe and healthy working environment. Our customers too are being pushed down this route -not necessarily by the government, more so by the media. Ecologically responsible behavior has become a moral obligation.”

A moral obligation as well as an economic necessity?

Michael Kokkoris, director of production at First Data in Greece, says “On the one hand it is a matter of image, if you like, because ecologically friendly behavior is more expensive at the outset. But it is also an economic necessity as our customers demand that we do business in a sustainable way. The market, the public sector, large companies of the private sector, they all demand that we are ISO 14001 certified.”

“Ecological awareness has taken off big time in the UK,” says Keith Whitehead, ”Perhaps still not as much as in other parts of the world, but for large tenders, ISO 14001 certification is a must. So, yes, there is a cost involved, but if you want to stay in business, you need the green credentials to pass the first filter.”

Frédéric Louineau, key account manager at Data One, agrees. “It is indeed the market that drives eco-conscious behavior. Big clients expect their suppliers to be ISO 9001 certified and soon they will all demand ISO 14001 certification. Ecology, but even more so sustainability, is a hot topic in France. Our clients genuinely care about it. They want to know about the consumables we use, whether these contain solvents or other hazardous chemicals, they want to know about recyclability and whether or not the technology used is polluting. And we care about it too. We have a history of pioneering, so we want to be amongst the first to adopt the principles of sustainable development. This is why we have started the procedure to seek ISO 14001 accreditation. It is a commercial argument in the sense that it responds to a market demand.”

“Customers increasingly demand eco-friendly production methods and sustainable ways of doing business,” says Per Larsson, sales and marketing manager at Parajett. “Mind you, sustainability goes well beyond ecology alone. But as far as ecology is concerned, our customers, especially large customers, explicitly require us to comply with the most important eco-labels. Our production site is Swan compliant and it also complies with several other eco-labels. We cannot and do not want to take this lightly, you know. We need to make sure that we do as we say we do. Our customers expect this, and we are regularly being audited.”

Are clients willing to pay for eco-friendly printing?

“Some are more than others,” says Frédéric Louineau. “When clients ask us to print on recycled paper for example, we have to explain to them that it is still 15 to 20 percent more expensive than non-recycled paper. For some clients this is no issue at all, others are put off by the price tag.” 

A choice with consequences

The pressure to improve environmental standards seems to come from clients. We asked our panel what requirements with regards to environmental matters they in turn impose on their suppliers.

“We print offset as well as digital and we use about 3000 metric tons of paper per year,” says Michael Kokkoris. “So, we have to show our customers that we make an effort to minimize our impact on the environment as much as possible. This is why we buy our paper from companies that are ISO 14001 certified and we buy paper produced from renewable forests.”

“The decision to pursue ISO 14001 accreditation obviously has had an impact on the requirements we impose ourselves,” says Frédéric Louineau. ”For example, the black ink used for the metering, labeling and addressing of our envelopes contains solvents. For our new plants, and when replacing equipment, we make sure to use solventless systems.”

“We basically impose the same restrictions we impose on ourselves,” says Lucy Edwards. “Our suppliers have to produce as energy and waste efficient as possible, use as little paper as possible, the inks they use and supply should be environmentally friendly... if you want to contribute to a better environment, every step in the supply chain should do so, we are just one step in the entire process.”

“Exactly,” says Per Larsson. “Our efforts involve every aspect of our business. When we buy a small office printer, we also make sure the toner cartridges are recyclable. When selecting software, we will verify its efficiency. Because, if it helps you to work faster, you can save power. Also, if it is easy to use you would need less time to learn it. Education via the web is also something we try to stimulate as much as possible as it allows us to cut down on traveling.”

Environmentally friendly concept

Print only what you need, where you need it, and reprint when you need it.

When it comes to minimizing the impact on the environment, digital printing has a lot going for it! The digital printing process eliminates a number of costly, time and energy consuming stages in the traditional offset printing process, especially film exposure, plate production and mounting. There are no start-up costs involved in the digital printing process, enabling cost-effective production of small print runs. By only printing what is needed, superfluous stocks are avoided, so you can reduce waste and downsize storage space. Print-ready files can be sent electronically to printers worldwide for local printing. This distribute-and-print approach, as opposed to the traditional print-and-distribute model, minimizes transportation of printed materials and cuts back on exhaust emissions.

“The British press is raising awareness around energy and paper wastage caused by direct mailings,” says Lucy Edwards. “Digital printing is great because it has the advantage of having to print only what you need; targeted and to the copy. And I like to think that, because every communication piece is personalized and relevant, you’re also minimizing waste at the other end.”

So, digital printing is an environmentally friendly concept. When putting it into practice, however, there are still choices to be made, some of which are more environmentally friendly than others.

Walk it like you talk it

At Xeikon, we put an environmentally friendly concept to practice in a people and planet friendly way.

From concept and design to manufacturing we are guided by the important environmental objectives ‘reduce’, ‘reuse’, ‘recycle’. This means that we aim to minimize the environmental impact of our products throughout their entire lifespan, that we want to reduce recycling costs of our presses, consumables, and the printed material they produce, and that our products must comply with existing environmental directives and must anticipate environment-related product standards and customer needs (RoHS, Eco-Tex, Swan Label, California 65, etc.).

We aim to meet our eco-objectives by using alternative raw materials or by reducing the amount of raw materials, by improving production process efficiency and reducing waste generation, by optimizing energy consumption and product life cycles, and by improving product disposal and recyclability.

If you’re going to talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk. And here is how we do it.

Waste and energy efficient production

At Xeikon, all plants strictly comply with the EU WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Directive. The main aim of this directive is to reduce the annual volumes of waste from discarded equipment. The directive encourages recycling and other forms of reuse. We also pursue the objectives of the Environmental Action Plan (MAP) for energy conservation, promoting the use of renewable energy. All our facilities have separate systems that remove wastewater and rainwater separately, reducing the pressure on wastewater processing.

Our toner plant in Belgium in particular has made some remarkable efforts. Through heat recovery and efficient compartmentalization and zoning, energy consumption at the toner plant has fallen by more than 35 percent, despite the relative production volume more than doubling over the last two years. Not only energy consumption has been tackled successfully. The factory has also introduced some intelligent measures that have brought about a dramatic reduction in the volume of waste it produces. Some waste fractions are reused in the production of new toner. Others are compressed with wood pulp for use as fuel in the cement industry. Packaging materials are recycled, and the volume of packaging waste is being kept to a minimum thanks to the use of raw materials in bulk packaging. As a result the volume of waste produced over the past two years has decreased by more than 50 percent.

Xeikon helps printers to go “green”

If you want to go green, then Xeikon is a good partner, at no extra cost. Our presses have received many accolades in the past, not only for the quality of their design but also for their environmentally friendly and innovative features.

§  RoHS-compliant
All our presses are designed to comply with the RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) Directive, the European regulation restricting the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment.

§  VOC free
Xeikon toner contains no solvents, so our presses produce no hazardous emissions of VOCs (volatile organic compounds).

§  No hazardous chemicals
Xeikon toner contains no hazardous chemicals, which makes it compliant with the US and EU black list, US-C-070928PROP-IC-65, and EU Standard EN71-3 (heavy metals).

§  No water pollution
Our presses are equipped with a closed-loop circulation cooling system. This means that they do not use any process water and therefore do not cause any water pollution.

§  Energy savings
Compared with the traditional offset process, Xeikon presses consume more than 6 kilowatt hours less in a typical print run of 5,000 full color duplex-printed A3 sheets. For the same print run the offset process consumes 6 liters of process water, whereas Xeikon presses none at all[ii].

§  Swan label compliant
Due to the concept and technology used, our presses are Swan label compliant.

§  Our packaging is environmentally friendly
When you buy a Xeikon press, it is delivered in reusable packaging. In 2007 we were awarded the Dutch Packaging Supply Chain Prize. In collaboration with all the parties involved in the logistics process, we created an intelligent total packaging concept for our presses based on reusable packaging. And that is not all. Our toner comes in recyclable HPDE bottles, again minimizing the impact on the environment.  

Xeikon helps printers’ customers to go “green”

If your customers want to go green, and you have a Xeikon engine, they needn’t look any further. Xeikon-printed materials are environmentally friendly indeed.

§  Eco-Tex (Oeko-Tex) compliant
The Xeikon V3 and FA toner have passed the Eco-Tex test. This means that they are not harmful to the human skin.

§  Suitable for toys and food contact
Our toner contains no cadmium or lead, no phthalates and no restricted azo pigments. This is why it can be used for toy printing applications. The Xeikon V2 and FA toner are also FDA-approved for certain food packaging applications, and some toner combinations are even approved for direct food contact with dry and non-oil containing foods. “The fact that Xeikon’s dry toner is FDA-approved puts us in a very strong position!” says Per Larsson.

§  Recyclable!
Xeikon-printed paper is guaranteed to be recyclable. And as paper recycling is becoming increasingly important, this is an advantage definitely worthwhile considering before making an investment decision.

The future is “green”

Ecologically responsible behavior is a moral obligation, and it will soon become an economic necessity for most printers as more and more clients start to embrace ecologically sustainable principles, demanding their suppliers to do the same. While digital printing as a concept offers environmental advantages over conventional printing technologies, it is important to note that some digital printing technologies are more environmentally friendly than others. Recyclability of printed matter is but one of the many benefits dry toner electrophotography has over other technologies. Xeikon presses in particular are being designed and manufactured with as little impact on the environment as possible and guarantee eco-friendly production of your printed material.

Throughout this series we have examined how digital technology can contribute to improving image quality, workflow performance, and environmentally conscious behavior, today’s keys to success in the transactional and transpromo markets. And we believe Xeikon holds the keys.

Danny Mertens is the business development manager, Document Printing, Xeikon (a division of Punch Graphix). Scroll up to read segment one and segment two of this series.