Ian Shircore, OutputLinks’ UK Country Manager, had the opportunity to speak with Don Burns recently about the Kodak Prosper 5000 and its effect on the business of print.

Ian Shircore: Don Burns, you have been deeply involved in one of the vital background activities underpinning the launch of Kodak’s new flagship, the Prosper 5000XL. While the arrival of this groundbreaking offset-quality color inkjet press has naturally made the headlines, you have been responsible for Kodak’s farsighted paper strategy, a key element in creating the business ecosystem needed to support the digital revolution. But just how important is this work? And how can one company – even one as big as Kodak – hope to change the business ecosystem?  

Don Burns: Certainly it’s no small undertaking. Kodak’s goal, as stated by our CEO, is to revolutionize the printing industry with the Prosper presses and Kodak’s Stream Inkjet Technology and paper is a key component of this revolution. The Prosper 5000XL could not have been launched without this work in the background. Paper is far too critical to be left as an afterthought. Revolutions don’t often succeed if the armies have no ammo.

Ian: OK. I see. And paper is the printer’s ammunition. But there are already a lot of different papers and a lot of suppliers out there for printers to choose from. Surely we don’t need more? 

Don: Well, maybe there should be fewer papers. At the last count, there were over 2,100 different paper types on offer – with basis weights, probably something like 30,000 SKUs. Printers have to make choices and there’s not enough good information out there to help them choose correctly – to get the right paper for the new printing technology they may be using and the right quality/cost trade-offs for the job they’re taking on and the customer they’re serving. We’ve recognized this and developed a three-pronged strategy to tackle it.

The first part of the strategy is to do with ensuring there are very good papers available from major suppliers that are fully optimized to bring out the best in Kodak’s Stream Inkjet Technology. We want printers to have access to the stunning, offset-class image quality offered by the Prosper 5000XL, whether they are using coated or uncoated papers. We want them to be able to achieve this superb quality in books, magazines, catalogs, direct mail pieces, and general commercial printing. So we’ve gotten together with many of the world’s greatest paper companies – from Appleton Coated, in Kimberley, Wisconsin, to Ziegler Papier, in Grellingen, Switzerland, via leading firms in Japan, Finland and across the US – to develop and produce new, highly optimized papers.

Ian: Are you saying that people will have to use these new optimized papers to get the best out of the Prosper 5000XL and the Stream technology?

Don: Not necessarily. These mills and others already produce papers that are well suited for the Prosper press platform. But to get the very best results, in terms of image quality and speed, yes, it would make sense to use a paper specifically tuned to the exact characteristics of the press. And that leads us on to the second aspect of the Kodak paper strategy. We’ve initiated a major paper testing and certification program, based on an objective one-to-four-diamond rating scale, that will help printers know what paper to choose and what performance they can expect for any particular project. We at Kodak have amassed a database of over 3,000 papers already. We measure  metrics such as optical density, strikethrough, color bleed and mottle and know what acceptable thresholds are for these properties in different markets. Using these metrics as guidelines, we will share the raw data behind the diamond ratings, so that customers who want to dig deeper can compare papers based on specific attributes.

Ian: So this will eventually cover all the available inkjet papers?

Don: And more. It needs to be much more comprehensive than that. With Stream technology, many of the standard offset papers will perform acceptably for some applications for some customers, though inkjet-treated papers should always give a better result. But, quite rightly, some customers will be happy with a different cost/quality model for certain jobs. Our certification system is going to be a really valuable business tool, helping printers find the best and most profitable combination of total quality and net price for their customers’ applications.

Ian: You said earlier that there should probably be fewer papers on the market. But customers always want just one more option, and I’ve heard you talk about regular sheet-fed commercial print shops that request over 100 different papers with 8 hours or less for delivery. Is there anything practical you can do to help printers save money and space and improve cash flow by using fewer papers?

Don: There are plenty of printers and merchants whose warehouses hold more than 100 papers, and others who only ever buy two or three. It’s two different business models. The 100 plus-paper guys are offering flexibility and customer intimacy, while the three-paper printer is focused on high throughput, high productivity and operational excellence, with killer efficiencies throughout the supply chain. The great thing is that we’ve designed the Prosper 5000XL to serve both business models.

Ian: Though there’ll always be more of the generalists than the high-volume specialists.

Don: Sure, and that’s one place where we can really help. For the commercial printers who need to use a broad range of papers, the Prosper 5000XL is going to open up a whole bunch of new possibilities, thanks to the Prosper In-line Optimization Station. This is a new module that will launch in 2011 – and I can see it helping to make a lot of medium-sized businesses much more effective and profitable. It’s a robust roll coating pre-treatment module, integrated into the press so it shares the same control system, and it allows printers to use the widest possible variety of offset and inkjet papers. Suddenly, substrate flexibility is a reality. Suddenly, a commercial printer can switch quickly and easily between short-run jobs with coated or uncoated paper stocks, without having to keep an ever larger range of papers on the premises.

Ian: I guess the print industry always wants to hear you say “You can print on anything with this new inkjet technology.” And while that’s not going to be possible, you’re moving a long way towards this.

Don: Yes. Kodak’s Stream technology can produce brilliant offset-class quality on inkjet papers and very good, cost-effective results on many offset papers. But the in-line pre-treatment adds another dimension. With it, you can produce very high quality images on virtually any paper surface. That means you can really begin to cut back on the number of papers you buy, and that starts to bring real structural savings for your business, day in and day out. We see the Prosper 5000XL as a tool for profitability, as well as a revolutionary new printing press. But when you factor in logistics and supply chain optimization, it can be the catalyst for the kind of changes that move a business, or even an industry, forward and create completely new markets and new opportunities. My role has been to make sure we have a paper strategy in place that lets the technology reach its full potential in the marketplace, including the realization of structural cost savings, which can be the true revolution.                                

Watch for Don’s new blog where he will continue sharing views and opinions on the Prosper 5000XL and its effect on the business of print.

Donald J. Burns,

Business Development Director - Media

Kodak's Graphic Communications Group

Donald J Burns, Business Development Director – Media, is responsible for the Strategic and Commercial relationships with media and substrate manufacturers for Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group. Don has over 25 years of Business Management and New Product Development in the Printing, Imaging and Packaging and Photographic markets. He has worked for ExxonMobil, Prism Polymers, and Eastman Kodak and has developed new products and technologies for almost every printing method from Inkjet to Intaglio in applications that range from candy bars to circuit boards. Don has a B.Sc. in Physics and Chemistry from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and an MBA from Simon School of Business Administration, Rochester, NY.