Why Printing Process Control is Vital – Measure, Record and Track

What is printing? There are those that would say it is an art. An art produced by craftsman with years of experience and an eye for detail. For these artists, there was a delicate balance between ink and water, combined with pressure and the physical press conditions. Manipulating keys on a console much like playing an organ controlled the process. Color was visually adjusted and tweaked until the artist and customer were happy with the result. Some artists read density of color to help guide them to desired results. The tandem of pressman and customer pulled, tweaked, and outdid themselves to the point of creating unique masterpieces. Remember art is something that is in the eye of the beholder. Enter the world of today. Print is now a manufacturing process. I’m not saying that the skills of experienced pressman are not needed. This is quite to the contrary. The skills of an experience pressman are now needed more than ever.

Process Control is the key to successfully manufacturing anything. I hate to say it but print is a commodity, not one that is traded but a manufactured product that we buy. The days of art direction at press are almost completely gone and the trend is to produce as quickly as possible. This intrinsically creates an environment of buying on price and sacrificing quality. The key to get both is to work with someone who has implemented ruthless process control in every phase of their manufacturing process.

Here are some reasons why process control is more important today than ever.

Operating windows: In years past, raw materials, used to produce print, were manufactured for ease of use. Plates, blankets, inks, developers, and fountain solutions, all key ingredients to putting ink on paper, have gone through many changes. Some have been necessary for the health of those who worked with them daily, others for environmental concerns and yet others to help lower cost and make print more affordable. In making these changes, the latitude or operating windows for successful use of these products have shrunk. We are now peering through a small basement window. The double wide French doors have long been closed. It is very easy to produce inconsistent product when your processes are not refined and monitored. Processes from ripping to proofing to plating and finally to printing need to be measured, recorded and tracked/trended. Change in the printing process usually does not happen overnight and we all know how we don’t see small changes. After all, do you remember when you actually stopped looking like a teenager? Trust me, look in the mirror you don’t anymore. In a pressroom, change is much like the aging process. All of a sudden you look in the mirror and the hair on your head is gone and growing everywhere else. The pressroom all of a sudden can’t match the proofs. Well not really, the change was slow, it just is so bad now you see it and can’t adjust for it anymore. Trending will show what is happening over time and allow you to control the process. I like to think of trending as providing a “fountain of youth” for print production.

Manufacturing Speed: 9000, 10,000, 15,000, 18,000 sheets per hour. In an effort to increase production capabilities press manufactures have been increasing speeds. I’m still amazed every time I see a press running. Stop for a second and think about it. Five sheets of paper entering the press every second, traveling through a series of cylinders and precisely placing an image to form a perfect rosette of dots. Offset presses are a manufacturing wonder. As speeds increase to need for all raw materials to perform as well as the physical press characteristics to be in spec are critical. Think about the speed at which you can waste stock if print is not controlled or out of specifications. Remember, paper is the biggest expense in your print job.

Distinction: Why do you award the job? After all there are thousands of print shops. There are also hundreds who will undercut your favorite printer’s price. Those who do, most likely are doing so just to “keep the lights on” but never the less they are out there and ready to pounce on the project to survive. Process control is a way for the printer to distinguish their service as a trusted partner who understands the necessary requirements for producing consistent, top quality manufacturing.

Your job as someone who purchases print is to make certain you are getting everything you pay for. Ask your provider what process controls they use in the production process. Minimally they should tell you that they validate their proofs against a color standard and the proof you receive should include a certification reading on it. Learn what the sticker means. What are the tolerances accepted by the printer? Don’t be fooled by comments like we have a closed loop color system. Then if they stop there, ask them to see the report data from the press run. It should be measured against the same standard as the proof you already ok’d. If they cannot provide you with report data specific to your job they did not measure, record and track!