dcos-succes_stories_la_presse_de_la-manche

La Presse de la Manche – Cherbourg, France

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In order to keep up with the competition, any printing house needs to keep a close eye on their machinery. Upgrading is vital, and to most printers the decisive question is whether to invest in new euipment, or rather stick with what they have and improve the performance. The latter is known in the business as retrofit.

There is also the combined solution of installing new equipment and carrying out a retrofit. La Presse de la Manche in Cherbourg, France has a history that dates back to 1889. Over the years, many changes have occurred, of course, and in the new millennium there was a need for expansion. The company decided to go for a combination of retrofit and new installations. But could it be done without interruptions in the daily production? This is a challenge, and one that DCOS has been up against many times.

THE NEED
A printing house of respectable size and part of the Ouest France group of companies, La Presse de la Manche needed to expand their capacity. Above all, they wanted to increase the capacity for printing in colour. With the existing equipment, La Presse de la Manche could print up to 16 pages in colour, but wanted to be able to print a further 24. In addition, there was a need for increased automation. We presented a somewhat innovative solution, and a deal was agreed upon.

THE ANALYSIS
A project where new installations were to be combined with a retrofit, a thorough analysis was needed. La Presse de la Manche already had one tower, from Solna Offset with a built-on Solna/Global tower. Now they wanted to invest in three more towers, this time from Tensor Group. We proposed a remodelling of the existing tower to make it function with the new ones. In addition to this retrofit process, La Presse de la Manche had a need for new drives and controls, as well as a sophistacated register system. To round things off, a new control desk to handle all of the functions, old and new, was added.

– Our basic need was to print up to 40 pages in colour. We invested in new towers, and we wanted everything, new and old, to run smoothly in a unified system, says technical director Hervé Pannier at La Presse de la Manche. And, we could only accept a solution where our production wouldn’t go down during the installations. DCOS presented an attractive solution, where we would also have access to support afterwards. So we chose to work with them.

THE SOLUTIONS
At La Presse de la Manche, things were going well. Still, there had arisen a need for change. There was an apparent need for printing more pages in colour in their papers and magazines, so something had to be done. We proposed a solution where production would go on, and where the implementation of a new DCOS drive and control, among other things, would lead to less waste copies. An agreement was reached.

IMPLEMENTATION
The DCOS project team arrived in March, 2010, with a detailed plan for implementing the solution agreed upon. For three months, we worked at La Presse de la Manche. After the existing tower was rebuilt, all four towers would be fitted with automatic DRCS colour and cut-off register, a drive and control system and a DCOS control desk were to be installed, and retrofit of dampening and inking functions would be carried out.

Meanwhile, it was business as usual for everyone working with the daily productions. Well, that’s not entirely true, because nobody could fail to see we were working right among them. But as far as the daily production goes, everything was carried out as normal. And when the project was over, in June of 2010, La Presse de la Manche was all set for the new, improved capacity.

THE RESULT
Goal achieved. La Presse de la Manche now is able to print 40 pages in colour, which was what the project was all about. The new system is not only ultra-modern and has a very high capacity, it is also user-friendly and efficient.

– Yes, we are happy with the outcome, says Hervé Pannier. We worked closely together for several months, and everything fell into place as planned. And a fine bonus is that we now have much less waste copies.

In 2012, La Presse de la Manche and DCOS signed a service and support agreement. We are, of course, very proud to be given this trust.

dcos-succes_stories_mittmedia

Retrofit MittMedia Print – Falun, Sweden

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MittMedia Print is a major player in the Swedish printing business. With headquarters in the city of Gävle, the company has a further six printing houses in the mid and northern parts of Sweden. In total, there are well over 100 magazines and papers in the client portfolio.

THE NEED
In Falun, where one of MittMedia Print’s printing houses is located, there was a strong need for upgrading of the whole printing process. There were simply too many production stoppages to keep customers happy. Something had to be done to turn the situation around. There was also a wish to become a truly competitive alternative for new customers.
In order to achieve this, there would have to be improvements in the printing process in general. There would also have to be higher quality and efficiency in the coloring and cutting processes in particular. The plan was to go for a retrofit solution as a way of extending the life cycle of existing machines. MittMedia Print contacted DCOS, since earlier collaborations between the two companies had proved successful.

THE ANALYSIS
Retrofit is a service provided by DCOS. We met with MittMedia Print to discuss the different possibilities. What was at first thought of as a limited project concerning an inking system with preset capability, soon developed into a full retrofit.
– Discussing the options back and forth, DCOS soon stood out as the obvious choice for us. We hadn’t realized they could actually take responsibility for the whole retrofit project. When we found out they could, it was really not a difficult decision to take, says Måns Nyberg, local branch manager at MittMedia Print in Falun.
MittMedia Print’s position was clear: There could be no interference with the uptime. All ongoing assignments would have to continue as usual.
This was of course a true challenge. We pursued an analysis of MittMedia Print’s processes, all in close collaboration with manager Måns Nyberg. Mr. Nyberg was a key person all through the project. Together, we came to the conclusion that MittMedia Print would benefit from having a new drive and control system, new and considerably fewer control desks, a new inking system with preset capabilities, and a closed loop register system.

THE SOLUTION
The existing situation at MittMedia Print was not uncommon. There was a functioning system for production of magazines and papers. This system, though, had been developed in several different steps over the years. A reasonable objective of the retrofit would be to create a unified solution, thus losing the heterogeneity of the existing system. This was agreed upon.

IMPLEMENTATION
The purpose of the retrofit would be enabling a greater degree of flexibility and last but not least to seriously decrease the amount of waste copies. With careful planning, this concept could be carried out without interrupting the daily work at MittMedia Print.
The project team from DCOS arrived at the printing house to implement the solution. This called for meticulous precision, and there could be no mistakes. That would have caused interruptions in the ongoing assignments, and would prove expensive. Together with Måns Nyberg, we managed to finish the complex procedures according to plan. The overall implementation took 5 months to get up and running and was carried out in 2010.

THE RESULT
After successfully having taken the Falun printing house through the retrofit process, there is a considerably higher efficiency at MittMedia Print. There are indeed much less waste copies. There is also a greater flexibility, making MittMedia Print in Falun an even more attractive choice for its existing and potential clients.
Måns Nyberg, local branch manager at the printing house, comments:
– Working with DCOS was excellent. I was involved all through the process, thus being in the middle of it all the time. It took some careful planning, and we are very pleased with the results of the retrofit.