Measurement devices should be used to ensure colour accuracy throughout the design and printing process.
Boosting profit margins
Another company that ran into similar issues was a midsized PSP that used flatbed printers, digital presses and an industrial cutting table to produce graphics and packaging. Before it invested specifically in colour management technology, it simply created ICC profiles using the printers’ RIP software. Unfortunately, this process often took four to five cycles before the colours were correct. At an average of one hour per cycle, the costs of idle machines and their operators piled up.
So, the company decided to implement a centralized full-colour management workflow. The results were highly positive, as now no additional cycles are required to get colours right, except when the occasional request from a customer comes in asking to tweak a certain colour. Job costs have been reduced by 35 per cent, as each job requires less labour and the machines do not sit idle for as long as before.
There have also been qualitative improvements. For one thing, approval on press is immediate. With colours and greys always matching between all of the devices, employees now “walk in and walk out” of the production department, rather than fighting to adjust colours on the printer. For another, the company has achieved 20 per cent savings in ink consumption. This is significant given the high costs of inks for digital printers.
In general, the primary benefit has been faster turnaround with no press downtime. This greater efficiency is echoed in how shop employees do their jobs.
Further, there is greater customer confidence in the company’s capabilities now that colour quality is much more accurate. ‘Prestige’ brand owners are bringing in work that earns higher margins. As a result of reducing costs and earning these higher margins, profitability has increased substantially.
Setting the stage for growth
A centralized colour management system need not be expensive or time-consuming to implement. A decentralized system, on the other hand, can carry many hidden or underestimated costs, including the need for additional labour, materials and machine time, all of which whittle away at profit margins. When additional time is needed to prepare jobs for machines that sit idle, capacity is reduced, stress on the production floor is increased and revenue is missed. Even worse, business growth is limited, as clients begin to judge some of their specialized jobs too risky for decentralized colour management.
The implementation of a dedicated colour management system is recommended alongside a corresponding methodology, including the use of measurement devices to ensure colour accuracy throughout the design and printing process. By speaking first with experts, meeting proven standards and following quality assurance (QA) procedures, PSPs will be rewarded for their efforts.
Centralized colour management requires only a small investment of time and money, but offers a strong return on that investment by simultaneously reducing the cost per job and increasing print quality.
Bart Fret is director of large-format sales for GMG Americas, which develops colour management software. For more information, visit www.gmgcolor.com.
