Workflow Control/Roll Mapping – White Paper Amir Dekel Feb 2010 In recent decades, the basic workflow of the label printer changed very little. The machinery, the presses, the finishing equipment, the ancillaries have gone through a tremendous make over – Gears became gearless, inks went from solvent to water (and coming back now…), drying techniques enabled faster and faster press speeds, finishing machines almost quadruple their running speed. However, the basic workflow, that is, Print - Finish/Inspect – Pack and ship hasn't changed at all. This workflow possesses a few significant flaws:

• Who makes the quality decisions? In this workflow, the printer's most important hesitation "Will this quality be accepted by the customer?" is decided by the press operator or the finishing machine operator. Are they the most suitable people for such crucial decision? The product quality heavily depends on the press operator or the finishing machine knowledge of the specific customer. Usually they are not in direct contact with the customer and as such may make a wrong decision either way. That is, they may decide to reject an acceptable quality to one customer or let go of unaccepted quality to other.

• Location of the quality inspection – Traditionally, the inspection is performed on the finishing machine. There were good reasons for that in the past, especially by the industry segment that pioneered inspection – the Pharmaceutical sector. There (and until now days), the printer is obliged to deliver flawless labels, because a simple defect might cause a drug recall creating an enormous expense. This could not be tolerated by the printer and thus they invested heavily in inspection at the finishing stage. In addition, the finishing step is the only one in the workflow that could be halted for repair – One would not expect to stop a press for a label change, but at the rewinder – no problem. As such, all Automatic and None Automatic inspection systems were developed over the years to fit the Finishing Table. However – As placing the inspection machine on the finishing machine was very good to the printer's customers, it did very little for themselves in terms of waste reduction and cost control. That is, once on the finishing machine, the defected material (or plainly called – WASTE) could only be cleaned, where the challenge is to avoid printing it altogether…

The Workflow Control concept resolves all the flaws mentioned above, and provides much more in terms of quality assurance, waste reduction, process control and workflow streamlining that could not be obtained before.

Workflow control Concept: Generally, Workflow Control provides Automatic Inspection (AIS) on the press, collection of defect data that can be edited off-line and a finishing machine connectivity that allows for web stoppage at the defected material (for either repair or web splice-out). This concept can be depicted in the following diagram:

That is, the printing press is equipped with Quality Assurance, 100% Inspection System. The rolls are being produced and moved to the Finishing machine in the normal way. At the background, the AIS produces a report contains the defect information. Once the roll was produced, the report can be edited in the Editing Station by a suitable person. The roll and its' corresponding edited report meet each other at the Finishing Machine where there, the equipment will break automatically at the defected label or in beginning of a defective segment so the operator will have the chance to repair the roll.

Inspection

Quality Reports

Editing Station

Machine Control

What are the benefits of Workflow Control and how does it resolves the previously mentioned flaws?

• Of the most important benefit lays the ability to perform on press Process Control. That is, the AIS inspects the web all the time and once a defect starts to evolve, the press operator gets a warning, he/she can now go and fix the problem. That is, the life span of a defect is now reduced dramatically. While at that, the AIS still collects all the quality information and compose the necessary roll report for later editing. The report will include all process and randomly accrued defects. In other words – the real benefit for the printer is now the possibility to reduce waste dramatically and yet ensure all defects will be recorded for later cleanup at the finishing station.

• The quality decision making – As previously discussed, presently, the press operator or the rewinder operators are the people that make the quality decision. They are at the machine, taking real time decisions, with the production pressure and the other chores they have to attend to. Their decision quality is questionable. In addition, they have little knowledge, if at all, of the specific requirements of that specific customer they are running the job for. As such their decisions are not related to the required quality, but to the "available" quality. Workflow Control addresses this issue by providing a simple tool to make the quality decisions by the most suitable personnel – the Quality Manager. The QA Manger is that function that is constantly exposed to the demanding customers. He/she knows their specific requirements, their "sweet spot" as well as their changing moods. He/she can then, sit in the convenience of the offices and make educated decisions over each and every defect – whether to tolerate or to forbid that defect. Their decision making process is free from production pressure at the floor and they are, by far, the best trained people for the job.

• Machine Utilization – Adding AIS to the press, allows for speed increase, while ensuring perfect quality. This can increase machine utilization significantly. But this is not all. The Workflow Control permits the finishing machine speed to exceed high value since now the operator is not burden by inspection and can let the machine runs at its' capacity and not at a speed convenient for visual inspection. The Workflow Control also provides a very efficient control tool for the finishing machine that makes the start and stop process as efficient as possible considering the machine's limitations.

• Quality Information – One of the assets of the Workflow Control is its data collection mechanism. Normally the reports can be exported to variety of tools (such as Excel) for statistics analysis and more. In addition, Workflow Control provides an optional tool that allows any user on the plan network to review a report of any specific machine on the floor.

To summarize the concept of roll mapping and cleaning, it is evident that printers can achieve over 30% increased efficiency when measuring processing time from label stock to finished small rolls. This adds to the significant waste reduction and customer’s satisfaction. Amir Dekel – VP Marketing, AVT, Inc. amird@avt-inc.com

Roll Mapping and Work Flow Management

Presented by:

Amir DekelVP MarketingAVT

Automatic Inspection System as a major contributor to workflow efficiency

Or:

Maintaining press up = Efficiency!

Maintaining rewinder fast = Efficiency!

Purpose ‐ Ensure Efficiency

• Efficiency is measured by:– Maintaining consistent quality

– Waste reduction ‐ reduce the life span of a defect

– Cost of quality

– Workflow bottle necks (Unnecessary WIP)

• Controlling and Automating the Workflow ensures production efficiency!

Automatic Inspection on the Press

• The capability to inspect the printed material while being produce:– Process Control – Find defects in their infancy and eliminate them.

– Prevent Waste – Find the defects before they become waste

– Improve your general efficiency

Some print defects can be avoidable:Press performance – Maintaining print register, Die cut register and qualityInk starvationInk curing issuesAnd more…

On Press Inspection

Some print defects can be unavoidable:Dirt on the plate (or Anilox, or elsewhere in the ink train)Plate liftDripping stationAnd more…

Early defect detection can improve the unavoidable down time!

On Press Inspection

Automatic Inspection – Control Production

• How does Automatic Inspection control production?– Find process defects early – Best – before they are visible and turn waste

– Provide clear and intuitive information to the operator on how to overcome the problem

– Prevent press stoppages and down time– Relieve the pressman from the burden of quality/inspection

– Collect data to later process and correct material

When a Defect Become Waste

Quality

Twilight Zone

Waste Threshold

Defect Zone

Time

Good Print Quality(( (( Alarm ))Alarm ))

On the Finishing Machine

• Automatic Inspection System inspects the web continuously

• Any defect that exceeds thresholds triggers machine stop and allows for defected material removal

• Benefits:– No defective material leaves the promises.– Ease inspection burden off the operator– Efficient Machine operation (Speed)

Cost Of Defect

Production process

(( (( Alarm ))Alarm ))

Cost of Error=Cost of Quality

Finishing Slitting / rewinding

Printing Shipment to Customer

Covering the entire Workflow

• Can Automatic Inspections System provide workflow efficiency in both locations – Press and Rewinder?

• Can it all be done without inspection system redundancy?

Automatic Inspection – Control Production

• Yes – Here is how:• Automatic Inspection control production on both, press and finishing machine by:–Provide a Workflow Solution:

• Record defect up stream• Edit the defects to make go/no go decision.• Clean material later, no disruptions to press• Use report data to correct process in the long run

Solution – Workflow Control System

• Connect the press information to finishing machine to control the entire workflow:–On press inspection:

• Waste reduction• Increase speed• Increase yield

–On finishing machine:• Run as quickly as possible• Stop only for sub‐standard quality

Production Layer

Information Layer

Company’s Network

PrintFlow Manager Station

Network connection and

Control

Workflow Link Animation

To do:  insert video object

Fast Return on Investment – Less time to process a roll

Fast Return on Investment – More rolls per day:

Please remember to turn in your evaluation sheet...

Thank you

PRESENTED BY

Amir DekelVP - MarketingAVTamird@avt-inc.com