How Digital Presses Streamlined a United Nations In-Plant

eXpert Row Commentary - Tribute Tuesdays

Commentary by Andrew Tribute

June 20, 2006 -- I am increasingly seeing how digital printing can replace offset in handling many complex operations. Recently I had the opportunity to visit a very major installation where in the past few years they had transitioned from an offset to a total digital operation. A particularly interesting factor is that this significant printing plant is a part of the United Nations organization. The print plant is in Vienna and belongs to the Nobel Peace Prize winning International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Because of the confidentiality of the data and the security of production, an outsourcing or facilities management contract was not feasible. The systems had to be fully integrated with inline finishing, as the plan was to reduce staffing by total automation.

Recently the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, stated that the organization's rules, systems and culture need significant retooling and investment if the UN is to fulfill growing expectations and demands placed on it by the international community. The changes in printing technology and methods at the IAEA are an excellent example of how this is happening.

Five years ago the IAEA advertised for an executive to take over the running of its printing operation in Vienna and to update its method of working. The executive who took on this role was one of Europe’s leading print and publishing consultants, Joaquin Suarez Prado. I have known him and worked with him since 1972, and had seen him in a number of very key production jobs based in France.

Trending in the Wrong Direction

When he started at the IAEA Suarez Prado found a print department that was totally offset with a range of equipment including a 4-color Komori and single- and two-color Heidelberg presses, as well as a wide range of finishing systems. The staffing of the department was 51 people. many of whom were reaching retirement age. In 2000 some 135 million A4 pages were printed, but this dropped in 2001 to 108 million. The trend was seen to continue going down. A full assessment of requirements of the department was made, and a decision was reached to go digital. It was also decided to make substantial changes in order to increase efficiency. This included a planned staff reduction under which retiring staff would not be replaced.

Following this, a tender was put out for both monochrome and color digital systems. Because of the confidentiality of the data and the security of production, an outsourcing or facilities management contract was not feasible. The systems had to be fully integrated with inline finishing, as the plan was to reduce staffing by total automation.

The winners of the tender were Xeikon for color and Océ for monochrome. Xeikon supplied four Xeikon 5000 presses with inline finishing systems from IBIS. Océ supplied a VarioStream 7000 with two linked engines and a Hunkeler finishing system linked to a Muller Martini Amigo binder. In addition to this, Xerox supplied a DocuTech 6180 that is used for very short run, limited pagination monochrome work; Canon supplied a CLC 3200 for very short run color work. Both Océ and Xeikon are totally responsible for all of the items in their systems.

Platform of Choice

What is very interesting is the way the department is run. If any job has color in it, production is on the Xeikon engines even if the pagination is predominantly monochrome. Also, any jobs with quality halftones in monochrome are printed on the Xeikon engines. This is facilitated by the way the contract is written. The equipment is rented on a six-year contract, and Xeikon and IAEA assessed all the types of work to be printed and worked out a cost per page based upon this. The arrangement provides probably one of the lowest page prices of any color digital press in the world, but it takes into account that perhaps more than 50% of pages are printed monochrome.

Color has increased substantially and is expected to be 50% of all work by the end of this year. The total number of printed pages is increasing, staffing levels have dropped, and the department could increase production in color without additional equipment or staff.

In 2005 some 115 million A4 pages were printed, and almost 50% were printed on the Xeikons. Typical jobs would average 48 pages and have 300 to 400 copies printed. Up to 30 jobs per day are produced. Color has increased substantially since 2001 and is expected to be 50% of all work by the end of this year. The total number of printed pages is now increasing with a significant switch to color. Staffing levels have dropped to 32 people, and the department could run with significantly fewer staff members. The department could increase production by 25% in color without additional equipment or staff.

All jobs come into a three-person prepress department where PDF files are preflighted and often regenerated. The decision was made to work only in PDF, and this took some time to get working well because of the inconsistent quality of PDF files from the various departments within IAEA. Images are converted from RGB to CMYK in prepress.

A True World-Class Example

The change to digital has been a major success, and this department is now seen as the most advanced and efficient within the UN worldwide. Where there were initial fears among users that quality would be reduced in switching from offset, the results have proven that quality in both color and monochrome has not diminished. This printing operation is now perhaps seen as the model for others in the UN.

The success of the IAEA move to digital printing is likely to be replicated in many other similar high-volume in-house printing operations worldwide. It shows that linking high volume, high quality digital equipment with automated finishing systems can reduce costs and improve productivity while maintaining or enhancing quality. Both Xeikon and Océ have worked well with the IAEA in making this work well, but overall it is all about a well-implemented major strategic plan to change the whole method of operation.