Elopak
"Packaging giant Elopak turbo-boosts prepress division with Gradual Software's LightSWITCH."
Elopak, one of the world’s leading packaging solutions providers, found the answer to its time-consuming, costly proofing problem in Gradual Software’s LightSWITCH automation product.
This interview takes us to Terneuzen in The Netherlands, where we visit Elopak Terneuzen, a daughter company of the Elopak Group. Based in Norway, Elopak is one of the world’s leading suppliers of packaging solutions.
Global reach
Half a century of continuous development sees a global corporation operating on every continent. With a network of market units and associates in more than 40 countries and customers in over 100, the Elopak Group aims to break new ground at every level of packaging. The group employs about 2,500 people and produces over 11 billion packaging solutions each year.
In Terneuzen we are met by Niels Goossen, Manager Prepress-development, and responsible for prepress innovations throughout Elopak’s facilities worldwide. One of his core responsibilities: to search for ways to improve the workflow, speed-up procedures and simplify the various steps in the production process.
From time-consuming prepress production to efficient, profitable workflow automation.
Until five years ago, Elopak used offset printers next to the standard flexo presses to print its packaging materials. With the introduction of the UV-flexo printer, Elopak changed its printing process: 95% of its print production is now done with flexo-printers and a mere 5% in offset.
The proofing problem…
Niels Goossen: “Our increasing use of the UV-flexo press demanded a new type of prepress process, and at that point our prepress capacities were rather rudimentary. Especially proofing posed a problem, both in terms of time-spent as well as the high costs inherent to using prepress shops to deliver the colour-proofs. We realized that the proofing process needed to be done faster and more cost-efficiently.”
Elopak realized that the best way in which to streamline the prepress process, which usually leaves one at the mercy of external suppliers, was to create its own internal prepress division.
“We chose ArtPro and the Nexus-workflow by Artwork Systems, in collaboration with GMG Proofing software for Epson-proofers with consistent application of color management, which we preferred to call ‘press matching’. We switched to remote proofing quite quickly, which enabled us to expand to our own sales-points first, while soon we will also be able to include some of our largest clients."
However, one core issue still wasn’t solved.
The first considerable problem was the dot-proofing of very large files, for which Elopak used FTP servers. The second problem was the fact that the production cycle still required many manual tasks to ready the files and send them to an FTP server to download and print at an external location.
Elopak also had an additional problem in sending files via FTP. The file had to be transferred from the prepress division to the company network in person... because the two networks were not connected to each other!
The entire cycle from Elopak to the point at which the proof was available at the external sales-point took 30 to 45 minutes… Add the courier-costs to send proofs to clients and the bill quickly adds up.
Niels Goossen: “We discussed this problem with our supplier MacManiac, who was so enthusiastic about Gradual Software’s automation software that we decided to take a closer look at the company’s LightSWITCH product. MacManiac really became the driving force behind the implementation of LightSWITCH at Elopak.”
The entire proofing-, production- and communication process is now automated by LightSWITCH. The entire process – from its start at Elopak to the delivery of a proof at a remote location – now takes only 15 minutes.
A significant time saving, further enhanced by the elimination of all courier costs.
The entire proofing-, production- and communication process is now automated by Gradual Software’s LightSWITCH. The entire process – from its start at Elopak to the delivery of a proof at a remote location – now takes only 15 minutes. A significant time and cost saving.
Elopak has booked such considerable timesaving during the first two weeks of implementation that the investment costs of LightSWITCH have already been recuperated. LightSWITCH has been integrated with all existing software - there are no compatibility issues and the entire process runs flawlessly.
LightSWITCH is the entry-product of Gradual Software’s entire automation product range. FullSWITCH and PowerSWITCH offer the user further automation capabilities.
- Receives and sorts incoming files,
- Dispatches files to third parties via email and FTP
- Sorts all files on file type, naming conventions or origin
- Sends notification emails to third parties
- Logs all actions, enabling the user to track if and when all steps have been completed successfully
Niels Goossen enthusiastically endorses all these benefits.
The company is so pleased with the performance and reliability of the product that it has already been implemented in various plants across Europe. Elopak is also investigating other products in Gradual Software’s product range (FullSWITCH and PowerSWITCH), as they offer further automation possibilities.
Niels Goossen concludes: “Our prepress division today makes a considerable internal profit. An achievement made possible by Gradual Software's LightSWITCH and something we are extremely proud of.”
Credits
This testimonial was created in collaboration with Gradual Software’s Dutch reseller Mac-Maniac (www.macmaniac.nl) and Elopak (www.elopak.nl).
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