Just like when you move into a new home, there is a sense of a new beginning and a positive drive within to use this change in circumstances as a launch pad to bigger and better things. I’m pleased to say that now we are 5 months down the track that drive hasn’t diminished and if anything has grown as team members have got to know colleagues who previously worked at a different site to them, and a collaboration of knowledge and experience coupled with the ability to lay some new procedures and processes as we adapt to our new home, has meant that momentum has actually built as we have gone along – the machine is constantly refining itself.
All systems and workflows have certainly been tested over the past couple of months, unprecedented levels of business have had everybody really earning their money, and I am pleased to say that we haven’t sprung any leaks and cohesion is good – let the good times roll.
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All hail the XL75.They said it would revolutionise the way that we run the litho element of our business, and that if we optimised it’s performance we could increase throughput by 30%. Some said that due to its speed our press minders would actually lose weight just by watching it, all we know is that 3 months after installation we have managed to increase output by over 20% and we still have margin for improvement.
In all seriousness it is an awesome piece of machinery, the commercial benefits of vastly reduced make ready times, minimised ink and paper wastage had the accountants hearts beating fast, but when you couple that with the ability to control consistency of colour to new levels, speed on the run and the host of tasks which are now automated and done by the press rather than manually by the minder, it’s superiority to the previously available technology is brutal by comparison, it’s simply not possible for the technology of just five or six years ago to compete.
This really does underline the fact that in the print industry if you can’t invest you will go backwards.
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Moving day finally came… but it was more of moving month to be honest – more of a gradual migration as we balanced the desire to get everything under one roof as quickly as possible with the need to offer seamless and uninterrupted service to clients.
There was a wide range of activity; we had a new press arriving from Germany, on top of the usual installation and moving of power and phone cabling we had a complete LED lighting re-fit throughout the whole building – that’s 740 LED daylight tubes – thanks to the Carbon Trust for the grant which eased the huge cost of that exercise.
The litho presses in Bromley weren’t decommissioned until the engineers, electricians and demonstrators had signed off and handed over on the new XL75 monster that now graces the press room here in SE1, monster in size (by comparison) and in the amount of work it can eat up, but for those with their print anoraks zipped right up it really is a thing of beauty, and loaded with plenty of toys!
But we got there, digital presses all in, indigo’s in their air conditioned environment, litho and digital finishing integrated, new pre press and studio up and running, dilapidations on both the Bromley and EC2 sites completed, all people in situ with flashy new chairs that have got more adjustments than you can shake a stick at, job done.
Right what shall we do next?
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