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FUJIFILM doubles down on its Middle East presence with laun…

FUJIFILM Middle East and Africa today inaugurated its new offices at Expo City Dubai – an innovation-driven, people-centric community designed as a blueprint for sustainable urban living and the new centre of Dubai’s future. The launch of its new offices is part of the company’s future-facing mindset, as well as efforts to increase proximity to end-consumers and key partners. The site will also be home to FUJIFILM Technology Center (FTC), which will showcase the company’s innovative offerings. The Japanese company brings world-renowned expertise and innovations to some of the region’s vital sectors. As a global leader in healthcare, imaging and printing technologies, the firm supplies cutting-edge solutions in the UAE such as innovative diagnostic imaging systems helping raise the standard of care in the country and contributing to its development goals. The company is also preparing to launch AI-driven screening centers (NURA) in the UAE, reflecting its commitment to early detection and better health outcomes. FUJIFILM Technology Center (FTC), meanwhile, will offer professional training for employees, business partners and end-users in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Asia. The center is equipped with a comprehensive range of FUJIFILM solutions for live demonstrations, allowing visitors to try and test multiple products and services. H.E. Ken Okaniwa, Ambassador of Japan to the UAE, said: “We welcome the inauguration of FUJIFILM’s new offices and Technology Center in Expo City Dubai. This new investment by Japan’s top company in healthcare, imaging and printing reflects the excellent relations between Japan and the UAE as well as the strategic position of the UAE as a global hub for business. I look forward to FUJIFILM’s technologies contributing to better healthcare, promotion of industries and human capacity development.” Manal AlBayat, Chief Engagement Officer, Expo City Dubai, said: “With its technologies used in vital sectors and its commitment to knowledge-sharing, FUJIFILM’s choice of Expo City Dubai for its new offices and Technology Center reinforces the city’s position as a hub for global businesses driving innovative solutions in the UAE and beyond. We are proud to welcome FUJIFILM to our innovation- and sustainability-focused community – an ecosystem where like-minded entities collaborate to drive meaningful progress.” FUJIFILM’s renewed commitment to the region follows last year’s impressive annual performance, and the firm is looking to repeat the feat in 2025 with a double-digit growth. FUJIFILM Middle East and Africa will also extend its commitment to Emiratization, with plans to introduce new hires to support FTC operations and cement the company’s leading role in knowledge sharing. Underscoring the global importance of the FTC for the company, Masataka Akiyama, President and CEO of FUJIFILM Europe, added: “Our investment in the FUJIFILM Technology Center is a powerful tool to enable product showcases, including a full-fledged medical center with hands-on training and lectures delivered by healthcare professionals in the UAE, Egypt, and Morocco. We are now also inviting imaging and printing experts to our new Dubai office space to facilitate the exchange of ideas and support the delivery of unrivaled solutions to our customers.” Michio Kondo, Managing Director of FUJIFILM Middle East and Africa, also said: “With the opening of our new offices at Expo City Dubai, FUJIFILM is starting the next exciting chapter of our success story in the Middle East. As we look to deepen our contribution to the region’s prosperity and the wellbeing of its people by providing value through innovation and purpose-driven growth, our new space will be a center for co-creation, training, new partnerships, and the development of high-tech solutions to help enhance lives and economies.” Over the past five years, Fujifilm has more than doubled its number of staff across its offices in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Morocco, and South Africa.

FUJIFILM doubles down on its Middle East presence with laun…

FUJIFILM doubles down on its Middle East presence with launch of new …

How to implement automation in printing operations

It is becoming necessary in printing operations to automate as much as possible to gain efficiencies. But before you begin your planning processes, look at your current state to ensure that you understand how works happen today. Kodak, a global technology company focused on print and advanced materials and chemicals, explains the vital role of automation in printing operations and how to do it properly. Read on. Single system of record that reliably gathers data from business and production systems If you have that system of record, you are in the perfect state to take on end-to-end automation. If you have multiple points of data collection that have never been integrated, there is still a path to automation. Still, your planning may take longer to accommodate identifying the required data and the processes that use them. Standard processes for order taking, job specification, and order management When there are standard processes, planning for automation can leverage them to speed implementation. When the procedures to take orders are different for every sales channel, it is hard to standardize order intake. When the process of capturing job specifications varies by sales team member and orders are managed without a strategic view into machine usage and job deadlines, some work will be required before automating and making those processes more efficient. How many spreadsheets are used to track jobs, components, or processes? Every business has some ad hoc processes tracked on spreadsheets, whiteboards, and notepads to keep mission-critical items front of mind. There is nothing wrong with them, but when they become the sole source of truth about a job or a process, they add risk to production. Some organisations justify using spreadsheets by putting them onto shared-access servers so that all authorized constituents can easily access them. It sounds like a great idea, but over time you may find that copies are sitting on individual desktops, and the shared copy is no longer the reliable source of information. Knowing what you have as you plan for automation will help you size the effort. Moving to that automated environment creates a single system of record that is reliable and can be integrated into adjacent business and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Planning for automation You could find some processes that appear easy to automate, add some new tools, and call that your automation plan, but there is a better path. It starts with knowing what is possible. New options in cloud-based workflows bring the same powerful options to smaller shops as the largest shops enjoy. With minimal investments and immediate implementation, shops with a single digital press can build an efficient workflow that will scale using the same technology as a mid-size shop with a mix of offset and digital devices. And these modern cloud-based production workflow solutions can help in any segment, whether the work you produce is graphically-rich static content or uses data-driven processes to execute variable content targeted to a specific recipient. Today’s automated production workflows are built to integrate MIS and ERP tools, Web-to-Print solutions, and e-commerce options. This approach should be high on your list as you consider automation options because it brings a robust IT infrastructure to the table. Automating individual processes glued together with manual interventions isn’t the accomplishment that brings the most benefit. Considering automation requires a dive into every action involved, from the point of estimation and sale to the final delivery to the customer. Planning is the active event designed to identify the touchpoints and the best approach to reviewing each step, the people involved, and the current tools used. Start by articulating your strategic goals for 2022. You may be looking to expand into a new industry or print segments. Your current workload may require more capacity. You may want to acquire more capabilities, either through buying more equipment, optimising workflows, or buying a company. As you consider your strategic plan, itemize the candidate processes for automation to move you toward those goals. Don’t be surprised if you identify current manual processes as critical roadblocks. Strategic goals are long-term and inform the way the business runs. There will be some work to do to build the bridge from strategy to implementation, and that is where tactical planning becomes essential. Tactical goals are more than solving today’s bottleneck. They work within the strategy to consider implementing new software and processes while keeping production moving. Think of it as changing the tires on a car while it’s in motion. There will be practical concerns as current processes are replaced by automation, including how and when to move off tools that are no longer providing value. Tactics should support the strategic goals and solve the business' specific challenges without adding more hurdles to creating an automated environment. Build the strategic plan for automation to consider the practical implication of automating the current processes, including goals for gaining buy-in from the team members in each department, who may be asked to change how they do their jobs or change positions to accommodate the planned process modifications. Look for onramps to the fully automated business environment for every element in the tactical plan that enables lower cost and higher margins. A part of tactical planning includes your approach to daily operations. To create an efficient environment in 2022, consider a standalone Operational Plan to document the expectations for each department, interface points between departments, and the key performance metrics that will help everyone stay on the strategic course. Automation does not eliminate the need to understand the production touchpoints. The best practice is to document what should happen if you lose access to the automation, too. The last step in planning for automation is to build the appropriate contingency plans. Cloud-based automated workflows protect you from onsite server disruptions and mitigate much of the risk associated with onsite installations when paired with a disciplined backup strategy. What to do next If you plan to automate your print workflow in 2022, look for scalable and easy platforms to integrate with your core business systems. Ensure that your chosen technology partner lets you automate each task within prepress and production and then map those automated tasks together to ensure that each type of job takes the correct journey through each process. Learn your options, and then create a plan that works for you.

admin in News July 22, 2022

Estimable estimators

If they were lucky, the human estimators had an adding machine or desktop calculator to help with the figures. A busy medium-sized printer might have 10 or more full time estimators. Finding and keeping that many specialised estimators could be tricky, as the work was exacting but hardly exciting. Computers were an obvious solution, but the knowledge of how to program for such specialised calculations wasn’t. One of the first UK companies to crack it was what was to become Imprint Business Systems, which is still going strong after 42 years. Today its customers in print and packaging run into the hundreds and many of them have used Imprint systems for at least 25 years. Like most of the early MIS developers, Imprint grew out of the needs of a particular print company, which then used the experience gained to sell to a wider circle or printing and packaging companies. The late 1970s and early 1980s saw a lot of computer estimating start-ups, often with printing company roots. Some of Imprint’s original UK competitors from 40-odd years ago have also survived and prospered independently, such as Optimus (originally Optichrome Computer Systems Ltd, or OCSL), DDS (Accura) and Tharstern, while others were taken over by the ever-expanding EFI empire (such as Prism, Radius, Shuttleworth and Technique). A few others have either merged, or closed, or both. Imprint itself was founded in 1978 by Glennys Bourne and Jonathan Richards. Originally the pair had worked together at the art book printer Shenval Press in Harlow. Richards was general manager, later a director of Shenval, but had learned programming skills at college. Bourne went on to run the nearby Caterpillar Press. Bourne says that the reason for writing the original computer estimating program was a shortage of the trained human variety. “You could not get estimators for love nor money,” she says. So the first estimating program was written to suit the needs of Shenval Press and Caterpillar Press. Bourne saw the potential for Imprint beyond the needs of Shenval and Caterpillar, so the latter was sold to concentrate on the new business. “The Imprint name describes the company well and has stood us well over the years,” says Richards. “As for why the name was chosen, it just seemed a good fit at the time.” Both are still very much involved today. Bourne is CEO, while Jonathan Richards says he’s “allowed to be chairman on high days and holidays”. However, time marches on and their children Will Richards and Nick Bourne have also joined Imprint – the latter now being MD. Today Imprint is based in High Easter, in the countryside between Chelmsford and Bishop’s Stortford, handily close to the M11 and Stansted airport. It employs 16 people in an often overlapping mix of management, programming and customer services roles.

admin in News July 22, 2022

Star product: Zaikio Print Connectivity Platform

What does Zaikio do? Zaikio is a “print-specific connectivity platform,” intended to allow everyone in the print industry to link their systems together, whether printer, software vendor or supplier. End-users can access its connectivity for free, though they can buy compatible Zaikio or third-party products through an app store. According to Zaikio’s partner success manager Karl Ciz, who will handle UK enquiries, it will allow “print-related data to be shared on a level playing field for the first time”. In simple terms, it’s an alternative to JDF that should allow user-level plug-and-play connectivity between systems from different manufacturers – JDF promised but never delivered plug-and-play.

Aug. 2, 2022

Star product: Sitma 1150-FP Fast Pack

What does it do? Sitma’s introduction of the FP-version of its 1150 wrapping machine last year proved prescient in a way that couldn’t be predicted. FP stands for Fast Pack and this model is particularly suited to wrapping variable-sized ‘e-commerce’ goods for mail and courier delivery that have boomed this year. Sitma’s website points out that it can wrap packs of facemasks. The first 1150-FP to be ordered has gone to the US, to “one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world,” that Sitma won’t name but it’s easy to guess. The Fast Pack can also be used for conventional paper or film wrapping of direct mail and publications. When was it launched and what is the target market? Sitma is an Italian company. Its 1150 wrapping line was introduced in 2007 and is one of several wrappers in its range, offering different speeds and price points. All are sold in the UK though Engelmann & Buckham. The Fast Pack was announced last year as a new configuration, joining the existing 1150-FW-PK model, for either paper or polywrapping of printed media; and the PK dedicated to paper wrapping. Richard MacLean, the director at Engelmann & Buckham specialising in Sitma products, says that the Fast Pack is aimed squarely at e-commerce fulfilment, but could help existing DM houses branch out into fulfilment of items other than flat printed papers. Sitma has also recently introduced a dedicated e-commerce fulfilment polywrapper called e-commerce 2.0, which handles single or multiple items of varying shapes and sizes and forms bags around them on the fly. How does it work? The Fast Pack model is primarily intended to wrap using strong brown kraft paper as an automated replacement for hand wrapping or boxing of products, especially variable height flat items such as books, CDs and DVDs. White paper or polywrap can also be used, but is thought less likely in use. Items can be hand-fed on a conveyor into the wrapping area. In 2018 Sitma demonstrated a corobot load/unload unit offline at a mailing exhibition, and now lists this as an option for most of its wrap lines. A barcode reader is used to ensure data integrity with matching of the contents to outer addresses. A label printer-applicator or inline direct inkjet printer can be fitted for addressing and other personalisation.

Aug. 2, 2022

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