In the digital fast lane with uTraxx

Digitalization has long since transformed the printing industry. Who still prints posters and glues them onto billboards? Okay, that still exists. But more and more often, advertising messages—even news—appear on large screens in airports and train stations. Product information and brochures are no longer handed out in print but are available online as PDFs or dynamically generated from databases on websites.

In many areas, value creation is flowing away from the graphic industry. That’s a fact. But one important point is often forgotten: no matter the medium in which information appears, the human being it aims to reach has not changed.

And this is where the graphic industry comes into play: it can do more than just duplicate! Over centuries, the industry has built profound knowledge about how information needs to be prepared so that it can be quickly and fully absorbed by the human brain.

Right now, new, dynamic value chains are emerging in the industry. Of course, there are large printing companies that want to offer everything under one roof, which leads to very high complexity. But more and more often, there are also smaller companies that specialize in a niche and serve a specific customer base looking exactly for that specialty.

One way out of this niche existence is cooperation with other specialists and/or a traditional commercial printer. In such cases, the commercial printer can offer specialty products, and the specialist can offer standard commercial printing. uTraxx supports the cooperation of several companies with its cross-company model: companies offer products jointly, but the actual production always takes place where the specific part can be produced most efficiently.

Even in such a collaboration, complexity quickly reaches a level that cannot be managed satisfactorily—let alone transparently and in real time—using Excel spreadsheets. Add misunderstandings and email back-and-forth into the mix, and the advantages of cooperation disappear quickly.

In such cases, implementing a cloud-based ERP system can lay the foundation for successful cooperation. Small companies can then work with the same tools, technologies, and automation capabilities as large enterprises.

uTraxx has recognized this and, when a new print job is created, calculates all possible variants on all available production systems and compares them with each other. The AI installed by uTraxx takes a fraction of a second to determine how the desired print runs and types can be produced at the lowest cost, using which process, on which sheet size, and with which production method. It is not uncommon for the AI to suggest innovative solutions. Or it compares the price for different print runs if they have not yet been finalized. Then, for example, the digital printing machine “wins” for a print run of 100 copies, and the 70x100 sheetfed offset machine is the “winner” for a print run of 1000 or more. Where exactly the intersection between digital and offset lies depends largely on the type of job, but also on the degree of automation of the production equipment in question. Often, the intersection shifts after the installation of new production equipment. While humans still rely on their old, learned experience, uTraxx's AI finds the most cost-effective production method and thus the perfect imposition.

Once the imposition has been found, the information flows directly via JDF stripping into the downstream workflow and thus into production. The automated imposition process eliminates the tedious and often error-prone reconstruction of impositions. On the contrary, production is standardized: no matter who enters the order, the AI always finds the same production path for the same case, and the downstream production steps during processing are also standardized. The 16-page brochure then goes through the same production steps as the 32-page brochure – even though different employees with different experiences and preferences calculate these products. Errors in cutting, folding, binding, and expensive changeover times from one type of fold to another are minimized without the need for new work instructions or training.

Agency solution, cross-company, automatic imposition, CO2 avoidance: with the new tools in the ERP system, uTraxx is in the digital fast lane—and so are its customers.