Details:
Summary:
Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) is becoming increasingly important and forms a central pillar within print production workflows. Each process throughout the production workflow is having automated systems introduced that are either software or machine driven. This may include features such as automated imposition or servo motors to help machine set up. These are creating very effective individual systems with high production rates. The underlying feature with new product development is improvement of throughput as a result of the systems, and has been the focus of previous TAGA papers. The connectivity between these different systems is critical to ensure effective implementation and ensure that we do not have the so called "islands of automation". To achieve this connectivity one of the main methods being implemented is a JDF enabled workflow. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of an automated system within the bindery to transfer data between different devices and impact the productivity. There will also be a discussion of the product tracking with the systems.
The paper describes an experimental investigation to quantify the time savings that can be made with both automated systems and JDF connectivity in the bindery. In many cases the automation and JDF connectivity are added at the same time and it is difficult to separate the benefits from the two upgrades. This project has focused on the savings that can be made with the following machines in the bindery:
- Cutter
- Stitcher
The benefits of such systems that are implemented will depend very much on the individual workflow of different production facilities. This has been simulated by using different jobs within the production environment and evaluating the time savings of these different production jobs.
The production jobs put through the systems include a diverse range from simple setups to complex situations that require significant planning and testing to get the product produced correctly.
For each of the systems evaluated, three jobs have been created to cover the different complexity scenarios. These have been generated with full JDF job compatibility and could be run on JDF enabled systems. The set up time for the following system configurations were measured for each of the jobs:
- Traditional manual set up
- Automated system (this may include presets in certain instances)
- JDF enabled and automated system
The time saving from automation and JDF are quantified under the different production scenarios for the complexity of jobs. This shows that the benefits gained are a combination of the automation and JDF, the increased complexity of the job provides greater benefit of the JDF enabled system. This is combined with benchmarking information on job throughput to provide the projected savings for different production environments.