For a number of years now, Koenig & Bauer has been demonstrating how creative thinking and digital data can be combined to create innovative services and solutions. Many of these developments aim to make processes within print production more efficient. This has allowed press manufacturer Koenig & Bauer to confirm its reputation as a crosssector pioneer in the digitisation of business processes.

Apps can be used to operate a press remotely, to simplify inventory control and the order processes for consumables, to enable orders and stocks to be managed in accordance with current production needs, and to track the use of press consumables on a job-by-job basis. Process, performance and sensor-based data are recorded and evaluated automatically by means of a central platform. Performance reports provide overviews of key parameters and the first predictive services are able to detect abnormal press operation before this leads to an actual breakdown or malfunction. And there is much more to come. Koenig & Bauer is constantly developing new digital solutions to realise added value and process optimisation in daily print production. These currently include Analytics Plus, a new LogoTronic platform and improved detail planning in production control.

Analytics Plus optimises processes

Analytics Plus places print companies in a position to maximise the performance of their Rapida presses and to optimise the associated processes, either working alone or with support from the manufacturer. Delays of one kind or another – whether shorter or longer – are seemingly inevitable over the course of a day’s production. Some are noticed, although their impact is difficult to quantify, and some may not even be noticed at all:

• Incorrect job loaded
• Incorrect plate assignments to the printing units
• Incorrect colour sequence for the selected jobs
• Incorrect paper at the press
• Incorrect press settings used
• Searches for missing tools and consumables
• Reduced printing output
• Long plate changing times
• Mistakes in press set-up

Flexible dashboards offer an immediate overview during all phases of production

All these delays have one thing in common: they lead to production downtimes and have the coresponding negative effects on annual, monthly or weekly profit margins. To enable transparent presentation and an objective assessment of these influencing factors, an evaluation of press and operating data is imperative. Using information received from the press as a basis, the analysis is extended to cover both press related parameters and the current production data. Job histories, production times and much more besides can be visualised using flexible dashboards. Even complex trend analyses that allow the user’s own longterm strategies to be monitored can be realised with just a few clicks. The data can be filtered by diverse criteria, e.g. by persons, time periods, sheet counters, or the make-ready times for a certain paper type, a certain ink or a particular customer. All these functions are cloud-based. Koenig & Bauer helps users to generate plausible assessments of what are frequently complex data, and thereby improve, modify and optimise their production processes. After all, it is only by using straightforward evaluations of the data that valuable conclusions can be drawn to assist production. As an element of the so-called Customer Community, performance reports now contain even more information and allow even greater flexibility in data evaluation. The previous performance report was a static snapshot.

Job processing down to detailed planning

Manufacturing execution systems (MES) and management information systems (MIS) provide the foundations for end-to-end job processing and monitoring. Planning and process control are being simplified in two areas:

• Planning, as a core element of all forms of production control, is to be raised to a new level as a tool to instantly shorten makeready times. To this end, a detailed planning tool is being developed to reduce the time required for those processes which do not contribute to value creation (makeready and auxiliary times) across all cost centres involved in the production process, and thereby allow significant savings to be achieved. Production planning receives support from a smart calculation function which proposes the most efficient path for production for any job.
• LogoTronic will be supplemented with a new platform. Each company makes use of the specific components necessary for its own internal processes. The user can grow within the platform and can unlock those performance capabilities that are required for the corresponding production phases.

End-to-end work

Complete workflow solutions, from job definition through to shipping of the final product, are available for both the packaging and commercial segments. All departments of a print company are covered by the management system, and the relevant information is distributed automatically to all Koenig & Bauer machines. As a system supplier of press and post-press solutions for packaging printers, Koenig & Bauer not only provides the necessary means of production, but also integrates them into a single process workflow. In other words, LogoTronic doesn‘t just communicate with the Rapida sheetfed offset presses – folder-gluers from Duran, die-cutters from Iberica and the digital VariJET 106 are likewise integrated into the production planning and control system. On the basis of all acquired data and communication between the individual systems and machines, the Koenig & Bauer digitalisation solutions create genuine added value for the user.

Background photo: To date, we have been using only a small fraction of the available data for analysis purposes. As with an iceberg, it is now important to utilise the previously unseen or in, our case, unused data for complex trend analyses.

Alexander Stern, Martin Dänhardt