Service Point Holmbergs, recently acquired by the Paragon group, is one of the largest print houses in Malmö with more than 100 years of experience. Established in 1904, Holmbergs has four main production/service facilities for the complete provision and management of branding, digital production, campaign solutions and bespoke point-of-sale for major retailers and corporate clients.
An early pioneer of digital print technologies, Holmbergs installed an Océ VarioStream 9210 with online perfect binding equipment to produce books in short runs (50-700 copies) in 2007. They enhanced this production in 2009 by investing in two Océ VarioPrint 6000 engines giving them unparalleled substrate versatility. A further investment in an Océ ColorStream 3000 series added the speed and quality of a continuous feed inkjet solution, working closely with Canon to find the right tools to fit into Holmbergs’ successful existing workflow, which paved the way for plans for growth in the future.
Workflow automation
“Holmbergs has always strived to be at the forefront of the publishing market driving innovations in print,” said Fredrik Borg, Acting CEO at Holmbergs. “Listening to publishers’ challenges and attending to their needs has always been a key driver in keeping ahead of the competition. The ever-increasing demand for single copy print runs led us to invest in a workflow solution based on PRISMAproduction, a move which put Holmbergs in a position to automate its workflow to create a viable ‘book of one’ business model – on-demand digital printing of books down to a quantity of just one edition as a part of a larger batch.” PRISMA is connected to Holmbergs’ existing MIS system for automated job and dispatch handling, monitoring and tracking of a single book, while ensuring the printing equipment runs at highest productivity with less human intervention.
Batching is key
Using the book module from PRISMAproduction jobs are batched as they arrive. Holmbergs has several different batches set up under specific criteria including paper types and formats. Each day at 17.00 all jobs received are automatically imposed in their particular batch, released and routed to their designated printer. The workflow handles all elements of each book, including innerworks , cover, dustcovers and reprints.
As part of the enhancements to the data workflow, PRISMA can automatically add unique barcodes used for individual reprints and finishing devices, plus other important operator information and picklist data. On the personalisation side, Holmbergs embraces the unique capabilities of digital printing, including adding on-the-fly logos, images, static and dynamic text insertion and ISBN barcodes to their printed books as part of the workflow.
Leap to inkjet colour with Océ ColorStream 3500
The success of the automated ‘book of one’ production process led to large volume increases at the Holmberg plant. This market demand and the development in inkjet colour were incremental in their decision to augment their production with the Océ ColorStream 3500 in 2013. Holmbergs runs this printer in combination with a Technau LaserMax streamfolder and cutter. This latest equipment, plus the highly efficient workflow solution developed together with Canon, allows them to produce 2,500 unique titles a day, down to one copy per order. Due to increasing demands in the market, they forecast producing 3,000 unique books per day in 2015.
Holmbergs is a great example of a business that understands the requirements of their markets and that process optimisation within the workflow leads the way to building a successful digital book printing business. With book-of-one, Service Point Holmbergs is suited to handle an increased number of titles, reduce inventory, lower costs and shorten delivery time for their customers
The Canon solution and range of print output options has given Holmbergs the upmost capability on workflow and substrates,” said Borg. “But also the highly consistent and very similar print quality from both the VarioStream 6000 and the ColorStream 3500 has given us enormous flexibility in our production environment, enabling us to deliver a consistently high quality finished product, quickly, efficiently and reliably.
