Heidelberg says over 3000 print shops are using its cloud-based Customer Portal as a central hub for managing production, with more than 7000 individual users active on the system.
The company positions the portal as a way for printers to digitalise and automate areas including maintenance, materials management and production.
The portal currently offers more than 15 apps, including Maintenance Manager, Inventory Management and Print Shop Analytics. According to Heidelberg, these tools support real-time data use, help avoid downtime, reduce storage costs and improve equipment utilisation. The company also says print shops will soon be able to buy consumables and spare parts in “just two clicks”.
Dr David Schmedding, chief technology & sales officer at Heidelberg, describes the Customer Portal as “a strategic tool for optimising processes and mastering complex workflows in print shops”, adding that “the Customer Portal quite simply makes our customers’ work easier”.
Spectrum Packaging Corporation in Orlando is among users citing benefits. Mark Mills, president, says the Speedmaster XL 106-7+L with Prinect “tripled press speed, reduced makeready times, and elevated color consistency for every job”, with support from the Heidelberg Performance Team and analytics from the portal helping the company “push efficiency even further”.
A new Data Capture app has also been added to the system. It transfers planning and job data to workstations, supports job and status tracking, and supplies operating data for reporting and actual costings.
Marco Rassfeld, head of prepress & CtP at Meinders & Elstermann GmbH & Co. KG, says the app “is self-explanatory”, saves time, draws on a centralised data source, and helps ensure “full use can be made of all available production slots”. He reports a “virtually seamless” rollout with Heidelberg providing “fast and professional support”.
Heidelberg says the portal’s current functions, built largely on Prinect, represent an intermediate stage in its plan to expand automation. Further digital solutions will be integrated with the goal of enabling fully autonomous print production.