At drupa 2016, Heidelberg is presenting itself as a driving force for the digital transformation. In this corporate-supplied interview, Stephan Plenz, Member of the Management Board, explains how customers can switch from analogue to digital printing and back in the processing of jobs, which role he thinks the new 4D technology will be capable of playing and which growth markets will be in the focus of the newly realigned Heidelberg.
At drupa 2016, Heidelberg is presenting itself as a driving force for the digital transformation. In this corporate-supplied interview, Stephan Plenz, Member of the Management Board, explains how customers can switch from analogue to digital printing and back in the processing of jobs, which role he thinks the new 4D technology will be capable of playing and which growth markets will be in the focus of the newly realigned Heidelberg.
Mr. Plenz, what are the messages that Heidelberg will take along to drupa 2016?
Stephan Plenz: Our drupa motto is ‘Simply Smart’. We will show the industry the way to the digitized future. On show will be a fully integrated, fully networked print shop, our vision of the perfect interaction of equipment, consumables and services – and above all the benefits our customers will be able to derive. All this is based on three columns: the Smart Print Shop“ – i.e., the networked print shop technology, Smart Services – i.e., data based service which supports our customers in the optimal utilization of their equipment and, thirdly, Smart Collaboration, which, to us, means solutions applied in a team with our customers, like, for instance, e-commerce platforms or cloud-based processes.
Heidelberg is realigning itself. What are the key changes?
Plenz: The aims are a stronger focus on growth markets and the customers` wishes. In the past, the focus was partly more on the technologies per se, and less about their concrete benefits. Now we give higher priority to the question how the customers can use our technology, machines and services in order to optimize their value chain and profitability. Whenever a customer saves six min in the changeover from one job to the next thanks to our Prinect workflow management, this will add up to 400 working hours per year with 4000 jobs. We want to show our customers such potentials so that we can exploit them together. Digital workflows play a crucial part. We will highlight digitization also at drupa. However, it is essential to differentiate between digitization and digital printing. We think that the challenge lies above all in the digitization of the total value chain – i.e. Industry 4.0. It is the big lever to more profitability of our customers.
Print 4.0 has been implemented in your Prinect solutions to a very large extent…
Plenz: Absolutely. We have worked on the digital workflow for 15 years, and starting from the raw data of the customers, we proceed to prepress and the settings of the machine as well as the color composition in the printing process. At many companies of the printing industry, Industry 4.0 is already a reality. Offset printing, too, is a fully digital process apart from the clamping of the printing plates. We are the only supplier offering the inclusion of analog and digital printing machines into one and the same process chain operated via a standardized digital frontend. As a result, print shops are free to decide whether they use a digital or an analog process to print a job. Their customers will not see any difference, since the color management of the offset and digital machines from Heidelberg are precisely harmonized. This makes it possible to produce a large print run using an analog process and, if necessary, to reprint the same product with an identical color image in a digital process at the same quality level.
What are the approaches and solutions pursued by Heidelberg for digital printing?
Plenz: We consistently extend our digital printing portfolio. In the market environment characterized by shorter and shorter print runs and frequent job changes, digital printing offers the advantage that practically no set-up and start-up times are needed. With our digital printing machines, we address the traditional printing of advertising material, label printing, direct printing on objects and now packaging printing.[…]
How important is digital printing besides the traditional offset business?
Plenz: Besides packaging printing and consumables, it is the most important growth segment of Heidelberg. Even though offset printing remains the backbone of our company simply due to its size, we must not underestimate digital printing. The customers have limited budgets for investments – and direct them increasingly towards digital printing. Together with our partners in Japan, we are therefore looking for already existing and future, not yet existing business models in this sector. One example is our “Omnifire” 4d technology – which customers can use to personalize and individually print on objects. Be it footballs, packages or, in future, maybe cars or planes. We already have a machine that can print on objects of up to 300 mm in size. Soon the “Omnifire 1000” will be launched which is capable of printing on objects of up to 1 meter in size. Furthermore, we are working on a robot-mounted “Omnifire XL” as an alternative to individual coating.
The development in China gives many printing technology manufacturers a headache. How do you assess the situation?
Plenz: During recent years, China was an extremely good market. We have been active there for a long time, have had a bigger share in the growth than other companies since the beginning of the 1990s, and we have our own manufacturing plant and sales organization with nearly 1000 staff there. China will remain important to us. Nobody is happy about the fluctuations, but we are convinced that there will be a recovery. Undoubtedly, the potential does exist, considering the size of the Chinese home market and increasing consumption.
One last question: Where do you see the printing technology industry and Heidelberg in 2030?
Plenz: The volume of global printing is stable. According to forecasts, it may even increase due to the growth in the packaging segment driven by the emerging and the developing countries. Personalization, too, will probably contribute to a bigger volume of printed products and rising sales. On the other hand, the digital transfer of information will continue to have adverse effects on newspaper and magazine printing. The same applies to reference books, whereas there will still be a large book market in 2030. The printing industry will change radically and open up new markets beyond printing on paper. Printing on objects, for instance, possibly also on 3D “printed” objects. Printing will remain omnipresent in everyday life – and we are firmly convinced that the market will continue to need a reliable partner like Heidelberg.