Leading postproduction vendors say they’re responding to newspaper demands that their equipment run with rival systems.

“There has been a recognition in the newspaper industry that if they are going to buy equipment from multiple suppliers that all of these systems have to work together,” said Mike Kady, president of Quipp Inc.

Quipp, with postproduction equipment ranging from conveyors and palletizers to inserters at  hundreds of sites, has accelerated the integration and automation capabilities built into the software running its machines, Kady said.

“Material handling organizations have always tried to have some interface capabilities in their equipment,” he said. Newspapers haven’t been as aggressive in demanding that capability as have other industries, but that’s changing quickly, he said.

Kady said as advertisers continue to ask for more specific zoning, that need will continue to grow.

“If you look at the evolution of the mailroom, there is a great deal more inserting and much more zoning control,” Kady said. “We’ve seen a big change.”

Quipp acquired inserter manufacturer USA Leader Inc. last May in a bid to broaden its portfolio, creating additional engineering challenges for the company, Kady said.

“This year has been a real transition year in that we now are involved with inserting,” he said. “Now that we can provide the entire postpress production system, we may begin to drive some of the interfaces (required).”

More focus

Heidelberg has also intensified its integration efforts, according to Doug Gibson, vice president of newspaper sales.

“Our customers all have different systems. We interface with Quipp, Schur, Cannon, whatever it takes,” he said.

Heidelberg, as with nearly all postpress suppliers, has added application programming interfaces and other communication hooks to permit its equipment to pass data back and forth to other systems.

GMA touts SAM, its six-year-old production planning and control software, to users who want to oversee disparate systems, said Phil Jones, GMA’s director of software.

At the Los Angeles Times and South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, SAM enables GMA’s inserters to mesh with HK Systems Inc.’s material tracking control to oversee the delivery of inserts to and from the production line, Jones said.

The app, in combination with GMA’s inserter control, WinLincs, also controls bundlers and Scitex inkjet printers for address labeling.

“The whole packaging and distribution operation is managed electronically to accommodate the changes that routinely occur,” he said.

Redesign equipment

It’s not just the software that’s being tweaked. Gammerler, for example, designed its KL 6000 indexing/compensating stacker to handle multiple products, reflecting inserts of varying page counts and format sizes.

Machine Design Service’s forthcoming Stack N Wrap 40 stacker has been engineered to communicate with press and inkjet systems to automate how specific bundles are created and tracked, said Ron Fransen, the firm’s president.

“We are seeing demands that stackers become smarter, to equalize production properly so that everything performs well,” he said.

The Stack N Wrap will be introduced early next  year, following testing.

Getting knowledge

Finally, Total Mailroom Support Inc. is branching out to offer system integration services, fueled by its merger earlier this year with Newspaper Processing Systems.

“What happened in the past, since most newspapers were working with various vendors and various installation companies, it was difficult to schedule time with all the suppliers to make sure that one piece of the puzzle was in place, it was done so that the other pieces could be used very quickly,” said Tim Higgins, director of sales and marketing.

“Most vendors have reached a point of compatibility, but where they haven’t there is software that can connect the dots,” he said.

NPS’ project management services will go beyond working with TMSI equipment, Higgins said.

“Newspapers want access to much more detailed information than they’ve had from (postproduction) systems. The only way publishers will be able to get their profit margins up is to maximize the output of (mail and distribution) rooms.

“Knowledge is power.”