When the North Jersey Media Group flips the switch on its new press this month, the publisher will also take the first step in transforming how it does business.

“This is an advancement of technology,” said Rick Ruffino, NJMG’s vice president of technology, about the $60 million the family-owned company is spending to bolster its manufacturing and systems infrastructure at its Rockaway, N.J., production site. “We’re not just replacing technology. We’re establishing a new standard.”

One component

 That said, the press, a WIFAG evolution 371, is just one part of NJMG’s strategic initiative. Ruffino wants to complete the integration of NJMG’s production workflow, from planning through prepress to distribution. Standardization is one part of the equation; automation is the other, Ruffino said.

 

“Computer-integrated manufacturing is the model,” he said, “and we’re building on the work done in other manufacturing markets and industries, using such concepts as lean manufacturing and continuous process improvement.”

Left to right, Goetz Stein, executive member of the supervisory board, WIFAG; Rick Ruffino, vice president of technology, North Jersey Media Group; and Noel McEvoy, director of sales, WIFAG; pose in front of publisher’s newly commissioned WIFAG evolution 371 press.
Photo: NJMG
 

 To be sure, NJMG isn’t the only newspaper publisher to embrace automation and standardization. Detroit Newspaper Partnership laid a similar foundation when it upgraded the plant used to print The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press (see Newspapers & Technology, January 2005). And Newspaper Agency Corp. in Salt Lake City expects automation and management information software to play a huge role in its future operations (see Newspapers & Technology, June 2006).

But NJMG might represent the industry’s most comprehensive laboratory to determine how well CIM can enhance efficient newspaper production.

That’s because the company prints a smorgasbord of publications, from The Record in Bergen County, N.J., and the Herald News in Passaic County, N.J., to dozens of weekly and daily commercial products including USA Today and Financial Times. All told, NJMG’s presses churn out more than 4 million newspapers each week.

If NJMG can harness its myriad production under a centralized workflow and achieve measurable and repeatable results, it may provide a roadmap for other publishers to follow.

At the same time, NJMG, like other newspaper publishers, needs to control costs and maintain profitability. The upgrade in Rockaway will enable the company to shutter a second site in Hackensack, N.J., and consolidate production at a single plant.

In order to maintain the manufacturing capacity needed to print all of its products, the Rockaway plant has been made as efficient as possible, Ruffino said.

“Efficiency and higher plant utilization are lowering our cost per page,” he said. “Make no mistake about it, this is an ROI project. It’s not just a demonstration of how capable a single technology might be; it’s an example of how effective bundling many technologies can be.”

Ruffino and NJMG Chief Executive Officer Jon Markey began laying the groundwork for how the company could upgrade its manufacturing technology in 2002. At the time, companies such as MAN Roland Inc. and Koenig & Bauer AG were touting new press technologies such as the DICOweb digital and Cortina waterless offset press, respectively.

“We monitored all the printing developments at TKS, Mitsubishi and MAN Roland, since we already have their presses, but we didn’t at the time find the technology as advanced as far as digital workflow,” Ruffino said. The DICOweb, which digitally transfers words and images directly to a cylinder, didn’t have the muscle needed to support NJMG’s myriad production requirements, he said.

Foundation for future

WIFAG, however, with its evolution 371 press, seemed to have what NJMG needed.

The 4-by-2 double-wide, 90,000-copy-per-hour machine is equipped with conventional wet web offset as well as image-based closed-loop water, ink and cutoff controlled computer-to-press capabilities.

It also sports the capability for flying plate changes as needed, a key benefit for the continuous production of NJMG’s multiple weekly publications.

ABB’s automation and controls software, shown in blue, will mesh NJMG’s disparate prepress, press and postpress systems.




NJMG’s Ferag jet feeders are part of the upgrade of the publisher’s postpress operations. NJMG tapped Ferag to supply feeders, inserters, unwinders, gripper conveyor and other components.
Photo: NJMG
 

 NJMG is WIFAG’s first U.S. customer for the evolution 371 press, which made its American debut two years ago (see Newspapers & Technology, July 2004).

“What we found here was an excellent offset printing press that has the foundation and architecture to accommodate future technologies,” Ruffino said. By having both conventional and next-generation printing features in a single footprint, the machine “will let us grow in a modular way” as new products, such as rewritable plates, are introduced, he said.

Although NJMG initially purchased a five-tower press, the decision was quickly changed to buy six towers, with an additional two footprints left open to accommodate future growth, Ruffino said. The shaftless press is equipped with a 21-inch cutoff, two independent 2:5:5 folders and a variable web width, permitting the production of various publications from 60 inches (tabloids) to 48 inches (broadsheets).

In addition, the press’ versatility enables NJMG to partition the machine into two separate presses that can either be run straight or collect.

“We have 44 weeklies in addition to our commercial work, so when you look at those numbers, the ability to run multiple jobs is key,” Ruffino said. “Everything we are implementing has to do with process improvement and standardization. We now have 17,000 different leads on our presses, and we will now be able to pare that down to several hundred.”

Flexibility

What’s more, since all of NJMG’s publications will be capable of having full color on every page, the publisher will have the ability to configure the press with all straight-up tower color leads. “If we are eliminating moving web leads around, then the webbing of the press is far faster and we can concentrate on our core business,” Ruffino said.

The press’ automation, meantime, “gives us some of the flexibilities of a single-wide press,” but on a machine robust enough to handle the daily press runs of The Record and other publications, Ruffino said.

In a nod toward demonstrating computer-to-press, NJMG equipped four cylinders with the laser imaging units engineered by WIFAG to permit direct-on-press color imaging, using Agfa’s Thermolite-Plus thermal plates to attach to the cylinder.

“We are testing it and it works,” Ruffino said, adding that deploying the technology throughout the press will depend on the advent of rewritable plates.

 “This is a platform that will allow us to take advantage of rewritable plates when they are available,” he said. “We don’t get the full economic value in the beginning, of course, but as the press’ name implies, this is an evolutionary approach.”

NJMG added more than 25,000 square feet of space to its Rockaway press hall to make room for the press, which joins one MAN Roland Uniset and two Mitsubishi double-wide presses already in operation. Dave Ehrhardt of Dario Designs Inc. oversaw the expansion, which was constructed by Bergen Engineering Co.

Control and command

Once NJMG decided on a press, the next decision was control and workflow software. The company in 2001 deployed software from ppi Media to automate and control part of its workflow, but while NJMG was happy with the apps’ performance, officials did not believe ppi’s software had the horsepower necessary to automate the entire production process.

Instead, NJMG last year tapped ABB for its suite of newspaper workflow, press control and automation software. ABB was appealing for two main reasons, Ruffino said. First, ABB had experience stitching its software to shaftless WIFAG presses already in operation. More important, though, is ABB’s experience as a provider of heavy-duty industrial plant automation software and systems.

The vendor has more than 1,000 companies worldwide that use its latest IT plant automation software, including such firms as Boise Paper, Glaxo SmithKline and Georgia Pacific.

“ABB is historically a plant automation company,” Ruffino said. “What we wanted was a complete suite that was robust, scalable and industrial class.”

NJMG also hired ABB to retrofit the controls on its existing Mitsubishi presses, replacing controls, unit controls and consoles. Now, all three presses are linked together under a single product planning and production app.

“Our focus is on the WIFAG press and plant automation,” he said. “Before, we had some 75 different apps. We’re down to 35 now and (ABB) will let us replace disparate pieces of other vendors’ software, in order to simplify our operations.”

Jeff Gelfand, ABB’s national sales and marketing director, said the NJMG deployment represents the most comprehensive use of ABB’s apps by any newspaper in the world.

“Automation, retrofit, CTP workflow, all of these operations are going to be handled by our software,” he said.

All told, NJMG will roll out 10 ABB apps, including MPS Cockpit, a resource planning app that oversees operations from platemaking to inserting (see box, page 18). As part of its upgrade NJMG installed two Agfa Advantage CLS violet computer-to-plate systems and is ready to take delivery on a third.

“Our core competence is controls and automation, and we have this experience in many industries, including paper, mining and energy,” Gelfand said. “What we are bringing to the newspaper industry is our assurance against future obsolescence. Everything NJMG is doing will be recorded in a database in real time to permit (NJMG) to generate comprehensive production reports.”

Being able to use one app to oversee packaging as well as imaging and printing was another consideration in choosing ABB, Ruffino said. The publisher added 27,000 square feet to its distribution center, anchored by postpress and conveying equipment from Ferag.

Ferag installed UTR gripper conveyor, two MultiSert inserters, one 20:1, the other 28:1, along with four RollStream units, two MultiDisc winders/unwinders and eight stackers. The vendor also integrated the installation of Kodak inkjet printers, Quipp Systems Inc. wrappers and Ovalstrapping strappers, according to Joe Colletti, president and chief executive officer of WRH Marketing Americas, Ferag’s U.S. marketing arm.

All for one

“NJMG’s concept is a fully integrated operation and they view everything as a manufacturing system, so there isn’t any reason why the mailroom can’t be part of that system,” Colletti said. “One of the initial discussions we had was how to mechanically interface with the press to support the speeds needed and to provide the tracking and accountability of product from press to stacker. That was near and dear to their heart,” he said.

Part of the answer was the UTR gripper conveyor. The device can pick up two copies in each gripper, each copy offset from its counterpart by an inch or so.

That lets the WIFAG press run at full speed but reduces the speed of the downstream conveyors by half.

The other key was Ferag’s experience interfacing with MPS Cockpit and ABB’s InsertManager software. “We could easily communicate with the WIFAG and ABB control software,” Colletti said.

To Ruffino, the nexus between the ABB and Ferag software and associated inserting and stacking systems will enable NJMG to attain 99 percent-plus accuracy in inserting and distribution.

“We want to ensure our customers the most accurate and complete product,” Ruffino said of the Ferag equipment, which will be used to handle the daily editions of The Record and the Herald News; existing Goss International Corp. machines will be used for Sunday inserting. Currently, the dailies are running about six inserts each day; the Sunday edition averages more than 30 inserts, Ruffino said.

“We are introducing, with Ferag, a failed attempt system so when a piece is missing, the system will automatically print the name of the missing insert code on the jacket, and we will be able to manually repair it; each zone will be repaired, if needed, before it goes out the door.”