Consumables

How Much is Left on the Roll?

Thursday 19. July 2012 - Look at this everyday scenario from your print-shop floor: You have a 17 meter long job to print on PVC banner. On the PVC banner shelf in your media storage there are several used rolls that seem just about the right length. How can you tell which one of them actually has enough media on it?

Obviously, you do not want to run short. On the other hand, you don’t want to get stuck with a small leftover that is not long enough for anything.
Printshop media storage
We held a little test among more than 20 experienced production managers at wide-format printing plants. We asked them to estimate how many meters of media were left on this previously used role just by looking at it. Only one of them got it exactly right. Of course, I do not question the professionalism of those managers. It just goes to demonstrate how hard it is to tell if a specific roll has enough media on it for your next print job.
Barak 8Q Media Saving Wizard
The Barak 8Q Media Saving Wizard changes the entire approach to media management. No more mistakes resulting from falseroll length calculations. From now on each roll of media will be utilized to the end.
In real life, it happens too often that a roll will run out of media before the job is completed. This results in the need to reprint the entire job, wasting precious machine time, media and ink, not to mention the delays in schedule. Or else quality is compromised when pieces have to be seamed together, also wasting time and money on otherwise unnecessary finishing.
In support of our customer’s stock management, Matan’s R&D came up with an exciting new feature that was included in the new Barak 8Q front-end software: The Media Saving Wizard. This is how the new Barak 8Q workflow goes: Each time a new media roll is loaded, the software dialog prompts the user to enter the media length. While the job is being printed, the software calculates the length of the consumed media. Just before replacing that roll for the next job, the operator issues a command to print a stamp on the rim of the media, that includes the amount of media left on the roll and the date the roll was last used. The next time the same media is needed, the operator will check the stamp to ensure that the remaining length is sufficient for the print job.
Once you start using this feature, your print shop’s entire media stock will be managed and you will never again experience media roll length miscalculations. In addition to reducing unnecessary media wasting, this new workflow also saves money and reduces cost of ownership.
Stay tuned for more Barak 8Q productivity features.