Acoupon printer in St Petersburg, Florida has become one of the USA’s best arguments for re-equipment, reaping the benefits of a new plant reported to have cost only US$200 million. It seems Cox Target Media – best known for their blue Valpak coupon envelopes – got a lot of bang for their bucks. And it’s all about these magic savings envelopes: The Valpak direct marketing business delivers more than 45 million of them to homes in the USA and Canada every month. Specifically, that’s 20 billion offers inserted in nearly 530 million envelopes. By tackling the short runs head on, Cox has been able to reverse a trend which was tending to make editions larger when the business model dictated that they should be smaller. Cox manufacturing vice president David Fox says historically, the company had tried to maximise run length and minimise changeovers: “But our business model is built upon being able to narrow each market segmentation down to 10,000 households (neighbourhood trade areas).” By making the content different for each area, the Valpak envelopes provide better targeting and versioning for advertisers ... and the changeover technology makes this possible. Goss’s automatic transfer job changeover technology is a key element in a system which has turned a job which previously took four days into one taking about four hours. Two Sunday 4000 heatset presses – designed to run at 12.7 metres/minute (about 100,000 iph) – each have eight AT printing units, allowing one set to be prepared for the next job while the other four units are running... with changeovers every 12 minutes possible. There’s a host of other equipment including Foldex ribbon decks and Müller Martini inline finishing, which typically turn each signature from the 1980 mm web width, 890 mm circumference into 88 DL-sized coupons. Capacity for the two lines is estimated at 54 billion coupons a year. The Müller Martini equipment includes overhead conveyors and 12 PrintRoll winding stations. Further downstream are nine Böwe Bell & Howell collators and other equipment to process the coupons and inserts, prior to inkjet addressing and sorting into postal trays. About 16,000 filled envelopes are produced an hour. Goss Omnicon press controls including a closed-loop colour quality management system, work with the AT systems, presetting, monitoring and adjusting the press automatically, turning a standard inker into a dynamic inker to further reduce waste.Workflow modules integrate with Valpak’s production control and MIS systems, and link with Kodak thermal CTP and transport systems on the front end, and finishing and distribution systems (running Müller Martini control software) at the back. Eight or ten handling stages for each coupon have been replaced with a process in which reeled paper goes in at one end and delivery-ready coupons exit at the other without human contact. “In essence, the coupon itself is very simple, but its production is quite complex,” he says. The entire operation, including the presses, prepress and postpress equipment, and software controls, provides a futuristic example of advanced lean manufacturing applied to print. “Everything is done through automation,” says Fox. Jumping instantly and automatically from one print run to the next every 12-20 minutes – instead of stopping for each change – makes the 10,000-copy editions “almost as efficient as long-run printing”. Finding jobs for displaced staff fits a philosophy The journey towards this year’s commissioning began when consultant Chuck Blevins was briefed to reengineer its manufacturing process in 2003. Construction work started in 2005 with an award-winning 44,000 m2 manufacturing and office space, which puts about four hectares under one roof. Total cost was US$200 million ($233.6 million), but president and chief executive of Cox Target Media Bill Disbrow expects the project will pay for itself in six or seven years. The company is a subsidiary of Atlanta-based publisher Cox Newspapers, in turn part of the privately-owned Cox Enterprises media conglomerate which had 2007 turnover of US$15 billion. Cox owns 17 daily and 26 non-daily newspapers. Famously, Cox advertised for a new employer for 300-odd staff at its Elm City, North Carolina, plant – one of two which have been replaced by the Florida centre (the other was in Largo, Florida) – with the old production facility thrown in. Even for a company which claims its employees “are our most important resource”, this was an unusual step. Disbrow promised “the best effort we possibly could” to find jobs for those of the 440 staff who weren’t moving to Florida, and eventually found a Minnesota direct marketing firm which wanted the plant and the people. A US$19 million investment is adding 100 more jobs and will be partially offset by an estimated $750,000 in government aid. gx