Reprography
KAHLE GmbH
40 years of growth in print
Objective
Company Name
KAHLE GmbH
Industry
Reprography
Founded
1974
Location
Nuremberg
To increase print job speed, delivery
and productivity, specifically around
CAD drawing workflow, to achieve
sustained business progression
Challenges
• Operating near capacity
• Great pressure to fulfill orders
on time
• Relatively high business costs
Results
Monthly print volume
increased by 50%
Costs reduced by 30
per cent
Delivery times reduced
30 per cent
• Limited possible business
expansion
Reduced staff overtime
Services
Colour CAD, technical drawings
Approach
Website
www.kahle-repro.de
The installation of a new print
solution with unparalleled speed
and cost-effective production
capabilities
Launched a new pricing
model
Relationship with Canon
20 years
The Canon Solution
Two Canon Océ ColorWave 900
Securing biggest print
order in 36-year history
Working in partnership
Average monthly print volume
increased to
30,000
m2
“”
A design for success
While the technology
40 years of growth in print
KAHLE, a family-owned
reprographer serving architects,
construction companies, local
councils and utility companies,
launched in Nuremberg in 1974.
Since then, the market for technical
colour drawings and other printing
solutions has grown exponentially;
and the business has followed suit.
Market conditions rarely stagnate
and KAHLE recently needed to
adapt its business to meet growth
in international demand, amid fierce
domestic price competition on
colour CAD drawings.
The motivation for change
“”
We realised that we
needed to invest
to maintain our
leadership position.
Once you’re known
for outperforming
the market, business
is good. But you
have to work hard
and push yourself to
maintain that position
and break into new
markets.
Dan Batek,
Technology and Finance,
KAHLE
Firstly, an investigation of KAHLE’s
existing print solution was
conducted to fully-understand
the business and its challenges.
After this process, the team
recommended replacing KAHLE’s
smaller legacy printers with two
Canon Océ ColorWave 900 printers
which would offer unparalleled
speed and cost-effective production,
whilst reducing the company’s print
operation space.
Enabling growth was the most
important goal for this project.
KAHLE’s print environment was
already highly-productive, but it
needed to increase print job speed,
delivery and productivity, specifically
around its CAD drawing workflow,
to achieve sustained progression. In
particular, international expansion was
important for KAHLE’s development
strategy. KAHLE needed to compete
head-to-head with rivals for even
larger colour print jobs. The market
had become fiercely competitive over
price and KAHLE wanted to respond
by uncovering greater workflow cost
efficiencies.
While growth is a natural goal for
any business, KAHLE also recognised
there were other challenges it needed
to overcome. The company was
operating near capacity and its staff
were working under great pressure
to fulfil orders; with the team often
working late into the night to meet
demand. KAHLE needed a way to
increase print capacity to more
efficiently manage the volume – thus
reducing expensive overtime costs
and staff pressure.
Dan Batek
“”
In many ways, we
had maximised our
existing market
opportunity. We
needed to do
something significant
to take our business
to the next level.
As a trusted partner of over 20 years,
KAHLE turned to Canon for advice.
It was a challenging brief – to deliver
domestic and international growth,
maintain print quality, meeting
customer requirements, boosting
productivity and mitigating print costs.
“We started working with Canon as
a wide-format print customer many
years ago,” says Dan Batek. “Since
then, we have become very familiar
with its extensive support, services
and expertise. While we spoke to other
manufacturers to see what the market
had to offer, we knew they would be
the best choice.”
is important, of
course, it wasn’t the
only reason that I
chose Canon. The
service package
that comes with
its devices, which
includes aftercare,
training and support,
was what sealed
the deal for us.
Based on previous
experience, I knew
they would work with
us to ensure that
we received a print
solution that would
change our business.
Dan Batek
15%
Costs reduced by
30%
Word of mouth alone has seen recurring,
large-scale, print orders really increase, both
locally, and on an international level,” says Dan
Batek . “Upgrading our print infrastructure with
new devices has helped us reinforce our reputation
for quality and efficiency; and grow our market
share by ten per cent
The improvements in two areas
in particular – the CAD drawing
workflow and overall print volume –
have supported KAHLE in servicing
existing demand and winning more
large-scale colour print jobs. Its
average monthly print volume has
increased to 30,000 m2, meaning
that it is able to confidently pitch for
larger, international tenders.
KAHLE has witnessed a significant
increase in efficiency in virtually
all areas. Costs have been reduced
by 30 per cent in comparison to
using the legacy printers – a striking
improvement. Print speeds are
faster, productivity and uptime are
improved and delivery times have
been cut by 30 per cent.
Typical CAD print projects can span
between one and ten prints, and
the challenge for KAHLE’s staff had
always been to deliver these jobs
at the high quality the customers
expect without adding night or
weekend shifts. With the new, fully
integrated workflow, employees
can now deliver complete print
jobs within regular working hours.
This has enabled them to focus on
providing consultancy and higher
levels of customer service and
support.
“Our staff can now work smarter,
not harder,” says Dan Batek .
“They no longer have to spend
time on administrative tasks or
maintaining the physical workflow
of individual print jobs. They can
also comfortably deliver print jobs
within working hours, so their worklife balance is vastly improved.”
The new solution has changed
the way that KAHLE structures its
workflow. For example, print jobs
were previously organised by time
and volume. KAHLE completed the
smaller jobs quickly and pushed
the larger jobs into the night –
when things were quieter and the
printers can be used simultaneously.
Now KAHLE has the capability to
add large and urgent jobs to its
workflow, at any time, no matter
their size.
“Adding a print job with 100
to 200 plans to our existing
workload doesn’t throw us off
course anymore,” says Dan Batek .
“Recently a customer came into the
store one afternoon and asked us
to print 360 plans for a meeting the
following morning. We just smiled.
With our new machines, this kind
of job takes 20 minutes and we
just add it to the existing workflow.
This is the luxury of having the new
machines – we can print orders as
they come in.”
The efficiencies delivered by the
new solution underpinned KAHLE’s
printing operation with an extra
layer of reliability. The company has
been able to reduce delivery times
and boost its adherence to very
tight customer delivery schedules.
KAHLE has also been able to unveil
a new, more competitive pricing
model for its clients.
“We want to make it as easy for our
customer as possible,” comments
Dan Batek . “Canon has helped
us to deliver the complete range
of printing needs, regardless of
the type of job or its complexity.
Whatever the need, we can always
find a way to deliver the best quality
job for our customers.”
Canon Inc.
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Canon Europe Ltd
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Stockley Park,
Uxbridge,
Middlesex
UB11 1ET UK
Breaking into the big time
With Canon’s support, KAHLE
was successful in securing the
biggest print order in its 36year history. The customer had
approached competitors, who
expressed concerns about the job
volume, complexity and technical
requirements. KAHLE took the
opposite approach and its ‘can do’
attitude won the business.
The nine-month project required
KAHLE to deliver 60,000
construction plans; with a printing
time of just six weeks. KAHLE
turned to Canon for help in setting
up the print job and also to ensure a
continuous supply of consumables.
This mammoth undertaking saw
KAHLE using two palettes of A4,
two palettes of A1 plot and one
palette of A0 plot per week.
“We want to make it as easy for our
customer as possible,” comments
Dan Batek . “Canon has helped us to
deliver the complete range of printing
needs, regardless of the type of job or
its complexity. Whatever the need, we
can always find a way to deliver the
best quality job for our customers.”
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Delivery times cut by
30%
Discover more
canon-europe.com/lfp