More than MIS…
Cerm proves inspiring collaboration at drupa
Omni-presence of Cerm at partner booths during drupa demonstrates growing
importance of MIS in print automation process
Bruges, Belgium - March 22, 2016 – At drupa, Cerm will demonstrate that their solution
is more than MIS and drives the complete automation for narrow web printing. During
the event Cerm will show its community engagement through partnerships with
exhibiting industry leaders like Chili publish, ESKO, Heidelberg - Gallus, HP, Xeikon and
many others...
“During the pre-drupa press conference in Bruges on March 16, Cerm is performing an
impressive live demonstration by capturing, processing and digitally printing all images
of attending journalists on a personalized label. The picture is taken upon arrival on
March 16 of each journalist, then personalized on Chili publish, processed on the Esko
Automation Engine and finally printed on the Xeikon presses. All journalists pick up
their personalized set of printed labels the next day at the Xeikon premises. All of this is
driven by the powerful Cerm MIS engine.” explains Peter Heyse, responsible of the
product development at Cerm.
Geert Van Damme, Managing Director at Cerm, explains Cerm’s vision and approach:
“Inspiring collaboration is not just a slogan or tagline for us! Our solution improves
collaboration between all co-workers within the printing company. That is exactly what
an MIS should do. But we go even beyond this by actively developing and integrating
industry partner communication tools on the shop floor. The target is to reduce setup
time and waste in administration and production, streamlining processes within the print
shop. At drupa we want to express this focus with an audacious approach: we will be
present and active everywhere without even have our own booth.”
Delivering as promised: new Web4Labels solution
Peter Dhondt, Head Business Development and Sales at Cerm, explains “We have a
mission at Cerm which says ‘Deliver as promised.’ For over 30 years, Cerm has been doing
just that: developing and delivering comprehensive solutions for the label community
around the world. Our strong industry expertise and commitment to our customers
continues to drive our innovation, ensuring we can meet the demands of the market
today and in the future.”
At drupa, Cerm will release an important new versions of its digital shopfront
Web4Labels. Based upon the remarks of the W4L user group, Cerm decided to entirely
re-engineer the existing tool from scratch. Responsive Web Design will enable the use of
More than MIS…
any device: mobile phone, tablet, portable or desktop computers. Flexible information
grids will give the printer the possibility to customize the information for every
individual customer. These features will lower the threshold for customers to participate
in the printers’ workflow via the Web.
End-to-End workflow solutions at drupa
From Web-ordering up to Delivery in one simple mouse click. That’s what the label
printing industry is aiming for. And Cerm already showed this workflow on many
occasions, thanks to the collaboration with partners from prepress to finishing.
Driving prepress
Back in 2003, Esko and Cerm pioneered the first draft proposals of the JDF-based MIS-toPrepress interface. Meanwhile this interface received global recognition, including a CIP4
award in 2009 and 2012. With today more than 50 operational customers, Cerm is the
undisputed record holder of MIS-to-Esko connections. Both market leaders maintain
intensive collaboration between their development teams, most recently resulting in a
dedicated integrated workflow at a flexible packaging converter.
Similar interfaces for both a one-up workflow and Step-and-Repeat functionalities are
meanwhile available with Heidelberg Prinect (driving the Gallus Labelfire 340 press), with
Hybrid Software and with the Screen Equios workflow.
The upload of product-artwork by the brand owner in Web4Labels is enriched with an
integration with Chili publisher. Customers can introduce variable elements in their
products very easily now, without time-consuming approval workflows, based upon Chili
templates.
Ink-recipe-references and a calculation of the necessary amount of ink for all colours of a
production job can be sent to GSE Ink dispensing systems.
Driving print
The impressive rise of digital print for labels pushed both MIS and prepress software. Even
to the extent that Step-and-Repeat functionalities are now available in many of Digital
Front Ends: Gallus Labelfire 340, HP Indigo, Xeikon X800, Screen.
Including Xeikon presses into the JDF workflow lead to the 2nd CIP4 award last drupa, in
2012. But also flexo presses can benefit from an MIS interface. The Cerm Gallus press-link
can drastically reduce the setup time of the press and will feed back information to the
MIS.
More than MIS…
Heidelberg
Since Heidelberg acquired Cerm in 2011, they rebranded the Cerm software as Prinect
Business Manager to make it an integrated part of the Prinect Software Suite for the offset
market.
This intensive collaboration has lead to two new products, shown at drupa. Next to the
interface to the Gallus Labelfire 340 DFE, including a 1-up workflow, there is a new
automated ganging functionality where both MIS and Prinect Prepress are
communicating intensively to obtain the best possible ‘ganged’ imposition for Wet Glue
Labels, printed on sheets.
Driving finishing
And obviously, when the small-run problem in digital print disappeared, a new bottleneck
in finishing became apparent.
One of the first to benefit from an electronic interface was AVT Camera Inspection. With
a link to the original PDF for image-comparison and instructions for Step-and-Repeat, AVT
can reduce the setup-time of the Camera to zero.
Another early innovator is ABG International. The manual setup time of their slitterrewinder for labels is reduced to less than 1 minute with an MIS interface, providing all
technical information, and an automated setup of the slitter knives.
Geert Van Damme, Managing Director at Cerm, concludes: “At Cerm, we are committed
to developing and delivering solutions that enable our customers to meet the challenges
of the narrow web printing industry today. One of our key strategies is to collaborate with
industry partners. We already celebrated a 10 year collaboration with Esko and a 5 year
collaboration with HP and Xeikon some years ago. And we now continue to re-energize
these partners with new upgrades and innovations to the benefit of our customers. It
feels really good to inspire collaboration.”
You are kindly invited to view and experience all MIS innovations by Cerm at their partner
stands during drupa. The Cerm team will a.o. be present at the Heidelberg booth in Hall 1
and the HP booth in Hall 17.
About Cerm MIS solutions
Cerm’s solution is built around the three communication centers of a print-shop. Every
Cerm communication center will present the appropriate input to the operator and will
give him dedicated tools to produce the desired output. All this information creates an
integrated workflow for the printer - from estimating to invoicing. The powerful tools for
More than MIS…
the operators drive optimization and automation. This goes well beyond just MIS and
enables the management of print shops.
The 3 communication centers :
shopfront : for external communication
Web4Labels is an all-in-one digital shopfront for online quoting and managing
of assets, providing a critical online resource that lets sales people and endcustomers order labels and get quotes remotely.
shopfloor
insight into their operations, including capacity per machine and how to
optimize their machines to reduce change-over times. Stock, inventory and raw
material data, as well as the details for shipping are just one click away.
backoffice
Cerm backoffice includes specific solutions to relieve the practical problems
that come from printing a larger number of different products with smaller
print runs. Produced quantities and shipping information is taken from the
shopfloor to generate shipping notes and invoices.
The printer can start with the functionalities that meet his needs today, then add more as
the business grows.
About Cerm
Founded in 1983, Cerm offers a modular, process-efficient solution designed to meet the
specific needs of narrow web printers around the world. Cerm is an independent vendor,
partnering with industry leaders to form a complete end-to-end business solution for its
customers. Headquartered in Belgium, Cerm has an installed base in Europe, Australia and
North America, with local support. Cerm is part of the Heidelberg group.
Press Contact:
Peter Dhondt
Head Business Development and Sales
[email protected]
www.cerm.net
+ 32 50 83 38 83
linkedin.com/company/cerm
twitter.com/cermmis
facebook.com/cermmis