Heidelberg wants printers to go with the flow

There was an unusual feeling in the air at Heidelberg last week – one of optimism. Perhaps this was because the company had pocketed a huge number of orders at Drupa; perhaps it was the effect of a new CEO to lead a changed organisational structure; perhaps that renewed interest in print has reached Wiesloch. Perhaps what is happening is a combination of all these with a judicious sprinkling of technology development. While many of these will have been underway under an earlier regime, the latest team will have the chance to reap the rewards. This will play out over the next nine months until Heidelberg celebrates its 175th anniversary in June next year.

Underpinning this is a changed strategy with Heidelberg embracing digital printing, and placing the printing press itself into a system starting with file arrival to delivery of a finished job. It is a structure that emphasises the way that tasks flow into each other, requiring a flow of data about the work in progress. This is essential for Heidelberg. A press capable of running at 20,000sph is hobbled if it is not possible to handle those printed sheets at the same rate. The inevitable result will be missed deadlines and deliveries and a company that struggles to survive.

Thus Heidelberg needs to produce not only a press but a production flow, that is something that is no longer an all-Heidelberg affair from imaging plates to folded and bound products, but one that recognises third-party suppliers across the spectrum. In order to achieve this, a cultural shift is necessary. That as much as the challenge of creating the AI enabled software is the biggest barrier to overcome, among customers as much as for its own staff. Heidelberg has started to call itself an integration company. And it has very good reasons to do so.