Workflow Automation Smooths Production at California College
About five years ago, the San Joaquin Delta College Publication Center, in Stockton, Calif., retired its offset presses and moved to an all-digital production platform. This consisted of color and monochrome digital devices operated by the in-plant's staff as well as a monochrome digital press available for walk-up traffic.
"The next logical step was to make our workflow as automated and productive as possible," says Manager Gilbert VanOver.
To do this, the in-plant acquired EFI Digital StoreFront Web-to-print and e-commerce software to help it better utilize its new digital printing equipment and deliver more value to the college. Today, all of the Publication Center's systems are interconnected, and many jobs are processed without manual intervention.
Located about 80 miles east of San Francisco, the in-plant has done a remarkable job utilizing its EFI solutions to create an extremely automated and efficient production environment. As a result, working with the Publication Center is a quick and easy process for Delta College employees.
"Much of the work that comes in is pretty straightforward," says VanOver. "Any black-and-white work we don't need to touch comes in through Digital StoreFront and is automatically released for production to our Ricoh 1107s. A job ticket printed on colored stock is inserted between each job, so we simply pull them off of the printer and put them on shelves for pick-up or delivery."
VanOver says as many as 50 to 60 jobs are uploaded every night.
"We come in about 7:00 a.m.," he says, "and by around 12:30 those jobs have been released by my staff and pulled off of the digital presses and stacked on the shelves, ready to go. It's an awesome process."
Well-equipped Operation
The Publication Center is equipped with four Ricoh 1107 EX presses, a Ricoh C651 EX digital color press and a Canon imageRUNNER Pro 125VP digital monochrome press. All digital presses (except one Ricoh 1107 used primarily for walk-up jobs) are equipped with EFI Fiery digital front ends with Fiery Command WorkStation. The Ricoh C651 and Canon imageRUNNER 125 have in-line booklet makers to accommodate the large number of booklets the in-plant produces.
