03.10.11
Seventy converters and suppliers from across the Midwest US packed the house at Mark Andy’s headquarters in Chesterfield, MO,recently to participate in the first session of the 2011 Harper Road Show, produced by Harper Corporation of America. The focus of the day-long event was short run flexo, and presentations and demonstrations focused on increasing converter profits for short run work using flexo technology.
Presentations were provided by Harper, Actega WIT, FLXON, RotoMetrics, 3M, and DuPont, all with valuable technical information for converters on how to efficiently increase short run productivity throughout the inline flexo press workflow. After the presentations, attendees witnessed a press demonstration in which the Mark Andy Performance Series ran three different jobs, highlighting the press design and emphasizing its short-run capabilities.
Elimination of waste was a message for the press demonstration with material being pulled off the rewind to show a 7’ (2.1 m) material requirement for initial set up of a four-color wine label job on 80T print cylinders. After a version change on the wine label, a health and beauty label run was started, demonstrating a four-color full job changeover in three minutes and changeover waste of 20’ (6.1 m) from the first job to the next. Ease and efficiency of repeat changes were then demonstrated with the changeover to a third job run on 96T cylinders.
In addition to the press demonstration, attendees were guided on a manufacturing floor tour to observe Mark Andy’s progress in its Lean transformation. Lead times have been reduced and output quality increased by focusing on elimination of waste, adoption of standard work and incorporation of visual management tools.
“We are honored that Harper Corporation chose Mark Andy as its inaugural stop in the 2011 Road Show tour. We are always excited to see converters taking an interest in flexo issues and by hosting this tour we have played a role in furthering the education of our existing and future customers,” says Paul Brauss, president of Mark Andy.
Presentations were provided by Harper, Actega WIT, FLXON, RotoMetrics, 3M, and DuPont, all with valuable technical information for converters on how to efficiently increase short run productivity throughout the inline flexo press workflow. After the presentations, attendees witnessed a press demonstration in which the Mark Andy Performance Series ran three different jobs, highlighting the press design and emphasizing its short-run capabilities.
Elimination of waste was a message for the press demonstration with material being pulled off the rewind to show a 7’ (2.1 m) material requirement for initial set up of a four-color wine label job on 80T print cylinders. After a version change on the wine label, a health and beauty label run was started, demonstrating a four-color full job changeover in three minutes and changeover waste of 20’ (6.1 m) from the first job to the next. Ease and efficiency of repeat changes were then demonstrated with the changeover to a third job run on 96T cylinders.
In addition to the press demonstration, attendees were guided on a manufacturing floor tour to observe Mark Andy’s progress in its Lean transformation. Lead times have been reduced and output quality increased by focusing on elimination of waste, adoption of standard work and incorporation of visual management tools.
“We are honored that Harper Corporation chose Mark Andy as its inaugural stop in the 2011 Road Show tour. We are always excited to see converters taking an interest in flexo issues and by hosting this tour we have played a role in furthering the education of our existing and future customers,” says Paul Brauss, president of Mark Andy.