Signtech Case Study
CASE STUDY – SIGNAGE
BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY BY 25% WITH RELIABLE, CONSISTENT COLOR AND LOWER COSTS
Signtech used PrintFactory to achieve consistent colour across their printers and boost production by 25%. Our cloud-based plan also had an impact on staff morale and, as the bottlenecks disappeared, it reduced overtime costs, too.
BACKGROUND
Signtech has been the leading visual communications company in the Channel Islands for more than 20 years.
The team prints on all kinds of material – such as PVC, acrylic, glass, tiles, laptops, wood, aluminium and fabrics – to create wide format signage, vehicle wraps, road-marking collateral and more. Their kit includes three wide-format printers – a HP Latex 570, a Mutoh ValueJet 1638X and a swissQprint Impala 2.
WHAT WERE THE PROBLEMS?
- Inconsistent color over long periods of time
- Wasting media and ink, chasing that color
- Excessive overtime costs (meeting quality standards)
- Only highly skilled staff could correct that color
- Plus, low morale in a team that was always having to solve problems
Signtech wanted to improve their productivity but they were losing time and spending money, constantly chasing color.
The firm’s situation wasn’t made any easier by their setup. Some color drift is inevitable over time, but Signtech uses flatbed and roll-to-roll printers with UV, eco-solvent and latex inks, and it prints on a vast range of media. What was on screen, wasn’t matching the output.
“Print color should match a proof every time, whether jobs are produced minutes or years apart. How hard can it be?!”
Every job’s color profile was finalised correctly, and the print met buyer’s standards for the first run, but – when the same job was done the second time around, later in the year – the team couldn’t get colors to match. And that meant time-consuming changes and bottlenecks on the shop floor.
To make things worse, the existing color management software was something of a headache. Only a few people in the business could make it work and this was having an impact on morale.
Staff were frustrated with production stopping and, at the same time, the overtime bills were going up. Skilled staff committed to doing color corrections was one drain on resources, with the knock-on effect of production teams hanging around, waiting for problems to be solved.
Color matching takes time, wastes ink, and uses unnecessary amounts of media. It’s hard to bill the client for that.
WHAT DID PRINTFACTORY DELIVER?
With PrintFactory software running, color matching is now guaranteed and easy enough for anyone to do. The costly bottlenecks are no more. This new workflow is boosting Signtech’s production by 25%, and team morale is up-up-up!
25%
A 25% BOOST IN PRODUCTIVITY WITH CONSISTENT COLOR AND LOWER COSTS
HOW DID WE DO IT?
Behind the scenes, PrintFactory software uses an algorithm that solves all of the problems caused by color drift.
For the setup, we worked closely with the team to make sure a switch-over didn’t cause disruption. They went for our Production Plan in a Software as a Service (SaaS) format, and we were onsite throughout to get their printers set up and calibrated, first time around. On-site staff training was a given, of course.
PrintFactory’s color management toolkit and device-link profiling technology is now matching visuals and proofs – time after time after time. Our device-link engine is delivering the color quality and consistency that Signtech needed, across all their devices and substrates, and (as theEcoSave module is using less ink without compromising on color fidelity) the bottom-line savings are business-wide.
The team’s much happier too. Everyone in the business can use the software to get that accuracy.
Because they can create profiles in under 10 minutes, the team can take real ownership of the color management process. And, as the device-link profiles are frozen into what’s known as a ‘golden state’, they can also re-calibrate any printers being affected by color drift in just a couple of clicks – essential for jobs that are printed weeks or months apart.
These improvements have boosted the team’s confidence no end. It’s something that Sean Guegan, Managing Director at Signtech, believes is reflected in the quality of the company’s work:
“It’s always a leap of faith to onboard new software, but deploying PrintFactory has been the right move for us – without question.”
WHAT IS COLOR DRIFT?
Colour drift is a change in the color you’re printing, due to things beyond your control. Things like humidity, equipment wear-and-tear, and stock or substrate changes.
PrintFactory fixes color drift. Guaranteed.