Supporting on-press OEE in packaging repro

For label and packaging printers around the world, pressure to deliver high volumes, outstanding quality and sustainable operations is at an all-time high. It can feel a lot like spinning plates as demands spike, trends change and technology progresses.

At Creation, our team of packaging professionals understands prepress operations like no other, able to give our packaging and label printing customers of every size the tools to succeed. The team specialises in reducing and removing potentially costly defects in the flexographic print supply chain with guidance and insight on the intricacies of print behaviour.

Creation offers support for printers looking to support on-press OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) – but what makes it so important?

The OEE metric

In a volatile commercial market, printers need to take every available commercial advantage. This means every piece of the puzzle needs to be carefully selected to provide maximum value for the printer.

OEE is a metric that helps printers measure how well equipment performs over time, as well as gauging the impact of changes to production workflows. Simply, OEE is a measurement that helps printers monitor the long-term value of a particular piece of equipment.

Calculated by multiplying the Speed Index (Average equipment speed over maximum) by the Quality index (Total of definably high-quality products over total) by the Time index (Total production time over total available time), OEE provides a useful metric for printers in benchmarking equipment.

Creation supporting OEE

There are common issues for printers in boosting OEE from their equipment – but Creation can provide solutions that extract greater value throughout the print process and answer any packaging challenge.

“Our plates come to colour too slowly”

Creation offers fantastic Asahi AWP™ water washable flexographic plate technology. As well as removing harmful solvent washout from the pre-press process, the technology has pinning dot technology, to combine speed and performance in one package. Dot pinning also reduces text haloing, a common challenge for printers.

“My print quality isn’t consistent enough, especially on older presses”

The Asahi AWP™ plate range achieves ‘kiss-touch’ printing, even on older print lines and presses. As well as providing consistently high quality and negative excessive dot gain, this also makes better use of time, resources, energy and ink.

“Our jobs aren’t matching on press – and it’s costing us time”

Designed to make the origination process simpler across different substrates and inks, Creation uses spectrophotometers produced by GMG, Esko and X-Rite. By getting print right first time, every time, lifespan and return on each individual component of print is increased.

OEE Calculator

On our website, you’ll also find our OEE Calculator. The easy-to-use form plots plate effectiveness against the Asahi AWP™ water-washable plates to show where additional advantages can be found for printers. Click here to try it out.

Make Creation Reprographics your go-to prepress partner and take advantage of our experienced team of packaging pros that help to turn ‘good on-screen’ to ‘outstanding on-shelf’.

With unmatched expertise in inks, equipment and origination, Creation can support printers of every size and help to deliver the print excellence demanded from today’s fast-paced market.

Looking to learn more? Click here to contact our team.