Old York Road Printing Finds Success with Heidelberg’s Subscription Program

In a year where grocery stores are rushing to keep shelves stocked, Old York Road Printing (OYRP), a division of Double H Plastics, has both drastically sped up its production of food-grade packaging cartons and grown its business – thanks in part to its Heidelberg Subscription partnership, which includes a new Speedmaster XL 106-7+L. The Warminster, Pa., manufacturing facility, which replaced three older Speedmaster presses with the new XL 106, has seen a dramatic increase in gross impressions versus its three former presses combined – over the course of just four months.

90 Jobs in 24 Hours

OYRP’s Subscription contract includes the new Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106 with Push to Stop technology as well as Prinect software, Saphira Consumables, parts, performance consulting, and service. Everything is provided by Heidelberg for a monthly fee including the number of printed sheets produced each month. Heidelberg’s team of performance experts works with OYRP to analyze its operations, and together they work toward the company’s goals for improved production and reduced cost-per-sheet.

“When we set our initial goals with the Heidelberg team, I didn’t believe that this press would produce what they said it would produce, but the new XL 106 is outperforming all of our expectations,” said Tom Chwieroth, Plant Manager for OYRP. Printing entirely on two-sided poly with offset inks and coating, “the hardest material to run through a press,” OYRP is exclusively running its press at 18,000 sheets per hour – the machine’s top speed. Together with the Heidelberg team, OYRP has achieved drastic improvements in all its key performance indicators since the press was installed in April 2020, including significant decreases in makeready time and overall waste and increases in number of daily plate changes and makereadies.

Servicing some of the country’s largest consumer packaged goods (CPG), OYRP prints thousands of different SKUs. According to Chwieroth, “With the XL 106, it’s not unusual for us to change the press over 90 times in 24 hours, and we’re typically running 60 different SKUs in 2 shifts. From the end of one job to the start of the next, our makeready time is only 5 minutes.” In comparison, to run 60 SKUs on the company’s other press, it would take one week just to makeready the press – not including actual run time.

The installation of the XL 106 with the Subscription program came at just the right time for OYRP, who is seeing tremendous growth due to the increase of demand for consumer staples. With the time savings that the company is seeing on the new press, OYRP has been able to open its capacity – enabling the company to take on additional business.

The new Speedmaster XL 106 is equipped with both Push to Stop technology and Prinect Inpress Control – the industry’s leading inline spectrophotometer that measures and controls color and register on the fly at any speed – delivering the first measurable result in less than 60 sheets. “At first, the technology was a change in mindset for our press operators. They were used to making all the necessary incremental adjustments to get every job just right, but now, we just let the press do the work, and it consistently runs at top speed,” said Chwieroth.

The Latest & Greatest Technology, Minimal Upfront Costs

In addition to the technology on the press, OYRP credits the Heidelberg team and Subscription program for much of the success that it is having with the new XL 106. “The Subscription program is the perfect fit for us; we can easily budget monthly based on our known production numbers. Plus, we get the latest and greatest technology with minimal upfront costs,” said Chwieroth. Without the upfront funds needed for the new press, the company has been able to invest in other machinery, which is also helping to accelerate the company’s growth.

Included in its monthly costs are services like Heidelberg’s Preventive Maintenance and monthly Performance Reviews, which help to expose potential problems on a machine before they cause more serious failures or downtime. Chwieroth cites a recent call he received from Heidelberg about malfunctions on the plate hangers on the XL 106 – an issue that he was not aware of previously. “These types of calls are great! The team was able to stop a problem before it ever became a bigger issue or caused us unnecessary downtime. We’re so impressed by what Subscription has done for us in such a short period of time,” said Chwieroth.

OYRP is also seeing success from using Heidelberg’s Prinect workflow, Saphira Consumables, and Original Parts with its new press. “Having everything under one umbrella has just made everything very easy for us,” said Chwieroth. In fact, the company has been so impressed with the Subscription program that it is working on converting its other Heidelberg press to a consumables-based subscription contract.

Source: Heidelberg