Paper Cutters — Honing a Competitive Edge

"There also could be operator resistance. I've been in shops where the first- and second-shift operators will cut the same job two different ways. The end result is the same, but the sequence of the steps followed is different," Marr says.

CIP4/JDF still is being refined and isn't an exact standard that manufacturers can generically implement, agrees Bret Stow, marketing director at Perfecta-USA in Indianapolis. Stow says he's starting to see a trend in which buyers want cutters that are CIP4 capable, but the shops are just positioning themselves to implement the technology in the next couple years—not now. Perfecta already has the necessary ports and basic software in place on its cutters, he notes.