Seidl's Bindery — Lone Star Finisher

By Chris Bauer

Managing Editor

The phrase, "Houston, we have a problem," is not a sentence often uttered by customers of Houston-based Seidl's Bindery. Bill Seidl works hard to make sure of that.

"Our primary goal is to eliminate problems on the front end," Seidl explains. "Before a job gets to us, we want to be involved in the production or the layout. Or, when it gets to us, it is important to have both our CSR and preflight departments catch any errors before we are into the job for three days and then find out there is a problem. Our goal for this year is to continue to improve on that."

This includes putting a very experienced employee on preflighting detail, and preflighting every job.

Seidl's Bindery was founded in 1975 by the Seidl family. Bill Seidl, along with wife, Jeannie, bought the company in 1986, and moved it into a 20,000-square-foot facility located in northwest Houston. From there, they built the business from the ground up. There were 20 employees at the time of the buyout. The trade bindery currently has more than 100 employees, has added 17,000 square feet of facility space and 10,000 square feet of storage space, runs two shifts year round, and can offer 24 hour service. With an emphasis on customer service, reliability and trust, Seidl's has evolved into a bindery that it's customers can count on.

Staying Focused

Seidl's Bindery is committed to a company-wide program for continuous improvement. Its management and employees, as a team, recognize the dedication necessary to produce products that meet or exceed customers' expectations. Seidl stresses that the company focuses constant attention on every step of every process to ensure that jobs are done right. The goal is to do it right every time.

While being committed to customers is important, the move that really surged the company ahead was when, six years ago, Seidl decided to get into what he calls "big-league perfect binding." The company moved away from smaller perfect binders and moved to larger Kolbus lines. They also started using 100 percent PUR (polyurethane reactive) adhesives for perfect binding.

"That really put us on the map, and from there we just got into more specialized items. We developed a niche where no one else was—and we have been successful at it."

PUR adhesives differ from conventional hot melts in that they cure by crosslinking via a chemical reaction with moisture contained in the paper stock or surrounding air. Once cured, the adhesive's higher molecular weight provides a tough, pliable bond that is resistant to temperature extremes. PUR adhesives, Seidl says, deliver distinct performance benefits over typical binding adhesives.

"PUR is the strongest, most flexible and versatile binding adhesive available," he declares. "Those properties have also made it popular for use in automobiles and aircraft, which should give you a good indication of how well it holds books together. The page pull strength of a PUR-bound book is more than two-and-a-half times that of a standard perfect-bound book using EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) adhesive. Books bound with PUR adhesive simply will not fall apart, even under heavy usage in the most demanding conditions."

Seidl recalls running into problems with the way paper qualities were changing—especially with fibers getting shorter—and with different coatings that printers were starting to use. The result: books were falling apart—which is the worst complaint a binder can get from a customer, he remarks. So the company decided to make a move to PUR.

"It was new technology, but we weren't going to get into this competitive game and be like everyone else," Seidl asserts. "We wanted to be the top dog. To me, PUR is a no-brainer—it's the cheapest insurance you can possibly buy. You never have to worry about a book falling apart, and that is good for you and your customer."

This is especially true now. With work getting shipped nationally, binderies don't know if they are sending a book to below-freezing temperatures or out to the Mohave Desert, Seidl stresses. So offering a durable product has really paid off. He feels it was well worth the expense right from the start.

According to Robert West, who is a former part-owner of another area finishing company and a competitor of Seidl's Bindery for years—but who now works in sales for Seidl—notes that he came on board because of the company's equipment, as well as its quality of work and good CSRs.

"We have a lot to offer that our competitors don't have, as far as the gluing capabilities," West points out. "Most of them are doing it the old way, but we have the newest equipment. We are constantly updating technology, and have been for years. That is really important to our customers."

Constantly Updating

Seidl's Bindery is always purchasing new equipment. In the last two years, it has installed a complete diemaking shop with a plotter, CAD/CAM system and high-speed diecutter. The company also recently purchased a new, fully automated, eight-station Muller Martini Bravo AMRYS saddle stitcher, which Bill Seidl credits with cutting down makeready times. It has also added onto the automatic Wire-O binding department for doing calendar hangers and skip binding.

The addition of a second perfect binding line is in the works. The facility is also currently looking into doing more pick-and-place work and considering a venture into ink-jetting.

With all of the new gear moving into the shop, employee training becomes a concern. At Seidl's, the management believes in continuous training, even for its most experienced employees.

"We have found that if you bring someone in and they know a little bit about what they are doing, or have been working in some other location, that they have a lot of bad habits," Seidl contends. "Or they are not up to our production speeds or quality levels. We find it better to retrain them, send them to the manufacturer or have the manufacturer come in, and set goals right up front."

He adds that it is getting harder and harder to find truly experienced finishing employees—the true journeyman that is skilled in four or five different areas of the bindery. So the company cross-trains its workers to make sure that they can run a minimum of three machines.

"We are constantly trying to upgrade our staff," West states. "If there is someone who we feel can be an asset to our operation, and we can get them, we will hire them."

Now, with today's new automated equipment available, bindery employees have to be a little more computer savvy, the company execs agree. But it helps that a lot of job presetting is now possible. All of the equipment that Seidl's is obtaining is CIP3/4 compatible, so some files now come in with the job already set up. Seidl feels that full implementation of CIP3/4 is still up the road a little bit, but he has plans to keep his firm on the front edge of the technology.

This is good news for printers. Many printers invested in full bindery capabilities in the past, Seidl says, but were not able to keep the machines running to full capacity. That is where full-service binderies come in.

"We have found that a lot of printers were going more and more in-house in the past, but they are now going back to making partnerships with outside finishers so they can spend their money on presses and printing. If you can't keep your bindery running to the same capacity level as your presses, why have that money sit on your floor wasting?" he asks, rhetorically.

Even though he sees a surge in the need for outside bindery services by printers, Seidl assesses that there will be a weeding out of some binderies. He feels that finishers that are able to foresee the needs of customers and fulfill them before anybody else does will flourish.

"That is what we see for 2004—just specializing and automating our processes, and getting away from having to do anything by hand."

West concludes that by continuing to move forward with capital investments and by producing quality work, the company will remain a top bindery.

"We aren't afraid to invest in new technology," he promises. "When there is a market out there for something, we are willing to be the first to get into it. That has always been our company's philosophy, and that is why we've been so successful. You have to take risks and constantly do research, and then be willing to invest in new ventures."