Vendors Team Up for CIM Road Show

ROLLING MEADOWS, IL—Creo, Printcafe and MAN Roland have joined forces for a continent-wide seminar series that explores the productivity benefits provided by computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM).

Titled "CIM in Print: It Is Here. It Is Working. It Is Ready for You," the free seminars are designed to provide practical recommendations on how printers can utilize computer-integrated manufacturing to streamline their workflows and maximize their use of automation.

Printers who attend this half-day event will discover how CIM can put a competitive edge on their workflows and help them win new business, according to the organizers.

"The advantage of our CIM seminar is that it covers all print production, prepress, MIS and postpress in one morning," says Christian Cerfontaine, director of marketing for MAN Roland. "That gives participants a big-picture perspective on CIM so they can better understand how it can fit into their own production scenarios. And they'll get it all in the course of a few hours because we're assembling all of the experts in one place, at one time."

The seminar begins with an introduction and presentation by a member of the CIP4 consortium, reporting on progress with the JDF standard. Creo will then present an overview of its work to link printers' prepress workflows with their management systems and with their customers. The presentation highlights the abilities of Synapse Insite and Synapse Link to collect and share valuable production information. A demonstration of the flow of information from Prinergy to a printer's management system will follow, taking a close look at the value of that information to the management/production process.

MAN Roland will key on how its PECOM press operating and automation system brings the advantages of CIM to the pressroom. Emphasis is placed on the JobPilot and PressMonitor PECOM modules. Success stories featuring printers who use the software modules to reduce makereadies and increase pressroom productivity will be presented. Also, the importance of digitally driven mechanical advancements in the CIM workflow will be discussed.

Printcafe will look at the role of an integrated management system within a CIM environment. The presentation examines prepress, press and postpress connections between production equipment and the management system. That is followed by a review of the value of a truly dynamic scheduling system in the management of a CIM environment.

The CIM road show is scheduled to visit major cities in the South and Southwest in January of 2003 and will cover the East and Midwest throughout February.