Case Study: Grafinorte

Discover how the Brazilian printing company Grafinorte transformed its production with Ricoh PRO C9500 technology, achieving greater agility, cost reduction, and expanding its printing offer.

_{^{Prepared by Renata Do Santos, Ricoh Brasil}}

Grafinorte, an important printing industry in the Southern Region of Brazil, entrusted Ricoh with the beginning of the modernization of its printing park, concentrated almost entirely on large analog offset machines, whose costs and production time are not suitable for short runs.

History and context

Created 33 years ago, Grafinorte belongs to the Tribuna Group, which also publishes the daily newspaper Tribuna do Norte. The newspaper and the printing company are based in Apucarana, in the north of the State of Paraná. The printing company occupies an area of more than 20,000 m² and provides services to companies throughout Brazil, in the publishing and advertising markets, with the production of catalogs, magazines, inserts, folders, envelopes, calendars, notebooks and brochures. Grafinorte employs 120 people and produces 500 titles per month, which add up to 8 million prints.

Business challenge

Grafinorte faced problems such as not having large digital equipment that would allow faster and better costs in short-run printing, which is now highly demanded, especially in the promotional market. In addition, it faced a lack of specialized labor in the region where it operates.

The existence of almost exclusively analog equipment in the Grafinorte park was an ingredient that needed to be overcome to maintain its competitiveness in the market. In addition, the company had demands for print quality improvement and technological standardization.

Ricoh's work at Grafinorte to propose a project to modernize its printing plant lasted two months and began with an immersion in the company to understand its business. Difficulties were detected in internal processes and the existence of only one digital printer of an entry model was verified, insufficient to meet market demands.

A stage of solution mapping was then initiated, in RGC and color mapping, followed by quality tests and approval of substrates. The conclusion of the negotiations was to demonstrate the advantages of Ricoh solutions compared to other products available on the market.

Ricoh Solution

Grafinorte acquired, in addition to a Ricoh PRO C9500 large digital press, a finishing module with booklet, a print server (Fiery) and a Color Profile Suite equipment with ES-3000. Grafinorte also contracted Ricoh Services for pre and post-press process automation, color management and monitoring (Remote+ARMS), as well as a graphic arts package.

Findings

In addition to opening Grafinorte's doors to new Ricoh solutions for the eventual continuity of the modernization of its printing park, the implemented project produced concrete results:

The following were achieved:

Agility in the printing process, with a reduction in production time from two to one day.
50% reduction in labor used.
Expansion of the variety of media that can be printed, adding to the two existing stickers, vinyl, cardboard in 350g/m² and newspaper in 45g/m².
Time savings in bending, clamping and plate engraving processes.
Overall, productivity gains of 40% were achieved

"We had been looking for months for a solution that would reduce costs, processes and bring improvement in print quality. We find all these attributes in the Ricoh PRO C9500. With it, printing, stapling, and folding, all in the same process. Materials that we used to make in two days, today we make in 24 hours. In addition, the other solutions offered by Ricoh have greatly increased our productivity. Thank you, Ricoh, for the partnership" - André Marçal, director of Grafinorte.

Ricoh Latin America and Grafinorte acted together in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for a better future:

Ricoh at a global level is a company committed to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by solving social problems through business with the sole purpose of achieving economic growth, a better planet. and a better society.