They laugh when we start cranking the handle on the new CreaseStream Mini scoring machine. It happens every time. “Hey, does that thing come with a monkey?!” is a favorite quip, usually heard in the first two minutes and then like clockwork throughout the show. At one recent in-plant printing conference an exhibitor could be seen jumping around like an organ grinder’s chimpanzee in mock imitation of us working the Mini creaser, his buddies laughing like hyenas.
The ‘fully automated print shop’, where there are minimal human touches in a job workflow, is a worthy ideal. The grim reality is, I suspect, a little messier. No matter how much modern automated pre-press, printing and bindery equipment you have in your shop, I’ll wager there are days when your staff has to actually pick up sheets of paper and collate, fold, glue, insert or assemble by hand.
