Case study from AG/CAD

When an ex Rolls-Royce engineer was looking for a new challenge and wanted to acquire a business in the Stoke area, he purchased a print franchise back in 1981. By adopting philosophies from the aerospace industry, the small print franchise has taken-off with the assistance of a digital cutting table from AG/CAD.

Evolving from a small local print franchise into a print, signage and exhibition stand builder, Steve Bristow has certainly made a success of Plus Display. Commenting upon the evolution of the business, Steve says: "Down the decades our business has had to evolve drastically. In the 80s and 90s our customer base was primarily located around Stoke, but with the demise of the potteries industry and the advent of the internet, the landscape completely changed for us. We moved into large format print in the late 90s and from there, we evolved into producing banners, exhibition stands and other large format work." "The influx of work and our change of direction led us to purchase an AGFA Anapurna 2000 large format printing machine. This machine was running over 50 hours a week and we had three employees dedicated to hand cutting, taping and attaching Velcro strips to the jobs we were processing. This was a clear pinchpoint and in addition, we were outsourcing upwards of £80,000 to £90,000 of cutting work each year. This external cutting was primarily for materials that we couldn't hand cut and also more complex shapes that we couldn't feasibly hand-cut with any level of precision." Steve identified the cutting issue and also realised the Anapurna was running nearly non-stop, meaning the 29 employee company needed more print capacity - something that would further compound the issues with downstream finishing processes. The Stoke business made the conscious decision to invest in a new large format printer and a digital cutting machine to increase capacity and throughput. "We upgraded to an Anapurna H2500i LED large format printer that was 3 times faster than its predecessor and, simultaneously, we installed a DYSS X7-1630C digital cutter from AG/CAD with a K-CUT Vision PRO software suite," says the aerospace engineer. As an engineer, Steve looked at the viable digital cutting options available and did a full feasibility study. Commenting upon the selection of the DYSS X7-1630C, Steve says: "Firstly, we needed something capable of cutting 8 by 4 boards with the ability to process everything from vinyl and carpet through to Acrylic, MDF, Foamex and much more. When we looked at the options available, we identified the DYSS machine was more robust, well built and capable than its competitors. We also found the AG/CAD Kasemake software package a more flexible and powerful package. The DYSS machine was also a more cost-effective option for our business, so it was a win-win situation. As an experienced engineer, there were some alternative machines out there that I just wouldn't touch." Bringing philosophies such as Just in Time (JIT) manufacturing into the business, Plus Display maximised its floor area by holding zero stock on-site. As Steve continues: "Working on a JIT basis enables us to stay nimble whilst maximising our output. Unfortunately, outsourcing work, albeit to a reliable supplier was creating lead-time and material management issues. By installing the DYSS, we have brought over £80,000+ subcontract cutting costs in-house and streamlined our activities. This means the DYSS X7-1630C will pay for itself in under 18 months, while improving our throughput, productivity and lead-times." As soon as the DYSS X7 machine was up and running it instantly eliminated outsourcing costs, but equally important to Plus Display was the reduced lead-times and the impact of streamlining work in a JIT business. "By outsourcing the production of a logo or external sign for a customer, the lead-time could be anything up to 3 to 4 weeks. With the DYSS, we can now do this work in a day or two in-house, giving us the added benefit of having full control over the process. With regard to internally produced jobs; for us to print, hand cut and tape an exhibition stand used to take upwards of 3 to 4 days, with the DYSS X7 this can now be done in less than 5 hours. So, we are not only saving a lot of lead-time from externally produced work, but also reducing the time of work undertaken in-house." The company has also been able to re-distribute its workforce freeing up 3 staff from full-time hand cutting duties alone. Now just 2 staff can handle all printing, cutting, finishing and taping jobs for final stand building or delivery to customers. With regard to project assembly, Plus Display has found the precision of the DYSS X7-1630C has improved the assembly time and fitting for exhibition stands. As Steve states: "The precision of the DYSS and its K-CUT Vision PRO registration system ensures that all constituent parts of an exhibition stand build are impeccably produced and precise. This simplifies and speeds-up assembly for our stand construction operation. It has also removed re-working and waste from our business. Whilst we had a pretty good scrap or re-work rate in the region of just 5%, the DYSS has completely removed from our business. Furthermore, the edge finishes from machining parts with the high-speed spindle on the DYSS has eliminated significant amounts of hand finishing and flame polishing." The Stoke Company has its eye set firmly on growth, with plans afoot for an additional 4,000sq/ft of manufacturing space. As Steve concludes: "We have an ambitious strategy for further growth and the DYSS and Anapurna machines are instrumental in this. As our business evolves we are aiming to further exploit the capabilities of the DYSS machine. At present, we are still on a learning curve, but we can see opportunities around the Kasemake software as well as the multi-head cutting configuration. With the Combo-Head, we have the routing, creasing and oscillating knife tool, but we can also integrate an adhesive tape application tool. If we install the taping head, this can be used to apply Velcro backing to our displays and it will be 4 times faster than manually applying Velcro and tape adhesives. This will further automate our production and streamline our business. We are delighted with both the Anapurna and the DYSS X7-1630C, the service and support from AG/CAD has been excellent."