Herff Jones Replaces Three Presses with Heidelberg’s Speedmaster XL 106

Just two years ago, Herff Jones removed three older, competitive presses for Heidelberg’s peak performance Speedmaster XL 106-8P. A year after its installation, the yearbook manufacturer reported record efficiency in its peak production season, and the XL 106 produced the combined volume of their three legacy presses each shift.
 
Now, the company is installing a second Speedmaster XL 106-8P with the latest Push to Stop technology from Heidelberg to further improve performance and reduce its manufacturing footprint.
 
“We are consolidating our Utah plant with our Kansas site to have our production centrally located,” said Doug McWilliams, VP of operations. “Because of our success with the first XL 106, it only made sense to purchase a second one. The process has been somewhat identical in that we’re replacing another three competitive presses with the newest XL 106.”
 
The new press will run alongside the existing XL 106 as well as a Stahlfolder KH 82 and a POLAR pile turner. Together, the mix of solutions will provide increased productivity and shorter makereadies to keep pace with the tight production window in the yearbook industry.
 
With Push to Stop, jobs are autonomously changed over without operator intervention and continue to print until the operator steps in to interrupt if required. All of this is made possible with Intellistart 2, a new and unique integrated software system for effective job preparation, which reduces the number of operating steps during a job change by approximately 70%. The systematic elimination of time losses with every job change leads to consistent time savings and increased efficiency.
 
Herff produces approximately four million yearbooks annually with average runs of 525 copies. According to McWilliams, the production window for yearbook printing has become narrower as school schedules continue to change. By adding the new XL 106, Herff Jones will be able to maintain their strenuous production schedule – printing the bulk of its work with offset instead of digital – handling 90 makereadies in a normal eight-hour shift.