San Jose, CA — November 12, 2019 — Pacific Printing, a union commercial printer based in Silicon Valley, recently installed their second RMGT 9 Series offset press. The president of the company, Andrew Goett, noted that they were looking to expand their offerings to a wide range of services, including offset, digital, wide-format, mailing and fulfillment work.
“Strategically, we needed to address some major obstacles to profitability that many printers face in our current economic climate,” states Andrew Goett, President of Pacific Printing. “Back in April 2019, we took the first step by replacing two half-size Komori presses with just one RMGT 9 Series press. This 37-inch press prints an 8-up sheet but fits in the same footprint as the older 28-inch press it replaced. So, we immediately doubled capacity and capabilities without redesigning our floor layout.” This enabled Pacific Printing to gain larger clients and service their existing customers with the upcoming elections.
"We have effectively cut that time in half on our first 5-color RMGT 9 Series, and now in half again with the new 8-color Perfector"
Time is a major factor for a mailing and fulfillment shop, where it is all about getting the job done and into the mail stream as fast as possible. “Recently, we ran 125,000 6x11 inch pieces that, on our old press, would have taken us 10-12 hours of press time to produce. We have effectively cut that time in half on our first 5-color RMGT 9 Series, and now in half again with the new 8-color Perfector. We can now go from the press to Post Office in two days. This is going to change our world,” said Goett.
As well as being able to take on larger runs in a shorter time frame, Pacific Printing has seen the advantage of reducing click costs and moving digital work, back to high quality offset, “We probably would not have thought we could go from digital back to offset a year ago,” he continued. “With the cost of plates, chemistry, ink, setup, etc., we wouldn’t have thought the break-even would be that low. But we went to Japan and saw the factory as well as visited RMGT users in Japan. We saw people setting up the press in 5-7 minutes and literally running 70-100 sheets then doing a new setup. That was pretty eye-opening.” In fact, they are already starting to bring some digital work back to offset, with the sweet spot currently falling around 300-400 sheets. “But we anticipate that ‘Mendoza line’ to go even lower as we get better with the machine,” Goett stated.
Reducing click costs and moving digital work back to high quality offset
One of the draws for Pacific Printing was that the 37-inch press fits in the same footprint as their older 28-inch press it is replacing, allowing them to expand capacity and capabilities without redesigning their layout. “The price was a draw as well,” said Goett. “Compared to a 40-inch press, when we did price comparisons, it was 30-40% less than most manufacturers were quoting us. We felt the RMGT 9 Series was the best ‘bang for our buck.’”
This is the perfect example of how the RMGT 9 Series can help transform a shop with the added benefit of creating great new friendships,” said Kian Hemmen, Western Region Sales Manager—RMGT, Print & Finishing Solutions. “During the evaluation process we had the opportunity to really get to know the team at Pacific Printing/Printed Union in their local surroundings, demonstrations in Southern California and a trip to Japan. They really are wonderful people and I look forward to a great, long term relationship with them. Sitting in the lobby and offices of Pacific Printing you feel as home and you can tell that their customers do as well. They currently have political printing down to a science and are very productive. It will be exciting to see where they go with new abilities for specialty work and value add with the new RMGT 9 series Perfector. I believe Pacific Printing is going to see measurable growth in the coming years with this press, and I am looking forward to serving them throughout the entire process.”
Creating the Print Shop of Today
With all the firepower in the pressroom the next bottleneck was the bindery. Pacific Printing quickly reacted and installed a new Horizon Mark III Saddlestitcher with an integrated knife fold unit for cross folding the direct mail booklet, Horizon CRF-362, and Tech Lighting UV Coater. “By being able to skip the folding of signatures it freed up the folders to fold finished product and doubled our production speeds of saddle stitched books. The Horizon Mark III is perfect for our shop, we are tight on space and it uses half as much as our older traditional stitcher.” Slipping a Horizon CRF-362 Creaser/Folder into the bindery also freed up time. “Being able to skip the letter press or the more complex set ups on the folder with scoring wheels and 8 page sections has given us even more time to take on more work and better yet produce a better finished piece.
With a dwindling talent pool and peak seasons, Pacific Printing has chosen productivity and automation to meet the demands required. “We are doing a lot more work for our clients in a shorter time period today with the same amount of employees and in the same amount of square footage” The Bay Area has one of the highest costs of living in North America and having the correct equipment and through put capabilities has allowed Pacific Printing the ability to expand and grow the business.
About Print & Finishing Solutions (PFS)
Print & Finishing Solutions (PFS) is the largest graphic arts service and supplies company west of the Mississippi. It services California, the country, and the world with quality new and used machinery, installation and training, and post-sale support. Specializing in new and refurbished machinery, parts, supplies, and service for the print and graphics industry, PFS supports commercial printers and binderies of all sizes as well as digital printers and corporate and public in-plants. Within its facility, PFS offers two demonstration centers catering to both commercial offset / bindery and digital solutions. The Commercial Showroom features the latest machinery from RMGT, Horizon, Challenge, Perfecta, and Preferred Pack. The Digital / On-Demand Showroom features the latest products from MGI, OkiData, Mimaki, Rhin-O-Tuff, MBM, James Burn, DRYLAM, and others.
About RMGT (RYOBI MHI Graphic Technology)
RMGT is among the world’s largest manufacturers of sheet-fed offset printing presses and the world leader in LED-UV technology with over 450 placements worldwide. Our high-speed, fully-automated presses are respected worldwide for unsurpassed print quality, low total cost of ownership, extreme ease of operation, and unmatched reliability. In partnership with Panasonic, RMGT released LED-UV Curing for Print at DRUPA 2008 and we now offer the only G3 LED-UV technology on the market. Headquartered outside of Hiroshima Japan, RMGT is a joint venture company bringing together the best technology and manufacturing expertise of Ryobi Limited and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The enhanced product lineup and strengthened manufacturing prowess makes RMGT an indispensable brand for the printing industry. Learn more about RMGT at www.rmgt-usa.com