Maintenance and optimisation
in print production process
Listen it directly from industry stalwarts
who share their expertise and useful guidance...
It would be easier to purchase a car than to maintain it properly for all time smooth running.
This theory is even true in the web-offset printing industry as well as other allied domains.
Timely machine maintenance in the post-installation period of any web-offset press as
well as overall optimisation in print production process is indeed an unavoidable concern
everyone in the industry must always be attentive. Bringing this fundamental importance to
spotlight, team All About Newspapers interacts with a select group of industry leaders
from indigenous web-offset manufacturers and newspaper houses who know and
show the right ways to maintain machines, its implications and relative advantages.
It’s not only important but ‘essential’ to
keep up regular maintenance of machines
in newspaper production facility as
well as magazines publication domains.
“Maintenance is the most vital function of
any newspaper production line. As capital
expenditures are high in a production unit,
in order to have long life of the machines
it is vital to undertake both periodic and
capital maintenances at specified schedules.
Maintenance is a complex system and
involves a lot of planning. But it is very
important part of any production unit,”
according to RK Dutta, executive director,
Prabhat Khabar. In this context, Saurabh
Gupta, sales director, Prakash Web Offset
Pvt Ltd has his advice, “Since trouble-free
printing of a daily at night is of paramount
importance, high quality maintenance
schedule becomes backbone for every
printing house. Regular mechanical and
electrical maintenance exercises pay for
themselves in terms of higher production,
lesser breakdown and trouble-free operation.”
He truly mentions that maintaining a
press is far more important than owning
a press. Prakash Web Offset continuously
let their customers know about high quality
maintenance benefits and returns. So, the
company’s maintenance team closely listens
to the production team and their preventive
maintenance without fail.
RK Dutta further defines that newspapers
have very less shelf-life as compared to
other products. It has to be delivered
within a few hours to the selling points,
lifted by vendors within a specific time
and delivered within a specified time to
readers. If any of these fail the product
goes into wastage, no newspaper house
can afford such breakdowns. To keep all
machines healthy all the time, you have to
invest in maintenance, which is a complex
procedure involving many steps.
“Items like bearings,
belts, rubber rollers,
cutting rubbers,
etc have to be
periodically replaced
before failure.”
–George Jacob,
executive director,
Malayala Manorama
Group of Publications
“We offer a software system by
which we can do remote diagnosis
in the machine.”
–Shirish Shanbhag, GM (exports),
Manugraph India Ltd
“Maintaining a press is far
more important than owning a
press. AMC costs are negligible,
considering its importance and
usefulness.”
–Saurabh Gupta, sales director,
Prakash Web Offset Pvt Ltd
“The concept of AMC becomes
more significant and cost effective
solution for maintaining automated
web presses especially in the
form of remote assistance and
tele-support.”
–Narayanan VS, director
(technical office), Dinamalar
“Whenever a new
machine operator
joins our group,
it is mandatory he
must undergo an
orientation and
induction programme.
The operator has to be
acquainted with the process and
the existing system of maintenance.
He should follow the standard
operating procedure for the press
which is implemented.”
–RK Dutta, executive director,
Prabhat Khabar
“Keep in mind that the lubricant
quality should be of good brand
and must be recommended by
the machine manufacturer itself.”
–Umasadhan Mudly,
manager-maintenance,
Ananda Offset Private Limited
“Maintenance of processor
every week is mandatory with
replacement of chemicals. Updates
of computer hardware and software
upgrade once in three years for
adoption of latest software are
must.”
–Bhausaheb Patil, director
(technology), Sakal Media Group
“We do get good
feedback from our
customers which we
try to implement in
our future machines
so that they
(customers) can be
benefitted.”
– Vishwanath, general managercustomer
care, J Mahabeer
|
Narayanan VS, di rector (technical
office), Dinamalar in this respect also
mentions that all printing industry in
general requires a proper maintenance
programme to achieve reduced
operating cost, on-time delivery and
consistent product quality. “When we
talk about newspapers industry, the
maintenance part is very significant
since newspapers must be made
‘just-in-time’ and has a very short shelflife,”
he remarks further explaining,
“Pre-production departments (mostly
the revenue generators) like editorial,
advertisement, etc will try to delay
printing newspapers as much as practical
to include latest news and advertisements.
Whereas post-production department
i.e. circulation would like to reach
newspapers to its distribution network as
early as possible. Production department
is caught in between the pre-production
and post-production departments. Hence
the product ion team should work
within very tight time frames, which
means they cannot afford to have any
major downtime during production run,
since each downtime will result in the
completion time being delayed.”
To achieve this, according to
Narayanan VS, newspaper press
must, at all times, be in
first class condition and
in readiness to run when
required without the occurrence of any
major operational abnormalities.
“In newspaper production, maintenance part
is most important as we have to maintain
deadlines of printing production. There
are two main ‘terms’ in maintenance –
‘corrective’ and ‘preventive’. We try to
minimise corrective maintenance by doing
100 percent preventive maintenance,”
explains Bhausaheb Patil, director
(technology), Sakal Media Group. He
further elaborates the important criteria of
preventive maintenance. The term preventive
maintenance commonly refers to the practice
of regularly servicing equipment on a predetermined
schedule so that it does not
develop catastrophic failures and performs
better over its useful life cycle. Although
it is a well-known fact that equipment
routinely serviced on a pre-determined
schedule outlasts equipment that is not, many
companies still indulge in the practice of
neglecting equipment and/or only responding
reactively to equipment failures.
This is unfortunate as the preventive
maintenance of assets has even greater
implications in today’s economy.
Preventive maintenance has powerful
advantages that make it worth utilising.
Because of that, more and more companies
are starting to realise the importance of
taking proper care of their equipments.
According to Bhausaheb Patil, five
advantages of preventive maintenance
include: i) it extends the useful life
cycle of assets by decreasing the need
for capital replacements; ii) it enhances
the efficiency of equipment keeping these
running more efficiently, lowering power
expenses; iii) it enhances the performance
of assets by increasing uptime; iv) it
enhances customer (internal or external)
service because maintenance teams have
less unplanned maintenance and can
respond quicker to new problems; and v)
it contributes positively to the reputation
of companies.
George Jacob, executive director, Malayala
Manorama Group of Publications advices
maintenance should occupy the number one
slot in terms of importance among the other
operating parameters such as productivity
and quality. “Without proper maintenance,
both productivity and quality norms cannot
be achieved. It also affects the longevity
of the printing presses which in turn
results in serious financial implications,” he
advices. Umasadhan Mudly, managermaintenance,
Ananda Offset Private
Limited asserts that all newspaper
and magazine presses run mostly
on urgent and timeline bound
product basis, which intend to
go for schedule and preventive
maintenances of the presses
and its accessories efficiently. “In the
case of any general product industries,
Ananda Offset can manage production
losses in breakdown hours by utilising
overtime or extra-time production. But in
case of newspapers or magazines, nobody
will accept it beyond datelines. For this
reason we have to take care of the schedule
and preventive measures to achieve zero
productive hour loss by utilising the day
time for the presses. However, in case
of the commercial printing, the time gap
between the periodicity of the magazines
leads us to perform the same task.
Good maintenance practices in press and
its accessories lead to minimize/zero
breakdown hours that could help meet the
targeted timelines of newspapers or fixed
datelines (frequency) of magazines. “The
general saying ‘A stitch in time saves
nine’ is perfectly applicable for the counter
measures or maintenance team work. So, in
one liner we can say maintenance is more
vital in newspaper as well as magazine
production to compete your brand with others
and lead it to go ahead in the market,”
conveys Umasadhan.
According to Shirish Shanbhag, GM
(exports), Manugraph India Ltd, “Newspaper
printing in India is mostly carried out at
night and has a stipulated time frame of
4-5 hours for completion. Added to this is
the delivery time the next morning through
vendors. These are all time-bound activities,
so any stoppage to this process would be
detrimental for production. Keeping this in
mind, it is imperative for machines to be
well maintained at all times.”
Then, Vishwanath, general managercustomer
care, J Mahabeer & Company
Pvt Ltd also agrees that maintenance part
is most important in web offset printing
to keep the machine in good running and
printing condition.
Educational approach
Machine manufacturers and vendors have
the sole responsibility to educate their
customers about maintenance and its
usefulness in the long run. “Of course,
we train our customers during installation
phase and our engineers regularly visit the
presses to keep the maintenance schedule
under strict watch. All our operating
manuals do elaborate maintenance plans,”
mentions Saurabh Gupta referring
their customers currently using
Prakash web-offset presses.
In-house training programmes to
educate newly appointed operators
are common strategies in newspaper
production houses. Sakal Media Group
is one of the forerunners in this aspect as
Bhausaheb goes on to explain, “We provide
step-by-step training to new operators right
from machine operating principles. The
training programmes are conducted with
trained persons on different platforms so as
to give operators the confidence on operating
as well as maintaining machines. For
Malayala Manorama Group of Publications,
press operators are educated enough to
do things like roller cleaning and setting,
cleaning of blankets, etc. For these, chief
press operator would always impart the
desired level of training. Replacement of
bearings and other vital parts is done by
technical personnel who posses degrees
or diplomas.
At Prabhat Khabar, whenever a new
machine operator joins, it is mandatory
for all to undergo an orientation and
induction programme. “Whoever joins new
has to be acquainted with the process and
existing systems. Besides training for the
new operator of the machine, it is vital
that he receives training for maintenance
as well. He should follow the standard
operating procedures for the press which
is implemented,” says RK Dutta.
For those operators who join new at
Dinamalar, Narayanan VS says they
provide them on-job training and in case
of new machines, the company’s press crew
undertake on-job training for operations.
“For maintenance part, our maintenance
team will help the new operators to get
acquainted with the equipment,” he adds.
Shirish Shanbhag says that during the
installation process of their Manugraph
presses, they provide trainings to their
customers in addition to the manuals with
prescribed formats for periodic maintenance.
J Mahabeer goes in a similar way as
Vishwanath mentions that they supply their
customers with all the details of regular
and periodic maintenance checks required
to keep machines in good health.
According to Umasadhan Mudly, entry of
new machine operators at Ananda Offset
is not a critical issue as they have a set
training schedule for new trainee executives.
It covers the general operations on printing
process, some small maintenance knowledge
on press. The role of the maintenance
head in this respect is to demonstrate
some previous maintenances breakdowns
or preventive through slide presentations.
Annual maintenance
contracts/upgradations
Most of the newspaper production houses
have their own in-house maintenance teams
for several reasons including costs and others.
However, some machine manufactures
and vendors offer them viable annual
maintenance contract (AMC) for smoothrunning
of their machines. “Considering
its importance and usefulness, AMC costs
are negligible and any production loss due
to lack of maintenance or slower response
time is far greater than the scanty annual
expenditures. Our PRAKASH web press
customers are educated enough to understand
this paradigm and keep their machines in
good condition,” mentions Saurabh Gupta.
However, Malayala Manorama Group of
Publications has another point of view
regarding AMC. “All electronic equipments
are under AMC so that spare parts and
technical support is available. First line
maintenance is done by our in-house
technical staff and at least one person
in the company has been to abroad for
training in the different makes of CtPs.
Software upgrades are done as and when
released by the manufacturers. So, there
is no software maintenance.
About the aspect of AMC at Dinamalar,
Narayanan VS mentions, “Today’s web
presses are highly modernised and
automated. It is very expensive to employ
qualified personnel with the right caliber
(knowledge of automation) to maintain
these automated presses. Even if we
employ a right person, his knowledge
will become obsolete within few years
since the automation industry segment
keeps on changing. Hence the concept
of AMC becomes more significant and
cost effective solution for maintaining
automated web presses especially in
the form of remote assistance and telesupport.
Nevertheless, we have gone for
AMC only for electrical components in
Manugraph presses as well as software
and accessories like auto registration, auto
ink filling stations and spray dampening.
He further says that on the mechanical
side, their strong in-house maintenance
team manages the maintenance with good
stock of spares.
Stressing on maintaining hardware and
software at Dinamalar, Narayanan VS
says that they have latest ones and all
hardware are updated once in two years
and software as when new versions are
released and if found necessary. “Some
of our (fully automated) CtP systems
are run without operators. Periodical
maintenance schedules are in place to
keep our pre-press equipments in good
working condition. Moreover we have
AMC with our pre-press supplier who
carries out necessary inspection and
maintenance work regularly,” he adds.
And for Sakal Media Group, maintenance
of processor every week is mandatory with
replacement of chemicals. CtP maintenance
part is as per weekly or monthly schedule
and also software up-gradation as well
as new software trails like ‘ink saving’
software and ‘fanout’ is necessary. The
group takes care of computer hardware
and software upgrade once in three years
for adoption of latest software. In this
respect, Umasadhan Mudly says, “Ananda
Offset has been using thermal CtP and the
offline plate processor for our commercial
production since 2007. We use Prenergy Evo
workflow and Preps Imposition software.
We also print commercial magazines with
Staccato FM screen which is an additional
facility on thermal CtPs. The software is
very user friendly, it does not require too
much maintenance but the hardware is
under AMC by Kodak. They attend the
scheduled periodic maintenance and also
during breakdowns, if required.”
Further, Umasadhan Mudly says that
since the thermal CtP is very stable, a
few breakdown maintenance did occur
during last seven years of our using.
“We have been updating the software
with the help of Kodak service provider
whenever the updates are
available. Besides this we have
been using a colour proofing
system by using best calibrated
printers and are planning
to install EIZO monitors
to get good reproduction
with much dependency
over the laser printouts or
proofs. These operations
of pre-press are indeed
the backbones of the good quality
printing,” he elucidates. In this context,
RK Dutta explains, “Pre-press software
does not need maintenance often. However,
updates are necessary. The servers which
host the software have to be robust.
For critical applications it is advisable
to have real time duplicate servers, in
case one fails the other takes up the job
automatically. Maintenance is required in
the CtP machines and the plate processors.
Here also we have a maintenance schedule.
This takes care of daily maintenance
needed and periodic maintenance too.
For CtP machines and the processors
it is advisable to have AMC. This is
because these are imported machines and
electronic and mechanical components are
not available in the open market.”
Referring the customers of J Mahabeer,
Vishwanath says, “Since the capital costs
of web offset machines are very high,
customers do not prefer AMC. They either
have their own team for maintenance or
take support from us as and when required
after warranty period.” Umasadhan Mudly
of Ananda Offset opines that AMC for
any machine means dependence on others,
which is not always realistic for web
presses as we cannot get the correct and
effective support during any exigency.
“On other hand, for web presses from
overseas, AMC charges will be very high
if all the presses are covered. So, the
suggestive plan remains is to train our
maintenance team by the experts from
the manufacturer. They will be able to
perform various maintenances of the
press independently, which will be cost
effective,” he suggests.
Furthermore, Umasadhan Mudly explains
they do all types of reactive, scheduled
and preventive maintenances by their
own team at Ananda Offset under the
supervision of experienced maintenance
personnel. “However, for overhauling of
presses need, we do take some support
of outside engineers from Indian service
providers of overseas manufacturers.
But in case of some press utilities and
accessories like air compressors, chilling
plant, UPS systems, DG plant, LPG plant
for commercial presses, etc we go for the
AMC concept. The cost for entire AMC
for other utilities not too much compared
to the cost of permanent employee for
providing the same service from our
company. Another reason behind this policy
is to concentrate our maintenance people
in their own task rather than versatile
fields. In this way our maintenance team
will remain more efficient,” he reasonably
details.
“In today’s competitive era,
quality is a prime factor.
Quality output from any
machine depends on machine’s
regular performance. To get
good performance, machine
maintenance is a key. And
maintenance of machines with
computerised pneumatic controls
requires special skills,” mentions
Bhausaheb Patil of Sakal Media Group
which has fully-trained in-house team for
maintenance activities. But in some cases,
they depend on OEM’s engineers for
special works like bearer pressure setting,
level alignment of machines and folder
settings.
Malayala Manorama Group also works in its
own maintenance way about which George
Jacob says, “We do not have AMC for
printing presses as it is more cost effective
to do it in-house. Sometimes maintenance
calls span 24 hours or more or could arise
between 12 midnight and 4 am. Since
newspapers have very short shelf life (99.5
percent home delivered) delay must be
avoided, otherwise delivery of competition
will increase.” He reveals that the group
gives top priority to maintenance. But in
reality, there are some peak periods when
supplements are a daily affair (generally
occupying for a maximum period of
two weeks at a time) which does affect
maintenance schedules.
In a similar tone, RK Dutta of Prabhat
Khabar articulates, “We do not feel that
AMC is very suitable for web presses
because of certain reasons, such as nonavailability
of vendor engineers at the time
of emergency requirement, high charges,
etc. “It is always ideal to keep an in-house
maintenance team headed by qualified
engineers,” he opines adding that
Prabhat Khabar has its own welltrained
maintenance team. Shirish
Shanbhag of Manugraph India agrees
that most newspaper printing houses
have their own maintenance teams and
they can take good care of their machines
by themselves.
Online maintenance service
In today’s er a of i n s tant onl ine
communication or data transfer, web offset
manufacturers finally grab this opportunity
to offer their clients ‘online maintainance
services.’ Prakash Web Offset boasts of its
latest web presses having equipped with
state-of-the-art control systems in which
remote diagnostic is a standard feature.
Saurabh Gupta elucidates that various issues
are now resolved remotely, their customers
have really started liking this feature not
only for the reason it does improve service
time drastically but also give them peace
of mind for the fact they never feel far
away from Prakash Web Offset.
In their online maintenance service,
Manugraph uses a software system by which
they can do remote diagnosis. “It has been
highly effective so far. We even use it for
our customers overseas and quite useful
to those based in interior/remote regions
of India as well,” says Shirish Shanbhag.
Spare parts: keeping handy
Regular maintenance services always warrant
some replacement of spares. To the best
satisfactory levels of their customers in far
and near corners of the country, Prakash
Web Offset supplies frequently required spare
parts to store at their customers’ places.
Prakash Web Offset generally supplies
essential start-up spares along with the
machines and they guide their customers
about the parts that should always be kept
handy when required.
George Jacob reveals that Malayala
Manorama Group of Publications always
depend on official vendor for eleventh
hour replacement of spare parts as third
party vendors may not have those parts.
“We do buy non-critical replacement parts
from third parties,” he mentions. Sakal
Media Group is quite attentive in this
concern, “During preventive maintenance
work, we can assume the life of spares
by our experience. Spares of folders
like cutting knife, foam bar, cutting
rubbers, folding knife, gripper blade,
puncture needles, nipping runners, rubber
rollers (its bearings), blankets, pneumatic
components, etc are replaced as per our
predetermined life of spares,” explains
Bhausaheb Patil adding that such practice
helps them a lot in keeping their printing
machines healthy all the time without a
single day failure.
Always alert about spare parts, Sakal Media
Group keeps a ready list required for printing
machines and its related equipments. The
group is known for maintaining minimum
inventory level of spare equipments.
Bhausaheb mentions, “But in case of urgent
requirement of spares, apart from what we
keep in store, we tie up with third party
vendors who support us in critical situations
which however happen very rarely.” RK
Dutta reveals that something or other type
of needful replacement of spare parts is
always identified during regular maintenance
services at Prabhat Khabar. “We generally
get good support from our vendors at the
times of urgency. Though we also opt for
third party vendors for certain minor spares,
major support comes from our regular
vendors,” he mentions.
In the similar tone, Malayala Manorama
Group of Publications keep substantial
quantity of spare parts as repairs have to
be immediate – even during the warranty
period, in which manufacturers keep spares
at the group’s site at their costs. “Post
warranty we buy and stock essential spares.
With our 11 printing plants, we keep some
spares at hubs (feeding upto 3/4 plants) and
some locally at each plant,” says George
Jacob adding, “Items like bearings, belts,
rubber rollers, cutting rubbers, etc have
to be periodically replaced before failure.
Dinamalar boasts of its vendors who are
ready for support round the clock, especially
Manugraph and Ferag teams, with their
efficient and well-organised services. “We
have never changed the vendors for the
last two decades. Our vendors know the
importance of spares, services and support.
So, we have never faced the need to opt
for a third party vendor,” he adds.
“Being a maintenance expert we can say
‘prevention is better than cure’ i.e. some
regular or schedule maintenance warrant
some replacement of spares such as
cleaning, greasing and oiling preventing
the wear and tear of rotating/moving parts
of the machine. But one thing we should
keep in mind is that the lubricant quality
must be good and must be recommended
by the machine manufacturer itself. We
use synthetic lubricant oils and greases
(Mobil) though their cost is high compared
to other lubricants for the critical and
major bearings and the gearboxes as
recommended by OEM. Never compromise
with the price of the regular maintenance
which can save the life of too much
critical and costly spares in future,”
asserts Umasadhan Mudly.
Regarding the eleventh hour support from
vendors, Umasadhan Mudly reveals, “We
get very good support from our vendors at
any emergency situation. They even support
us by giving the new spares or repairing
damage parts of the machine during the
non business hours also. They also give
priority than others spares/repairing jobs
to us like a ‘press’ category type. Rarely,
we have to take action by searching the
spares directly from the local market to
fulfill our requirement. Our engineering
team head gives the specification for
retrofitting/replacing defective part to their
subordinates; they buy it from the local
suppliers/vendors directly. We are happy
with our existing spares and consumables
vendors, hoping the same in future also
to run the presses smoothly.”
Same is the process Shirish Shanbhag
mentions about their customers using
Manugraph presses, “We always advice
our customers to keep stock of emergency
spares on replenishment basis. By and large
our customers do follow the system which
has proved beneficial a lot.”
Mailroom maintenance
Ever since the advent of fastest moving
web presses, importance of handling printed
newspapers is becoming very critical day by
day as a result of increasing circulations.
This is why newspaper houses dedicate
their best level to keep all paraphernalia in
mailroom really fit and fine on everyday
basis. RK Dutta agrees on this for Prabhat
Khabar, “Handling of printed newspapers
depends on the quantity one prints. In our
presses we have batch counting process
in the machine folder. The newspapers
are then stacked and packed as per the
requirements of the vendors and dispatched.
But this is done manually in presses.”
Though they do not have add-on features
like sticker applicators on front page, etc in
their mailroom, Prabhat Khabar does offer
half jackets flap open, French windows,
Panorama spread left and right open, double
spread poster, etc. Their mailroom is not
automated except the batch counting and
bundling machines which can be maintained
by press operators/maintenance team.
“Yes, everything goes fast these days,
our printing machines deliver 60,000
copies per hour. We have installed Schur
mailroom system to suit the capacity.
Since our presses are installed upstairs and
dispatch department is at
ground floor, this mailroom
system featured with single
copy gripper conveyor and
fully-automatic stacker helps
us to bundle batches as per
the requirements of newspaper
vendors. In order to keep Schur
perfect all the time, we do regular
preventive maintenance by checking its
gripers, springs, bearings, settings of pick
up stations and stacker regularly,” says
Bhausaheb Patil adding that Sakal Media
Group locally manages to get spare parts
almost as the original ones.
Everything is at ease at Dinamalar where
equipped Ferag mailroom system which is
capable of handling maximum press speed
of 70,000 copies per hour. “Though we
don’t use sticker applicator, our mailroom
is equipped with other applicators like
glue, fragrant applicator, ultra violet
curing in some of our editions,” says
Narayanan VS adding that they follow
mailroom maintenance schedule as per
Ferag’s recommendations. About their team
maintaining mailroom, he says Dinamalar’s
maintenance team is capable of handling
both web press and mailroom equipments.
Since their machine operators concentrate
only on production run, the maintenance
team is trained separately for mailroom
systems for both electrical/electronic and
mechanical operations.
Sakal Media Group has recently developed
in-house gluing system for their weekly
booklet Family Doctor. Though the group
does not own any add-on features like
sticker applicators and other innovative
technologies, the group is now looking
ahead to adoption of these innovations.
Apart from the press operators, Sakal has
its own maintenance team in which they
have trained 2-3 persons from the dispatch
department for solving running issues
related to mailroom, such as newspaper
delivery which comes out from folder,
stacker bundling, etc.
Mailroom system at Malayala Manorama
Group of Publications is quite in significant
way. The group has two types of mail
room operations. At some centers they have
limited pagination capacity, so supplements
are printed earlier and inserted into the
main issues during the main night print
run. At other centers, they have higher
page capacity and balloon formers, so the
supplements are printed with the main
issues. “Inserters could only be run at
50,000 cph for four-page supplements on
42 gsm paper, so all future systems will
be with higher pagination,” according to
George Jacob.
Mailroom systems post inserters at Malayala
Manorama Group of Publications are
operated by Circulation Division staff
(packers) but maintained by engineering
staff. In order to keep the system hassle-free,
their daily, weekly and monthly maintenance
schedules for conveyers, inserters, pick-up
stations, stackers, wrappers, strappers, etc
are maintained by a separate mailroom
team consisting mainly of technical staff
and cleaning workers.
Being a magazine printer, the idea of
mailroom at Ananda Offset is stacker bundler
of the printed formats. “For most of our
printed copies of magazines, we have 16
pages A4 size folded format, sometimes
8 pages slitted B5 size folded format. We
have two stacker bundlers in-line with folder
connected by some additional belt roller
variable speed type conveyors to perform
the mailroom/dispatch the printed forms
to binders/vendors. We have been getting
the strapped bundles of quantified formats
as per our requirement. All operations are
automatically controlled by PLC system
for stacker bundlers and AC/DC speed
control drives for conveyors,” explicates
Umasadhan Mudly.
Ananda Offset does not have separate
team for mailroom since the operation
involved in Kolkata or estern region is
very less compared to newspaper mailroom.
The stacker bundlers and conveyors are
maintained by the company’s own press
maintenance team/operators. In this respect,
Umasadhan says they do keep the inventory
for the different types of belts, bearings,
motor drives and control cards, etc for
maintenance purpose.
All-time healthy maintenance
Now the newspapers engaging in proper
and regular maintenance reveal how they
maintain the practice to keep their machines
all-time healthy. Malayala Manorama Group
of Publications has a well-maintained mix
portfolio of machines in which the group
had only indigenous presses till 2013.
But in 2012-13, they installed two used
imported presses. What has been framed as
next level plan of the group is to install
five new imported presses in 2014-15. But
Prabhat Khabar equips India-made web
presses. And for Sakal Media Group, they
use India-made web presses for production
but few add-ons in the machines, such
as technotranse spray dampening system,
QuadTech colour registration system, AC
drives from Siemens and Schur mailroom
system are imported ones.
Since machines have end number of
peripherals like rollers, blankets, colour
registration system, washing devices, etc,
there are ways every newspaper tackles
their maintenance. In this respect, George
Jacob reveals how Malayala Manorama
Group of Publications deals in this
context, “We have a key result target
of 98.2 percent press/machine up-time
for machine operators. As performance
appraisals are tied to achievement of
key result areas, it helps to achieve the
goal.” He further elaborates, “However,
to be honest, with our prior ‘indigenous
only’ policy, it was extremely difficult
to achieve ‘on-time’ percentage of 90
percent which is the target. Other than
press-related issues, delays are also caused
by defective materials, late receipt of
advertising materials and editorial delays.
The group has a separate team of 2-4
printers who do these tasks during the
day. During peak seasons as it operates
to maintain mailroom system, they
have daily, weekly, monthly and annual
maintenance schedules. But for some
tasks, Malayala Manorama Group of
Publications hire engineering personnel.
Narayanan VS says at Dinamalar, they
strictly follow scheduled preventive
maintenance programme which helps
them to keep presses in good condition
all time. “With day production, it is bit
tough to maintain all the peripherals.
But with right team sprit we are able to
manage maintenance schedules. We have
a separate team for maintenance work.
Though our operating team concentrates
only on production, they are well trained
in maintenance work too,” he adds.
At their end, Bhausaheb Patil says Sakal
Media House has important approach in
this chain of thoughts. “What breakdowns
are typical for printing machines? The
classification of breakdowns is carried
out by maintaining day to day break
analysis. Again, we categorise this type of
mechanical maintenance breaks, electrical
maintenance breaks and operator related
breaks. We try to minimise breakdown
maintenance by doing proper preventive
maintenance as per schedule. Thus we
keep our printing machines healthy.”
Sakal Media Group boasts of a separate
maintenance team to look after peripherals
like rollers, blankets, colour registration
system, washing devices, etc. The group
has prepared schedule of preventive
maintenance of rubber roller settings, roller
washing device, printing machine cleaning,
registration camera, sensors cleaning, etc
that keeps on monthly planner for all above
activities. Also, Sakal Media Group maintains
blanket life by maintaining ‘Number of
Impressions’ on towers and rubber rollers
record for its life, spares parts record, etc.
As per all these records the group eventually
maintains minimum inventory levels.
For Prabhat Khabar, RK Dutta explains,
“If you have large print orders as we have
and multiple location printing, you have
to have a separate team for maintenance.
We have a separate team which carries out
maintenance. This is done generally in the
day time when hot printing is not going
on. Every unit of the machine is cleaned,
rollers are adjusted, blankets & packing
checked for correct pressure, pneumatic
components are cleaned and checked,
alignment of registration motors, etc.”
This is part of the company’s ‘press ready’
procedure. Besides these, maintenance is
done as per the scheduled requirements
such as oil changes, blanket changes,
roller changes whatever is required as
per schedule at Prabhat Khabar. There
is also a part of capital maintenance as
RK Dutta mentions, “You have to replace
brushes, bearings, gears, etc, after several
years of running. Above all you have
to be prepared to cope up with sudden
breakdown maintenance requirement.”
As far as a web press constitutes various
parts that need cleaning and lubrication
daily, RK Dutta explicates that every
machine has parts which need periodic
inspection and replacement. “All these have
to be brought into the maintenance chart
in the computer. Rigorous monitoring and
inspection of the maintenance schedule is
needed to keep any web press running all
the time. You have to have
a list of inventory also for
items which you should
maintain all the time. It
is vitally important that
you conduct regular
training programmes
for your operators
also,” he mentions
adding that if operators are properly
trained and follow the standard operating
procedures then breakdowns are lesser
and training also improves the machine’s
life and quality of printing.
