AG3M Streamlines Production with Esko Automation and Collaboration Ecosystem

As part of its drive to become a “digital printing 4.0” company, AG3M uses Esko solutions for productivity and efficiency gains.

AG3M uses Esko AVT print inspection to boost digital labels productivity and reduce waste.

The Challenge:

Modernize and streamline the business to remove bottlenecks and increase productivity and efficiency.

Eliminate errors, reduce waste and increase productivity from prepress through to on-press and finishing.

The Solution:

Esko ecosystem, including Automation Engine, Color Preflight, WebCenter, ArtPro+ and AVT inline inspection.

Esko AVT AutoSet Digital, the end-to-end solution that automates print inspection of digital labels.

The Benefits:

Productivity increased by 30%, with 4 more hours production per day.

Productivity increased by 30%, with 99.9% of faults removed from rolls.

Case Study Summary

Using automation to eliminate bottlenecks and drive productivity

Founded in 2003, AG3M has grown to become one of the leading labels producers in France, with a reputation for outstanding quality. AG3M serves a range of customers across the food and wine industries, including customers exclusively serving independent winegrowers around Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone in southern France, where the company is based.

With customers demanding the highest quality, AG3M was looking to create a ‘digital printing 4.0 company’ to eliminate bottlenecks, improve efficiency and productivity, all while ensuring the consistent quality of the labels they were producing was not compromised. Through using a complete ecosystem of Esko prepress editing and color management software, workflow automation, collaboration and inline inspection, AG3M has benefited from a 30% increase in productivity with the ability to deliver 4 hours more of production per day. The company’s completely connected system allows constant, real time communication with production, the entire sales team, and importantly with customers.

As a member of the Esko pre-release community, in 2022 AG3M was among the first to integrate AutoSet Digital into its digital labels prepress and production.

Before integrating the print inspection system into production, it was possible for a wrong file to be printed for the final proof, meaning a bad print of the file, return to DTP or regular machine stoppages. With the new end-to-end print inspection system, Esko AVT AutoSet Digital, the company now has direct control over the print proof for multiple ups in a gang. Operators can check as many as 10 files simultaneously and can immediately link to the print proof to see if it is correct, with immediate access to a report which confirms accuracy and quality.

With AutoSet Digital, there is online control of color variation that gives AG3M a stable print run from start to finish. As a result, the company has increased production by about 30%, reduced paper waste, unnecessary reprints, lost time and machine stoppages – and 99.9% of faults are removed from rolls.