Schumacher Packaging enjoys 25% increase in prepress speeds and significantly improves system reliability with Esko ArtPro+

The Customer

Schumacher Packaging, Prepress Forchheim, Germany

Schumacher Packaging is a family-owned and managed specialist manufacturer of corrugated and solid cardboard packaging. Based in Ebersdorf, Germany, the pan-European company boasts 15 plants – including in the Netherlands, Poland and Czech Republic – with seven sales offices and more than 3,000 employees.

Producing packaging in all shapes and sizes, Schumacher Packaging delivers customized boxes with individual print for a wide range of global customers across a number of industries, including food & drink, toys and online retail companies.

The challenge

Delivering the highest quality, quickly and accurately

Schumacher Packaging prides itself on being flexible and able to react quickly when responding to customer briefs. It is therefore vitally important for the company to always be able to deliver high quality packaging solutions quickly, which is why they invested in Esko ArtPro+, Automation Engine and WebCenter in early 2018.

“A Schumacher Packaging customer knows that they will receive the very best standard in terms of quality and service,” said Dennis Lison, responsible for Workflow Administration and Optimization at Schumacher Packaging. “We chose Esko as a supplier because they think the same way we do, and because they could supply us with a complete solution. We didn’t just want a selection of editing software, we needed to look at our operations ecosystem as a whole, which is why we also chose to invest in Esko WebCenter and Automation Engine,” he said.

The solution

A reliable system which runs like clockwork

As a leading provider of integrated hardware and software solutions, Esko has been able to meet all of Schumacher’s prepress needs. “For me it is a big advantage that one supplier can deliver the complete prepress process,” said Dennis, “especially as they are a supplier I trust. I know Esko supplies solutions that are specifically tailored for prepress operations and are safe to integrate into any system. ArtPro+ is no exception.”

ArtPro+ from Esko is a native PDF editor which allows the user to work directly on PDF files and turn them fast and safely into print ready assets. It offers an optimal user interface and brilliant tools to enhance and control packaging content, colour and print quality.

“For us the most important thing is reliability,” Dennis said. “The system is now so stable that we can be sure that data and graphics in the transformation from PDF to printing plate do not change even slightly, but instead remain exactly as the designer intended and the customer wanted.”

Each of the five-strong teams in the prepress department now works with ArtPro+. “They are totally satisfied with the system, which runs like clockwork,” he said. “I can attest to the fact that it has worked impeccably since the first day of installation.”

The benefits

Improved efficiency and accuracy – with more to come

“By incorporating ArtPro+ we have succeeded in standardizing our whole prepress process,” said Dennis. “As a result, our systems are already operating 25% faster than they were before and we know that’s not the end of the improvement – there’s definitely more to come.”

“It is almost like ArtPro+ was developed and tailored with Schumacher Packaging in mind,” he said. “The software offers exactly what we need in our work in terms of flexibility and reliability. We know that nothing will have changed when we optimize the printing data provided by the customer – unless it was something we actually wanted to change!”

“Another advantage is that ArtPro+ is surprisingly easy to learn and work with in comparison to other packages,” explains Dennis. “It has been designed specially for prepress professionals and with each update it only improves. In my opinion, it is simply the most user-friendly program I know of.”

Dennis further added that while Schumacher currently uses a number of solutions, the company was keen to review its plate exposure technology with a view to incorporating more of the Esko ecosystem. “We will shortly begin a test phase as part of a planned move to Esko Imaging Engine,” he said. “Then all our plate work will be handled with Esko solutions.”

“We have a clear plan to make 70% of Schumacher automated within the next three years, and we know that Esko will help us reach that goal,” said Dennis.