JDF Workflow Automation at colordruck Baiersbronn

When you think of the Black Forest in southern Germany, you probably think of vast fir forests with lots of hiking trails, idyllic villages with half-timbered houses and the obligatory cuckoo clocks. You certainly don't expect to find a state-of-the-art packaging print shop there.

State-of-the-art Packaging Print Shop

But that's exactly what the highly-automated colordruck print shop in Baiersbronn is. The enterprise was founded there almost 70 years ago and is still family-owned, in its 3rd generation. Baiersbronn is a small, tranquil town with a population of around 5,000 people, and is far away from any major city. However, colordruck Baiersbronn is an up-to-date, modern printing enterprise established within the town. They focus upon packaging printing; with sheetfed offset and digital printing. The printing company has a large production and storage area of 33,000 m2. With nearly 300 employees, they produce around 1 billion packaging units per year, generating a revenue of approximately 60 million euros. With a training quota of 7.3%, future packaging specialists are mainly trained in-house.

For their customers in the food, consumer, pharmaceutical and confectionery sectors, they offer the entire process chain. Beginning with the development of multi-part packaging solutions, utilizing flexible and run-dependent print production processes, and completion to fulfillment.

For example, colordruck Baiersbronn even has the capability to fill Advent calendars with confectionery items fully-automated internally. However, the majority of the filling process takes place at the print shop's customers.

In addition to mass-production with longer runs in offset, colordruck Baiersbronn invested in digital printing for the first time in 2016 in order to address the increasing variance in print jobs and, in particular the individualization of products.

Smart Factory Web-to-Print Solution

In addition to the purchase of a digital press from , the entry into the new business division PACKAGING DIGITAL was the implementation of a web-to-print solution.

"The focus of our web stores is on B2B",
explains Marketing Manager at colordruck Baiersbronn, Mrs. Sarah Hagen.

The development of the completely paperless production control is supported by the workflow specialists from ctrl-s. As a result, since the initial investment, new projects have been regularly completed in the aforementioned project network. The aim is always to minimize possible sources of error, such as ink and paper selection, or the specification of run lengths, and to achieve an even higher overall percentage of on-time shipments. Although the digital printing production area (still) has a relatively low turnover compared to offset, it is almost doubling every year.

In April 2023, the company invested in an HP Indigo 35K Digital Press, which prints B2 sheets up to 500 µm thick with up to seven colors. Depending upon the requirements, run length and substrate properties, different die cutting technologies are used in the finishing of the digitally printed sheets. These include using laser die cutting, polymer plates, and rotary die cutting plates that can also be used to produce braille. By making the various technologies available, the predefined dimensions of the CAD templates can also be adapted and punched. Varnishing and further finishing of the printed sheets is standard to traditional offset. The actual packaging production ends with the gluing of the blanks. This department of 6 to 8 employees works two to three shifts depending on workload.

Data preparation of the print jobs for the HP Indigo is handled by the object-and-cloud based smart factory framework Symphony, from the Stuttgart-based company ctrl-s, together with the CloudFlow prepress workflow system from Hybrid Software. A preflight check is automatically performed in advance of the job beginning, using Callas' pdfToolbox. Symphony then generally controls job processing, and compiles all the information and technical parameters required for the digital printing and finishing processes. These parameters include, for example, details of the substrate, associated color settings, the print run, and whether single- or double-sided printing is to take place. In particular, the software also determines the separations that need to be ripped and subsequently printed. Most Pantone colors, or even individual house colors in the customer data, are rendered in a combination of the seven - or even fewer - standard colors of the press. Subsequent production-relevant settings are also made by Symphony using decision trees, e.g., the type of die-cutting, or the specific technology used for gluing. The most important resource for all decisions, and thus for mapping and automating intelligence is always the printing stock itself and its color settings in relation to the press. If a new substrate is used, the corresponding logic is automatically configured accordingly in the system. In order to make this logic of the decision trees as comprehensible as possible, they are usually based on a binary answer spectrum (yes, no). More rarely, complex decisions are made by calculating possibility values. Symphony also enables the creation of batches by means of this logic. These are production groups that collect similar print jobs (same substrate, cutting die, gluing machine, etc.). This can significantly reduce makeready times on the press, as well as the subsequent production units. For this purpose, print jobs are collected in advance for at 24 hours.

In April 2023, the company invested in an HP Indigo 35K Digital Press, which prints B2 sheets up to 500 µm thick with up to seven colors. Depending upon the requirements, run length and substrate properties, different die cutting technologies are used in the finishing of the digitally printed sheets. These include using laser die cutting, polymer plates, and rotary die cutting plates that can also be used to produce braille. By making the various technologies available, the predefined dimensions of the CAD templates can also be adapted and punched. Varnishing and further finishing of the printed sheets is standard to traditional offset. The actual packaging production ends with the gluing of the blanks. This department of 6 to 8 employees works two to three shifts depending on workload.

Data preparation of the print jobs for the HP Indigo is handled by the object-and-cloud based smart factory framework Symphony, from the Stuttgart-based company ctrl-s, together with the CloudFlow prepress workflow system from Hybrid Software. A preflight check is automatically performed in advance of the job beginning, using Callas' pdfToolbox. Symphony then generally controls job processing, and compiles all the information and technical parameters required for the digital printing and finishing processes. These parameters include, for example, details of the substrate, associated color settings, the print run, and whether single- or double-sided printing is to take place. In particular, the software also determines the separations that need to be ripped and subsequently printed. Most Pantone colors, or even individual house colors in the customer data, are rendered in a combination of the seven - or even fewer - standard colors of the press. Subsequent production-relevant settings are also made by Symphony using decision trees, e.g., the type of die-cutting, or the specific technology used for gluing. The most important resource for all decisions, and thus for mapping and automating intelligence is always the printing stock itself and its color settings in relation to the press. If a new substrate is used, the corresponding logic is automatically configured accordingly in the system. In order to make this logic of the decision trees as comprehensible as possible, they are usually based on a binary answer spectrum (yes, no). More rarely, complex decisions are made by calculating possibility values. Symphony also enables the creation of batches by means of this logic. These are production groups that collect similar print jobs (same substrate, cutting die, gluing machine, etc.). This can significantly reduce makeready times on the press, as well as the subsequent production units. For this purpose, print jobs are collected in advance for at 24 hours.

Automating Decisions based on JDF

In the past, operators had to make the above-mentioned manufacturing and production decisions themself, even though the data for them was already available. In addition, they had to manually copy the parameters from Symphony to the console of the press. This naturally took a certain amount of time for each job, which accounted for a considerable amount of work each day, as well as opening the opportunity for human-error. In addition, errors were made in the manual, and in particular, the experience-based decisions, which resulted in a further time delay, as well as increased waste, a lower on-time shipment rate, and less reliability on job completion. All this, of course, caused extra costs. Content data in PDF format was sent to the press RIP via a hot folder.

Since April 2023, however, the Job Definition Format (JDF) has been used for this interface. Manual transfer of the data is a thing of the past.

"There are virtually no more errors in print production",
says Florian Günther, manager of the PACKAGING DIGITAL department.

Implementing JDF technology has reduced waste and increased machine utilization. The implementation of this JDF interface was actually a small step, but with a valuable resultant effect. The subsequent cost reduction in production has improved the profit potential considerably.

The integration project between Symphony and the HP Indigo 35K started in April 2023 and was swiftly completed by early May 2023. The short project duration is due, in particular, to the modular structure of the Symphony framework and to the already fully-specified and implemented JDF interface of the digital press. This means that no programming activities had to be performed, only configuration services. As a result, the three major milestones of the project: definition, setup, and implementation - could be achieved after roughly only two weeks. The entire project was mainly managed by four project managers; two from colordruck Baiersbronn, and two from ctrl-s.

The next project in the PACKAGING DIGITAL area is the extension of the Job Messaging Format (JMF) interface. Currently, their implementation is limited to status information, such as when a job is finished printing. This automatic status recording is then visible in the symphony job list and can trigger the next production process if necessary. In the future, operational data will be automatically sent back to Symphony in JDF format for each print job. This will enable more precise shop floor data analysis. This project is scheduled for August/September 2023.

It can be summarized that by implementing a JDF interface and automating the manufacturing and production-related decisions, the operator saves time, and a higher, more profitable utilization of the press is possible. As a result, errors have been reduced along the entire processchain and production lead-times have decreased. Today, express shipping within 4 days is only possible thanks to JDF.

Druckerei Köller + Nowark GmbH

Köller+Nowak (K+N) is a full-service commercial printer with 21 employees and a total turnover of about 3m EUR (4.2m USD). The JDF implementation at K+N is the first to utilize Cloud Computing, making it the first “JDF Cloud Network” ever established. It’s a vision of the printing industry’s JDF automated future.

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ESP Color Case Study

Based in Swindon, ESP Colour is a long established industry recognised innovative business who maximise every technological opportunity to streamline its business performance by developing and utilising the latest software available to improve and enhance their offering. 

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Druckerei Köller + Nowark GmbH

Köller+Nowak (K+N) is a full-service commercial printer with 21 employees and a total turnover of about 3m EUR (4.2m USD). The JDF implementation at K+N is the first to utilize Cloud Computing, making it the first “JDF Cloud Network” ever established. It’s a vision of the printing industry’s JDF automated future.

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Imprimerie Rochelaise

Imprimerie Rochelaise is a fifty-year-old company, privately owned, which employs 49 staff members and generates 8,35 million € turnover. They print all types of folders, brochures, catalogs, posters, flyers, etc. The combination of JDF integration and customer integration makes the case of Imprimerie Rochelaise particularly innovative.

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Point CZ s.r.o

POINT CZ, s.r.o. provides complex services in the field of flat sheet and digital offset printing and subsequent book-binding processing. Since 1993, the company has built up its position as one of the strongest polygraphic enterprises in the Czech Republic. This case study is based on a whole project which was focused on implementation and extension of the information system (IS) use during enhancement of company’s internal efficiency.

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W&R Etiketten

Based in Tilburg near Breda in the south of the Netherlands, W&R Etiketten produces labels for various industries, ranging from food, transportation and logistics. The overall objectives of the integration project are twofold: reducing administrative overhead due to growing number of smaller jobs and obtaining more insight in production.

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The figure shows a simple model of JDF integration. When creating a cost estimate , the MIS initially records many data about the print product and its production. If this estimation converts to an order, some of the data will eventually be sent to prepress, press, and postpress, for example, technical details about the intended product, some business data (such as customer details, delivery date, etc.) and the overview of the most important process steps. This information transfer is symbolised with a red arrow in the figure. First, prepress will process the JDF and add new entries, such as ink zone presetting values for the press (green arrow). The RIP might also generate composite previews for press and postpress, for example, for quality assurance purposes (pink arrow). In addition, the imposition software could forward the cutting and folding positions to the cutter or folder (blue arrow). Finally, all these devices should send operational data back to the MIS (black arrows).

JDF and JMF are XML-encoded. That is, each JDF or JMF document consists of a tree of XML elements including their attributes and values. The permitted XML element names are defined in the JDF specification (CIP4 2020). Since JSON has become increasingly popular in the last decade, CIP4 is currently working on a JSON representation of JDF/XJDF.

For a typical JDF, XML elements define the product to be manufactured and, if applicable, its sub-products, as well as the production processes needed to manufacture this product.

Each product (part) and also each production process is described by an XML element called "JDF". These are designated with "JDF nodes". Of course, different node types differ in the attributes and also in the allowed sub-elements. For example, each JDF node describing a process can contain different resource elements. Resources are descriptions of physical objects (e.g., materials like paper or paint etc.) or conceptual objects (e.g., file names, parameter sets). In the JDF specification 1.7, about 100 processes and 170 resources are defined in detail. Many CIP4 experts have specified all these printing processes and resources down to the smallest detail.

Main features of JDF:

• JDF is designed to streamline information exchange between different applications and systems.
• JDF is intended to enable the entire industry, including media, design, graphic arts, on-demand and e-commerce companies, to implement and work with individual workflow solutions.
• JDF will allow integration of heterogeneous products from diverse vendors to create seamless workflow solutions.
• JDF goes together with the a message description standard and message interchange protocol "Job Messaging Format" (JMF) that allows, for example, sending feedback back from devices to controlling software. The JMF protocol between the parties supports dynamic, real-time interaction.

Please download the JDF specification 1.7 here.

In addition, here is the link to older JDF specifications (JDF archive) on Confluence

...and to the JDF Schema, the current version (1.7) as well as to older versions.

Interoperability Conformance Specification (ICS) for JDF is a set of specifications developed by CIP4. ICS documents specify the interface requirements how JDF modules (e.g., MIS, Prepress controllers or Press controllers and devices) should interoperate if they comply to the same ICS. Please follow the link below to access these ICS documents.

There are JDF examples on the CIP4 Confluence website. Please follow the link below. Note that you have to open the files with a simple word processor if you just want to study them.