For 35 years Robot printing and communications has quietly provided domestic and international clients with unparalleled excellence in the communication arts. Located in Redford, Michigan, Robot is more than a quality printing company. They offer a unique blend of the latest in print and electronic publication. Their experienced and creative staff provide professional, on-demand service.

Ken Dause is Robot’s Director of Sales and Marketing. He has a BS degree in Business from the University of Detroit Mercy, a private Jesuit university in Detroit. Ken was with IBM in corporate sales for 12 years and spent the last two years as an e-business sales specialist helping companies do business on the Internet with their customers and employees. Ken has been in his current position for 1 year and says he has “had to rapidly learn the commercial printing industry.”

Ken, we understand that Robot is evolving from a commercial printing company to a cross media publishing company. Can you explain?

Since publishing is becoming more digital in nature every month, we intend to continue investing in the latest technology for publishing high quality sheetfed print, information and print on CD’s, on-demand printing and on the Internet. We also will continue to bring more services in-house so more types of complete projects can be produced without subcontracting to other companies. Technology expertise will always be a core competency.

We do not see overall print spending declining much – just changing. Even though there are electronic means to carry messages traditionally delivered by print; it appears that printing that message is still more effective and desired by the average person.

More print will be done digitally to laser printers and presses for a portion of the print work in the future as the technology evolves. There will always be a place for the high quality sheetfed printer because companies and agencies due to their audience appeal will always require the types of material printed by them.

Tell us about your revenue and main features.

Robot is a privately held $20 million company growing at about 30% per year for the last 3 years. Our main business is 4-color sheetfed commercial printing specializing on short-run publications and longer run high quality printing. We can do many types of finishing like diecutting and saddlestitching and wire-o binding. We are completely direct to plate in our prepress area using the Prinergy PDF workflow.

Our next largest area is color and black and white on-demand laser printing with finishing. Our New Media department offers CD-ROM color printing and file burning, software and database development, web site design and hosting. The on-demand printing services comes under our New Media department as well. Other services include custom binder manufacturing, warehousing and fulfillment and mailings. We have recently partnered with a well-known design company to do business with each other’s customers.

Some companies have not been able to make the additional investments to keep up with the new digital requirements of most print buyers. Specifically, what equipment has Robot acquired in the last couple of years?

We have purchased (a great deal) of equipment and systems, which in most cases added new capabilities for us including:

10 color Heidelberg perfecting press which can print up to 5 colors on two sides of the sheet in one pass.

Two 6-color Heidelberg CD presses with coaters.

BOBST diecutting machine with blanker.

Heidelberg ST 2000 Stitchmaster which can stitch up to 12,000 books per hour.

We also upgraded our prepress workflow to the Prinergy PDF system, which allows us to be completely direct-to-plate.

Two Creo Platesetters for producing digital matchprints and plates.

Three CD printing and file burning machines.

An inkjetting and wafer-sealing machine for mailings.

22" high speed Heidelberg folder

Wow. What feedback have you received from clients?

These investments have allowed us to be the leader in prepress, printing, finishing and overall capabilities in our regional area. Our quality has improved with the use of the latest technology enhancing our reputation. This has allowed us to attract many excellent sales reps and impress customers when they visit.

Any new purchase plans for this year?

We plan on making the following investments in 2001:

12 color Heidelberg perfecting press. This has roll-to-sheetfed paper capability.

Automatic polywrapping machine

New estimating system

Doubling the size of our current facility by adding an addition. We will grow from 65,000 to 140,000 sq. ft.

How does Robot manage supplier relationships?

Robot recently created a dedicated Purchasing position to better manage our suppliers and purchasing workflow. We have vastly improved the control over the purchasing transaction process. This has saved us money mostly by better managing the communication with production suppliers so we don’t get hit with rush charges in order to make delivery dates on jobs. It has also strengthened the relationships with our suppliers.


Are you involved with any of the e-print solution providers?

I have evaluated most of the major printing industry "e-collaboration" vendors and have only used those that our major customers require us to use – General Motors with Impresse.com (now printCafe) and DaimlerChrysler with Printwire.org developed by the Printing Industries of Michigan.

The vendors that survive in this space are those with large corporate clients or strong industry backing. I do not see printers choosing one of these vendors in any volume until the major players become clear. Many of these companies may not even be in business one year from now. We have developed some custom applications to do business with our best customers over the Internet. These are mainly for project-specific use and not for our regular business processes.

Tell us about your sales process.

We have grown more due to attracting the best sales reps, word of mouth and cold calls on customers then we have through marketing campaigns. We have had a very nice promotional binder to give to prospective customers, but recently we have developed some mailing pieces to both increase recognition of Robot and gain new customers through phone call follow-up. These are customer testimonials and specific capability pieces like annual reports and publications. We also send quarterly update letters to our current customers.

How has being - direct to plate - changed your proofing process in your prepress area?

After we receive a digital file on CD or via our FTP site, we make PDF files unless we received them that way. These files are RIPped and sent to one of our Creo Platesetters to create a digital color matchprint for proofing. A dylux is also created from this same RIP. After approval the plates for the job are made by the Creo using the same RIP that made the proof so no differences will occur between proof and plate.

What do you suggest to print buyers sending files to their print vendor?

Please ask to speak to the printer’s prepress manager before submitting the jobs on disk to discuss the file setup that works best for that printer. Many times the printer has good tips on how to save time and money by having the file come in without problems. This is becoming more important with the various digital workflow systems being used by different printers.


Thank you Ken. Keep us updated!