VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--Jan. 28, 2002--Creo Products says that Prinergy Powerpack workflow is significantly improving productivity for North American packaging customers. Prinergy Powerpack workflow began production in October for the offset converting market worldwide. Prinergy Powerpack Speeds Platemaking "Prinergy Powerpack workflow really sets the stage for us to pump up our productivity and do more business,'' says Steve Hamilton, prepress manager, Franks Industries, Inc. of Sunman, Indiana. Prinergy Powerpack workflow has increased the speed of platemaking for the packaging company that produces a quarter of a billion blister cards for companies such as Duracell, the battery manufacturer. It was taking Franks about 4.5 hours to image the plates for a 40-up, 5-color Duracell blister card. Franks, named "Duracell Supplier of the Year'', is now making the plates with Prinergy Powerpack workflow in one-third of the time-1.5 hours. "Having brought Prinergy Powerpack in-house saves us money now that we can do our own prepress and bill direct for our services instead of just passing on the cost of having films made outside,'' says Steve Harlan, manager of Franks Industries. "We have also noticed reduced downtime due to register on-press.'' Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation, the industry's leading manufacturer of paper- and paperboard-based packaging, has also experienced improved plate production. "Through several months of testing we have seen a positive impact on our production times ranging from 30% to 75% faster than our current workflow,'' explains Trish Smith, digital systems manager, Consumer Packaging Division at Smurfit-Stone. Powerful Prinergy Powerpack Workflow The database and automated process plans of Prinergy Powerpack workflow are powerful tools that will bring standardization and accountability in file preparation. "We elected to beta test Prinergy Powerpack workflow because we saw potential with the database and job-management approach to the CTP (computer-to-plate) workflow,'' says Trish. These tools play an important role as the entire Consumer Packaging Division is moving to a completely digital workflow over the next two years. "The same system model can be used for all of our plants,'' says Trish. Because of the modular nature of Prinergy Powerpack workflow, each plant's specific needs will be met by customizing the system configurations and automation settings. Easy to Use The ease of use of Prinergy Powerpack workflow ensures prepress staff can transition with the digital workflow. "Prinergy Powerpack provides an opportunity to employ a variety of skill levels into the department, therefore utilizing many of the resources that we currently employ,'' says Trish. "The learning curve is also reduced because of the user interface and process plans that are managed by an experienced prepress operator.'' "The end-to-end PDF workflow was very interesting to us. Once you make the PDF digital master, it works for everything - from proofing to plating,'' says Steve Hamilton of Franks Industries. "And the integrated archiving capabilities are great - they really keep the server clean.'' Franks also uses Creo systems such as the Trendsetter VLF Quantum platesetter, the Renaissance copydot scanning system, and an Iris43WIDE imposition proofer.