The newspaper publisher of the Neue Westfälische has commissioned ppi Media, a company of manroland AG, to install a new workflow for its prepress stage. This became necessary after it purchased a new newspaper press and integrated ABB's press control system, MPS Production.

Apart from expanding and improving its range of services, the newspaper press and workflow will enable the printing house to plan its production more flexibly, making it less dependent on the publishing house. ppi Media will use the new interfaces to implement direct connections between its own solutions, which have been applied in Bielefeld for many years, and the new systems. In future, printnet OM, the CtP output management system, and PlanPag, the planning system, will be connected to the press control system at the Neue Westfälische.

Planning data will be imported to the press control system in future from PlanPag. However, as of this coming summer, this data will be refined in the ABB system and exported from there to the CtP output management system. With the help of printnet OM, this workflow will enable the printing house to label the plates exactly, even if pages must be replanned at a later stage.

The changeover in the workflow and the new web fed press are the first of extensive modernization projects in Bielefeld. "Bit by bit we plan to replace the old systems and machinery, using innovative solutions to position ourselves optimally for the future," said Axel Walker, Publishing Director at the Neue Westfälische.