Discussion

By Chuck Gehman on Apr 26, 2013

I think the headline is wrong here. According to the video he has one workflow, which is a legacy offset workflow that he is also using with his Toner based Ricoh machine and his EFI/Rastek unit.

I don't know how Bill can refer to what he has as a "totally Heidelberg shop", it's not like the old days when everything was actually made by Heidelberg. It sounds to me like only the offset presses are made by Heidelberg. And Prinect, of course. He even mentioned an Epson proofer.

In keeping with the headline, it would have be nice to actually hear how he is using Prinect with the digital devices, the mechanics of how that works, what the benefits and/or advantages may be. Certainly Printect is not functioning as the DFE for either the Rastek or the Ricoh? (LinoPrint) he mentions.

By Cary Sherburne on Apr 26, 2013

Harsh, Chuck. They chose to buy from Heidelberg instead of going directly to the OEMs because of their long-term relationship. So I think it is fair to say they are a "Heidelberg" shop. I could have had him go into more depth on the actual workflow. Wrists slapped on that one.

By Chuck Gehman on Apr 27, 2013

I didn't mean to be harsh or even really critical, Cary, especially not of you! (Although I understand how you might think that from some of my snarky past posts.)

I just think in today's industry, with some of the weird channel alignments that are going on, us customers in the audience need to really understand what people are talking about.

I think a lot of people in addition to myself would like to get the true picture of what Heidelberg is "thinking", it's about as transparent as paperboard.

Speaking of which, when I watched Harold Weimer's video on the company strategy in North America, I was left completely baffled. It sounded like he was saying we here in NA should look at Europe and South America for our direction, which is completely bizarre. We have very little in common with either of those markets, nor do they have much in common with each other!

In that video, harold also made it sound like Heidleberg is completely focused on packaging in NA, which would make some sense... but also doesn't fit with what is described here!

So please bring forth the deep insight! We need it!

By Cary Sherburne on Apr 27, 2013

Thanks for the clarification. I will reach out to Heidelberg to see if they wish, in turn, to clarify their positioning!