The bindery is the final frontier of total workflow automation, but the journey can be overwhelming. Unlike other steps in the print workflow, finishing is the most diverse. After the paper is printed, it can be die cut, coated, bound, folded, stamped, collated, inserted, jogged, guillotine trimmed, and more. And, although most newer finishing equipment (purchased within the last 10–15 years or so) can send and receive JDF data, the likelihood that they’re actually networked together on the shop floor is pretty slim.

In fact, even the most ambitious plans to automate can be sidelined once you get your arms around the project scope, thinking about all of the touch points, all of the equipment brands that must talk to each other, and all of the people who would have to be willing to learn how to do their jobs in a totally new way. “Our biggest competitor is the traditional, static way of doing things,” says Julie Watson, president of Ultimate TechnoGraphics. “It can be very hard to break people of their old habits. However, finishing automation can make their job so much easier and help them produce more jobs.” Julie’s company is behind Ultimate Bindery® software, a powerful open software solution that manages multi-vendor finishing workflows with ease. 

This sentiment is something that everyone from the software companies to the finishing equipment manufacturers are dealing with. Often the solution becomes more of a crawl, walk, run scenario. “There is a learning curve, but we have seen customers being more proactive and asking questions as they consider enhancing the automation of their workflows,” says Yashi Potdar, Workflow Solutions Analyst for Standard Finishing Systems, “Many shops are not quite ready to fully implement bindery automation, but we can offer them a way to grow into automation, from memory recall and job storage all the way up to full JDF workflow.”