John D. Starratt Jr., a Regional Customer Service Specialist, is a member of the Koenig & Bauer CSS team that offers its expertise to customers

Strong partnership with valued customers provides 20% productivity increase, 40% makeready reduction, and personnel optimization

• Dedicated Customer Service Specialists (CSS) underscore their commitment to delivering excellence for complete press life cycle
• This program highlights the company's core guarantee to holistic ongoing customer-centric support
• CSS team along with online customer communication portal and proactive services ensures that customers exceed their production goals

When one of Koenig & Bauer’s largest packaging firms called upon its Customer Service Specialists to visit its facility, the customer was successfully operating its high-performance Rapida 145 large format press but was seeking to better contend with its rapid expansion and growing production demand. After working one-on-one with the firm’s production and press crews, John D. Starratt Jr., a Regional Customer Service Specialist, was able to help the firm increase its production by 20%, reduce makeready by 40%, and provide outstanding overall improvements in press speed, downtime, and quality.

“Koenig & Bauer has an excellent reputation for its superior press technology,” says Michael Eichler, Koenig & Bauer Sales Director Service Select. “To ensure that the press is running up to its full capacity and potential, our CSS team of highly-skilled multifunctional experts is called upon to directly support our customer base, lend critical support, and deliver unique solutions with the utmost ease and responsiveness.”

In the case of this leading packaging firm, Starratt made both monthly and quarterly visits to the facility. His goal was to increase press performance, reduce makeready, refresh the press crews with training, and offer targeted analysis, advice, and recommendations to implement new standards and best practices.

“My initial review was that the press crew needed to improve their standard procedures to operate the press and we needed to retrain for better utilization of the press,” says Starratt. “Within a short amount of time, all of the numbers greatly improved. The press was displaying exceptional run speeds and increased throughput.”

By working with the press crew, Starratt was able to improve processes and provide guidance on how targeted training can stabilize and further improve the efficiency of Koenig & Bauer’s equipment. By standardizing the press process, he gave each press operator a particular responsibility. This, in turn, turned the pressroom into a more structured and organized operation.

“We immediately saw a huge improvement and major benefits within the pressroom,” says Starratt. “After only a few visits, the procedures we put in place dramatically decreased makeready times. We could see opportunities to increase their production and we showed them what the press was capable of if it is operated optimizing all the inherent simultaneous processes to ensure the highest productivity.”

Due to the noticeable productivity gains, extraordinary benefits, and return on investment (ROI) derived from Starratt’s work, the customer has asked for additional CSS assistance at its other facilities in which Koenig & Bauer presses are in use.

“Employing our team’s proactive advisory role, we’re able to make recommendations to the customer and point out particular issues,” says Eichler. “This approach allows us to offer personalized support and builds a strong and loyal partnership with our customers. They appreciate the expert insight and holistic services that include their entire facility including prepress, press, and post-press. Our dedicated support structure is a hallmark of the Koenig & Bauer commitment to its customers.