ROCHESTER, N.Y., September 13 – Kodak is pleased to congratulate its customers Kraft Druck of Ettlingen, Germany, Action Printing of Fond du Lac, WI, USA, and Williamson Printing of Dallas, TX, USA for receiving International Print Production Innovation Awards from The International Cooperation for the Integration of Process in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4). Each of the CIP4 award winners realized measurable improvements in their business through a combination of implementing JDF (Job Definition Format) enabled solutions from Kodak, dedicated management at each printer, and the cooperation of NETWORKED GRAPHIC PRODUCTION (NGP) Partners to deliver integrated solutions using an industry-standard file format. Biggest Improvement in Efficiency and Customer Responsiveness Kraft Druck received the award for the 'Biggest improvement in efficiency and customer responsiveness as a result of process automation.' The return on investment of the JDF implementation is 446.5 percent within five years (investment is repaid 5.46 times within five years). The KODAK PRINERGY workflow management system connected to the Hiflex Print management information system (MIS) via JDF-based SYNAPSE Link software helped Kraft Druck increase productivity by 9.6 percent, reduce prepress labor, improve accuracy of cost tracking and invoicing, and enhance customer service. “JDF has proved to be an excellent means to optimize our workflow by automation. At the same time, it helps us to constantly improve production standardization throughout the company,” said Kraft Druck IT Manager Thomas Brickwedde. Kraft Druck also used the fully automatic KODAK LOTEM 800 Quantum platesetter to enhance efficiency in prepress. Best Cost Benefit Realization Action Printing, a division of the Gannett Company, was honored for the 'Best cost benefit realization as a result of process automation implementation.' Action Printing produces directories, manuals, catalogs and books and has implemented the SYNAPSE UPFRONT production planning tool from Kodak to streamline and standardize the job planning process with efficiency and accuracy. By implementing a JDF workflow and integrating production planning data with the bindery department, makeready for a saddle stitcher was reduced to 24 minutes from 85 minutes with a traditional saddle stitcher. The improvement allowed the company to reduce saddle stitching lines from three to two, while productivity improved — 17 percent more books were produced than in the previous year. Most Innovative Use of Process Automation Technology Honorable mention went to Williamson Printing for 'Most innovative use of process automation technology in an implementation.' Williamson Printing also uses the SYNAPSE UPFRONT production planning tool to automate imposition, often the single process in a prepress workflow that takes the longest time by hand. For the complex, high-end work that Williamson Printing specializes in, imposition typically took 15-30 minutes. Now data is received by production managers and entered into the SYNAPSE UPFRONT software, which checks the layouts against a comprehensive database of press and finishing equipment capabilities. After calculating the most suitable imposition, a JDF file is created and exported to the prepress workflow. The workflow uses that data to automatically generate an imposition layout. Williamson Printing benefits from this automation by a 95 percent reduction in the time required to create an imposition. Prepress errors are reduced by 100 percent and imposition is now performed instantly, instead of leaving print jobs to wait for hours.