March 4 2008 - Dozens of printers from the U.S. and Canada, South America and the Dominican Republic see MAN Roland's maiden North American EUROMAN installation perform at Feb. 25-26 event, co-sponsored by MEGTEC and QuadTech.
Pressroom visit caps two days of EUROMAN insights and info, featur-ing Germany-based MAN Roland design engineers, U.S. installation team and Hi-Liter President & CEO Craig Faust. 

"The versatility, the flexibility were big with us," Faust asserted in response to his self-posed query, "Why did we move forward (in purchasing) the EUROMAN press?"

"We can produce catalogues," he continues.  "We can produce your collat-eral material.  If you have a weekly publication, or a monthly, we can pro-duce that.  From tabloid to digest size.  Depending on the run length, we can run covers on the sheetfed and we can go 16-page for certain forms; now we can go 32, or we can go 16…. 

"If they have a blow-in, or want to do something different - we can move things around … in effect, 'engineer' the product for the best outcome."

Using technology-based efficiencies "to outperform."
Faust said that EUROMAN cross-format and diverse stock-handling capa-bilities not only boost production efficiency, but also help "cut cost of inven-tory; we're turning inventory 14.5 times.  And we have increased finishing speeds by 30%."

Noting that cost-price pressures, although nothing new, are gaining inten-sity, Faust said, "Our goal is, through efficiencies, to outperform … utilizing technology and good employees."

EUROMAN technology, he readily admits, delivers efficiently on long runs or short - even, for example, 1000 copies of a 1700-page job, or 2500 pages at 500 quantity.  The press's automated makeready ease and time savings, its high productivity and consistent quality … all combine to cut cost-per-copy numbers - and keep them low.

EUROMAN insights provided by MAN Roland specialists.
The two-day Open House event kicked off on Monday afternoon at the Grand Geneva Resort in nearby Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, with presenta-tions by MAN Roland personnel based in Germany as well as the U.S.

Using newsstand photos to illustrate his point, George Riescher, Executive Vice President of MAN Roland Druckmaschinen AG pointed out the ex-traordinary explosion in numbers and diversity of printed material … all in addition to directories, books, inserts, schoolbooks, untold collateral and other commercial products.  They all offer opportunities for printers.  And, his detailed overview revealed, all can be accommodated by packages and options designed into the EUROMAN.

Germany-based Product Manager Oliver Bleisch took attendees through end-to-end engineering features of the EUROMAN, from reel splicer through printing system … from plate-loading to folding.

Bottom line is top priority.
Individually and collectively, notes Hi-Liter's Faust, these factors impact "to-tal cost of ownership. That is absolutely imperative with us."

He also credits pre- and post-sale MAN Roland team support with helping to make it work:  "The installation, the training and education; dialing-in at night and checking out the press.…  It's been wonderful.

"It was a leap for us, going into a 32-page format," Faust sums up.  "Now we're way ahead of where we thought we'd be."

How many Open House attendees will follow in Hi-Liter's footsteps and bring a EUROMAN into their operations?  Only time will tell.  MAN Roland Inc. President Vince Lapinski is optimistic.

"Interest here was high," Lapinski observed.  "We now have a solid foot-hold in North America with this press platform.  And I think you will be see-ing a lot more of them."