Flint Group’s certification programme supports sustainable optimisation of printing production

“Quality is the highest priority in our company. Professionalism as well as permanent learning is part of our daily business. The exchange with other experts and the questioning of the workflow by outside parties can only sensitise and sharpen our senses,” emphasises Dirk Kalkbrenner of SCHAWK JÜLICH. Thereby, the prepress production and training manager of the repro house summarises the motivation behind the participation of Flint Group’s FlexoExpert certification programme.

SCHAWK JÜLICH deals continuously with sustainability and process optimisation of their printing plate production and can call themselves an official FlexoExpert since the autumn of 2016.

With a duration of six months, the certification programme consists of three steps:

The first phase includes a detailed inventory and status report as well as individual training and preparation by Flint Group experts. In the second phase, the implementation of the recommendations follow. In this phase, SCHAWK JÜLICH improved their already high process level to form an advanced, sustainable workflow. At this point, it was particularly important for the company to comprise a regular and seamless process based on control elements to expand standards and to document the work. At the conclusion of the certification programme, the crucial audit takes place with a final verification of all process parameters and applications. At this time, Flint Group experts again question and evaluate the complete production process. The announcement of the achieved score and presentation of the title “FlexoExpert” follows in a final discussion. SCHAWK JÜLICH is pleased with an outstanding score of 95%, and the resulting performance. They received this certification with distinction.

“The FlexoExpert Certification is a very successful programme to optimise printing production. The handling of the individual process steps within SCHAWK JÜLICH is now even more professional and more purposeful,” Mr. Kalkbrenner confirms. All worldwide branches of SCHAWK shall now follow the JÜLICH site and pass through the certification programme. Thus, the company can accomplish a global standard as well as a benchmark.