Altorffer, une entreprise d'impression et d'emballage à Roosendaal, aux Pays-Bas, possède un riche héritage dans l'impression, avec une histoire qui remonte à 1784. Ce prestigieux héritage ne signifie toutefois pas que l'imprimerie néerlandaise manque de vision : Altorffer met fortement l'accent sur l'innovation et croit fermement en la puissance de la connected automation.
Un premier brief pour Four Pees, distributeur et intégrateur de systèmes d'impression, portait sur la volonté d'Altorffer d'améliorer la préparation des fichiers d'impression et de tirer le maximum de son investissement dans Enfocus Switch. Rapidement, il est apparu que Four Pees avait bien plus à offrir que la simple optimisation du preflight.
Au même moment, le spécialiste multinational des soins oculaires Alcon, a long-time Altorffer customer, was experiencing a similar need for enhanced automation, specifically relating to marketing order processing and delivery. With a tight deadline of just a few months, Altorffer knew there was no room for workflow and production inefficiencies if they were going to meet the demands of the Alcon project. So, the Four Pees partnership that started as a project to improve preflight processes soon developed into a fully integrated system of automating orders, inventory management, and communication with customers and suppliers. (Read more under the video)
A customer project with a clear vision for success
The main aim of the project was the comprehensive automation of Alcon’s marketing orders. The Alcon Marketing Tools platform (AMT) handles everything from file receipt to delivery notes, and automatically communicates with platforms such as Prindustry and Sendy for delivery, allowing Altorffer to handle higher volume with fewer manual interactions. Philippe Moons, Digital Marketing Manager Alcon says: "This platform was launched with the main purpose of helping our customers, the opticians, to order marketing materials in order to make it easier to market our products to the end user.”
Since Alcon Marketing Tools was launched, the number of active users has doubled, and we are seeing a 50-60% increase in orders.
The implementation of the platform has been game-changing for Alcon, allowing the opticians to order the products they need themselves and reduce touchpoints in the marketing order process. The results are evident, as Moons continues: “Since Alcon Marketing Tools - our ordering platform for marketing materials - was launched, the number of active users has doubled, and we are seeing a 50-60% increase in orders. This ensures that more marketing is happening for our products, which further strengthens the success of the platform."
Connected Automation, a catalyst for job satisfaction and efficiency
Such an extensive project with a strict deadline would not have been possible without Altorffer’s approach to connectivity and automation, as Mireille van Osta, team leader, Prepress Innovation & IT at Altorffer, says: "We have been working on automation within Altorffer for over a decade. Over the years, we have learned that to get the most out of your workflow, you have to automate the smaller problems first. When you connect all these processes together, you create a whole new efficiency: connected automation.”
The impact of connected automation goes beyond the improvement of print production efficiency; it boosts job satisfaction thanks to the reduced need for members of the team to carry out repetitive tasks, which in turn allows them to focus on more high-value, engaging duties. Eddy Bouwens, co-owner of Altorffer, says: “For us, it is important that our people have interesting jobs, with fewer repetitive tasks and less chance of mistakes. This not only adds to their job satisfaction, but also increases our efficiency. This is why we decided to partner with Four Pees to implement 'Connected Automation'. It connects all our processes and ensures seamless workflows with minimal human intervention.”
Pour nous, il est important que nos collaborateurs aient des postes intéressants, avec moins de tâches répétitives et moins de risques d'erreurs. Cela accroît non seulement leur satisfaction au travail, mais aussi notre efficacité.
Les avantages du partenariat avec Four Pees se ressentent dans tout Altorffer, et pas uniquement grâce au succès du projet Alcon. Natascha van Gils, team leader PostPress et AMT, et donc aussi responsable de la finition dans la production Alcon, souligne la commodité qu'offre la nouvelle automatisation : « On a davantage l'esprit tranquille. Tout est désormais à sa place, et si le stock diminue, nous recevons automatiquement une notification pour pouvoir lancer de nouvelles commandes d'impression à temps. Résultat : le travail est devenu plus simple et plus clair. »
Marieke Kiebert, P&O and Financial Administration, is also enthusiastic: “The project was set up quite smoothly. In the beginning, you don't know exactly what is going to change, but the process went smoothly. There were no struggles and confidence in the system grew quickly.”
A look to the future
Cette réussite ne s'arrête pas là. La connected automation est une exigence croissante pour les imprimeries qui veulent rester compétitives et rentables dans l'environnement actuel, et des entreprises comme Altorffer continueront à mener la course grâce à leur état d'esprit. Eddy Bouwens conclut : « Nous avons remarqué que ce parcours de connected automation intéresse beaucoup de nos clients. Notre mission est d'amener Altorffer à la version 2.0 en reliant et en automatisant tous nos processus. Cela nous permettra de générer plus de chiffre d'affaires avec le même nombre de collaborateurs et de renforcer notre cohésion. C'est l'avenir pour une entreprise graphique comme la nôtre. »
Customer: Altorffer
- Related solutions: Packaging Creation, Job Onboarding, Prepress Automation, Web to print
- Related industries: Commercial Printing, Packaging & Labeling
- Related products: Enfocus Switch