C. Clint Bolte & Associates

Pre-DRUPA trade press articles hyped the theme for this world trade show as the JDF or Networked DRUPA, the symbiotic melding of IT and steel via the CIP4 bridge. The expected 370,000 worldwide visitors scouring the 1,862 exhibitors from 52 countries occupying the 1.7 million square feet in 17 halls at the Düsseldorf, Germany Messe (Convention Center) may agree with that theme. But regardless of the computer integration maturity of the visiting printers, there were amble product and process innovations to excite every industry participant. Heidelberg listed 50 innovations introduced at this DRUPA while MAN Roland cited 70 innovations for their sheetfed and web lines. Despite the lackluster global economy of the recent few years, virtually every major manufacturer showed the results of their continued 7-10% average of annual revenues reinvested in research and development for future product enhancements and new technologies.

While many exhibitors were demonstrating this networking throughout their booth, the magnitude of the networking permutations and combinations quickly became overwhelming. Those visitors concentrating on a few selected ranges of subjects could take the actual tours of thirteen different topics, which easily ranged over several halls. Examples of these topical tours included JDF, digital proofing, digital printing, large format printing, packaging production, and UV technology. This seemed to be much more effective than the classroom seminar tutorial methodology used in the US at Graph Expo.

A noticeable difference between this and recent DRUPAs was the unusually solid optimism expressed by both European and far eastern suppliers. Only days before the opening of this 14-day show was the celebration in nearby Brussels, the European Union capital, of the expansion of the EU from 15 to 25 countries. While these newest ten member countries represent only about 35% of the total GDP of the EU, the longer term economic prospects for manufacturers and suppliers is certainly upbeat.

On the other hand European printers, and particularly those in Germany, are very concerned as the labor costs of these new EU colleagues is a fraction of the old western European countries. For example, the Federation of European Employers reports that German industrial labor costs are 21.31 euro/hour, same costs across the original 15 EU at 17.77, and comparable costs in the new EU countries of 3.31. This is 15% of the German labor costs and less than 20% of the established EU labor costs.

While the US is concerned about job loss to China, Bangladesh, et al, the higher probable job loss within the expanded EU is comparable to New Jersey printers losing work to West Virginia or Iowa printers due to labor cost differential. Relative cost equilibrium is expected by some economists to be achieved within the EU in a generation or less. In the meantime it's a new ballgame as the fences have been taken down. What does this mean to North American printers? I surmise very little to Canadian printers as NAFTA has seen exporting print volume approaching 40% of total volume. This is proof that the Canadians have learned how to service clients quite effectively from hundreds and even thousands of miles away. Larger US printers with multiple plants across several regions have similar customer service and logistical infrastructure expertise in place. The medium-sized US regional general commercial printers are rarely comfortable in dealing with clients beyond a couple hundred mile radius of their shipping dock. For this significant niche of service providers the ability to work with clients at great distances away is a distinct problem or opportunity. Help may be on the way.

The growing demand for global print partners is being recognized particularly by the packaging industry according to Mr. Geert de Vries, Principal of the Dutch consulting firm Adviesgroep Grafimedia. A formative group of independent consultants gathered at DRUPA to begin the process of developing a worldwide network of Consultants for Printers. When a new product roll out has been successful in a regional market, the packaging or fulfillment printer can now contact this network of consultants throughout the world to find out the names of local printers in a market half way around the globe that will be compatible with the digital workflows to continue the product or kitting roll out. Some of the early consultancy members and their URLs are grafimedia.nl in the Netherlands and Dutch speaking Belgium, ird-online.de and t-online.de in Germany and German speaking areas, mertel-consult @ hetnet in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, aeberle @ bleuwinich in Switzerland, and clintbolte.com in North America.

The CIP4 international consortium, comprising 220 member companies, released the 1.2 version of Job Definition Format. This contains over 650 additions and clarifications to the global JDF specifications. They also introduced the Interoperability Conformance Specifications (ICS) concept. The ICS provides the minimum standard for individual classes of devices, i.e., image setter, press, binder, and how they are expected to handle JDF and JMF. Mr. James Harvey, Executive Director of the CIP4 Organization, commented, "ICS will later be used for certification testing of JDF-enabled products." The complete updating of pre-flighting is one of the more extensive additions to JDF. On-going updates can be taken from cip4.org.

Part of the printer's possible confusion of this goal of interoperability and connectivity may be born of the different alliances that have been set up for primarily marketing, not technological reasons. For example, PrintCity was formed at DRUPA 2000 as a non-Heidelberg link-up of JDF-enabled systems and machines. They wanted to counter Heidelberg's claim that the best interconnectability was only available from a single source responsibility. Similarly the Networked Graphic Production (NGP) group was organized by Creo as a non-Agfa/EFI/Heidelberg CIP4 compatible consortium.