By Significans Automation
Michael Enright has been owner of Coastal SpeedPro of Portsmouth, NH, the top-selling SpeedPro franchise in North America, for over ten years. His shop has completed thousands of large and small projects—from basic retail signage to stunning, nationwide multiple hundreds of site environmental graphic refreshes for retailers.
Today, Enright oversees the most automated of SpeedPro’s 130+ independently owned and operated wide format franchises. But it wasn’t always that way.
Disparate Systems Inefficient
Enright’s journey to customized in-shop automation and full integration of all production processes is an ever-evolving work in progress as the business and production requirements evolve.
All SpeedPro locations use CoreBridge, a web-based business management platform. “However, as my business grew, we were experiencing major production issues because we had to use the technology in a variety of different ways. We were also introduced to Esko’s Automation Engine (AE). But soon discovered, this technology needed meaningful customization and integration with our current workflow systems to work best in our unique production environment. Plus, CoreBridge had a limited set of APIs, making integration with Esko’s AE and other workflow systems very difficult. We finally got our initial Esko AE up and running, but it couldn’t do many things we wanted, such as streamline and improve production quality. We found ourselves doing work manually again, cutting and pasting between two digital systems. This introduced risks, errors, rising costs, missed deadlines, and customer satisfaction issues,” explains Enright.
73 Workflows Reduced to Three
Enright contacted workflow automation and integration specialist Significans Automation. “Michael’s workflow software was always being modified and re-configured —but had never been utilized to its fullest extent,” explains Marc Raad, president, Significans. “Working as a team, we managed to reduce 73 separate, time-consuming workflows into three easy-to-use ‘tools.’ This eventually transformed his entire business.”
“We made a lot of adjustments, but through it all, Significans solved our workflow problems in real time. We were able to find efficiencies that would give us, for example, 80 percent of the bang for 20 percent of our buck. We continue to partner with Significans, and as our business changes, so too are the integrations the Significans team creates for us. We’ve added several key enhancements and have become much more efficient. Overall, we’ve now achieved a 10-to-1 reduction of touchpoints, yielding flawless, on-time, ultra-efficient production,” says Enright.
Tools A Printer Can Use Everyday
Enright adds that the biggest single accomplishment of this collaboration was that Significans discovered a way to seamlessly transfer data from CoreBridge into Esko’s AE. He can now process everything needed for fully automated, uninterrupted, error-free press runs with near zero rework. “Our print workflows are now simplified, powerful, and much more customized,” notes Enright.
For more information, visit significans.com or call 877-463-4465. You’ll be directed not to a salesperson or a third party, but to one of the company’s regional workflow automation and integration experts who has years of production-floor experience.
Nov2024, Digital Output
