Beyond the machine

In 2012, ROTOCON was appointed as local distributor for MPS – the Dutch-based manufacturer of flexo, offset, digital hybrid and packaging presses – known for ease of operation, exceptional print quality and high return on investment ratio. MPS goes beyond the machine, through innovations in connectivity and productivity, by sharing its machine operation and applications knowledge, and offering best-in-class service.

Why press performance is vital

You can have the best press in the world but what if the operators don’t receive proper training to run the machine for optimal performance? What if they only know how to run one kind of label and cannot accept more special, higher-margin applications? What if they create unnecessary waste and take too much time setting up jobs or changing rolls?
MPS has discovered that label printers and converters can achieve the biggest efficiency gains by analysing how the machine is performing – identifying and reducing bottlenecks and weak points – and making improvements that translate into savings of hours per day and substantial waste reduction. That’s incredibly good news because these reductions lead to immediate annual savings of tens of thousands of Rands. Furthermore, the hours saved can be used to print labels and earn extra profit!

Beyond machine builders

That’s why we added an extra dimension by focusing on services and processes that provide a key supporting role and contribute to our customers’ competitiveness and profitability.
CEO, Atze Bosma, explains: ‘Although our presses are top-quality, we offer label printers and converters much more. High-level service, and knowledge of connectivity and productivity are the foundation for optimal MPS machine performance. The result: extremely efficient production of the highest quality applications.’
By making use of hundreds of sensors in the press, continuous streaming data is collected and analysed to understand bottlenecks, benchmark, and continuously improve press performance. We call this press mirroring: essentially creating a digital version of the press in our systems (‘a digital twin’). This enables all MPS specialists to work in a multidisciplinary way and align with a customer’s team of specialists.
Having a digital twin that streams dynamic data enables better decision-making as it gives customers exact details of how to improve their overall print operation.

Information at your fingertips

Analytics from streaming data is accessible via an online dashboard, enabling information access from anywhere in the world.
More comprehensive analysis can also be made by zooming in on specific details, and MPS provides regular summaries in customised reports.
This makes our customers more efficient and faster than their competitors that don’t make use of this valuable resource. They also gain significant extra capacity, thanks to the continuous implementation of best practices, reductions in errors and downtime – resulting in increased profits!

Supporting fact-based improvements

MPS Performance Programs support converters in improving performance and productivity and thus profitability.
Under the supervision of our dedicated and passionate team of specialists, we zoom in on factual data and work together with customers on activities involving their machine and workflow. This further improves performance and profitability levels.
We train operators to get the best performance from the machine and to improve workflow organisation.
Additionally, we check and evaluate the machine’s technical status annually. Immediate support from specialists is available around the clock. We also do an annual benchmark scan, including TCO-analysis, to quantify the results of all the work we do together. And, new MPS machines come with a guarantee of up to 5 years!

Performance program benefits

• Continuous transparency in production performance
• Benchmarking with industry leaders
• Identifying bottlenecks, gaps, worst and best practices
• Decisions on productivity improvements based on accurate data
• Substantial annual savings due to more efficient workflow, time efficiency,
and waste reduction
• Increased capacity to run more jobs
These all lead to higher productivity and profit, and it’s a continuous process; improvement never stops!

The time is now

Real-time production performance data gives management an immediate perspective on how business is developing. Successful companies integrate these streaming analytics to move from a reactive to a more proactive approach for achieving operational excellence.
Over the past few decades, this working method has proven to be the gateway to real and sustainable success in other industries, resulting in more competitive and profitable companies.