Mumbai's Parkar installs Esko Kongsberg

The firm specialises in design, product development, offset and digital print, signage, POP, events, and corporate film production and its clientele list for POP and signage includes brands such as P&G, Gillette, Cadbury, Onida, and Mahanagar Gas.

Six months ago, the company till the company installed the Kongsberg XN about six months back, PCPL was totally dependent on manual labour for executing its signage and POP projects, engaging almost a dozen personnel in that department. That count is now down to just one.

“It was all manual cutting and involved quite a bit of labour management. Also, the cost of blades and cutters was a big expense. And we could not get the desired quality. That led us to Esko,” said Mahesh Parkar, managing director of Parkar Communications.

Parkar added that, “Earlier, manually cutting a 8-foot by 4-foot sheet took close to 45 minutes. With the Esko Kongsberg XN, that time is down to only 6 to 8 minutes. The Kongsberg XN cutting table not only helps us save on labour, but it also allows us to reduce the material costs; which is in fact a huge saving.”

Apart from cost savings, Kongsberg has provided the company the necessary confidence to take on all kinds of jobs. “We are now cutting materials which we were outsourcing to a third party. Earlier we were not sure if we could do justice to clients where certain materials were involved. We would either not take that work, or we were compelled to outsource it. After installing the Kongsberg XN our reliance on third parties is over and our commitment levels have increased,” said Parkar..

Parkar also stated that it was very easy to train his

staff to use ArtiosCAD 3D and i-cut Suite effectively. “We had an impression that extensive training would be needed to operate the Esko software. On the contrary, it turned out to be very easy software to handle. Yes, it would take some time to become an expert but one can be trained for basic operations in a very short time. The proof is that one of our staff who was part of our labour department is currently operating the system,” added Parkar.

Shrihari Rao, head of sales for  Esko in India, said, “I am impressed that Parkar’s decision was based purely on versatility and throughput.”

“The Kongsberg tables offer quick throughput because they require very little setup time. There are equipment manufacturers who claim they can produce hundreds of pieces an hour, but take hours to set up which is inefficient, added Rao.

With significant savings across the board, and a rise in productivity and improved consistency in quality, Parkar has seen a major boost in its signage and POP business. “In the last six months our business in POP and signage segment has seen a growth of close to 50%. This is because of the rise in our capacity and our confidence in taking on a variety of work. However, this is just a start and we still have sufficient capacity in the signage segment to see a further growth of another 50%,” concluded Parkar.