Men behind the web offset machines: Saurabh Gupta, director, Prakash Web Offset
The top Indian manufacturer discuss everything from the height at which a newspaper should be read; and whether the ideal cut-off should be 546mm or 533mm.
08 Sep 2013 | 2582 Views | By Rahul Kumar
On choosing the right press: Technologies are evolving each day, it becomes imperative for an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to continuously upgrade itself and its products to provide customer world class solutions, which can translate into dollar savings. Manufacturing technique, component metallurgy and tolerances and assembly procedures are a few critical parameters that a customer should gauge before buying a press. Combination of these factors imparts high quality into the product.
On controlling costs: Shortages are always met by fine tuning your supply chain, maintaining multiple vendors and planning in advance. Increasing input costs are seldom passed on to the customer in our company. We try to offset cost increase by optimising existing processes and saving cost in some other department.
On print versus digital media: Print can never be replaced by online media. It may temporarily dent the demand but authenticity and feel of printed paper will remain unmatched. Newspapers will have to innovate in terms of adopting new techniques of advertisement publishing and going hyper-local from the content point of view.
On cheap labour: Labour costs have increased in the in recent past. It is affordable as compared to other countries.
Ideal cut-off: 533mm cut-off gives considerable paper saving without altering print area. It will not be a bad idea if the industry shifts to this new standard.