EFI Monarch

Repro has been an early mover when it comes to simplifying processes; especially by adopting software technology. The fact that, since its inception in 1991, the Mumbai-based book printing giant has been associated with Microsoft as their authorised replicator until 2006, helped it to develop an in-house accounting software, Magic.
 

 Rishi Kharalkar, general manager – procurement, planning and pre-press at Repro, informs, “Our stores and inventory were on Visual Basic module, while other departments including scheduling, planning, shopfloor data, etc stood alone on MS Excel-based applications.”
 

Back in 2006, the vast physical and administrative processes that drove the firm were unconnected and powered by various home grown products that did not work together or allow a single job or client to be viewed as a whole. “We were unable to evaluate the number of titles we produced in a year and hence job- level and customer-level profitability remained unknown. We spent more time on data crunching rather than analysis to arrive at profitability statistics.”
 

“We were trying to marry reports from one area up against those from another and it was ridiculously complicated. So we made the decision to try and get everything into one system,” he adds.
 

With this thought, experts at Repro began evaluating ERP solutions available in the market right from SAP. “We found EFI’s Monarch (formerly called EFI Hagen) was the only contender, which was able to integrate all the modules specifically for a print specific scenario.”
 

In 2007, Repro signed a deal with EFI, which constituted of a core ERP system, Monarch, with some add-on modules such as PrinterSite Internal which forms a link between sales and estimation.

The scale of the installation at Repro cannot be under-estimated. According to Kharalkar, the implementation of the core ERP took three years from 2007 to 2010 to go live. “We took almost one year to implement the estimation module. With Monarch, we were able to move from market-oriented approach of per 1000 rate to a budgeted hourly rate,” he adds.
 

Kharalkar says, “Our biggest issue at that time was to link all our modules with accounting. We worked out several customisations by confabulating with the EFI team to match the American-made software with the basic principles of Indian accounting in terms of taxation. Whenever we observe certain shortfalls, we customise it and EFI is pretty open for customisations.”
 

“After the estimation module, we worked on job management module, followed by inventory and procurement and then shopfloor data collection module,  and finally the shipping and despatch.”

“We now have everything – be it sales, marketing, estimation, planning, scheduling, production, stores, inventory, shipping and despatch and accounts – running through one system,” says Kharalkar. “Earlier everything was stand-alone, and having around nine systems handling each slice of the business meant it was impossible to get a full picture of what you were doing.”
 

“Today, we have a clear plan for what we are going to produce for next six months before hand and this is the power of EFI’s ERP.”
 

When it comes to production, Kharalkar observes that EFI Monarch gives the best possible job sheet specification details that are desired on the shopfloor. Depending on the job and the machine, it specifies the wastage allowances, SKU id to pick up and other minute details which makes the life of the operator much easier. The software also provides real-time data on the handheld devices with detailed information on speed, no of jobs, quantity to go, time required etc.

 

Best suited solution for multi-location company

Being a multi-location firm was not an hindrance for Repro to smoothly implement EFI Monarch.  “We always knew that we will expand multi-location,” says Kharalkar. This is one of the reasons of selecting EFI. Monarch comes with an inbuilt support for multi-division and multi-company scenario.

With multi-company feature, the system can maintain standalone companies with independent accounting books, inventory and jobs module, whereas, multi-division set-up  has common books of accounts and inventory is shared within different divisions. Kharalkar explains, “Repro, Mahape (Navi Mumbai) with digital and offset set-up forms a multi-division scenario with common inventory. While Repro in Navi Mumbai, Surat, Chennai and Rapples, Repro’s  tablet-based learning solution, altogether form a multi-company scenario.”
 

Currently, the Monarch at Repro handles four companies seamlessly through one system. The company dreams to have a print cluster. “Then we can extend our system to the members of the cluster using this multi-company feature,” adds Kharalkar.

 

Shopfloor data collection

EFI’s shop floor data collection module, Auto-Count and the direct machine interface kit was installed on all the equipment on the shopfloor right from presses to bindery kit. “It integrates with the machine counter automatically and on the other end it integrates with planning and scheduling modules,” says Kharalkar.
 

This eliminated the operators task to maintain the log books. The operator has to select the form to be printed from the given list, which the system derives from pre-scheduling. “The system understands how many makereadies are being done, how many impressions were printed on the run. It can even send a trigger to the machine to stop the machine if any issue is observed,” says Kharalkar. “It also sends the auto stoppage analysis to Auto-Count, where the operator has to mention the cause of stoppage from the pre-defined list of possible causes before he completes the run.”  
 

However, shopfloor data collection was a biggest module which was not falling into place for Repro. The reason was the computer illiteracy of the operators. They were finding it difficult to embrace the new technology. “This was the module we spent maximum time on,” accepts Kharalkar.
 

In order to counter this bottleneck, the company engaged its new recruits and fresh graduates to implement the software down the line. “Since last two years we are using this core team of fresh graduates to enable the operators understand the system. We had 10-day hands on training – with the EFI team flying down from the US.”

 

Digital Store Front

Digital Store Front, a module of Monarch, which forms an online portal, where customers can place orders online looking at stocks and can track their order. However, for Repro, this module has worked for digital customers with print-on-demand applications. “The customers prefer to place orders over emails rather than using the portal. We are trying to change the pattern and  bring in in more awareness. We have been successful in convincing a few customers now to  place real-time orders through DSF. But those orders are pretty much on the POD lines. Publishers going on the portal and filing the order is still not a trend in India,” observes Kharalkar.

 

Hassle-free system

More than two years now, after the implementation of core ERP, the system remains hassle-free.  Kharalkar says, “The objective was to understand the profitability and track the cash flows. We desired a clear picture of our business which will form a base to our decision making process. This system lets us do all this. It has given us clarity in our thinking, and enables us to make decisions based on solid facts.”
 

Last year, Repro made a drastic structural change in its management by combining its procurement, pre-press and  planning team under one head. Kharalkar, who heads the three teams now, explains, “It is difficult for the planning team to schedule the jobs unless the inputs from pre-press and procurement team are ready for the jobs. Now, since all the three departments are under one head, we are able to control the pre-press and procurement and thus planning becomes an easy task.” However, even today manual communication within the team is necessary to make planning decisions. A graphic workflow would make the picture clearer for the planning team. “The graphics workflow will  integrate with EFI and when the final file is ready from the pre-press and approved by all the approvers and the inputs from the procurement are ready in the system, then only that job will be available for the planning team to schedule.”
 

Kharalkar says, “Though the ERP was taken care by EFI, we wanted to integrate our pre-press with the ERP, and hence we thought of investing in a graphic workflow.” Today, Repro’s three locations use three different CTPs. The Navi Mumbai plant deploys  Agfa platesetter with Apogee workflow, Surat uses Screen with Screen Trueflow and Chennai is on Screen with Kodak workflow. “So we currently operate with three different workflow, but the problem is to get all three into one unified workflow,” says Kharalkar.
 

At Drupa 2012, when Repro invested in a Kodak Prosper, it also completed a proof of concept for Kodak Prinergy. According to Kharalkar,  Kodak Prinergy seamlessly integrates with EFI through JDF. “It automatically takes up complete imposition scheme done in EFI Planner module. By Q4 we will start thinking of Prinergy to go ahead.”
 

Its not yet done for Repro. The company is still introducing new capabilities. Recently, it has invested in Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system from Oracle. It will handle document process workflow. “By this quarter we will finish the implementation of ECM and then go ahead with the graphic workflow.”

In his concluding comments, Kharalkar makes an important observation that the reason why the Indian print industry is not able to sustain the ERP process is because they do not invest on IT.