AZPRO streamlines
retail POP production and sales

The result

Smith’s team needed a tool that performed better, one that could give information without requiring multiple reports and significant mental effort to figure out how the current day was going.

AZPRO also selected Metrix – a component solution for the Suite that automates planning and prepress processes to make print operations more efficient. It features advanced automation and cost-driven layout creation tools, which help AZPRO reduce planning and prepress labor cost, and shorten job throughput.

AZPRO signed the contract and had two site visits from ePS before COVID-19 hit. Afterward, the implementation was done virtually. Smith was, understandably, nervous about having ePS remotely manage the installation while many of his staff were not on site.

Having been through an MIS implementation before, he was well aware of the value of in-person interaction. However, he was surprised by how well the remote implementation and training proceeded, and he even witnessed some unexpected benefits.

Recording and saving the online meetings meant that no one missed a session, even if they could not attend due to a conflict. It also meant that AZPRO could build a personalized “mini-learning database” staff can utilize whenever they have questions. The company could not have easily done this with traditional, on-site training.

With the Midmarket Print Suite, AZPRO’s employees quickly started seeing benefits in efforts to get costs and estimates under control. The PrintFlow component in AZPRO’s workflow automatically determines the optimal production path for every job, synchronizing, and sequencing work. Operators can get automated, up-to-the-minute run lists for all work centers in a system that continuously factors in thousands of constraints, including customer requirements, job specifications, and the capabilities and availability of materials, tools, equipment, employees, and more.

As jobs are assigned to specific print and finishing devices at AZPRO, the Metrix component in AZPRO’s Suite uses stored printer and finishing equipment speeds, stock, user logins, and permissions, along with the company’s manufacturing standards, to further streamline and automate production.

For example, AZPRO can automatically and dynamically determine the optimum layout for each sheet on a job sheet. A libraryof the most successful project manufacturing plans within Metrix applies the company’s cumulative intelligence to future projects, ensuring that cost-effective plans are in place for new jobs.

The benefits – especially the ability to reduce waste with accurate planning – are important because profitability depends on the efficient use of expensive large-format media. And, the workflow has a significant upstream impact on sales. How the production department will impose jobs multi-up or gang them together needs to be clear when salespeople make estimates.

With the Midmarket Print Suite’s integrated knowledge of costs, constraints, and capabilities, AZPRO’s salespeople can significantly lessen their risk of losing jobs because their quotes are too high or the turnaround times they quote are too long. Currently, AZPRO has implemented and is using Pace, Metrix, and PrintFlow for scheduling its Print and Production department.

An additional PrintFlow implementation is underway for the company’s Design and Installation departments to leverage the benefits that PrintFlow’s rules-based automation can provide. “Scheduling is done through PrintFlow,” Smith says, “It is a very powerful tool, but also complex. Print and Production is pretty much click-and-go, and we’re pretty much set. Design and Installation are messier because they involve client approvals and input, which is more difficult. We are working through those rules now.”