Kern's Printing -- Boosting Book Production

"Old-fashioned service, constant attention to detail and responsive communications go a long way towards getting customers and creating loyalty and long-term relationships," says John Kern, CEO of Kern's Printing. But continued success in this highly competitive printing business has always come down to two primary issues: "continually assessing the efficiency of our equipment and making sure we have good, experienced people to run that equipment proficiently."

More than just words, the full-service, Long Island, NY-based printer has a consistent record for upgrading its capabilities as evidenced by the company's purchase last fall of a Vijuk 321-T saddlestitcher, available exclusively from Vijuk Equipment.

The story of Kern's Printing begins in the early 1980s, immediately following John Kern's graduation from high school and during the period when he attended New York City Technical College (NYCTC). While learning about presswork, platemaking, stripping and color theory during the day, Kern spent his evenings working out of his parents' garage, where he had installed a Multilith 1250-W press, a camera and a plate burner.

By the time he had finished his studies at NYCTC, Kern had developed a solid reputation as a trade printer, and moved into a fully equipped, 2,000-square-foot printing shop in Valley Stream, NY. Continued business growth prompted Kern to move to even larger facilities in the following years, including the 1997 move to a 20,000-square-foot facility in East Farmingdale that the company's 20 employees now call home.

Today, Kern's Printing is recognized for providing a full scope of competitively priced, quality reproduction capabilities to select trade accounts and a rapidly expanding list of not-for-profit organizations, financial institutions and ad agencies. Additionally, the printer is often called upon by smaller-format printers in the local area that do not have 40˝ multicolor capabilities.

Digital Capabilities

Kern's prepress workflow is completely digital, including computer-to-plate capability and digital color proofing. Its press department features Heidelberg units from two-color, 20˝ presses up to six-color, plus coater, 40˝ presses. A key component of Kern's ability to supply customers with turnkey reproduction services is a fully equipped bindery department that offers everything from folding, diecutting and hand assembly, to saddlestitching for virtually any type of book production.

"Years ago, when we started doing a large amount of book work, we were farming it out," explains Kern. "But it didn't take us long to figure out that it was better to keep everything under one roof. In terms of quality and scheduling flexibility, having a complete bindery gives us much greater control over every job."

Kern adds that the decision to invest in a new saddlestitcher resulted from the need to bring this critical postpress function in line with their expanded press capacity and growing customer demand for faster turnarounds.

"We have always made a point to look for the latest and the best technology," says Kern. "After looking closely at another stitcher, we were convinced that the Vijuk machine gave us more bang for the buck."

He credits the new stitcher, rated for speeds up to 10,000 cycles per hour, for a dramatic improvement in production capacity. "This machine—equipped with the fourth and fifth knives—provides the larger size capability that allows us to collate, stitch and trim signatures 'two-up', essentially doubling the production that was available on our previous stitcher."

Kern also admits that the lower initial price played a role in his decision to purchase Vijuk's integrated collating/stitching/trimming system.

However, since the machine became operational last November, production has increased fourfold and, in some cases, even more. "The tremendous reduction in makeready and run times helps us get more jobs out the door each day. And bindery production is up, overtime is down, and that translates to higher profits and more sales."

"Though it was priced lower, the Vijuk machine still offered all the same bells and whistles that were on the more expensive stitchers," adds Robert Ciccarelli, vice president of manufacturing. He also credits the simplified makeready procedures for speeding job turnarounds.

Team Effort

Assisted by two employees in running the 321-T—one to load the pockets and another to pack the product into cartons—John Welsh, bindery foreman, typically handles makeready on the machine. To illustrate the increased productivity, Welsh used the example of a job that came in this past Christmas Eve.

"We needed to stitch 68,500 eight-page, self-covers—and the job had to deliver January 3rd, the day we returned from the holiday break. We were able to get it finished, packed and on skids in time to make the customer's delivery schedule, and still send everyone home for the holiday week."

Anyone who is familiar with bindery shop operations knows that operator safety is always a major concern. For that reason, Kern's management is understandably impressed with the safety items built into the new 321-T stitcher.

"Not only is this important for employee safety, it also helps prevent costly damage and downtime," says Ciccarelli. He is equally impressed with the electronic sensing technology, including multiple jam-detection points throughout the machine, the missing-stitch detector and the electronic signature recognition system.

"Because of the diversity of our customer base, and subsequently the wide range of work that comes through our door every day, versatility is a big concern with every equipment purchase we make," concludes Kern. "Self-covers, pocket folders, eight-pagers, 16-pagers, 64-pagers—we do it all in-house."