Japs-Olson Co.

Japs Olson Co., which operates a 512,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art printing and mailing facility, is a charter member of the PIM (Printing Industry of Minnesota) Great Printer Environmental Initiative. The program demonstrates a commitment to go beyond what is required by government regulatory agencies in environmental, health and safety compliance.

BY ERIK CAGLE Want a free lesson in time management? Swipe Robert E. Murphy's appointment book. Most people in the commercial printing industry know the chairman of Japs-Olson Co. as Bob Murphy. Make that a multitude of people. Anyone who is involved, at any level, in organizations supporting the print communications industry is familiar with the longtime leader of the St. Louis Park, MN-based printer. His resume reads like a Who's Who of industry organizations: Murphy serves on the boards of the Printing Industries of America (PIA), as well as its Minnesota affiliate; the Graphic Arts Show Co.; the Graphic Arts Education & Research

BY MARK SMITH The basic concept has been given many names. Digital Smart Factory. CIM—computer integrated manufacturing. CIP4—International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress. Or, you can simply call it "process automation." Welcome to system integration in the digital age. The terminology alone is confusing enough. System integration used to be a fairly straightforward problem in the graphic arts arena, even if productive solutions were sometimes hard to come by. The challenge was to get different pieces of electronic prepress equipment to communicate and work together efficiently in a unified workflow. While the digital revolution was redefining the front