Clays renews its POD solution with investment in Ricoh’s Digital Book Printing

Ricoh UK, London, 21 November 2016 – Leading European book printer Clays is the first major industry player in Europe to sign up for Ricoh’s latest print on demand book production solution. 

This implementation of Ricoh’s new Digital Book Printing Solution, first shown at drupa 2016, combines Ricoh TotalFlow BatchBuilder with monochrome Ricoh 8120e digital production presses. 

Ricoh’s Digital Book Printing Solution is a specialised book workflow package. It uses proven TotalFlow BatchBuilder technology optimised for the specific needs of highly intensive short run book environments.

The solution is vendor neutral, analysing incoming orders, from multiple channels. It also automates the production of book ‘batches’ based on customisable business rules such as run length, media type, delivery date and even third party finishing requirements. 

Once the target print platform (web or cut sheet) is selected, the workflow automatically imposes the files via a close integration with Ultimate Technographics Impostrip® Automation. Errors can be detected quickly and corrected with the integration of Enfocus PitStop Pro into the Ricoh workflow. Using Ricoh’s Digital Book Printing Solution to process batches of books, rather than single jobs, on both digital and offset presses, dramatically improves operational efficiencies along with reducing waste.

The ability to integrate to legacy MIS systems, using JDF and JMF, enables a real time view of production – even down to a single book. 

Clays produces over 140 million books per year for publishers such as Penguin Random House, Hachette UK, HarperCollins, Pearson, Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.

Paul Hulley, Clays Managing Director, comments, “High quality, fast turnaround, ultra-short run book production has been an important part of our offer for some time; we are pleased to be working with Ricoh to refresh and enhance our capability in this area.”

“We researched what solutions were available on the market to achieve that. Ricoh’s Digital Book Printing Solution was best suited to meet our requirements."

As for the expected business impact he states, “Return on investment will be about 18 months based on current production methods. TotalFlow BatchBuilder automates file batching and imposing 4-up on SRA3 and it integrates into the existing MIS system to report and track single book production.”  

Stephen Palmer, Production Print Director for Ricoh UK and Ireland says, “We’re delighted that Clays, one of the largest book manufacturers in the world has chosen Ricoh’s new Digital Book Printing Solution.  A high volume of small jobs can be very challenging. TotalFlow BatchBuilder streamlines the process to save time, increase throughput, improve printer utilisation and reduce setup time for the bindery. This allows ultra-short run jobs to be completed efficiently and profitably. Clays is already seeing these benefits translate into real production enhancements.”

| About Clays |
Established over 200 years ago Clays is recognised as a market leading book production specialist, printing over 140 million books every year. It specialises in producing monochrome paperbacks and hardbacks in any quantity and to a wide range of sizes. Clays offers an all round service offering for publishers that encompasses digital services, book manufacture, pre-retail and distribution. Throughout the digital revolution it has remained the UK’s market-leading book production specialist, actively embracing digital printing technology to run alongside traditional and highly successful quality printing processes. As the UK’s market-leading book production specialist and the supplier to many leading publishing houses. More recently it has created Clays Self-Publishing, offering a full-service print solution, from administrative tasks to design advice, production and distribution.