Ahrensburg, September 2018
- Leading British newspaper company trusts in EAE’s retrofit expertise to modernize
computer systems on a WIFAG web press line
Reach plc (until May
2018 Trinity Mirror plc), the UK’s biggest newspaper publisher, is also a
leading player in the magazines and online media business. Apart from more than
240 local and regional newspapers, Reach also publishes the national Daily
Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Daily Express, Sunday Express
and Daily Star as well as sundry other newspapers and magazines with a
nationwide circulation.
Its subsidiary Reach
Printing Services Ltd, one of the premier print providers anywhere in the
United Kingdom, is responsible for producing the newspaper print editions. In
addition to the Reach Group’s own titles, Reach Printing Services also
contract-prints a variety of newspapers and magazines on behalf of other
publishers. The two largest sites are located in Oldham (nearly 71,000 square meters
of floor space) and Watford, though the company also has facilities in
Birmingham, Cardonald (Scotland), Luton and Teesside.
Out of these six sites, the printing center in Oldham, which employs 148
people, outputs the highest page volume. Between six and seven million
newspapers and magazines leave the premises every week. Reach Group products
account for around 55% of the site’s total print volume; the remainder are
external contracts like The Guardian, Daily Mail, Mail on
Sunday and The i plus many other titles. Production takes place on
seven days a week at night and four days a week in the daytime.
The print shop in Oldham works with a WIFAG evolution 371 web press line, which
was commissioned in 2006 and originally comprised four sections but was
expanded by an additional section in 2008 and again in 2009. The line has 19
four-high towers overall as well as six jaw folders and 19 reel stands. It has
been operated and controlled from the outset using press control and control
console technology from EAE Engineering Automation Electronics and is equipped
with eight EAE Baltic Star control consoles. For many years now, the
relationship between Reach Printing Services and EAE has been marked by a
constructive partnership. The print provider first signed a Service Level
Agreement with EAE back in 2011 and has since enjoyed 24/7 hotline support
along with a series of other benefits and privileges.
Retrofit needed: rejuvenation therapy for the EAE systems’ IT base
The need to modernize
the computer systems of the control consoles and the section controls in order
to maintain production reliability was recognized some time ago. Compared to
the heavy mechanical components of newspaper web presses, computer hardware and
PCs tend to have a relatively short lifecycle. Malfunctions and breakdowns
typically occur more frequently towards the end of the service life, with direct
implications for press availability.
“We have started experiencing equipment failures and the risk of impairments to
our production was rising steadily”, reports Alan Marsden, IT Systems Manager
at Reach Printing Systems (Oldham) Ltd. “In our experience, spare parts for our
computers were getting harder and harder to come by. On top of that, support
for the operating systems we use has been withdrawn.”
After careful deliberation of the options, the Reach managers responsible
decided in favor of a complete retrofit of all PCs belonging to the EAE systems
on the WIFAG web press. They did this with the aim of increasing system
reliability and availability and extending the life of the equipment as a
whole. “We expect a retrofit specialist to provide us with a turnkey solution
at a reasonable cost and to implement it without disrupting or interrupting our
production workflows any more than absolutely necessary”, Alan Marsden
explains. EAE was an obvious choice here in view of their extensive experience
and successes in the retrofit business.
PC hardware replacements will improve production reliability
The order for EAE
involves replacing the existing PCs in the EAE system environment with eight
new control console PCs, twelve section control PCs, six PCs for the EAE Info
reporting and logging system, two EAE Info Remote Workstations and one EAE
Service PC. Four replacement units of the various PC models round off the
hardware package. On the software side, the printer will be supplied with an
update to the latest version of the EAE Info System plus the newest versions of
both the operating systems, namely RMOS (an OS for industrial environments) and
Windows.
The retrofit work in Oldham is due to be carried out by EAE’s experts at the
end of September 2018. To ensure optimum conditions for rapid and efficient
implementation on the customer’s site, the new computer systems will be
configured at the EAE headquarters in Ahrensburg (Germany); both the operating
systems and the EAE application software will be installed and tested there
prior to departing for Oldham.
