Method for digitally finding a suitable printing house

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for manufacturing a printed product by means of at least one computer and at least one printing press or post-press machine, the computer being connected to the printing press or post-press machine via a network connection, in a first step a customer desired printed product is compared to computer stored digital model patterns of printed products, the computer selects the most suitable digital model pattern of printed products; in a second step the computer checks the compatibility of the digital model pattern of the printing enterprise with the selected digital model pattern of printed products, the computer compares the selected suitable digital model pattern of the printing enterprise with the stored preference model patterns of the actual printing enterprise, the computer selects the matching preference model pattern of the actual printing enterprise for the production of the customer desired printing job; after the customer computer has selected at least one actual printing enterprise considered suitable, the customer desired printing job is processed on at least one printing press or post-press machine of the customer selected printing plant.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The invention relates to a method for producing printed products by means of at least one computer and at least one printing press, wherein the computer and the printing press are connected to one another via a network connection. BACKGROUND

[0002] The invention solves the problem of associating a printing order with a printing plant suitable therefor, including its machine park, with one another (or vice versa). This objective is difficult to achieve with today's methods and approaches. The objective of current digital workflow systems in the printing industry (and in particular in the case of printing plants) is to view a given printing order in order to check therefor whether a printing plant is able to process a customer's printing order in the printing plant, wherein the printing plant then calculates a price for the printing order. This approach has the great disadvantage that the entire printing and production process is viewed from the perspective of the customer's printing order only, and thus the printing plant, for example, cannot increase its machine utilization by selecting suitable printing orders. SUMMARY

[0003] The object of the invention is therefore to propose a method for producing printed products, wherein as many printing orders as possible are assigned to a printing plant, which are suitable therefor, and thus can also be processed in the printing plant on a machine park.

[0004] This object is solved according to the invention. Advantageous design options of the invention result from the preferred embodiments, the description and the figures.

[0005] The core of the invention is a so-called converter, which assigns a model of a printed product to a model of a printing plant, and thus ensures that as many printing orders as possible can be assigned to a printing plant, and no printing order is lost. Accordingly, in the method according to the invention, in a first step, a printed product desired by a customer is compared with digital model patterns of printed products stored on a computer. In the first step, the specific printed product customized by the customer is thus compared with model-patterned digital printed products. When the digital model patterns of the stored printed products are compared with the printed product desired by the customer, the most suitable digital model pattern of the printed product is selected automatically by the computer, wherein these digital model patterns are limited, and thus rare orders are picked out. Thereby, neither the printing enterprise nor the customer has to take action in this comparison, which is carried out automatically on the computer.

[0006] The second step is carried out from the perspective of the printing plant in such a way that in the second step the compatibility between the digital model style of the printing enterprise and the selected digital model style of the printed product is checked by the computer and the selected digital model style of the printing enterprise is compared by the computer with the stored preferred model style of the actually existing printing enterprise. Thus, first of all all the digital model styles of the printing enterprise that are suitable for the digital model style of the printed product are correlated with each other and the suitable digital model styles of the printing enterprise are stored on the computer. The thus selected suitable digital model styles of the printing enterprise are then compared with the stored preferred model style of the actually existing printing enterprise, wherein the matching preferred model style of the actually existing printing enterprise is selected by the computer for the production of the printing job desired by the customer. In this method step it is thus determined which actually existing printing enterprises on which the printed product desired by the customer can be produced. The computer can then select at least one printing plant from these actually existing printing enterprises, which then processes the printing job desired by the customer on at least one printing machine. This selection either takes place directly by the customer in such a way that the customer selects a specific actually existing printing plant that is considered suitable, or the customer has stored specific preferences, for example, particularly low costs or fast production, according to which the computer then selects the actually existing printing enterprise and starts processing the printing job.

[0007] The method for producing a printed product according to the invention is based on the premise that the participating printing plants, the computer for carrying out the method steps and the customer are all connected to each other and communicate with the printed product via a data network, such as the Internet. The computer and the method steps according to the invention can here be operated distributed in the Internet in the context of a cloud computing solution. Naturally, the computer can also be located centrally and likewise communicate with the other participants via the Internet. By the method according to the invention it is ensured that the customer job and the printing plant are optimally brought together in consideration of the compatibility between the printing plant and the printing job in such a way that all possible pairings of the printing job and the printing plant are considered. Here, inaccuracies that occur can be taken into account by tolerance limits, which are stored in the digital model style of the printed product and in the digital model style of the printing plant.

[0008] In a first design of the application it is provided that the computer has access to a database with print products which can be selected by the customer. This database can be an integral part of the computer, but it can also be located at any other site which is connected to the computer via an internet connection. This database here contains print products which can be selected by the customer, so that the customer is not completely free in the selection of the print product, but is limited from the outset to meaningful print products only. This makes the search for a corresponding match between the print job and the printing plant easier. In particular, so-called abnormal print jobs can be avoided in this way, since the customer cannot configure his print job completely freely. These print products which can be selected by the customer here can in particular be stored in the form of templates with defined parameters and parameter ranges.

[0009] In a further design of the application it is provided that the digital model pattern of the printing plant has access to a database with stored machine digital data from printing machines and other machines of the printing industry. It does not make sense for the creation of the digital model pattern of the printing plant to create a digital model pattern which cannot be reproduced by a real existing machine. It is advantageous in this regard that the digital model pattern of the printing plant only contains machines which also exist in reality. For this purpose, the digital model pattern of the printing plant is based on machine data of real existing printing machines of the manufacturer which are operated on the market, wherein these machine data are stored in the form of a database. This database here can also be an integral part of the computer, but it can also be accessed separately via the internet and, if necessary, also located at the same site as the database with the print products which can be selected by the customer.

[0010] It is furthermore advantageous that the database for the print products is filled with digital data from the print products of the printing plant. In this case, the database for the print products is only filled with digital data of print jobs which are also intended to be processed by real existing printing plants. These printing plants only transfer to the database print products which are ready for them as print jobs. The customer cannot select in this case abnormal print jobs which the participating printing plant cannot meaningfully process for economic or technical reasons. The design of the application is also primarily used to exclude meaningless print jobs from the outset from the cycle.

[0011] In another design of the application it is provided that the printing plants, which are already connected to the computer, transmit a digital preference model profile via a network connection. The digital preference model profile of the printing plants contains data about the printing jobs which these printing plants can and want to process. In this way, these printing plants can exclude such printing jobs from the outset on the basis of their, for example, economic preferences, which these printing plants can process on their machine assemblies, but which they do not want to process, for example, for economic reasons. In this way, these printing plants can already rule out unacceptable print product model profiles at the conversion. These printing plants can here likewise transmit their digital preferences to the computer via the Internet. Advantageously, it is also provided that the manufacturers of the printing machines and other machines in the printing industry transmit the digital data of their machines to the database for the printing machines. In this way, the database for the printing machines is always filled with current and actually available printing machines and other machines in the printing industry, so that it is ensured that in the creation of the digital model profile of the printing plant, current and actually available machine assemblies are taken into account and applied, so that no compatibility problems arise later when the printing jobs are processed on actually existing machines.

[0012] In another design of the application it is provided that the digital model profile of the print product contains information about the product type, the page size, the color, the finishing process, the paper surface, the grammage, the number of pages or the path to the post-processing. With the provided technical information, the digital model profile of the print product can be mapped quite accurately and realistically, so that all necessary production processes for the manufacture of the print product are also taken into account in the model profile. Only then can the converter calculate the print products and the printing plants which actually fit each other by mapping the properties of the printing machine digital model profile to the digital model profile of the print product, so that these print products can then also be processed without problems in reality.

[0013] Furthermore, the computer has interfaces (Schnittstellen) through which the computer in the real existing printing business or at a broker is connected with the computer application or browser application of the customer of the printing business by means of a network connection. Through this internet interface and connection, the real existing printing business or broker and the customer with the printing task can be integrated into the method according to the invention, so that the printing task and the printing business can be optimally linked together thereby. Based on the internet interface, this access can be implemented without problems by every internet-enabled device by applying the browser portal. Thus, it is not necessary for the printing business or the customer to first install software in the form of a program or App, but the customer can directly access the method according to the invention by means of a username and password through the internet browser and benefit from its advantages. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0014] In the following, the invention is further described and illustrated according to the drawings.

[0015] Figure 1 Fig. 1 shows the composition participating in the method according to the invention with the example of a customer and a printing plant. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] According to the attached Figure 1 , a computer 1 is in the center, which computer 1 executes the method according to the invention by means of software. The computer 1 can be centrally or non-centrally arranged here, in particular the computer 1 can be part of a cloud computing solution. In any case, the computer 1 has hardware and / or software interfaces 8, with which the computer 1 can communicate with all participants according to the invention by means of an internet connection 4. In this way, the computer 1 is connected with the computer 9 of the broker, with the computer 10 of the customer, and with the folding machine 12 of the printing machine 5 and the printing plant 11.

[0017] The core of the method according to the invention consists of the following processes and method steps, which are mapped inside the computer 1 in the attached Figure 1 By this, the computer 1 has access to a database 2 for printed products and also to a database 3 for printing machines and other machines of the printing industry. In the database 2 for printed products, all possible printed products are contained, which occur in reality, which can be mapped (abgebildet) in meaningful templates. This in turn means that the database 2 for printed products naturally does not contain individual custom products (Einzelanfertigungen), which are not regularly ordered. The customer can select from the database 2 for printed products by means of the computer 10 a printed product, which is suitable for him.

[0018] On the other side of the converter 7, there are the digital model patterns of the printing plant 11, which are created, for example, by digital data from an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system 6, for example SAP. In addition, the real existing machine assemblies of the printing plant 11 can be created by a database for printing machines in such a way that machines stored in the database are used. In this way and method, the digital model patterns of the printing plant 11 can be created. In addition, the printing plant 11 can propose so-called preference model patterns, i.e. these printing plants 11 propose preferences for certain printing jobs and, for example, exclude undesirable printing jobs. These preferences prevent the printing plant 11 from being assigned printing jobs which, although technically, can be considered processable, are not economically meaningful.

[0019] After the customer has selected a printing job by means of his computer 10, the printing job is compared in the computer 1 with the digital model patterns of the printed matter. On the basis of the stored preference model patterns of the printing plant 11, only those customer printing jobs are stored which also fit the preferences of the printing plant 11. Depending on the preference model patterns and on the digital model patterns of the printed matter and on the digital model patterns of the printed matter desired by the customer, there are matching relationships: no match, one or more matching possibilities. The customer can then select on his computer 10 all matching printed matter digital model patterns.

[0020] The digital print mapping to the digital model style of the printing plant 11 is effected here by means of the converter 7, wherein the stored preferences of the printing plant 11 are taken into account. Here, the properties of the digital print are compared with the digital properties of the digital model style of the printing plant 11 in the case of application of the preferences, and only the matching print digital model style is selected. At the end, the customer itself can select the corresponding printing plant via its computer 10, so that the print job of this customer is then sent to the printing press 5 of the selected printing plant for processing. The converter 7 maps the digital model style of the print to the digital model style of the printing plant 11 depending on the print job and the properties of the printing press 5 and the post-press machine (folding machine 12). Here, for example, the page size and the substrate of the print job are mapped in 1 : 1 logic, taking into account. For the colors, the varnish, the folding scheme and other complex properties of the print job, complex mapping logic is employed in the converter 7. The colors are thus first divided into so-called scales and special colors, which are then mapped to the number of printing units in the printing press 5. Here, the position of the turning mechanism of the printing press 5 for recto-verso printing is also taken into account. In the case of overvarnishing, the printing units that perform the overvarnishing are distinguished from the full-face overvarnishing in the overvarnishing units. The folding scheme for the folding machine 12 is also mapped to the configuration of the respective folding machine 12. These folding schemes can in turn be directly derived on the basis of the position of the turning mechanism and the number of printing units. It can be seen that the converter 7 thus correlates the digital model style of the print job with the digital model style of the printing press 5 and the post-press machine with one another and in each case with one another, and it can thus be ascertained that the possible digital model style of the print job can actually also be processed on the digital model style of the printing plant 11.

[0021] It is furthermore also possible that the customer has left such a predetermined specification: for example, the most favorable printing plant 11 is selected, so that the computer 1 can then independently select the most favorable printing plant 11 and automatically send the print job to the printing press 5 of this printing plant 11. For this purpose, the cost structure is also contained in the digital model style of the printing plant 11. In this way, the print job of the customer and the printing plant can be correlated with one another in the best possible way, wherein, at the end, the customer can select from the considered printing plants 11 according to his preferences. In this way, a fully automatic task processing process between the customer and the printing plant 11 can be realized.

[0022] List of reference signs

[0023] 1 computer

[0024] 2 database for prints

[0025] 3 database for printing presses and other machines used in the printing industry

[0026] 4 internet connection

[0027] 5 printing press

[0028] 6 ERP (enterprise resource planning) system

[0029] 7 converter

[0030] 8 interface

[0031] 9 computer of an intermediary

[0032] 10 computer of a customer

[0033] 11 printing house

[0034] 12 folding machine

Claims

1. A method for manufacturing printed matter by means of at least one computer (1) and at least one printing press (5) or post-press machine, wherein the at least one computer (1) and the printing press (5) or post-press machine are connected to each other by a network connection, wherein, in a first step, the desired printed matter selected by the customer from a database is compared with the stored printed matter digital model patterns on the at least one computer (1); by comparing the stored printed matter digital model patterns with the desired printed matter of the customer, the most suitable printed matter digital model pattern is selected by the at least one computer (1); in a second step, the compatibility of the digital model patterns of the printing house (11) with the selected printed matter digital model pattern on the machine equipment assembly of the printing house (11) is checked by the at least one computer (1), and the selected compatible digital model patterns of the printing house (11) are compared by the at least one computer (1) with the stored preference model patterns of the actually existing printing house (11), wherein the preference model patterns contain the data of the printing jobs that the printing house (11) is able and willing to handle, and the matching preference model pattern of the actually existing printing house (11) is selected by the at least one computer (1) for the production of the desired printing job of the customer; and after the customer has selected at least one actually existing printing house (11) considered suitable by the computer, the desired printing job of the customer is handled on at least one printing press (5) or post-press machine of the printing house (11) selected by the customer to manufacture the printed matter.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the at least one computer (1) has access to the database with printed matters that can be selected by the customer.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the digital model patterns of the printing house (11) have access to a database with stored machine digital data from the printing press (5) and other machines of the printing industry.

4. The method according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that the database for printed matters is populated with printed matter digital data from the printing house (11).

5. The method according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the printing house (11) connected to the at least one computer (1) transmits digital preference model patterns by a network connection.

6. The method according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the at least one computer (1) is implemented in a cloud software solution and connected to each other by a network connection with the participating printing houses (11).

7. The method according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the manufacturer of the printing press (5) and other machines of the printing industry transmits the digital data of its machines to the database for printing presses.

8. The method according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the printed matter digital model patterns contain information instructions.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that The information specifies includes product type, page size, color, finishing process, paper surface, grammage, number of pages, or path to post-press process.

10. The method according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that The properties of the print shop digital model style are mapped to the printed product digital model style by means of a converter (7).

11. The method according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that The at least one computer (1) has an interface (8) by which a computer (9) in a real existing print shop (11) or an intermediary is connected with a computer (10) or browser application of a customer of the print shop (11) by means of a network connection.

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