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You probably think it wouldn’t matter; a little bit of colour difference in the packaging for your pants at Marks & Spencer shouldn’t really bother you, after all, it doesn’t affect the product. But it does, in reality, affect your perception of it and that may mean you will be less likely to buy as a result. Hence, colour management is something that retailers like Marks & Spencer take very, very seriously.

As a consequence, Benson Box takes it seriously too. Retailers are among the many clients of this packaging printer and colour management was becoming an issue.

"Coming off the back of another retailer launch season at the end of 2007, we had gone through a period, as all printers do, of trying to get colour consistency throughout ranges and it had been a real struggle to achieve that," says Mike Owens, general manager at Benson Box. "On some occasions, product would be sent out and the variation in colour would be noticeable. We thought to ourselves, ‘we can’t go through this again, we have got to do something about this’."

Searching for a solution, Benson began working with Mellow Colour and under the direction of its managing director Alan Dresch, they began to work towards better measurement and processes.  Mellow Colour runs a scheme that assists a company in working towards the ISO 12647 standard for four-colour work, while also helping them hit the demanding grey balance appearance targets of Mellow Colour’s PrintSpec system. In doing this they become what Mellow Colour terms a Proficient Printer. Not that Benson were particularly looking for ISO 12647 certification, nor a nice label they could take to clients.

Setting standards
"We didn’t start this to get a certificate, we didn’t even know ISO 12647 existed," says Owens. "We started it because it was the right thing to do. We didn’t want to have the same issues and same complaints every year about colour variation."
He adds, though, that without the framework ISO 12647 provides, going it alone to achieve colour consistency would be extremely difficult. It gives, he says, a structure from which to work.

Part of that structure was setting up a dedicated colour team that was led from the top of the company down, so all levels of the business were included. Hence, Owens took the lead role in implementing the project. Benson then had to appoint a colour champion who would be responsible for the calibrations and measurements. Benson opted for Chris King, a member of the repro team.

"Effectively the colour champion is a measurement and calibration role," explains Owens. "We will take sample sheets off identified runs. We will measure them for things like densities and the Mellow Colour software tells us the numbers we need, what we should be printing to. We have effectively taken a dark art and made it a science."

He says this makes the process measurable and verifiable and adds that press calibration, press chemistry, water balance and colour densities were the things the company were guided towards looking at to take the variables out of the process to increase standardisation.

But it is not just technical aspects that the ISO 12647 insists you address. Just as important to the process is the business process side of things. This includes putting reporting, communication and problem solving systems in place.

"We instigated right from the start regular weekly meetings and out of those came action points that we attached timescales to make sure they were upheld and completed," explains Owens.

Having worked on its colour management for some time, the whispers started about a potential BPIF certification. The announcement then came in February this year that the whispers were true, the BPIF was working towards a UK Certification scheme for ISO 12647-2. The key to the BPIF ISO 12647-2 Scheme is that it will soon be backed by UKAS as an independently audited certification, where as other schemes such as Fogra have been criticised for having a commercial bias. It also ensures that not just one piece of print is up to standard, but that colour standards are maintained over time through best practice business management. Hence, several elements of ISO 9001 have been incorporated into the certification.

"By the time the BPIF scheme came about we had had about 18-20 months working alongside Mellow Colour," explains Owens. "The minute it was available, we put our order in. It was necessary to get it as a methodology by which we should be working."

He says the paperwork involved in the scheme could be seen as onerous, but adds that Benson were helped by the fact it already had ISO 9001. This, he explains, acts as a template to which you can add in the ISO 12647-2 requirements and the whole process is made easier as a result. Without ISO 9001 he argues it could be a much longer road to getting the BPIF ISO 12647-2 Scheme certification.

No time to waste
And implementing the scheme sooner rather than later is, he would argue, something worth doing. Benson Box was the first company to get independent certification for the BPIF ISO 12647-2 scheme and Owens says the benefits it, alongside the Mellow Colour work, have brought are substantial.

In the period since July 2008, colour complaints attributable to print have reduced by 20%, makeready times have reduced by 15% and makeready waste sheets have reduced by 40%. Meanwhile, productivity has hit new records, with 16.3m sheets printed in October, smashing the previous record of 15.1m sheets.

"The guys are basically better at what they do and part of the process has been down to ISO 12647," says Owens. "We have done other things as well of course, a lot of lean manufacturing processes for example, but ISO 12647 has definitely been part of these improvements."

 The business benefits, then, are clear and Owen says the £30,000 investment in improving colour standards (note this amount is not set – you can do it for more or less depending on the situation) pays for itself within weeks, rather than months.

All that is needed now is for UKAS to get around to accrediting the likes of Print Media Certification, who audited Benson Box, so that the independent and impartial nature of the certificate is proven and that information can be taken to market with confidence. Then if Marks & Spencer or its retail chums do see a drop off in demand for their underwear or the like, printers can say unequivocally that colour variation is not the culprit.

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TOP TIPS: ISO 12647
Motivation
Printers mostly have very similar kit, but what separates the best from the rest is the systems they develop. If a quality management system is implemented well, the company will be a leaner, fitter, more efficient and competitive machine.

Empowering staff to challenge working practice motivates and utilises your most important resource. Qualifying for standards is often seen as an excersise in ticking boxes, but ISO 12647 should be used as an opportunity to train staff and implement consistent and efficient processes.

Implementation
Agreeing and documenting standard operating procedures has to be done by the people who actually do the job in production, so allow plenty of time for them to think about why they do what they do, before they put pen to paper.

The system has to suit the differing cultures of each company so involving a wider group in the development of the system ensures ownership, and pays off in the long run.

Don’t expect to build the perfect quality management system first time – it can be refined over time.

Pick the colour quality team carefully; they should have the support of all in the company, from top to bottom.

If an ISO 12647 print run doesn’t conform exactly to ISO 12647, you must examine the process to figure out why it didn’t conform. This is one of the key action tools for developing thorough best working practice.

Train staff so that they understand the importance of accurate colour measurement, and the targets and tolerances of the process. Include them in the implementation of the standard through the appointment of a colour champion from the shopfloor and through their regular meetings of all involved.

Analysis of measurements is one of the most powerful tools for making the right decisions: correctly analysed data will support management decisions and provide feedback for further improvement projects.

Alan Dresch is a BPIF Associate Colour Management Consultant

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COMMENT
Working to the ISO 12647/2 standard saves printers both time and money. Makeready times are shortened and paper waste is reduced as the press is able to print in its optimum range, so less waste is produced on the run. A colour-managed workflow also delivers consistent and measurable quality, which in turn ensures customers are more satisfied and therefore easier to retain.

So, ISO 12647/2 offers the key to getting predictable print results that will benefit both you and your clients. Every company that I have spoken to that has adopted the standard also confirms that it offers both cost savings and improved efficiency. Of course, there are set-up costs involved in getting up to the perfomance necessary to operate to the standard consistently, but as this month’s Business Inspection confirms, Benson Box gained substantial benefits in return.

Since the necessary expertise may well not be available in-house, getting a good colour management consultant in to sort out profiles and train staff represents a good investment, as BPIF associate colour management consultant Alan Dresch illustrates in this month’s Best Practice Tips.

But if ISO 12647/2 enables printers to produce consistent colour quality, surely clients can see this for themselves? In which case, why do companies need to spend money getting a certificate to prove it, as Benson Box has done?

Principally, it’s about being able to prove what the company has achieved to new clients while reassuring existing customers that you can produce reliable and consistent quality not just today, but every day.

Aaron Archer is chairman of the BPIF’s Technical Standards Committee