Colour management consultants Malcolm McReath and Peter Wade have warned printers who don’t conduct a GAP analysis could "waste a lot of time and money" on the extent of the audit process.

A GAP analysis is an inspection of the procedures, documentary processes and working practices as they are at the outset in an organisation from copy reception through to final print.

It is conducted by a consultant with experience of both ISO 12647 and of the audit process and provides a route map that identifies areas of development that are needed to ensure compliance to the UKAS standard.

McReath said: "When the print buying community realises an independently certified UKAS standard for ISO 12647-2 is available – as many now do – this is the standard they will be asking of their printers.

"This could be a big problem for printers to navigate their way to being ready for an audit. That is why we decided to create a procedure that will plot a path from where an organisation is at the outset and analyse what needs to be done to get to a position where they are ready to invite the auditors in."

The on-site inspection and completion of the assessment documents takes around five hours, from which a customised report is created and sent to the organisation.

The cost is £1,500, although Sun Chemical is currently sponsoring each GAP to the tune of £500 through the BPIF, in an offer which is not restricted to BPIF members nor Sun Chemical customers.

According to McReath the GAP process can save "a considerable amount of money" on unnecessary capital expenditure, training and changes to procedures. "We can also offer an additional service to create the documentary procedures," said McReath.

"If done from scratch, this alone can take up to 20 days and we can reduce this substantially. If non-compliance is found at stage one of an audit, this can be very costly and time consuming – GAP should avoid this happening."