Ironsides Automated Productivity Analytics (APA) Helps document factories enhance manufacturing efficiency with detailed production and OEE analytics.

Westford, MA. March 15, 2024 – Ironsides Technology, a leading provider of automated data collection, production tracking, and business intelligence for the printing, mailing, fulfillment, commercial print, and packaging industries, announced a new module for its Nor’Star Platform. The Automated Productivity Analytics (APA) module includes an overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and Productivity Analytics system to help businesses gauge machine productivity through OEE metrics and evaluate how specific accounts, applications, and associated print jobs integrate within the manufacturing environment.

The APA module helps address daily challenges print manufacturers face, such as access to labor, increasing paper and manufacturing costs, customer retention, and optimizing capital investments. To gain operational efficiency, companies must track, measure, trend, and objectively analyze current production processes to pave the way for continuous improvement. APA equips customers with the tools and insights to navigate the evolving manufacturing landscape successfully.

The new APA functionality builds on Norstar’s vendor-agnostic tracking and data collection methodologies to deliver more detailed insights into the “why” behind productivity and operational effectiveness. APA’s easy-to-use interface enables downtime reasoning to be captured, providing a comprehensive audit trail and accounting of a machine’s behavior and doings. This includes make ready timing, run time, downtime reasoning, waste analysis, variable expected vs. actual productivity rates, and job transition timing. The resulting production data is presented in an intuitive dashboard displaying the key metrics contributing to a business’s operational effectiveness.

The insights gathered by APA help businesses bolster manufacturing efficiency while concurrently assessing the efficiency of account production profiles, yielding tangible benefits for all stakeholders. The APA metrics use objective OEE data to identify if print providers are operating at peak efficiency and highlight the product types and applications that align best with their manufacturing profile for sustained profitability. Further, APA helps identify the accounts that best fit the company’s ideal efficiency profile—or not.

“We worked closely with our customers across the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe to better understand their specific needs and challenges and developed advanced analytic tools to help streamline their document manufacturing processes and optimize productivity,” said Bill Riley, CEO, Ironsides Technology. “As a result, customers can make informed, data-driven decisions that drive profitability, growth, and customer satisfaction.”

“In addition, we see more customers and prospects raising questions about aligning their account and prospect base with their manufacturing efficiency profile. APA helps answer questions such as, ‘What is our OEE-defined optimal productivity profile?’ or ‘Where do we need to reevaluate jobs and applications for better margin outcomes?’ and ‘How do our accounts resonate with our real-world productivity profile?’ With insights gained from APA, business owners can evaluate current production processes to pave the way for future improvements,” continued Riley.

About Ironsides Technology

Ironsides Technology is a software development and integration company providing business intelligence and end-to-end integrity tracking solutions to document factories, commercial printers, mail fulfillment, and packaging industries. The Ironsides Nor’Star System combines real-time data collection with automated production monitoring, reporting, and analytics across all work in process as it moves through a production workflow, from prepress to shipping. The Nor’Star System helps to ensures 100 percent distribution, SLA compliance, reprint automation, and provides robust operational and productivity reporting to help inkjet, continuous-feed, and cut-sheet printing customers better manage their businesses. The result is a best-of-breed automated document factory (ADF) tracking strategy to ensure personalized client communications are processed efficiently and with the highest level of accuracy and compliance. For more information, visit www.ironsidestech.com or email Info@ironsidestech.com

Ironsides Nor’Star combines automated production tracking, productivity reporting and cost analytics in one platform helping commercial printers maximize efficiencies and drive profitability.

Westford, MA. June, 2020 –  Ironsides Technology, a leading provider of automated production business intelligence for the printing, mailing, fulfillment, and packaging industries, today announced the release of the Ironsides Nor’Star Automated Order Tracking Version 2.

Ironsides AOT (Automated Order Tracking) provides real-time visibility to all prepress, composition and document engineering activity, tracking each customer, project type, quantity, due date, approval and other data points throughout the prepress workflow. AOT instantly reports on the whereabouts of jobs and individual pieces within your document factory irrespective of how Orders have been streamed, batched or comingled. Use AOT to “pull” complete Orders or individual pieces from production without having to search the shop floor for them.

Detailed reporting in AOT helps prepress managers identify potential bottlenecks and understand where and why rework was required. Ironsides AOT’s auditing capabilities help ensure that customer SLA, compliance and regulatory requirements are met through the prepress process.

Ironsides AOT integrates seamlessly with Ironsides APT (Automated Production Tracking), which monitors and reports on individual pieces and complete jobs being printed, finished, mailed and shipped across all brands of continuous and cut sheet printers, ink jet printers, inserters, finishing and bindery equipment. Ironsides APT tracks job performance, pieces and productivity by device, operator and job, providing the information necessary to optimize production schedules and delivery performance. Ironsides APT allows for 100 percent distribution compliance, providing assurance that all jobs down to the piece-level have been assembled correctly, accounted for, and are fully compliant with industry required rules and regulations.

For more information about Ironsides Nor’Star System visit http://www.ironsidestech.com

About Ironsides Technology

Ironsides Technology is a software development and integration company, providing business intelligence and end-to-end integrity tracking solutions to document factories, commercial printers, mail fulfillment and packaging industries. Ironsides Nor’Star System combines real-time data collection with automated production monitoring, reporting and cost analytics to provide for real-time tracking, visibility and cost analysis for all work in process as it moves through a production workflow, from prepress, production, finishing, sorting, mailing and shipping. The Nor’Star System ensures 100 percent distribution, SLA compliance, reprint automation, and provides robust operational reporting to help inkjet, continuous-feed and cut sheet printing customers better manage their businesses. 

Based on an open and scalable architecture, Ironsides Technology easily integrates with web inspection systems and post print in line and off-line bindery devices. Ironsides Technology also supports appropriate camera technology and tracking solutions in the finishing and insertion environment. The end result is a best-of-breed automated document factory (ADF) tracking strategy to ensure personalized client packages are processed efficiently and with the highest level of accuracy and compliance. 

For additional information please call us at + 1 (978) 589-8299 or email Info@ironsidestech.com

Leading inkjet and digital print analyst, Marco Boer, expects business models will shift to high value digital printed content and highlights the importance of workflow automation, production tracking and cost analytics to help printers thrive in a post COVID-19 world.

Westford, MA. June 9, 2020 –  Ironsides Technology, a leading provider of automated production business intelligence for the printing, mailing, fulfillment, and packaging industries, recently hosted a webinar with IT Strategies’ Marco Boer discussing digital production printing in a post COVID-19 world. As offset print pages shift to digital and customers tighten SLA requirements, printers need to embrace workflow automation, track and trace technology, and costing software in order to thrive over the next five years. The full discussion is available On Demand at https://ironsidestech.com/resources/.

“We will see less print as a result of the coronavirus crisis,” said Boer. “Business models that focus on the lowest cost per page will disappear and printers will shift to producing higher-value digital printed content. Customers will expect an Amazon model.  They will only buy what they want, when they want it and will expect two-day turn arounds and greater accountability.”

According to the webinar, higher frequency, short-run jobs mean that production facilities will not be able to rely on staff alone to track each job and keep operations running smoothly. This will require workflow and production tracking automation tools that integrate into existing digital production environments. This will allow staff to focus on data management tasks such as variable data, micro-runs, and just-in-time manufacturing. With automation and tracking, printers will also be able to meet customer accountability requirements.

Boer adds that “digital printers who want to thrive in a post coronavirus marketplace, it won’t be about having the next new digital press. It will be about understanding production costs. As business owners become better at tracking each job and its true costs, they can develop dynamic pricing models based on margins and supply and demand. In a few short years, I believe the digital printing landscape will look better than we have ever seen it before.”

“The technology is available today to help digital printer understand production costs of each job,” said Bill Riley, CEO and Founder of Ironsides Technology. “Our Nor’Star System combines automated production tracking with business analytics to understand the true costs of each print job, from prepress through production, finishing, bindery, sorting, packaging, shipping, and mailing. Management gains valuable insights into their margins to improve facility profitability, efficiency, and even identify new application opportunities to grow their business. This helps business owners stay resilient and weather any storm.”

About Ironsides Technology

Ironsides Technology is a software development and integration company, providing business intelligence and end-to-end integrity tracking solutions to document factories, commercial printers, mail fulfillment and packaging industries. Ironsides Nor’Star System combines real-time data collection with automated production monitoring, reporting and cost analytics to provide visibility and cost analysis for all work in process as it moves through a production workflow, from prepress, production, finishing, sorting, mailing and shipping. The Nor’Star System ensures 100 percent distribution, SLA compliance, reprint automation, and provides robust operational reporting to help inkjet, continuous-feed and cut sheet printing customers better manage their businesses. 

Based on an open and scalable architecture, Ironsides Technology easily integrates with web inspection systems, camera technology and post print inline and off-line bindery devices. The end result is a best-of-breed automated document factory (ADF) tracking strategy to ensure personalized client packages are processed efficiently and with the highest level of accuracy and compliance. 

For additional information call us at + 1 (978) 589-8299 or email Info@ironsidestech.com

TJ Forsythe, Business Solutions Executive, describes the Ironsides Technology centralized command-and-control dashboard for real-time printing work-in-process visibility. The software manages document tracking and accountability to ensure 100% distribution compliance. It also automates reprints, reducing production time and human error.

View full interview.

Global Solution Provider implements automated production tracking software to provide process transparency to its customers and ensure that all printed communications meet SLA and regulatory requirements.

STAMFORD, CT March 28, 2019 — Cenveo, a provider of world-class solutions in the areas of envelopes, custom labels, commercial print, content management and publisher solutions, announced today they have implemented Ironsides APT™ (Automated Production Tracking) software to ensure document integrity of printed communications across multiple production lines and equipment. Ironsides APT allows Cenveo to provide real-time document tracking and process transparency to support customers’ strict compliance and regulatory requirements. The investment in Ironsides APT allows Cenveo to expand existing services and applications within industries requiring high levels of document transparency, including healthcare, travel leisure, financial and utility industries.

“Ironsides APT’s ability to integrate into our platform and work seamlessly with a wide variety of production print and finishing equipment made this the ideal solution for our clients’ ever-increasing information and data security needs,” said Cappy Childs, President of Cenveo’s Print Group. “As we continue to expand our technology platform, the Ironsides implementation ensures data integrity reporting will always be available to our clients at the piece level regardless of the hardware or production environment used to produce it.”

Ironsides APT software is designed to help print and communication providers such as Cenveo meet strict customer and regulatory requirements. Its open architecture and device agnostic framework easily integrated into Cenveo’s multi-vendor production environment for automated job and piece level tracking across all print, bindery, insertion, hand assembly, and sorting processes.

With this software implementation, Cenveo is able to consolidate data from multiple systems using the Ironsides APT Dashboard for centralized reporting on production allocated across multiple facilities. The dashboard contains a device monitor, SLA Manager, and detailed operational reporting tools that deliver real-time measurement and analysis of job, machine, employee, and facility performance. Cenveo’s production staff and management can use this information to identify and fix potential bottlenecks and optimize production performance.

“We are honored to work with an industry leader like Cenveo and be aligned with their organizational goals to deliver full transparency to the customer communication process,” said T.J. Forsythe, Vice President of Sales at Ironsides Technology. “The Ironsides APT solution offers Cenveo a valuable tool for tactical operations management and business growth. As industry regulations continue to tighten around customer communications, Cenveo is well positioned to meet evolving market requirements in an agile and efficient manner.”

About Ironsides Technology

Ironsides Technology is a software development and integration company, providing business intelligence and end-to-end integrity tracking solutions to document factories, commercial printers, mail fulfillment and packaging industries. Ironsides Nor’Star System combines real-time data collection with automated production monitoring, reporting and cost analytics to provide for real-time tracking, visibility and cost analysis for all work in process as it moves through a production workflow, from prepress, production, finishing, sorting, mailing and shipping. The Nor’Star System ensures 100 percent distribution, SLA compliance, reprint automation, and provides robust operational reporting to help inkjet, continuous-feed and cut sheet printing customers better manage their businesses. 

Based on an open and scalable architecture, Ironsides Technology easily integrates with web inspection systems and post print in line and off-line bindery devices. Ironsides Technology also supports appropriate camera technology and tracking solutions in the finishing and insertion environment. The end result is a best-of-breed automated document factory (ADF) tracking strategy to ensure personalized client packages are processed efficiently and with the highest level of accuracy and compliance.  For more information visit www.ironsidestech.com

About Cenveo Worldwide Limited

Cenveo Worldwide Limited, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, is a leading global provider of print and related resources, offering world-class solutions in the areas of envelopes, custom labels, commercial print, content management and publisher solutions. The Company provides a one-stop offering through services ranging from design and content management to fulfillment and distribution. With a worldwide distribution platform, we pride ourselves on delivering quality solutions and service every day to our customers.

For more information please visit us at www.cenveo.com. Inquiries should be directed to Cenveo Communications at (203) 595-3660 or Cenveo.Communications@Cenveo.com.

The US-headquartered developer’s Nor’Star System is intended to provide commercial printers and document manufacturers with valuable insights into their business and print production costs for improved decision-making.

Nor’Star combines real-time data collection with automated production monitoring, reporting and cost analytics in one central command and control dashboard.

The company said the platform would enable document professionals, printing, mailing and fulfilment centres to understand true production costs of each job, from pre-press through production, finishing, bindery, sorting, packaging, shipping and mailing.

Speaking to PrintWeek at Hunkeler, which is taking place until Thursday (28 February), in Lucerne, Switzerland, Ironsides chief executive and founder Bill Riley said: “Nor’Star’s USP is that we can literally communicate or integrate with any of the devices here at Hunkeler.

“It’s not a proprietary system that’s focused on printers or inserters, it’s really open to any kit that a customer might have on their floor.

“You see print shops that are bringing in all kinds of kit and it’s good to have a tool that can work with anything.”

The Nor’Star System includes Ironsides’ existing APT (Automated Production Tracking) and adds two new platforms; Ironsides AOT (Automated Order Tracking), which monitors and reports on the pre-press process, and Ironsides ACA (Automated Cost Analytics), which provides real-time cost analysis.

The system is commercially available with immediate effect direct from Ironsides’ UK team and Riley said pricing is at the lower end of the market and “competitive.”

He added: “It requires a bit of analysis before installation, every customer has a different type of estimating process and we need to marry it to that.”

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