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Run the floor Coming soon

Every job on every machine, timed from its layout

Jobs you impose land in the tray with their press, cutting and finishing steps already timed from your own equipment. Place all ready puts them on the board in one click, never on top of each other, and your operators keep it true from a tablet at the machine.

In development — not available to customers yet.

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Place all ready preview over the board: the jobs it places, late and at-risk before and after, and Apply
  1. What would change
  2. Late and at-risk, before and after
  3. Nothing started or pinned moves

Today, and with AutomatePrint

Today: The plan lives on a whiteboard, and only one person can read it.

With AutomatePrint: One board in the office, a tablet at every machine and a Today view on your phone.

Today: Someone types start times and guesses how long each job will run.

With AutomatePrint: Times come from the imposed layout: the press's plates and passes, the knife program, the cut paths. Nobody types a start time.

Today: The press waits because the proof isn't approved or the stock isn't in.

With AutomatePrint: Ready checks hold a job until its proof, preflight, plates, stock or die are ready.

In numbers

machine kinds
17
from platesetter to shipping, including outside vendors with lead times
ready checks built in
7
layout, proof, preflight, print-ready file, plates, stock and die, plus your own
printer, cutter and press profiles
128
in Equipment; the machines you add there come into the schedule in one click

How it works

  1. Impose the job

    Choose a layout in Imposition and the job lands in the tray with every step timed. Put on the schedule, in the job's Export menu, adds it at once and opens it on the board.

  2. Place all ready

    See the plan before it happens: late and at-risk jobs before and after, and the makeready it saves. Apply or discard.

  3. Run it from the floor

    Operators start, pause, report a problem or hold for Done on the station. The board follows within seconds.

Jobs arrive already timed

Makeready shows as a striped start on each bar, drying time holds the next step, and a step that is only an estimate carries a ≈. Start and finish times work themselves out from your shop hours.

  • Shift, Day and Week zoom
  • Status shown by icon and pattern, never by color alone
  • Closed hours hatched, or folded away
Four machine lanes at Shift zoom: bars with a striped makeready start, a dotted drying wait, the now line

Everything about the job in one panel

  • Job panel of a carton job: the imposed sheet, then its route of steps with each machine and its times
    1. The imposed sheet
    2. Its route, step by step

    The sheet and its route

    The imposed sheet, then every step with its machine, its times and where they come from.

  • Move to… for a print step: each press with its finish time and the change, and one that can't run it

    Move to…

    Move a step to another machine and see when it would finish, and why a machine can't take it.

  • Ready checks tab of a label job: each check with its state, and where the automatic ones come from
    1. Clears when the customer approves

    Ready checks that update themselves

    The proof is approved, preflight passes, the print-ready file is current: each check clears.

  • Tray card of a label job under Waiting: its due date, its route of steps and the ready checks it waits on
    1. What it's waiting for
    2. Its route

    The tray

    Each tray card shows its route, its due date and what it's waiting for.

The floor runs from a tablet

Start, Makeready done, Pause with a reason, Hold for Done with good and waste counts, Problem and Machine down. Taps are kept if the Wi-Fi drops, and the planner sees them within seconds.

  • Operators pick their name on a shared shop login, so they need no seat each
  • Dark, low-glare station mode
  • Today on your phone: every machine, now and next
Machine station on a tablet in dark mode: the running job with Hold for Done, Pause and Problem
  1. Press and hold, then good and waste counts
  2. Machine down, with a back-up time
  3. Taps kept if the Wi-Fi drops

When a machine goes down

Mark a machine down with the time you expect it back. Later work moves right, each step that now finishes late says by how much, and the late count updates for everyone.

The die cutter lane down with a red breakdown band until it's back, the steps after it pushed later

Set up in an afternoon

  • Machines setup: the print department's machines linked to Equipment, each timed from that machine's estimator
    1. Timed by its Equipment profile

    Machines from Equipment

    Import your machines from Equipment, set shop hours, then add finishing and outside vendors.

  • Export menu of an imposition job with Put on the schedule under the imposed PDF and the cut files
    1. From layout to board

    Or from the job itself

    Send a job from Imposition with Put on the schedule in its Export menu.

What's in it

  • Color bars by status, customer, due risk, ink and stock, or job
  • Shop hours, maintenance, breakdowns and overtime
  • Outside vendors with lead times
  • Late and at-risk alerts on the board and the team home page
  • Find any job; filter by department, customer or not ready
  • Schedule API for your MIS or a machine's controller
  • Undo and Redo: take back a placement, a move, a pin or a hold as one change
  • Drag and drop and Re-plan Coming soon
  • Email alerts, the List view and printed work-to lists Coming soon
  • Job tickets with a scan code, and kiosks with operator badges Coming soon

Specs

Views
Board · Station · Today (phone, below 768 px)
Machine kinds
17, including outside vendors with a lead time
Ready checks
Layout, Proof, Preflight, Print-ready file, Plates, Stock, Die, plus your own
Station actions
Start, Makeready done, Pause (with a reason), Hold for Done (good and waste), Problem, Machine down (back at…), Stock arrived
API
Board, plan preview and apply, floor events, machines, hours and ready checks

What we don't do

  • It schedules the jobs you impose here. It doesn't invoice, purchase or track inventory: keep your MIS for that and connect it through the API.

Works with

Read the docs: SchedulePlacing and re-planningThe station

FAQ

Questions, answered

Anything else? Email hello@automateprint.com and a person who knows print will answer.

Do I have to type start and end times?

No. You choose the order, or let Place all ready choose it; start and finish times are worked out from your shop hours, makeready, drying and ready checks.

Do machine operators need a seat?

No. Every Station tablet can run on one shared shop login, and the operator picks their name, so operators don't need seats of their own. Seats are for the people who plan and prepare work.

Can I drag jobs around the board?

Not yet: drag and drop and Re-plan are coming next. Today you plan with Place all ready, Move to…, Pin and Hold.

What about machines that aren't in Imposition, like a folder-gluer or packing?

Add them as machines with a setup time and a speed. Outside vendors get a usual turnaround and no queue: each step sent out takes the vendor's lead time, however many jobs are already there.

What if the proof isn't approved yet?

The job waits in the tray under Waiting, showing the check that holds it. When the customer approves, the check clears by itself.

Does it replace our MIS?

It schedules production. Keep your MIS for invoicing and purchasing, and connect it through the API. It works in the same app as your imposition, so no MIS or JDF integration is needed to start.

Put every job on one platform

Start free, with 14 days of every Production feature. No card, and your customers review for free.

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