Kirk Schlecker led off the Inkjet Summit 2020’s Keynote User Panel titled “Inkjet – It’s About Adding Value.”
Moderator Barb Pellow interviewed Schlecker (between 1:49-15:09 in the video below) on the evolution of Heeter’s 75-year-old business, its selection, and use of inkjet presses, and its success in making our customer’s workflow simpler.
Value of Inkjet Press
Heeter’s journey to inkjet started in 2015 when a major insurance customer’s fast-growing program could no longer be supported by existing digital presses. Heeter became the first commercial printer in the United States to operate Ricoh’s VC60000.
Schlecker later outlined the benefits of moving to Ricoh’s new VC70000 Inkjet Press in 2019.
- The new press no longer requires costly, specialized coated paper; instead the VC70000 takes less expensive generic coated paper
- Speeds on this coated stick jumped from 160 feet per minute to 400
These improvements with the inkjet allow Heeter to be cost competitive with analog shops, while differentiating ourselves with inexpensive shorter runs and offering the personalization of digital.
Imperium
Pellow inquired about Heeter’s Imperium platform. Imperium is a customized web-based dashboard that provides Heeter clients with the ability to view the real-time status of job orders as well as current inventory levels.
Schlecker further overviewed Imperium as a collaboration suite where our customers choose from a group of different services we offer as well as our integrations to their systems.
The benefit of integration of Imperium into client’s systems is to deliver on Heeter’s goal of making a customer’s workflow simpler.
A full article of the panel from Printing Impressions is available here.
