CIP4

Do You Know What The Job Definition Format Is? [POLL]

submitted by Luca Leonardini on January 2012

JDF Work

Why a poll on the Job Definition Format (JDF)?

Because the JDF it’s a process automation enabler for the printing industry and for the graphic arts which helps companies in this market to work smartly, to reduce wastes, costs, to develop a culture of continuous improvement.

What does it mean JDF in business terms?

It means that the average ROI of a JDF enabled process automation project is 277% and that 4 months after the implementation is completed, the company reaches the breakeven.

What is the link between the JDF and the current market situation?

The printing and publishing business have been so hardly hit by the explosion of new technologies (tablets, smartphones, HTML5, CSS3, JS, XML, social media platforms, ...) in the last couple of years: I do believe the reduction of wastes and costs, the increase of efficiency should be a must to adopt in order to remain in business today. In the last 10 years (think for a minute what has been the last decade for the world!) the JDF has been successfully adopted by a large number of printing industries around the world. Truth to be told, the general feeling about the JDF is that its market spread could be much larger and that its huge business potential hasn’t been fully discovered (maybe understood!) yet.

So these are my questions.

Trying to understand “why” such a smart technology hasn’t been adopted by the vast majority of the market. Trying to understand “what” can still be done to help entrepreneurs and managing directors approaching the JDF primarily as a business strategy, not as “just a technical issue”. There are many other questions of course: the purpose of the poll is to provide the community with a useful opportunity to think about the many possible questions and answers. The discussion will be extremely valuable for the community of customers, of technology suppliers and for the CIP4 Institute (the creator and the developer): it can help to better focus on mutual expectations in the future of the business. I invite you to use DISQUS (below the post) to add any comment or to suggest new options you would add to the menu list. As soon as there will be enough data for the statistics, I will publish a new post with the results. Thank you for taking your time and for participating!

Wastes Reduction publishing Process Automation printing Lean Culture Increasing Efficiency Graphic arts CIP4

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There is a new kid in town

submitted by Luca Leonardini on September 2011

Hosted by imgur.com For some - or many - of you, the title of this new post might remember something. Please allow me help you: yes, you're right, it was a song, a beautiful song. How could we possibly forget this great song from the Eagles in the 80s! I just love them. Well since one week "there is a new kid in town" ... of the JDF Certified Experts! Last week I successfully completed the official certification examination and IDEAlliance sent me the nice JDF Expert seals and the beautiful certificate to hang on the wall. Officially I am the JDF Certified Expert number 64 world wide and the number 3 in Italy. To be honest I feel relief and I am quite happy about this latest achievement. Basically, I am very much looking forward to start with the next challenge and to develop the most meaningful innovation project with the Job Definition Format I've just learned.

JDF certification IPA IDEAlliance CIP4

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CIP4 new Advisory Board election

submitted by Luca Leonardini on July 2010

The International Cooperation for the Integration of the Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4) organization announced the results of its election for Advisory Board representatives. The CIP4 Advisory Board is the highest level of leadership for the organization, responsible for making strategic decisions for the organization, as well as electing the officers who have day-to-day operational responsibility. The Advisory Board has three types of representatives, reflecting the three classes of membership: Partner, Full and Associate members. Full and Associate level member representatives to the Advisory Board are elected by the membership, the number of which is based on membership proportions established by the CIP4 Bylaws.

Although open to all graphic arts companies, Full members tend to be companies that sell software and system to the printing industry. The Full member representatives that will serve on the Advisory Board until 2012 include:

Rohan Holt, President of LithoTechnics Pty Limited (Australia)

Keigo Shirai, Founder and President of Olive Inc. (Japan)

Jacques Thiebauld, Chief Technical Officer of DALiM Software GmbH (Germany)

Henny van Esch, President of Optimus Group Ltd. (The Netherlands)

Patrick Vreven, CEO of GamSys Software (Belgium)

Karl Williamson, Technical Sales Manager at Goss International (USA)

Williamson, a first-time Advisory Board Representative, said “My goal is to contribute my time and experience to the CIP4 organization to help foster the continuing growth of JDF in the industry. In this economy cutting costs while increasing efficiency is a daily struggle for printers and JDF is a key component in achieving this goal. I look forward to the next two years — learning new applications of JDF and helping to promote JDF expansion throughout the industry.”

Associate level membership in CIP4 offers a significant discount in dues, but is a class of membership that is restricted to companies that don’t produce software and systems, such as printers, prepress services, consultants, educational institutes and associations serving the industry. The Associate Advisory Board Representatives are:

Dr. Mark F. J. Bohan, Vice President, Research and Technology of Printing Industries of America (USA)

Stephan Jaeggi, President of PrePress-Consulting (Switzerland)

Mr. Patrick Cahuet, Director of 1Prime|Concept (France)

Cahuet is also a first-time Advisory Board Representative. “I am very proud of becoming a new member of the CIP4 Advisory Board,” said Cahuet. “I believe that it is a great opportunity to be even more involved in the workflow automation process. Even though I have not written a single line of code since my years in college, I think that my contributions might be useful for CIP4 organization on the business development side. I strongly believe that actors of the graphic arts industry should better understand that JDF applications and workflow automation process are fantastic tools for their companies’ business development. CIP4 and JDF are still not fully known in the local market place. Variable data printing applications, web-to-print solutions, cross media and e-books will become more and more important for the future of printing industry and I’m glad to see how CIP4 is getting more and more involved in this evolution. I welcome the opportunity to contribute my expertise and to help commercial printers and digital printers to face the forthcoming convergence of communication technologies with success. My goals are to be more involved than ever in CIP4.”
“The new Advisory Board reflects the global diversity of CIP4,” said CIP4 CEO Margaret Motamed of EFI. “CIP4 has members from 32 countries, and from every continent except Antarctica. Furthermore, our new Advisory Board includes members with both strong technical backgrounds as well as executive level management experience, which will provide the balance, insight and leadership that we will need in the coming years.”

Biographical information on all CIP4 Advisory Board members can be found at this web link.

technology strategy JDF innovation communication CIP4 Graphic arts

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