In today’s competitive marketplace, a creative approach to doing business can often be the key to success. Buse Printing & Advertising, Phoenix, AZ, is one commercial printer who actively pursues this philosophy. With increasing sales and growing demand for its services, Buse’s efforts are paying off.
What makes this printer unique is the diversity of printing processes and equipment it offers – 12 sheeted presses, two web offset presses, three engraving presses, four silk screening presses, 11 letterpress units and steel die engraving.
“Our specialty lies in combining processes,” says Ray Buse, company president. “We do all types of printing on all types of stock, from plastics to board to paper. It’s not unusual to have three or four processes built into an order. We continually modify our equipment to accommodate specialty work.”
Such specialty work includes annual reports, brochures, hang tags, scratch-off cards and fragrance-imprinted sheets. At present, 65 percent of sales comes from national accounts.
With 110 employees, the company’s operations are divided among three Phoenix locations. Buse Printing has one of the larger creative staffs in Arizona, a stripping department, and an art department to offer design and desktop publishing services, and an in-house photographer.
Recently, Buse Printing expanded its operation to include in-house sheeting. This decision was made to improve reaction time and cost efficiency, “Diversifying into sheeting gives us more control, knowing we will always have the right sheet size when cutting from inventory rolls,” explains Buse. “Plus, the customer service aspect was an important consideration. With a sheeter, there is no waiting for paper to be supplied.”
Another deciding factor was the existing availability of roll stock. “We inventory about two million pounds of roll stock for our web presses on an average day,” says Buse. “Since we already had the roll stock in inventory, it made sense to sheet in-house.”
In selecting a sheeter, Buse Printing looked for a unit with a simple, straightforward design. After investigating several models, Buse selected the MSS Sheeter from Maxson Automatic Machinery Co.
“The Maxson fit our requirements,” says Buse. “It was easy to operate, gave us the flexibility we were looking for, and requires only one operator.”
Along with the new sheeter, Buse selected a shaft-type roll stand and a breaker bar decurl unit. The roll stand handles rolls up to 60 inches in diameter and has a 2,500-lb. load capacity. The breaker bar decurl conditions the web before it feeds into cutters to ensure a flat sheet.
The MSS sheeter also has a sheet /line-speed monitor which reduces setup waste. With this device, the operator can set the desired cutoff without having to run any materials through the sheeter. Static-eliminating equipment was also installed on the sheeter. The MSS sheeter’s knife grinds are designed to minimize dust and offer a clean cut, reducing dust-related printing defects.
The sheeter operates two shifts a day, five days a week. Depending on the production schedule, order sizes vary from 100 sheets up to several million sheets.
“The biggest plus has been convenience,” says Buse. “Now that we have a sheeter, and the flexibility to provide faster service, I don’t know how we managed without one.”
In the future, the MSS sheeter’s modular design will offer even more flexibility. As more sheeting volume is needed, an upgrade overlap system can be added, which will double production speeds.
In-house sheeting is one way this commercial printing has diversified its operation to secure a competitive advantage. In addition, the move has offered Buse Printing the opportunity to grow and expand.
Reprinted from High Volume Printing, February 1993
