“For over half a century newspaper readers in Kerala have been treated as a hyperlocal market,” says George Jacob, executive director, Malayala Manorama.“Manorama’s eleven plants cover the state’s fourteen districts with an average population of 2.5 million. Each plant produces six to 10 editions each night that are locally relevant and popular for a combined daily circulation of 2.4 million copies.”
Each night Malayala Manorama produces timed and localized editions. The front page and the news pages are changed in each of the serially published time editions – the release time determined by the distance of the target audience from the printing centre. Editions for the farthest locations are printed first while the plant’s local edition is able to include stories coming in as late as 3.30 am. Each edition is localized by changing news and information on pages 2, 4 and the obituary page. Kerala’s readers are always keen on more local news, as social life and communities are closely linked. Thus for many years, the 24-page broadsheet daily with 16 color pages was printed on 2 x 1 presses with 6 to 8 pages that had to be changed in each hyper-localized edition.
Putting in Plan B and Plan C
Manugraph’s 2×1 presses provided flexibility for maximizing the number editions with varying print runs. About five or six years ago, Manorama realized the need to upgrade into double-width single circumference high speed presses to meet its growing circulation demands. At the same time its competitor Mathrubhumi reaching a million copies also upped the stakes by ordering three new TKS Color Top 5000UDI presses. When Manorama looked at 4 x 1 presses, it realized that the price quoted by Manugraph for the double-width single circumference Smartline press was much lower than that of the overseas manufacturers. “However, there were no 4 x 1 Smartline presses working in the market then, and we had to chose between a proven design and a proven supplier. We decided to take the risk and go with Manugraph because that Manugraph Smartline stabilized Manorama’s 4 x 1 learning curve “For over half a century newspaper readers in Kerala have been treated as a hyperlocal market,” says George Jacob, executive director, Malayala Manorama.“Manorama’s eleven plants cover the state’s fourteen districts with an average population of 2.5 million. Each plant produces six to 10 editions each night that are locally relevant and popular for a combined daily circulation of 2.4 million copies.” Sandip Sen was what we could afford,” says Jacob.
Manorama’s well laid out plans for Stage I expansion ran into several unexpected roadblocks. The building of the first unit at Alappuzha was delayed by eighteen months and when the first Manugraph Smartline was installed, it took another eighteen months to stabilize. “Usually it takes us five to six months to stabilize a new press but the press at Alappuzha took much longer. That delayed our planned production process and we had to think quickly for a back-up plan to make up for the delay,” says Jacob. “We devised two back-up plans for the Stage 2 and Stage 3 expansion. The Stage 2 plan consisted of buying and commissioning old refurbished presses while the Stage 3 plan was to go in for brand new 4×1 presses from international manufacturers to augment our capacities.” After initial hiccups all three strategies have worked for Manorama and Indian Printer and Publisher recently visited the Alappuzha plant again to find how how the Manugraph 4 x 1 has stood up to the challenge.
At the same time Manorama has ordered four Mitsubishi DiamondSpirit SA 4 x1 presses of which the first press is in the installation stage. “Today we can effectively say that we have made up for the lost time and have multiple options of going with Indian manufactured double-width presses, new globally manufactured presses as well as used and refurbished presses for our next stage expansion that should begin by 2016,” adds Jacob.
Reduction of newsprint wastage
Jisson Thomas, assistant manager, production and maintenance at the Alappuzha plant says that now the Smartline 4 x1 is producing the 24- page broadsheet daily with 16-color pages at a speed of 60,000 to 65,000 copies an hour. “Currently we print just 166,000 copies each night but we have the required capacity to print much more at the top operating speed in a four hour shift and we can also upgrade the press to 24-color pages if required,” says Thomas.
The total wastage of newsprint in the plant has come down drastically. In April 2012 the total paper wastage at Alappuzha was 3.37 % while in November 2014 the total wastage was reduced to 1.94%. The total wastage figure includes transport, godown wastage and tare and production wastage. The wastage of Manorama’s other Smartline presses is also reducing and is soon expected to be below 2% at all four sites. The cost of consumables has also been considerably reduced.
Postpress equipment
Manugraph made several changes after the initial trials including synchronization of software-related issues largely because it was the first press both for the client and the manufacturer. A key issue was however in the postpress section. Since 1986, when Manorama first decided to automate its postpress handling system at Trivandrum, it has been using Wamac conveyors. However, the Smartline presses with double delivery folders at the top required a different solution.
Manorama chose Schur inserters which were less expensive than Ferag. The TS 300 stacker and the mailroom for Alappuzha was supplied by Newstech while the strapping was from Transpack. The plant also has a short telescopic conveyor provided by Technicon in Mumbai that directly delivers bundles to the trucks. However, there was a problem in inserting lightweight 4-page supplements in the main edition. “We realized that the postpress equipment could not handle the speed at which these lightweight supplements flew off the press,” says Thomas showing how Manugraph made modifications to slow down the delivery to match the inserter speed. Though the Alappuzha Smartline 4 x1 press took 18 months to stabilize the other three Smartlines have stabilized within three months of installation.
A frugal AGV
One of the most needed areas of automation in a newspaper plant is the reel handling system. The 2 tonne rolls of newsprint usually need manual movement and positioning in the pressroom area. While buying the refurbished TKS press Manorama bought a couple of disused Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and requested the PLC makers like Mitsubishi, Siemens and Omron to remove the old software and introduce a new PLC. A Kerala-based PLC dealer got the AGVs to work. We saw these working at the Thrissur plant alongside the running refurbished TKS 4 x2 press.
Manorama has located two AGV manufacturers – in Hong Kong and Gurgaon making AGVs for the heavy duty farm equipment. The Gurgaonbased manufacturer has supplied AGVs for Manorama’s new Manugraph and Mitsubishi presses. Bought at very economical prices the AGVs are another example of frugal engineering after India’s well-known achievements in developing the world’s cheapest car, computer, and the Mars spaceship. “It is all about cost saving,” says Jacob, “as we look to scaling up our volumes year after year at the lowest cost to the company.” Manorama, a leader amongst low-cost language dailies in India has opened up multiple avenues for expansion for newspapers still thriving in India’s unexploited hinterland.
