The Web Offset Champion Group (WOCG) founded in 1998, is a group of companies that has collectively created an international platform to collect, structure, share and promote generic best practices for all printing processes – from prepress to postpress, materials and print products. The WOCG has now expanded its work to include all printing processes and has been renamed The Print Process Champions.
The non-profit organization is funded by sponsor company members working with international industry associates. The joint managing directors are Tim Claypole and Nigel Wells. Administrative support is provided by the Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating, Swansea University. Sponsor members include Böttcher, Kodak, manroland, Muller Martini, Procemex, Quad Tech, SCA and Trelleborg. Associate members include ClimateCalc, Ecograf, FIPP, IDEAlliance, IDEP France, Pagora University Grenoble, PrintCity, Printing Industries of America, Stuttgart HdM, ViP UK, WAN-Ifra, WCPC Swansea University, WOCG and UNIC.
The objectives of the Print Process Champions include providing printers with tools to improve their overall performance at low or no cost by helping consolidate and communicate to existing resources. Moreover, goals include optimizing best practices across multiple and hybrid printing processes where there are many common issues; and initiating benchmarking, diagnostic and quality programs.
This initiative is a positive response to the printing industry’s massive structural and technology changes. A consequence is that sources of process competence are becoming limited, making it important to find cost- effective international synergies to answer information needs, not only to transfer to developing countries, but also pertinent for mature markets.
Best practices are fundamental tools to optimize quality, reliability, economic and environmental performance. The platform hosts contributions from printers, suppliers, industry institutions, and universities to provide guides, benchmarking, case studies, resource information, and a diagnostics database at no, or low, cost. Apart from various guides and technical resources, there are a number of downloadable tools that are available free of charge from the Print Process Champions website, including the Web Offset E-ToolBox.
Indian Printer and Publisher has been serializing the WOCG Best Practice Guide for Web Offset Printers since February 2010 beginning with guide number one – ‘Roll to web processing.’ The second guide we serialized was called, ‘Web break prevention and diagnosis.’ The serialization of the third WOCG guide entitled ‘How to avoid surprises when changing paper grades’ was completed in the April 2014 issue of Indian Printer and Publisher. In the current May 2014 issue we are beginning the serialization of guide number four: “Productivity Maintenance – How to run presses longer, leaner and faster.”
The productivity maintenance guide starts with the motivation and strategy of maintenance for the entire printing system and its components and sub-systems. It goes on to the maintenance of individual components right from prepress to paper handling and the press sub- systems. The serialization of the maintenance guide will continue monthly and for those who cannot wait, it can be purchased for Euro 30 from the The Print Process Champions website http://printprocesschampions.com.♦
