"The best investment of all time"

Robert Bincik had a quote from Thomas Alva Edison put up in his office. Displayed in large letters, the famous admonition serves as a constant reminder of Bincik's corporate philosophy: "There's a way to do it better - find it." And that's exactly what the Managing Director of the Druckwerkstatt in Vienna has done over the past 17 years. He has turned the company into a full-service provider for printing and packaging.

Things could have turned out differently. Bincik was on the brink of quitting his job as the manager of a print shop and turning his back on the industry altogether. But his former customers kept pestering him with printing requests, which led him to remain in the industry as a producer and print broker. "Given the steadily increasing order volume, we didn't have any other choice but to start our own production operation."

These days, the 20-person team handles roughly 12,000 orders per year and, except for offset printing, takes care of all phases of production in house. This was also the reason for the name change this past spring, explains the head of the company: "Over the years, we have evolved into one of Austria's most innovative print service providers. One of our particular strengths is custom and short-run packaging with print embellishments. Our new name, Druckwerkstatt Print & Packaging, embodies this nicely."

Another key to the company's growth lies in the high degree of automation throughout the production workflow. "I am crazy about automation. Automation was the only way for us to boost our yearly order volume to 12,000 – a 30-percent increase. And we did so without adding any personnel," says Bincik. This is where he cites digital cutting technology from Switzerland as an example: "The Zünd S3 cutting solution is the best investment I've ever made." According to Bincik, the cutter has provided Druckwerkstatt with both a high degree of automation as well as exceptional flexibility. Before the digital cutter was put into operation, the company was purchasing nearly 600 dies per year. "This isn't just a cost issue. Handling and managing dies took an incredible amount of internal manpower," says Bincik. Beyond that, he also appreciates the wide variety of tools that can be used very flexibly and makes it possible to adapt the cutter anytime to changing requirements. "The modularity of Zünd cutting systems is absolutely brilliant, I think. It allows us to grow right along with market demands."

One example of a relevant application the company is currently pushing is short-run folding carton production. The webpage www.yourbox.at was set up specifically for this purpose. It became apparent there were hardly any providers on the market capable of producing short and medium runs

(1,000 to 1,500 units) quickly and cost-effectively. In Bincik's words: "We have been experiencing massive growth in this area, and here, too, the Zünd cutter is helping us process a wide range of substrates with speed and precision."

To ensure the ability to make optimal use of the cutter's productivity, Druckwerkstatt has added a sheet feeder from Zünd for automated material handling. In this configuration, the S3 cutter is currently operating around the clock at Druckwerkstatt. It even runs completely unattended during one of the shifts. Based on this resounding success, Bincik is already thinking seriously about investing in yet another Zünd cutter.