“I had the nose for it”, says Peter Rosdorff, Managing Director at Weser-Ems-Druck, with typical North German understatement. Mr. Rosdorff is referring to the fine zoning of inserts in newspapers which has been gaining in popularity. “Fine zoning has gained significantly in importance over the last few years since advertising customers can save money twice. Firstly, they are able to print less inserts in advance, and, secondly, they pay less for inserting because they don’t have to print them for the whole newspaper circulation”.

Four NewsLiner-A lines
Seven years ago, after an accurate examination of the different inserting systems offered on the market, the project team of WE-Druck opted unanimously for the current solution. Previously, they had purchased three full four-color Wifag rotary presses. “Despite, at that time, the beginning of a recession period, the appraisal of a market with increasingly demanding customers turned out to be correct”. stresses Mr. Rosdorff.

While WE-Druck’s inserting processes in 2000 were only 200 million, in 2006 they rose to 430 million (including pre-inserting), corresponding to an increase of 115 percent – in just six years! According to Mr. Rosdorff, besides fine zoning, several additional features spoke in favour of Muller Martini’s solution:

• the smooth signature transport in the inserting process.
• the option of two-up production (the record at WE-Druck is 98,000 copies per hour!).
• the pre-inserting option.
• nine inserting options into a main product.
• the control system with control console.

“Additionally, we were impressed with the double-belt solution in the FlexiRoll buffering system. On one hand, it reduces the probability of tares; on the other hand, it is more appropriate for the ink laydown in delicate products, due to its reduced pressure on the roll.”

High net output on the loading dock
Each rotary press is equipped with a NewsLiner-A line with nine feeders. Additionally, WE-Druck works with a fourth, slightly stripped NewsLiner-A line version with six inserting units. Behind the four lines, the “Dream Team”, including a NewsStack compensating Stacker and a TABA route address sheet applicator, provides quick mailing toward the loading dock. “We achieve loading dock net outputs of 29,000 copies, clearly exceeding the average of other newspaper producers”, says Mr. Rosdorff proudly.

Three business areas
WE-Druck separated from the Nordwest-Zeitung in 1982. Since then it has been an independent company, employing over 200 people. It operates in the following three major business areas:

• Newspapers (weekly circulation: 1.3 million copies) and Sunday newspapers (total circulation: 560,000 copies).
• Weekly advertising newspapers (total circulation: 620,000 copies).
• Advertising printed products (3 million copies a week).

Out of the three daily newspapers, the “Nordwest Zeitun” (9 regional editions with a total circulation of 125,000 copies) is affiliated with the Nordwest Medien Holding, the parent company. The “Ostfriesen Zeitung” (4 regional editions with a total circulation of 45,000 copies) and the “General-Anzeiger” (1 title with a circulation of 10,500 copies) are produced for third parties. Six weekly newspapers are produced for the Nordwest Medien Holding as well as for third customers – like the five Sunday papers in ten different editions. “This makes WE-Druck Germany’s largest producer of Sunday advertising papers”, says Mr. Rosdorff.

70 zones per newspaper
But not only is the number of newspaper titles impressive, the large number of inserts is extraordinary. Every week, on average, 8.3 million inserts are added to newspapers. On peak days, up to 4 million inserting processes are performed in one night shift. As standard, 70 zones per newspaper have been considered for a long time and minimum quantities of up to 100 copies are very frequent.

WE-Druck prints 20 percent of the advertising inserts in-house. According to Mr. Rosdorff, this fact offers advertising customers two major benefits: “Firstly, compared to heatset printers, we can offer our customers a more rapid and cost-effective production as well as full, four-color quality. Secondly, we have a shorter pre-run than heatset printers, which allows us to respond quicker to the customers’ needs. This is the case, for example, if they want to update prices in their brochures.” The majority of the advertising inserts, however, are delivered to their destination. On weekends, these inserts can reach amounts of up to 600 skids for the Sunday newspapers.

The technical opportunities offered by the mailroom helped boost the insert business at WE-Druck.

Technology and human beings
In light of such impressive numbers, it appears clear that machines gain more and more in importance. “The technical opportunities helped boost the insert business and it is only due to the advent of modern technology that we are able to cope with such a large number of products.”

But even the best systems only work, if they are correctly operated. According to Mr. Rosdorff, it is to the credit of the late Günter Ehmen, that team work was optimized at WE-Druck.”

User-friendly MPC
WE-Druck relies on team work even in Muller Martini’s Mailroom Production Control system (MPC), which was commissioned this year instead of a GCS control system. “Due to the option of customized MPC solutions, we changed our MPC philosophy a little bit”, Mr. Rosdorff says smiling. “We opted for these changes, because we don’t have just one person, who is responsible for delegating jobs. At WE-Druck, we decentralized the administration and delegated the responsibility to different teams.”

According to Mr. Rosdorff, the machine operators, who have many years of experience in operating the production line, know best how production has to be efficiently and correctly performed: “The MPC system contains master data. During running production the operators agree upon how to proceed, preventing the different inserting processes from affecting each other. In moving inserting jobs from one line to another, the user-friendly MPC offers significant benefits, because it eases the quick distribution of the jobs as well as the fine zoning.”