(From Left) Lisa Macleod, Head of Digital at Tiso Blackstar Group and Vice President of WAN-IFRA; Janaka Rathnakumara, COO of Wijeya Newspapers Ltd. 

WAN-IFRA's first standardised printing certificate in the South Asian region was awarded to Wijeya Newspapers Ltd., Sri Lanka at the WAN-IFRA India 2019 Annual Conference in September 2019.

WAN-IFRA Research Engineer Prabhu Natrajan carried out a successful audit after a site visit and correspondence with Janaka Rathnakumara, COO of Wijeya Newspapers Ltd. Rathnakumara and Natrajan discussed project milestones, post which WNL created a dedicated team to run the project and achieve certification.

The certification process involved two on-site audits to ensure proper implementation of standards, in addition to colour correction, optimising the pre-press workflow and standardising materials.

Wijeya ISo 2

Wijeya Newspaper Pvt Ltd, Sri Lanka, decided to opt for an ISo 12647-3 Certification for their Colombo printing plant with an objective to optimise the reproduction process at the pre-press and press of a newspaper printing. The groundwork began in mid-2018.

Pre-audit: Natrajan carried out printing test forms to check the quality assurance mechanism. He analysed the pre-press and press set-ups, and standard operating procedures to ensure the proper handling of instruments. Changes, upon observation, were recommended and implemented to align with ISO 12647-3 specification.

Based on the evaluation of the printed test forms, points were awarded for the technical criteria specified under ISO 12647-3 standards. Points were also awarded for adherence to the standard operating procedure, level of implementation of colour management systems, and the daily practice and documentation in the production system. Natrajan also shared feedback for improvement.

Six-month validation phase: During the ISO 12647-3 validation phase, WAN-IFRA requested WNL to print the WAN-IFRA cuboid in their main publication for a period of  six months to evaluate the consistency conformance to ISO 12647-3.

Post-Audit: WNL qualified the validation phase, which was backed up by WAN-IFRA’s post audit visit to re-print test forms and re-validate that WNL  was producing the newspaper as per ISO 12647-3 and other supporting standards. The print samples were found to be in accordance with the standard and tolerance specified. WNL also addressed the deviations recommended during the pre-audit. 

After verifying the ISO checks and documentation, WNL was awarded the ISO 12647-3 Certification at WII 2019 Conference in September, 2019, in New Delhi.