Küster-Pressedruck is the world’s first company to install Ferag’s Navigator control. With its innovative user interface, the Navigator makes a huge difference to the ease with which all mailroom processes are prepared and monitored, and at the same time boosts efficiency. 

“The partners in the Neue Westfälische and Küster-Pressedruck are convinced that the printed newspaper has a future, especially in the regional sector. To match marketplace demands, we had to update all of our technology”, says Hans-Henning Holdorf, Technical Manager at Küster-Pressedruck. Which is why the company has invested a total of 25 million euros and commissioned two new production lines in the press hall and in the mailroom. Küster-Pressedruck sees itself as a provider of publishing services for the Neue Westfälische Zeitung, produced in 16 local editions with a daily circulation of more than 200,000 copies.

“Due to increasing complexity in the mailroom, we were looking for a solution that would take the subject of control to a new level”, explains Hans-Henning Holdorf. With the Navigator concept, Ferag was in this respect able to present an innovative approach and persuade Küster-Pressedruck to come on board and get the new control working under real production conditions for the first time. “With the Navigator, Ferag has brought the innovative user guidance that we know from the iPhone or the iPad into the mailroom. The Navigator is the ideal tool for the line supervisor to exploit the mailroom technology’s potential to even greater effect.”

Before the Navigator could take on the mailroom control task, however, Küster-Pressedruck first had to concentrate on installing the overall technology package as an initial step. A WIFAG-Evolution 473/4 press put paid to any limitations on the printing side while enabling the number of presses to be reduced from three to two. At a performance for the Ferag mailroom lines of 45,000 copies per hour, the two mailroom lines can easily handle the products off both presses..

After each line started operating following the conversion phase, the next step in Bielefeld was to implement the Navigator. From the Technical Manager’s standpoint, the Navigator makes for a better overview with more transparency in the mailroom, and the intuitive user guidance makes it easier for staff to master the increasingly complex mailroom processes efficiently. “This kind of user friendliness is really unique for the mailroom. It puts us in a position to keep tabs on everything despite increasingly complex tasking, and also boost productivity”, assures Hans-Henning Holdorf.