Efficient print job planning for all types of print jobs
Visual Planning® supports print shops and other businesses in the printing industry with the centralised planning and monitoring of print jobs, materials, staff and delivery dates. Job progress, available resources and ongoing processes are presented transparently, enabling capacities to be better coordinated and changes to be factored into the planning at an early stage.
Leaflets, photos, business cards, magazines, posters or wall decorations: Visual Planning® helps print shops and production companies to centrally coordinate print jobs, machinery, materials, staff and delivery dates.
Print job planning with Visual Planning®
Visual Planning® displays print jobs, machines, production steps, materials, staff and deadlines in a centralised digital planning system. This provides schedulers and production managers with a shared overview of current and planned jobs.
Jobs can be clearly assigned to available machines, workstations or teams. Priorities, delivery dates and dependencies can be taken into account directly in the planning, depending on the configuration.
Resource planning and control in print management
Using drag-and-drop, print jobs, machine allocations and resource assignments can be flexibly adjusted. This makes available capacity, scheduling conflicts and potential bottlenecks more readily apparent.
Material information, order data and other order-related details can be incorporated into the planning or provided via project-specific interfaces from connected systems .
Monitoring and reporting
Status, progress, utilisation and deadlines can be analysed in configurable views and reports. The information currently available depends on data maintenance, the connected systems and the respective configuration.
Benefits of print job planning with Visual Planning®
Visual Planning® helps printing houses and manufacturing companies to bring together orders, machines, staff, materials and deadlines in a centralised planning environment.
Central order overview
Ongoing, planned and completed print jobs are displayed in a single overview.
Transparent machine utilisation
Available and allocated production capacities can be clearly compared and assigned to the relevant orders .
Flexible prioritisation
Urgent orders, schedule changes and new requirements can be clearly incorporated into the planning process.
Resource planning
Machines, staff, materials and time slots can be allocated to the respective print jobs and production stages.
Warnings and conflict detection
Double bookings and time overlaps can be highlighted, depending on the defined planning rules.
Analyses and reports
Status, progress, utilisation and other key performance indicators can be displayed in customisable reports .
Visual Planning® can help to organise production processes in a more transparent manner and respond more quickly to changes. The actual improvements achieved depend on operational processes, data quality and the specific configuration.
Frequently asked questions about digital print management
What is digital print management?
Digital print management encompasses the centralised planning, control and monitoring of print jobs, machines, resources, deadlines and production processes.
What tasks does print job planning involve?
This includes, amongst other things, the planning of orders, machine utilisation, staff, materials, production steps, priorities, as well as production and delivery dates.
Why is digital print management useful?
Centralised planning improves transparency regarding orders, machines and capacities. Changes and potential bottlenecks become apparent more quickly and can be addressed in a more targeted manner.
How does digital print management work?
Print jobs, machines, staff and time slots are displayed in a digital schedule. Authorised users can assign jobs, prioritise them and reschedule them in the event of changes.
What are the benefits of digital print job planning?
It provides a centralised overview of orders, improves transparency regarding machine utilisation and helps to identify scheduling conflicts and capacity bottlenecks.
Why is Excel often not sufficient for complex print jobs?
With numerous orders, machines and last-minute changes, discrepancies in the tables can quickly arise. Dependencies and double bookings must be checked manually.
What are the disadvantages of using Excel for production planning?
Changes often have to be entered several times. Version conflicts, data transfer errors and a lack of transparency regarding current machine allocations can complicate the planning process.
How can print jobs be planned clearly?
Print jobs can be displayed on a digital planning board, prioritised and allocated to machines, teams or production lines. Changes can be made using drag-and-drop.
How does print management support production planning?
Orders, machine allocations, work steps, capacities and deadlines are displayed in a single overview. This makes it easier to coordinate production processes.
How can you identify capacity bottlenecks?
Available and allocated capacities can be compared side by side. Warnings and colour-coded indicators can, depending on the configuration, highlight critical situations.
How does digital print management improve machine utilisation?
The central overview highlights free time slots, over-bookings and underutilised machines. This provides planning managers with a better basis for their scheduling.
How does the software handle last-minute changes?
Rush orders, rescheduled deadlines, machine breakdowns or changed priorities can be adjusted centrally within the planning system .
How do you coordinate several print jobs at the same time?
Multiple orders can be planned in parallel within a single production overview. Priorities, machine capacities and delivery dates thus remain comparable.
How can production downtime be reduced?
Transparent machine allocation, early capacity checks and clear order priorities enable potential conflicts to be identified at an earlier stage. However, this does not completely prevent technical or organisational disruptions.
Can digital print management be used on mobile devices?
Depending on the licence, system environment and configuration, disclosed information regarding VPPortal in the browser or via VPGo be made available on suitable mobile devices.
What are the benefits of a hosted solution?
A hosted solution provides Visual Planning® in a centrally managed system environment. Availability, responsibilities, data backup and potential interfaces depend on the chosen hosting model.
Which businesses is digital print management suitable for?
It is suitable for print shops, packaging printing, label printing, digital printing, large-format printing and other businesses with multiple machines, production stages or concurrent jobs.
How does print management support scheduling?
Production and delivery dates can be displayed alongside the required resources. This means that deviations and critical resource allocations become apparent at an earlier stage.
How does digital print management improve transparency?
Authorised users access a shared planning status. Orders, machines, dates and resources are displayed centrally and do not need to be maintained in separate tables.
How does digital print management reduce planning errors?
Centralised data management, traceable changes and transparent machine and resource overviews can help to reduce double bookings, data transfer errors and communication problems.
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