AUTOMATIC CONTROL OF GRAPHIC PRODUCTION DIGITAL INTEGRATION

By: Petar Miljković, Vilko Žiljak, Zvonimir Sabati

Introduction

The subject of the paper is the design of a software system for connecting plan procedures of actual publishing production. By integrating informatics into graphic production control processes the predisposition is created for control process remote control as well as for creating databases with input parameters. In their process the technical and dynamic systems realize automation without direct control. Algorithms are created that service and control production activities from one control spot.

The graphic organization in its contemporary form consists of production phase groups that are mutually integrated as inhomogeneous wholes with insufficient digital data transmission. A certain production regime is provided by automated control in graphic production processes that may be divided into make ready, printing and post production procedures. Through network connections information is passed through the Computer to Plate system that is set as the central point for control planning towards all individual execution points. Command information integrates production recourses in the form of vertical system communication whereas the horizontal connects job operations in different performance spots. JDF (Job Definition Format), as an accepted graphic communication standard, describes production phases and all processes that are necessary for product making.

Control algorithms are designed through graphic industry digital control that will give instructions to printing departments and post production, i.e. commands to executive mechanisms. Thus new production process models are created that are in their configuration capable of accepting information on the graphic product, sending it to departments where they are to be executed, and as the final stage to archive this same piece of information in the server where a database of all previous jobs is created.

Automation and standardization of graphic executive flows, including the throughput of digital records are presented in this paper according to the following phases: information flow from the ordering party to the post production and delivery departments is enabled; complete control is provided over all production processes; production bottlenecks are avoided in work phases, i.e. the diverting information flow according to new production planning, as well as the individualization of every working place with the correct working task descriptions; the creating of databases and production models is enabled as the initial point for its automation.