Netpak, Quebec’s largest privately held manufacturer of printed folding cartons, has partnered with Electronics For Imaging, Inc., to further advance its integrated workflow for business and production management.
Netpak is the first North American company to adopt the complete Packaging Suite for folding carton production by EFI. In line with Netpak’s core values of excellence and ongoing commitment to innovation, this software enhancement, based on best-in-class quality management practices, represents a significant step forward in print technology and raises the bar for folding carton manufacturers around the globe.
“This comprehensive workflow solution not only supports the company’s ambitious growth plans but also underpins our culture of innovation, technology and unparalleled customer focus that has served as the foundation of our success for over 15 years,” said Carlo Cammalleri, Netpak’s Co-Founder. Known for fast lead times and exceptional quality, the Montreal-based packaging manufacturer has long relied on EFI’s packaging ERP software, Radius, as the cornerstone of its automated workflow.
Using advanced traceability procedures that integrate job creation capability and automated, robotized connectivity, Netpak is able to maintain its competitive advantage in automation and plant-wide efficiencies, offering greater flexibility and allowing Netpak to align with its clients’ speed-to-market needs. The company also uses an innovative prepress workflow that operates seamlessly with the Packaging Suite to optimize Netpak’s productivity and capability to produce packaging solutions more efficiently.
Netpak has enhanced its workflow over time with additional components from EFI’s Packaging Suite that allow for a full integration with Radius. Most notably, Netpak was the first folding carton company to launch iQuote, EFI’s intelligent estimation and planning solution.
Data-driven productivity with industry-leading workflow solutions
To further advance the company’s operations, Netpak conducted a successful business review with EFI to identify areas where Netpak could gain greater value in its business model. “We’ve seen great results from the first phase of updates in our software infrastructure,” said Salvatore Novello, Netpak’s Co-Founder, “Ultimately, we reached a point in our company’s growth where we believed we could further optimize procedures in order to support our business objectives. In partnership with EFI, we evaluated our roadmap and focused on areas where performance could be improved, such as shop floor data collection and scheduling.”
Netpak transitioned from Radius shop floor data collection to EFI Auto-Count 4D (AC4D), a production intelligence platform that allows users to automatically collect accurate and live data including counts, press statuses, speeds and other critical information directly from production equipment, all in real time. The launch also includes a dynamic scheduling engine, EFI PrintFlow, bringing the latest technology into Netpak’s operations to improve overall productivity throughout the plant. PrintFlow automatically changes schedules as conditions change, thus giving users the ability to easily remove operational bottlenecks.
"We are linking shop floor data collection with AC4D and automated scheduling with PrintFlow to add more value and productivity gains. It allows Netpak to be more efficient and uniquely positions us against our competitors,” said Georges Berbari, Netpak’s Chief Operating Officer. “With these recent workflow enhancements, we expect to make massive improvements to our overall order-to-cash process and push jobs through the plant faster, which will be a big win for us and for our customers.” Moreover, Netpak has also implemented a QMS Module with advanced requirements that is highly based on stop and fix procedures driven from best-in-class industrial practices.
Along with these extensive updates, Netpak has invested in a Business Intelligence (BI) module in order to gain invaluable business insights and further support the management team in making key decisions. “This innovative BI module, offering real time data and management reports, allows us to plan more effectively, measure Key Performance Indicators, and closely monitor the strategic deployment of resources,” added Berbari.
Printing and packaging professionals across the globe rely on EFI’s portfolio of workflow products to manage their businesses and become more streamlined, efficient, informed and profitable.
