Made in the UK

If you want a platesetter to work well it has to be built well. Michael Walker went to Fujifilm's Peterborough factory to see how state-of-the-art prepress manufacturing is carried out.

In a darkened room in Peterborough a beige cabinet sits by the wall. Taped to its front is an A4 sheet with the legend VSIX P#1. Nearby is an identical box labelled VSIX P#3; between the two sit two engineers with laptops, peering intently at their displays, conversing in hushed tones. It's early June 2004 and the place is the darkroom in the Fujifilm Electronic Imaging (FFEI) factory where after 180 man-years of development work the very first production units of the new Luxel V-6 violet platesetter are undergoing validation. Any problems that arise will be fed back immediately to the design team and manufacturing specialists so that their causes can be identified and rectified before the units are shipped to customers. This focus on designing out problems from earliest production is key to the approach at FFEI. Simplicity in design and a reduced parts count - there are only 1200 in a fully automatic V-6 platesetter - means faster manufacture, greater reliability and so a lower cost of ownership.

"We encourage our staff to take pride in themselves and their workplace, which leads to pride in the product they are building," says FFEI director of manufacturing Chris Parsons. "This pride cannot help but be reflected in the finished product." The pride in the manufacturing facility - the only one for Fujifilm prepress hardware outside Japan - seems amply justified, as a string of awards over recent years attests. FFEI is held up as an example to British industry, and a continuing series of visits from manufacturing staff in other industries makes sure there is no chance to rest on their laurels. ‘Lean' manufacturing is one of the guiding principles. "No waste means better value for customers," says Parsons. This means holding not more than one machine's worth of spare inventory on the platesetter production line, and increasing outsourcing of everything from sheet steel work to complete electronic sub-assemblies. Integration between the previously separate bastions of RandD and manufacturing is also key - manufacturing engineers have been involved with the earliest inception, one of the reasons that it has gone from concept to launch at Drupa in around 12 months, compared to twice that for previous products.

Value-added task

Every stage of the manufacturing and assembly process is scrutinised closely, looking for better and more efficient methods. A recent case in point is the preparation of the platesetter drum. It takes three days to precision machine an aluminium casting to the exacting tolerances required by Fujifilm. But the new V-6's drum is moulded from a granite-based composite material called Xanite which doesn't need any machining, cutting the initial drum preparation time from three days to less than one. There are other benefits, too: Xanite is thermally more stable than aluminium and small scratches and dents can be repaired, unlike nicks in metal. Moulding-based techniques are also used in the accurate positioning of the bars which support the mirror and spinner motor assembly, again cutting out laborious machining.

Team responsibility, constant self- and group assessment and consultation between the design and manufacturing disciplines throughout the rest of the assembly process ensure that a very high proportion of units arrive fit for the next stage of production.

Which is just as well, as on the V-6 line that means a gruelling eight-day battery of output test jobs during which each unit will image around 600 plates. As the assembly process is fine-tuned, this will come down to well under four days and fewer plates, but still more than half the manufacturing time will be spent on testing. All sizes and resolutions are tested for every unit and a log book and full audit trail are kept.

The advances in manufacturing technique in the last couple of years have meant that while it still takes around 11 to 12 days to build and test the B1 and twin-beam B2 violet platesetters (and that was a huge improvement over the imagesetter designs of the mid 90s), it only takes six and a half to ready a V-6. Once full production is achieved later this summer, they'll be finishing more than one a day, targeting 30 to 40 units a month in the first two or three months to fulfil orders taken at Drupa.

And once they're out in the field, FFEI expects them to have exceptional reliability, not just thanks to extensive testing and clever design but also because of the quality of components. The violet lasers have been in use in Fuji platesetters for more than 18 months now, and with over 1000 units installed (some in twin-laser configuration models) only four or five have failed, which is why Fujifilm includes their replacement - if ever needed - in its service contracts.

The manufacturing innovations that have been introduced in the production of the new V-6 will also be put to use in future products from Fujifilm, to build in quality, reliability and lower lifetime costs. In the meantime, if you want a V-6 now, FFEI is aiming for a lead time of 30 days. Orders please.

Summary

• Fuji's violet CTP manufactured in the UK