9 October 2020

Congratulations to Jones & Brooks as they complete 2 year journey to becoming fully accredited

Jones & Brooks embarked on an ambitious journey 2 years ago after discussions internally with Directors and with the BPIF about ways in which they could improve their own procedures and quality as well as get further within the Tendering process. This was to add further to the vision in print they had started 2 years earlier, which was again to improve standards, quality and ensure they were more streamlined from start to finish.

They initially touched base with the BPIF and had meetings to decide on the best route forward to help with all areas from HR/H&S/Environmental/Business Excellence and Colour Quality Control, so they could tick boxes within Tenders, but at the same time improve their internal structure, communication and more importantly get the chance to quote more competitively. Managing Director Ronnie Blair understands only too well, "You need to invest in key areas to progress and ensure you remain competitive in all areas so agreed to upgrade equipment and buy new where needed.

"We decided to go for all the accreditations and found out we were already well on our way to gaining them, we just needed to make a few tweaks to our structure and procedures, the initial certifications came quite fast with ISO12647 being the final piece of the jigsaw."

After the initial report from the BPIF stating the minimum requirements they set to work putting the procedures in place guided by the very knowledgable Clive Templeman (BPIF). Clive proved instrumental in training their Colour Champion and Operations Manager Martin Robinson and helped him gain a solid foundation on which to progress rapidly with new procedures, equipment and more importantly control of the day to day quality they needed to gain certification.

The paper work and procedures came naturally to all at Jones & Brooks as most are an improvement of ISO9001 for which they already run to, that said the improvements they have made mean they run less ink, less waste, faster set times and they have the feedback and ammunition to fight our own corner with suppliers if needed, but more importantly give customers the peace of mind Jones & Brooks are doing things the right way. A lot of customers want to know companies are keeping track of waste both materials and time, as well as ensuring quality time and time again.

Jones & Brooks also worked with Heidelberg initially who upgraded their Prinect workflow so the machines not only feedback on KPI figures, but also feedback every scan the press makes, this enables them to monitor individual jobs performance, as well as identify any issues throughout the run. Should any of Jones & Brooks customers' query colour or quality they can look back at the story of the job, and if needed provide information to the customer around LAB values and TVI's, this gives themselves the confidence in what they are producing, but also eliminates any re-prints or creep within standards for further prints, without this control they would have no proof to the customer either way if the colour was correct or not.

The whole process started within pre-press and ensuring they all knew from the beginning the importance of pre-flighting to ISO12647 standards and including the correct ICC profiles, they made the decision early on to run all jobs to ISO standards and identifying any artwork issues immediately. This has been very well received with their customers, who appreciate them informing them of any potential issues before proceeding to print, especially as most artwork will contain either RGB, low res images or incorrect ICC profiles. Their state of the art Prinect system runs a report and fixes most artwork issues within seconds, they offer this at no extra cost as they appreciate the importance of getting this correct right from the start and working with the customers, so they have confidence the print will be 100% as they expected, every time. By working with their customers so closely and sharing the knowledge where needed they hope it makes their lives easier, as all jobs are run to the exact same standards but it will also improve the quality through the industry over time.

The next step was to ensure the presses where capable of producing consistent print to ISO12647 standards and all materials used from their suppliers also needed to fall within the scope, after liaising with Heidelberg and setting the curve for the presses to give them the best opportunity of gaining the accreditation they did their own internal audits. This consisted of print runs with artwork which met all the minimum standards of the scope and gave them a chance to see how they would fair before actually booking an audit in, the initial test went very well and they felt with a few fine tweaks they would be in a position to go for the test.

The initial audit was booked in for January 2020 which went very well, they passed all the paper work with the auditors and the print trial went relatively well on the day which is an uninterrupted run of 3000 sheets. Unfortunately on this occasion Jones & Brooks did not get the 100% needed for a pass due to the mid tone spread being slightly out of tolerance, which they understood and knew where they had gone wrong. After this COVID-19 came out of the blue and put the whole process on hold until things started to get back to some sort of normality. As they are a key supplier to the NHS they had been requested to stay open during the height of the pandemic, so they used the time constructively and any low spells in the work load they used to complete essential maintenance and learn from the mistakes they made in the first audit.

Thankfully in August they had weathered the storm and decided the time was right to have another go at the ISO12647 audit, PMC agreed to come onsite and follow all guidelines to help them get this over the line, again fine margins but they failed, which was due to an unforeseen issue on one of the print decks on the day. As they knew exactly what the issue was they booked the re-audit in for 2 weeks later which proved to be 3rd time lucky and on October 5th Jones & Brooks received confirmation they had passed the ISO12647 audit, although 6 months later than expected due to COVID-19 related restrictions was worth waiting for.

The whole process has been a massive learning curve for all involved in Jones & Brooks, from sales right through to dispatch, everyone in the chain has realised they all play a part in some way to ensure the customers get a quality product time after time, and are happy and confident they are doing things the right way. They have improved quality procedures at every step from when an order is placed, repro and on the presses to ensure they have confidence in themselves and what they are trying to achieve, which is ‘right first time, every time'.

Clive Templeman, BPIF Affiliate Consultant added "it was a pleasure to work with a company that embraced the ethos of the standard, it was clear from the outset that Jones & Brooks are very good printers, all that was lacking was the technical processes and control disciplines. We were able build a clear defined pathway, to embed the necessary process controls and reviews into their ISO procedures, which provided the employees with the tasks, timeframes and information to produce repeatable print quality, consistency and achieve certification."

Everyone involved has gained valuable training and experience within all aspects of print and appreciate that what each department does has a direct part to play for the next step in the chain, it has improved internal and external communication, as well as put vital quality checks and standard operating procedures in place to ensure they all know what and how to do things, as well as being able to cover each other at all times. By doing all this it has improved lead times and reduced customer complaints and rejects, but more importantly opened up opportunities that weren't there before Jones & Brooks went for all the accreditations, which will hopefully now pay dividends and repay the commitment and desire the Directors have to continually improve and invest to stay ahead of the competition.