ANRO Inc.

Quality

There are established quality control procedures in each phase of production at ANRO. All employees participate in our "employee accountability" program, and recognize their responsibility for your complete satisfaction. Our production benefits from a staff to supervisor ratio of 4:1, one of the highest in the industry. Jobs are sampled at each stage of production to ensure the quality of each finished piece. Production Coordinators, Sales People and Production Staff attend regular production meetings to proactively discuss upcoming and current jobs. Quality Control continues even after a job is completed. Every job is automatically assessed in our computerized job control system to identify any possible inefficiency on a micro-scale, by department and individual. This information is used to proactively address potential operator or process issues and to ensure corrective action is taken.

Beginning in prepress, each file received is reviewed using Flightcheck and Preflight Pro software packages. The software generates a report on the application used to create the file, number and dimension of pages, and the availability and proper usage of fonts. The software also lists the color usage (Pantone, process, etc.), graphic reliability, resolution, size and type of graphic, and if they are in grayscale, CMYK, RGB, or another format. Prepress Specialists compare this information against the information on each respective job ticket, which includes customer provided job details and, if applicable, instructions regarding corporate standards. Any unresolved questions or discrepancies are referred to the relevant customer contact. Prepress Specialists also review a Printing Checklist for each job, checking off a list of document preparation, page setup, and other file preparation items that impact successful imaging before the job continues through production.

Prinergy workflow software automates additional prepress quality control processes by enabling a computer file to be RIP'ed once and output to plate (CTP).The same RIP'ed file can also be used to generate a digital proof. As standard procedure, a proof for all jobs is submitted to clients for their approval. The type of proof varies according to the job and client preference, and includes laser copies, plotter proofs, Kodak Approval proofs, and Creo Veris proofs. A Plotter Proof Checklist is used to ensure that a representative proof is generated. Customers are also encouraged to conduct press checks. A Plate Checklist is used as another quality control tool to confirm the integrity of each printing plate.

State-of-the-art computerized quality control systems, CPTronic automation and Spectrophotometry, are utilized to ensure sheet to sheet and job to job consistency on press. Heidelberg's CPTronic fully digitized system for press control, monitoring and diagnosis guarantees a high level of on-press consistency. Exact color matches, regardless of paper stock or any other variable, is a very important aspect of our production quality and accomplished using Spectrophotometry. This unique technology measures color on a printed sheet as the human eye perceives it. Specifically, it measures a color's lightness from white to black, and color range from green to red and from blue to yellow. This allows for a vast improvement in quality control over the conventional technology of densitometry, which simply measures ink-film thickness, not color. ANRO's color presses are networked to an online Spectrophotometry system. We have the only eight-color press in the region that utilizes this technology.

Traditionally, colors change minutely from sheet to sheet, often resulting in noticeable differences depending on a piece's place in a run. A new run is even likelier to appear different using traditional process control methodology. Using networked Spectrophotometry printed color is constantly checked, as are the common values of trapping, dot gain and density. Linked to the ink-formulating system, minute adjustments are automatically made by the presses as needed. All values are stored digitally and archived. This means ANRO can reproduce any job and any color with amazing accuracy, again and again.

In the pressroom and bindery, quality control labels are used to reinforce individual accountability for every job at each step. The labels confirm that every job is checked before moving on to the next step. The pressman and helper (or bindery operator as appropriate) signs, and the supervisor initials the labels, which are then attached to the approved press sheet and kept on file. If a job requires subcontracted finishing work beyond our bindery, two representative copies of the completed job are prepared in advance for client approval before the remaining material is forwarded for completion. All materials coming in and leaving ANRO are also quality checked before they are released or accepted.