Case Studies
Issue No. 18 - August/September 2004
Quick Bind
quick smart
Twenty years of binding industry experience teaches you a lot about what not to do. After 15 of those years, Therese Lambert bought the company she worked for – and a host of problems.
As she explains, binding equipment is sophisticated and demands informed usage. For heat-binding equipment particularly, service call-outs are common, often addressing problems that stem from user inexperience.
Therese regretted the need to maintain extra service staff. At extreme times, practically all of the company’s staff were engaged in repair work -- picking up, fixing and delivering machines. She understands that this dilemma is common in the industry.
"It’s not surprising, with heat binders. They can fail when you’re not using the correct size paper, if they’re not properly adjusted, etc, etc," Therese says.
So, a little while ago Therese decided to chuck it in – the problem, that is. She sold her interest in her former binding company and set about delivering a more efficient system that sidestepped the maintenance problem.
She hit on the idea of customising the binding system and abandoning binding machinery altogether.
Her Quick Bind system is simply explained. Using preprinted covers and a binding system, it can collect 1-100 pages into a smartly presented document. Targeting time-poor organisations, it allows publishers and presenters to work on their literature until the eve of presentation – even taking nearly complete work on the road and binding on-site when the polishing work is finished.
Therese has calculated that 90% of binding work falls within the 1-100 page envelope.
Therese keeps a close eye on production quality. Preprinted covers get critical assessment, as does the general product quality. "You have to be careful with the graphics quality particularly," Therese says. Quick Bind can be available to the user within 10 days of artwork approval.
You also have to be careful w...
