Ira Nicoletti guides us within his company, Diaven flexo prepress service, specialized in the production of flexo printing systems and dies for cardboard packaging, in a path that involving all departments, reveals their way of working emphasizing above all the human qualities of the people who do their utmost every day to support in the best way the needs of customers
“For this issue of Converter we have decided to take you on a journey at Diaven and make you experience a week in the company giving voice to the people who animate it every day with their commitment, creativity and professionalism”, begins dr. Ira Nicoletti, owner of Diaven, introducing us to the daily life of this company at the service of flexo industry since 1980.
Commercial department
Monday is the day when Cristian dedicates himself to analyzing sales and planning customer visits. A differentiating feature that Diaven offers to the market is being able to make available to customers a salesman who also has the technical skills to follow the most complicated set-ups.
“Knowing the equipment of our customers is critical to properly setting up a print job. In this activity it helps me a lot to know the potential of printing machines, the printing contexts, the market offer and the competition. Thanks to the training that the company makes available to me, I am also able to support foreign customers very well, who recognize the great quality of our work despite the geographical distance that makes it more difficult to visit in presence. In the last 5/6 years, customers have evolved and can count on new knowledge relating to the potential of flexo printing; consequently, they ask us for high standards not only of quality but also of service and response times. The sartorial industrialization that Diaven has managed to achieve in 40 years of experience allows the company and its people to be a reference point for all printing needs and to work alongside the customer as a real business partner”.
Customer Care
Immediately after the commercial phase, customer care comes into play with Luisa, the technical manager who joined the Diaven team after a professional experience with a large print buyer in the food industry.
“I found in Diaven the characteristics I was looking for in a service when I was on the other side of the desk in a multinational company: organization, method, experience and evolution. In Diaven we have a complete knowledge of the customer and the products and in fact one of our differentiating elements is the proactivity of our colleagues in each department in suggesting new products and solutions that guarantee customer satisfaction”, explains Luisa.
“Recently, one of our clients had to combine different processes involving cliché, engraved sleeves and gravure cylinder for a single print subject. Thanks to the expertise of Diaven technicians on processes and possible solutions, we have simplified the customer’s work by making it possible for three different technologies to create a single print and thus supplying him with 3 different products. Having also been on the customer side, I really appreciate Diaven’s ability to combine Research and Development with honesty in providing better solutions.
The investments that Diaven makes in R&D position us as privileged partners who work alongside structured companies able to enhance our skills, consultancy commitment and the proposal of complete solutions”.
Prepress control
Continuing in the week and in the activities we find the prepress control which includes two fundamental and equally important steps:
– Quality control in the strict sense, performed in two moments: both upon reception of the files and before the files are passed into production.
– Prepress and chroma control, which concerns everything related to color and print yield.
“The phase of color management and control is very delicate”, explains Cristiana.
“In fact, it doesn’t happen often that the file received from the client’s graphic studio can go directly to print without intervention. Recently, for the graphics of a pack of crackers for GDO, I reworked the received file, enriching with details the pixels of the salt and sesame so that the print could give value to the ingredients.
In my work, I feel a great responsibility linked to the care of the image: all the improvements I make to the graphics converge in an appealing packaging that helps support customer sales.
Furthermore, the prepress work speeds up the production set-up and consequently the customer’s time-to-market. Print production requires special precautions and elaborations and it is therefore crucial that the service has experience in color, spectrum, brightness and Pantone colors.
The technological investments chosen by Diaven support the graphic technicians in intervening also on the aspects of the prepress phase with flows that move different software that perform operations such as step and repeat, trapping, reporposing, device link, which we graphic designers check and improve.
The company’s color strategy is a method that considers all aspects of print set-up: substrate, inks, anilox … and is very attentive to plate features so that there is maximum correspondence between the file and the plates actually produced.
Furthermore, the color strategy makes the print proof a real moment of characterization and sharing of quality objectives with the printer and the buyer.
The improvements made by Diaven prepress team are particularly appreciated by customers who, even in this area, recognize us as a real partner who actively supports their business”.
“From the point of view of quality in the strict sense it is important to check each element with the utmost attention”, says Lorenzo.
“In fact, a single wrong data can impact production causing the loss of thousands of meters of raw material and consequently creating economic damage to the customer.
All the works that Diaven processes are subjected to the Safe Graphic Check which intervenes in two stages, at the moment of receiving the file and before putting into production.
This constant attention to quality means that customers often thank us for the added value we bring at each stage and we are proud to let us have the results of the prints they have made”.
Production
Once the checks have been passed, we then move on to the actual production, in which technique, times and methods are essential for timely delivery to the customer.
Mattia is Head of Production, Times and Methods and comes from a multinational experience.
“At Diaven, I particularly appreciate the dialogue with the owners and the teamwork between colleagues and customers. Furthermore, here I can be the protagonist every day of the enthusiasm and desire for innovation: in just two years the company has already invested in the completion of the automation with the purchase of 3 new and high-performance machines like an automated line Evo 5 Vianord, a CDI XPS Crystal by Esko and a Kongsberg cutting plotter.
For my work, it is essential to have the best technologies to achieve the high service performance that the company aims for the customer. I am also particularly proud of having introduced important innovations in processes, bringing lean manufacturing, the spaghetti chart and changing the production layout to improve production efficiency. Thanks to precise and punctual industrialization, we can intervene on the cost and budget areas by checking live the product and cost center data.
The speed of processes, risk analysis and company organization in a digitized flow allow us to monitor production and customer service times in real time.
All tasks are centralized and automated at ERP level: this is a great advantage for the customer as it speeds up the tasks that can be delegated to the machine, leaving room for the added value of people in jobs that require sensitivity and experience.
This smart industrialization helps to make our people work peacefully who feel gratified in being able to focus on activities where human experience makes the difference”.
The company’s activities do not stop with cliché production but also continue to meet the needs of corrugated cardboard packaging customers: Diaven in fact offers a design and supply service of flat, rotary dies, also for BOBST machines that differentiates the company on the market. allowing to complete its offer. “Designing a die is always a new, creative and challenging activity”, Alessio tells us.
Each project starts from the real product that is sent to us by the customer.
A tailor-made suit is built around the sample that responds to various objectives, all equally important: product protection, optimization of packaging, storage and bulk for shipment.
Not only that, the die must contribute to the entire value chain, consequently must be designed to optimize both machine and man times in the event that it is then assembled by hand.
The project that I will remember for a long time is the one I created for a racing bicycle worth thousands of euros: on the customer’s need, I designed a packaging that would guarantee the integrity of the bike, managing to keep it suspended through special inserts made ad hoc.
To best design the dies, it is crucial to have both abstraction, industrial and artisanal manufacturing skills: thanks to these you can realize a perfect die and with such a result the customer is able to perceive the value of a die made only to satisfy his needs”.
Conclusions
“A week in Diaven is always varied and challenging; what does not change is the quality, the attention to the customer and the shared ability of the whole team to satisfy the market”, concludes Ira Nicoletti.
