Short-order Impact

She emphasizes, "Narrow-web rotogravure can bring cylinder costs closer to flexo." If the job re-runs several times, the cost is amortized over each re-run.

Short-run gravure economics also have been resolved at Package Service Co., a Kansas City-based label converter whose gravure printing on two Chesnut presses comprises about 50 percent of manufacturing volume. Larry Johnson, director of manufacturing, notes a majority of jobs are "short-run but high volume." The run may be short; however, the customer usually commits to an annual batch of several short-run jobs, in which, for example, a run of labels is produced every quarter.