in this November’s ’08 issue of Graphic Arts Monthly magazine p.22
I published about Heidelberg’s offering a new packaging press
integration with 720 dpi drop on demand pharama and box UV dried
inkjet. Thiis can print up to 288mm wide onto foils, blister packs
etc.. Packaging is a grwoing business and Heidlelbeg could find
a diversified future in digital here that leverages their Prinect
JDF management system as well as a transfer some CTP technology
precision controls over to inkjet. They will have this installed and running first half of ’09. So Heidelberg as a digital specialty press systems integrator places them in digital printing today.

Heidelberg is stuck in a specific business surrounded by a greater industry. By analogy, I offer you Fischer Body. Fischer made the carriage bodies for horse-drawn vehicles. They were the biggest, best, and most innovative for decades. Then the automobile moved in. Did Fischer die? No! It made its bodies for autos, eventually being bought out by GM about 100 years ago. Where will Heidelberg go? Maybe eventually exit the printing industry entirely. It does a lot of things well, and understands the physics and scientific principles of many things, such as adhesion, substrate movement, gear and gear production, etc. Does Heidelberg ever have to go digital for printing? No, as long as it can use its know-how outside of printing. Maybe that’s the rabbit, and they don’t even know it yet.

It may prove to have been a good move to shutdown their in-house digital R&D and manufacturing, but to completly abandon an emerging technology could cause brand erosion. I agree with much of what Jim Bozek said above, but keep in mind many investors assume digital color technology will eventually equate with the best price/performance ratios Schreier equates to offset. Developing a sales alliance with one of the digital purveyors in the interests of workflow, etc. wouldn’t necessarily create a conflict of interest and perhaps become a prudent defensive strategy.

Though it floundered the first two years, the DI was a sensical step and Heidelberg’s reputation and brand power carried it through the hiccups and made it a success. After all it was a hybrid digital device that used real ink – not that sissy toner stuff.

The Nextpress, by contrast, was the counter culture stepchild to Heidelberg, sold by a largely imported copier and ex-patriot digital press sales team sprinkled with a few internal crossovers who pitched it with offset press FABs (a hunk of iron). It just wasn’t going to take.

Recognizing that it is impossible to get one’s own spots off the leopard, Heidelberg made a smart & timely decision IMO, and stayed true to their offset ideology. Makes sense once you consider that none of the digital players in today’s market place offer an offset choice as part of their product line expansion – no one is heading in that direction.

Instead, the next gen of digital printing with ink jet and similar technology will serve the demands of longer runs, but for now how many can successfully crowd the transpromo market? It fits, makes sense, that the digital brands will extend the digital print model by sticking to their core competencies in digital technologies.

Doing what you do best is always the right choice.

I could not imagine Heidelberg not having the forsight that digital printing was where it was at. I even thought I was “in on a secret” that they had an interest in an avant garde company that was developing ink jet.

Hey maybe they do, and maybe the rabbit will still pop out. I doubt it, but it’s fun to fantasize about it.

Giving up on digital printing was definitely the right choice for Heidelberg. It does not seem to fit their culture.

Giving up on DI technology was also the right choice because the on press imaging capability has nothing to do with short run printing. The Anicolor press, even though it is not the right technology for the future and is a wrong choice, demonstrates that.

Giving up on web press technology might have been the wrong choice. By only staying with sheetfed technology, Heidelberg may have painted itself into a corner. There is a good chance that a large percentage of sheetfed technology will eventually be replaced by web press technology where the print repeat can be changed quickly and inexpensively. This technology is already in the market and can be further developed.

For the size of the company, Heidelberg does surprisingly little innovation. It does a lot of technical engineering but not very much innovation in new approaches and in science. It is probably part of its culture of having a very stiff and controlled development environment that result is very well engineered machines but no new ground breaking thinking.

And now with the economy falling apart, they will even cut back more on development activities. They don’t seem to understand how to develop ideas at low cost. This will turn out to be their biggest poor choice of all.