Q. What is QTMS?
A. QTMS is a production management system specifically designed for the printing industry. It provides manufacturing performance information and Production Workflow information in real time for all types of equipment including web offset, gravure and sheetfed presses, folding, guillotining, stitching, inserting, polywrap and perfect binding lines.
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Q. Who can use QTMS?
A. QTMS is suitable for all types of printing and finishing houses, and is especially useful for those with multi-process workflows.
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Q. How does QTMS work?
A. QTMS tracks good copy, waste, downtime, and all events during jobs. It does this using a combination of automatic signals from the press or binder, our own installed QTMS sensors and counters, and operator input via a touch-screen console. QTMS provides continuous progress and status feedback to the crews while collecting information in a central server for access by all users. This allows production managers to have a real-time view from their desk or PDA of the status of all jobs running across the plant.
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Q. Why should I buy QTMS?
A. QTMS will track and reduce waste, use job performance information to improve make ready times and operating procedures, use accurate counting methods to avoid costly over or under runs, manage the control of pallets/skids and improve the management of customer delivery times. Although benefits will vary, the typical payback period for a web printer is between 12 and 18 months.
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Q. Will QTMS work on any type of Press or Bindery line?
A. Yes. QTMS works with all manufacturer brands of press, reelstand, stacker, folders, stitchers, binders and finishing lines.
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Q. Can I mix different equipment types together e.g. press and bindery?
A. Yes. Indeed, the ability to view progress of any job across the entire production workflow is a key benefit of the system.
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Q. Can I link QTMS to an MIS system?
A. Yes. QTMS can be a fully integrated part of the Prism WIN MIS system, and if installed will provide automatic links to Paper Inventory, Scheduling, Purchasing, Accounting Modules and Estimating and Job Costing.
You can also link to other Management Information Systems via the fully published XML-based API or via JDF/JMF interfaces.
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Q. But my press already has Production Management Software. Can I still use that?
A. Yes. QTMS can feed Job Plan information and receive real-time Job information from 3rd Party Systems via JDF/JMF interfaces. This allows a flexible array of options across a plant - information direct from newer presses can be merged into a common database with QTMS information from older machines. This allows a single Job and Production reporting interface even when data comes from a variety of different manufacturers.
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Q. Is QTMS CIP4 / JDF capable?
A. Yes. Prism is an active contributor to the CIP4 standards process and is also a Networked Graphic Production (NGP) Partner. QTMS has JDF/JMF capability and can be used as a platform to provide a standard JDF/JMF interface to any press/bindery equipment - this includes older equipment previously lacking this facility.
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