People & Plant
Mitch states the size of Yellowstone’s physical plant is just over 100,000 sq. ft. “We’ve had two building expansions in the past 13 years—2007 and 2017. We’re currently adding new offices and expanding break room capacity.”
He reports that as a result of building expansion, installation of more efficient and higher speed equipment, capacity increased and Yellowstone grew to become a 24/7 operation. “Our willingness to reinvest in the business, in equipment and people lets us keep up. We don’t and won’t fall behind.”
Alan explains, “Our production facility houses printing, converting and laminating equipment to accommodate projects of all sizes.” Listed out, it includes: five wide web flexo central impression (CI) presses, affording up to 10-colors and a 67-in. web width; a solventless laminator and a myriad of converting machinery. The newest press, installed in January 2018, is a highly automated Koenig & Bauer Flexotecnica EVO XG. It is fitted with a BST insetter, meaning Yellowstone can run and print on the bag in register to the front, take the roll off, place it in the insetter that is hung on the other side and print on the reverse. Also on deck: a BST color control system and Koenig & Bauer’s I Drum—a robotic lift to reach the upper deck.
“Through the years, we’ve added a number of presses—one 8-color, a 6-color, another 8-color, and then a series of 10-color presses; the third being the new Koenig & Bauer machine,” Mitch recalls. With the first press, an 8-color, still in working order, six machines are available for production. Always looking to expansion opportunities, he says, “Continued investment on the printing side is planned.”
Speaking to that point, Mitch adds, “We just purchased a new Titan high-speed slitter to increase our offerings to the roll-fed market. In three to five years, we’ll be talking about a new press, laminator and potentially a new pouch machine.”
Without pause, he continues, “At Yellowstone, our most critical asset is our 160-member staff. Employees share both dedication and commitment in molding our offerings to our customers’ needs. They stand ready, willing and able to run any piece of equipment necessary to meet the requirements set out. Without our employees, we wouldn’t exist.”
Tech Talk
Lou agrees that trained operators are just as critical, if not more essential than the machines themselves in delivering on Yellowstone’s promise. “To meet needs, Yellowstone continues to add equipment with higher technical capabilities, as far as print quality and linescreen are concerned. In fact, we’ve joined with an outside source—Trisoft Graphics—to put in high-end Kodak plate making equipment. We’ve added a laser anilox cleaner and eliminated hazardous waste generating equipment. That gives us the capability to push the envelope of higher-end graphics in flexo printing. We can print up to 250 lpi, do expanded gamut (EG), make our own plates and build up our forces to handle any competition that comes our way.”
He continues, “We are able to print almost anything we want. Thanks to new, state-of-the-art equipment, we now have capabilities that we have not had before. Our new press, being wide web, can print any job we have in house. That’s helped us raise the bar in lawn and garden with higher densities. We start with Flexographic Image Reproduction Specifications & Tolerances (FIRST) at minimum and sometimes go even higher. We are not satisfied to ‘get it close and let it go.’”
Lou credits high-end separations and the new press with combining to deliver minimum dot gain and says the quality produced prompts invites from competitors to serve as a subcontractor in time of need. “We’re proud of that,” he adds. “Pride in our people is even more important. Good people can make bad equipment great.”
For his part, Mitch describes the production floor as a “Race car-like pit crew that doesn’t have a lot of limitations.” Capitalizing on that metaphor, Yellowstone utilizes a flexible bag—adorned with a race car and displaying the corporate nameplate—in promoting its work to prospective customers. The metaphor also is put in play every day on every job. The makeready and setup sheet is organized as a pit crew checklist with task, team member and mission clearly spelled out, and documentation of what is done when captured. It too displays race day imagery.
Lou stresses, “Higher print fidelity is inviting customers who may have not considered us, for items like higher-end graphics snack food packaging pouches, to seek us out. Optimization means everything!” That prompts Mitch to observe that the plant prints a lot of PET. He says, “Higher graphics and different structures—matte polyesters, nylon—help grow our offering, while bettering our understanding and knowledge of various films.”
Lou insists, “Densities and dot gains, based on press configuration, result in our standards being very high—FIRST and up. New plating technology with micro-pixelization encourages efficient ink transfer. Our pit crew approach lets the right team member jump in and then jump out, facilitating quicker changeover time. Every move is mapped out, making for faster makeready. Specific assignments definitely speed things up and reduce scrap as well.”
Alan points out, “Grayscale readings measure dot gain, density and opacity on all process jobs. We use that data to create standards, then go back and meet them. If we find a better way, we document it and use it.”
Lou concludes the discussion on this point, saying, “Everything is fingerprint-based and shared with each employee. No secrets are kept—not on downtime, output by machine, productivity by shift, etc.—All data captured is quantifiable and measurable.”