Hot Minute Ep. 5 - Horizon at drupa 2024

drupa is just around the corner!

In this episode of Hot Minute with Horizon, hear about Horizon's show at drupa 2024 with Yasuo Taketsugu and Bryan Takano of Horizon International's Market Promotions team.

Learn more about our drupa 2024 show:
https://www.horizon.co.jp/en/exhibition/drupa2024/index.html

＊＊＊＊ What is Hot Minute? ＊＊＊＊
Hot Minute Introduction  
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1245734/13711752

＊＊＊＊ Past Episodes ＊＊＊＊
#4 Herbert Cheong and #HistorywithHorizon
#3 Ryuji Kinugawa and #HistorywithHorizon
#2 Hideharu Hori and #HistorywithHorizon
#1 Eijiro Hori and #HistorywithHorizon

Transcript

Transcript Disclaimer:
This transcript was generated automatically so there may some errors in the text.

00;00;25;08 - 00;00;46;28
Bryan
Welcome to another episode of Hot Minute. Today I am joined by Yasuo Taketsugu general manager of Horizon International's Market Promotion team. And in this episode, we just want to inform everyone of Horizon's Show at drupa 2024. We want to highlight some of the technology and collaboration so you can see if you're deciding to visit and if you aren't going to visit.

00;00;46;28 - 00;00;55;15
Bryan
We hope to convince you to come and make the trip. So thank you for joining me, Taketsugu-san how has the planning been going so far?

00;00;55;17 - 00;01;09;29
Yasuo
Oh, thank you very much. Well, Brian, planning, you know, it's almost weeks to go right for the Japan to start, so it's actually exciting, but it's also a little bit nervous about, you know, how things goes.

00;01;10;01 - 00;01;23;24
Bryan
Yeah. I feel like it was only yesterday when we were like, oh, it'll be next year or we have half a year. So we still have time. And then before we know it, it's already a week or two away. Great. and it's been eight years since the last drupa.

00;01;23;24 - 00;01;58;06
Yasuo
But yeah, eight years is a long time. You know, in these eight years, many things happened, right? So, in 2020, we were about to, you know, ready for drupa. But the something happened at the time, so, that show has been canceled. But these eight years, we have made many changes, like, you know, we organize the Think Smart Factory event in 2019, and that triggers, you know, our direction shift into the Smart Factory concept dramatically.

00;01;58;06 - 00;02;05;19
Yasuo
So it's been a great 8 years. And and we are excited to have, you know, this drupa, you know, carrying the same concept. You know.

00;02;05;19 - 00;02;27;29
Bryan
Lots of changes in technology, not just the industry but all the all around the world and how people are interacting and working. So it'll be interesting to see how drupa itself has changed. Yeah. And speaking of the future. So we have the Think Smart Factory kind of helped change our, company slogan as well. Change the focus.

00;02;27;29 - 00;02;47;26
Yasuo
Yeah, yeah. So change the focus is actually like 2016. We used the same theme, but it's  turded into our company motto now. So for this drupa, we carry the same concept change the focus. But we have added, you know, the create value after the change the focus things.

00;02;47;28 - 00;03;01;28
Bryan
Yeah. So creating value, that's something that we think is very important for printing service providers and everyone in the industry today. No change should come without the purpose of creating value. So how can you create value Taketsugu-san.

00;03;02;00 - 00;03;25;20
Yasuo
So we can create a value with the something like, you know, of course in finishing which we are actually, you know, working on and we can create a value with automation and with technology and with collaboration is that's another important things. And of course, you know, we can create a value with the people. And now, you know, the globally is the sustainability is becoming important.

00;03;25;20 - 00;03;28;15
Yasuo
So we can create a value with a sustainability as well.

00;03;28;15 - 00;03;50;28
Bryan
Yeah. So not just changing the focus but changing the focus too for a reason in order to create value. Yeah. Great. And now let's jump into the show itself: drupa 2024. It will be held from May 27th to June 7th. Dusseldorf, Germany. I believe the booth is the same size as our last show, actually. Right?

00;03;51;01 - 00;04;11;26
Yasuo
So show space is actually the same, but the. We added the 200 square meter, for the, you know, our utility wise, so we can use, you know, the show space, like, almost like 1458 square meter, as in our fully, you know, equipment show in, in that area.

00;04;11;27 - 00;04;29;07
Bryan
Great. So bigger and better than the last show, but the same location. Yeah. For those of you that came in 2016, great. And we also have, a request for those of you that visit, make sure to scan your guest QR code at our reception desk. Right?

00;04;29;07 - 00;04;49;05
Yasuo
Yeah. Yeah, that is actually important. not only, you know, gathering, you know, the visitor information, but to recognize, you know, who you are coming from. And then the our dealer and our staff are supporting in our booth so we can, you know, call representative to support you, during the show.

00;04;49;05 - 00;04;55;01
Bryan
Great. And speaking of a bigger and better booth, we have 18 systems. Right?

00;04;55;04 - 00;05;01;09
Yasuo
Yeah. It's not only the equipment itself, but we are also showing systems, at the show.

00;05;01;12 - 00;05;23;29
Bryan
Yes. And they're divided up into four different sections. Well, five if you consider just the stand alone and other section, but we have section A, which is kind of themed with, smart books, called Smart Book Solution. We have B for workflow and new systems, section C for new focus systems and section D for new conventional system.

00;05;23;29 - 00;05;32;21
Bryan
So lots of different systems and lots of areas of interest to kind of be able to handle any sorts of applications that users might want to make.

00;05;32;21 - 00;05;55;25
Yasuo
Yeah. So as mentioned earlier, we are going to show the systems like, you know, for example, at the, you know, smart Book Solutions, we'll be showing the plow fold and the book block solution, book block and book productions,  and also, printer inline perfect binding solution, which is actually collaboration with the Ricoh press.

00;05;55;25 - 00;06;03;01
Yasuo
So the they equipment we are showing at the booth are all integrated with the, you know, other equipments.

00;06;03;06 - 00;06;23;02
Bryan
Yes. Drawing on that, going back to that theme of how collaboration is so important. Yeah. As well. And with so many systems, we're going to be offering hourly tours, basically giving a presentation on each section. So if you're interested, make sure to see our schedule for them will be having a total of eight tours a day right now.

00;06;23;08 - 00;06;29;01
Yasuo
So we are organizing eight tours a day and an and Bryan, you will be the part of the presentation, right?

00;06;29;02 - 00;06;47;28
Bryan
Yes. Well. That's one of the things that's new, I think, this year is that we'll have actual employees be giving the tours, presentations, so to speak. So I'm very, nervous and excited at the same time. I was in, a couple plays as a kid, a little theater, but I was never in one of the major roles.

00;06;48;00 - 00;06;48;12
Bryan
So.

00;06;48;16 - 00;06;52;24
Yasuo
So don't feel pressures. I'm really, you know, looking forward to it. So,

00;06;52;27 - 00;07;14;06
Bryan
Thanks. No pressure. And so that'll be, eight sessions a day. Except for on the weekends when the, hall closes early, I believe. So we will only have the tour D once on the weekend. Yeah, something that's cool this year, not just all the integrated systems, but we also have lots of new smart factory technology, right?

00;07;14;06 - 00;07;31;05
Yasuo
Yeah. So in the booth, we are going to show, you know, a couple of AGV, actually three of AGV automatic guided vehicles. And then four robot arms for palletizing for infeeding, you know, different, you know, usage.

00;07;31;05 - 00;07;52;04
Bryan
Yes. There's many applications for the robotics: transportation or logistics or the robotic arms So you definitely have to make sure to have an idea of how you want to use it, whether it's for the automated, book block feeding or for palletizing. So of the different robotic arms that we're showing, even though we'll have four robotic arms, they won't be doing the same thing.

00;07;52;04 - 00;07;56;11
Bryan
Yeah. Great. And then anything else besides the robotics that we'll have in our booth.

00;07;56;13 - 00;08;40;11
Yasuo
we will have a workflow as well. You know, workflow key is actually our, you know, JDF workflow system, iCE LiNK, which is actually the cloud based workflow system, but that is actually the key. And then we collaborate, with the, you know, other workflow software partners, someone like Ultimate, One Vision, Tessitura and Spencer Metrics. So those are the partners we are going to collaborate with for the workflow and then showing the, entire, you know, integrated workflow or integrated dashboard solutions, or maybe how we can connect the non JDF, compatible equipment to, you know, capture the, you know, the data and so on.

00;08;40;12 - 00;08;46;10
Yasuo
So we will try to show different way of, you know, creating the integrated workflow.

00;08;46;11 - 00;08;59;23
Bryan
Yes. So in addition to the workflow software we'll also have a bunch of safety and management, safety inspection and maybe employee management systems as well.

00;08;59;23 - 00;09;24;25
Yasuo
Yeah. Yeah, we will have the, safety system. We will have the skeleton detection, which is actually, solution from Konica Minolta call Forxai. and that one is actually detect, you know, the humans action by detecting the skeleton movement and the people get into some dangerous area. the camera detect and then the system slowing down or system stops.

00;09;24;25 - 00;09;58;16
Yasuo
So that is that is a new way of, you know, safety management instead of, you know, putting the safety barrier or safety switch, just detecting from the camera to, you know, security, safety. And another, you know, the operator management system is actually, we have the, DAC Engineering, collaboration. they will be, providing us the solution like, you know, where the operator is spending the time or how many, how many hours or how many times, operator spending time.

00;09;58;16 - 00;10;26;21
Yasuo
For which section of the system for example, we have the saddle stitching system iCE STITCHLINER Mark IV, which has the collator, stitcher, trimmer, and delivery integrated system. And the DAC Engineering system detect, you know, where and in which part operator spending the time. So, maybe the manager can analyze, you know, where is the bottleneck to optimize the production afterwards.

00;10;26;23 - 00;10;34;02
Bryan
In addition to that, we also have some technology showing, I believe, with, AI integrated systems as well. Right?

00;10;34;02 - 00;11;01;06
Yasuo
Yeah. So that AI integrated system is actually collaboration with a Screen, Screen is actually developing the, AI engines, and our iCE LiNK solution is integrated into that, you know, AI engine. for example, you know, just having the JDF data and then making the changeover is sometimes, you know, it can go closer but cannot go to the exact.

00;11;01;09 - 00;11;29;08
Yasuo
So it need to be added some, you know, the skilled operators knowledge or maybe the humidity or temperatures or substrate condition or those kind of matter you know, affected too. So, we are going to demonstrate with the folders, how we can accurately, you know, fold with the, AI engines. So, this is actually, you know, technology showing this, starting point.

00;11;29;10 - 00;11;48;14
Yasuo
we still need to, you know, gather many information from the customers. So we are we would like to encourage, you know, our, you know, valued customer to join. You know, this, you know, AI database growing to participate this, you know, iCELiNK collaboration together.

00;11;48;14 - 00;12;08;14
Bryan
Yes. folding, for example, is one of the areas that we've heard that it's so hard to find, operators who are knowledgeable folding. So this is one area that, as we have an aging out workforce, instead of having that knowledge kind of being lost forever, maybe we can help integrate it with AI to help, the printers of the future, for example.

00;12;08;14 - 00;12;31;09
Bryan
Yeah. Great. Now, we spoke of many of the collaborations in our booth. well, a few of them that we're going to be, working together with for especially Smart Factory technology, but we have various, inline printers, robotics as well, and other machine collaborations as well. Inline, for example, like the Palamides with Mark IV, iCE STITCHLINER Mark IV.

00;12;31;09 - 00;12;35;15
Bryan
But did we are there any other like in booth collaborations we want to highlight?

00;12;35;15 - 00;13;01;07
Yasuo
Yeah. You know, there are so many, you know, collaboration partner in our booth will have, you know, the Canon printing engine together with the, Tecnau BookReady system to create a book blocks. That system is actually, you know, create a book block and robot feed on to, you know, our perfect binding solution. That is one of the collaboration and another one we collaborate with, the Fujifilm.

00;13;01;10 - 00;13;36;04
Yasuo
Fujifilm is providing us the, you know, their printing engine and that system is inline with our, you know, SmartSlitter, which is actually the, sheet processing system to create a ticket or business cards. So this is actually printer to finishing totally inline system. And another collaboration we will have the, you know, Hunkeler unwinder and cutters or unwinder and stackers to integrate with our, you know, saddle stitching system or perfect binding solutions.

00;13;36;06 - 00;14;05;14
Yasuo
Other collaboration in our booth is actually not only the equipment. we collaborate with the many applications. So, we will collaborate with, Komori for B1 printed offset sheets, offset printed sheets. And we will collaborate with HP for the printing rolls. And there are so many roles, some from like Screen, some from like, you know, Canon. So we collaborate with many printer vendors.

00;14;05;18 - 00;14;14;05
Bryan
And speaking of other printer vendors, our equipment won't just be in our booth, right? It will be actually in our partners booths as well.

00;14;14;07 - 00;14;50;16
Yasuo
so we'll have the, four partner booths and we will have the six systems in the collaboration partner booth. So, one system, we will have at the Canon booth, which is located at hall number 8A and booth number B 41. we will have the BQ-500 4-clamp perfect binder together with the HT-300 3 side trimmers to create, you know, the, their, printed book block on our finishing devices and another collaboration or another equipment we will have is the Fujifilm Booth.

00;14;50;16 - 00;15;20;29
Yasuo
This, located at a whole number 8B booth number A02. we will have the SmartStacker with that robotic arm smart binding system, which is actually the robotic arm is feeding into our BQ-500, perfect binder and finish with the HT-300 3 side trimmer. And another system we will have at the Fujifilm booth is the, in-line cut sheet press with a SmartSlitter.

00;15;21;02 - 00;15;50;23
Yasuo
integrated system, which is actually, you know, printer to card processing or sheet processing system or line system to create the, you know, cards or tickets. And also we will have the small format folders AF-406, to collaborate with the third party: Hamamatsu, which is actually, heat pressing devices to create the unique, you know, heat sealed application.

00;15;51;00 - 00;16;15;24
Bryan
And then in the same hall, we have also system with Konica Minolta as well, Hall 8B booth of A40 and we'll also have a inline cut sheet press with the rotary rotary die cutting system, the RD-N4055DM. And we'll be making ... playing cards playing cards. Right. So that'll be interesting. And also features our new gathering stacker GST-50 as well.

00;16;15;24 - 00;16;47;13
Yasuo
So another collaboration is HP located in Hall number 17, Booth A01. we will have the BQ-500 4-clamp binder together with the HT-300 3 side trimmer. And unique thing about this system. we are going to have the palletizing robot arm after the HT-300 3 side trimmer to, palletize the completed, you know, books onto the pallet.

00;16;47;19 - 00;16;53;22
Yasuo
And also the system is actually integrated with the workflow, together with the HP PrintOS. 

00;16;53;22 - 00;17;08;26
Bryan
Great. So that's kind of, lots of maybe collaborations that are happening outside our booth, actually, that are very interesting. Lots of robotics, two robotic arms. Are there any other, highlights that you want to mention about our 2024 drupa show?

00;17;08;29 - 00;17;38;01
Yasuo
So there are so many thing, you know, for drupa. So if I explain or if we explain, you know, all the things, it will be too too long kind of podcast. So we want to finish in short. But they, we really, you know, want you to visit our booth and to see our equipment and solutions and also the application, we are going to run to see, you know, how efficiently, you know, our equipment, you know, work for your shop floor.

00;17;38;04 - 00;17;43;13
Bryan
I think that does it okay. Taketsugu-san, thank you for joining me today. And I hope to see everyone at drupa.