In putting together a good jigsaw puzzle, there's always great satisfaction when-in nearing completion-all the pieces simply seem to fit together.

In a sense, Dixie Printing and Packaging Corp., Glen Burnie, Maryland, has mirrored this process in its plant. The operation has evolved over the last four decades, and now-upon visiting the plant-one leaves with a sense that everything seems to fit, creating a picture of efficiency.

In fact, the parts form such a seamless whole it is almost impossible to ascertain where one operation ends and the other begins. Specializing in the conversion of recycled paperboard, which comprises 90% of the material converted at the facility (the other 10% is solid bleached sulfate [SBS]), the plant houses state-of-the-art technology that automates and connects prepress, press and finishing operations.

It is this technology, along with a long family tradition in the carton business, that has helped Dixie to survive in decades that have seen the demise of other local carton facilities.

Established in 1956, the operation landed in the hands of the Morris family in 1961 and has been there ever since. In 1989, A. Newth Morris, III, Dixie's current president, bought the controlling interest in the company from his father, who had purchased it from his own father back in 1968. Three generations of Morrises have certainly seen the competitive landscape change, yet Dixie has always remained focused on customer needs and its management has been committed to reinvesting in the plant.

"In my time I've counted about 17 companies that have been bought, sold or traded in the area," said Morris, who actually started working at the company in 1973 under his father's reign. "Today, there are two of us. We have survived, and I think one of the reasons is that we have been religious about putting money back into the business."

This investment has helped Dixie to aggressively improve the sophistication with which it converts board and to evolve in a changing marketplace. For example, Dixie's emphasis has traditionally been on diecutting and finishing. Yet Morris suggests that the company is increasingly adding printing to its repertoire. The impending purchase of a new seven-color press will support this trend.

quality in, quality out Like any operation, what Dixie puts into its process largely determines what comes out. Hence, producing quality cartons means beginning with quality board.

Although Morris readily recognizes the importance of virgin board in the market, he is quick to praise the technology being used by the recycled mills today. "They can make a good piece of paperboard out of curbside pickup," he said. "The mills in the northeast have done a terrific job upgrading their facilities. Their cleaning systems are just incredible, and on our end, the Epic Delta dampening system has made a tremendous difference."

The Epic system has helped Dixie remove hickies from its board, which were once a recurring problem for the cartonmaker. Such technology has meant less rejections of product received from the mill, which in the end has meant higher quality cartons.

the first link After the sheets arrive at the plant, they go directly to Dixie's Automatan jogger aerator. There the sheets are transferred from the mill's pallets to Dixie's internal loop pallets. Because the machine is configured to transfer loads continuously, the press never has to be stopped to change out loads, thus aiding Dixie in its quest for seamless production.

However, successful seamless production relies a great deal on the preparation that takes place before the sheets ever go near the press, particularly in the area of design.

"Our goal is to get as much as we can done during premakeready so as to avoid having to deal with problems when a job is on press," Morris explained. "We don't have a lot of floor space so once we start a job, we need to be able to finish it."

The plant runs less than a day's worth of in-process inventory between operations, so Morris makes sure everything fits up and down the production chain. It is the links in this chain that keep Dixie running efficiently and profitably.

The first link in Dixie's chain can be found in its structural design department, which boasts two sample plotters, one of which allows the designer to do rubber blanket plates for aqueous coating jobs. The other plotter, though older, is often kept just as busy. For the last decade, the plant has used an Artios Laserpoint CAD/CAM system, which has automated a process that was previously done by hand.

"It was slow back then," Morris recalled. "You would put something in, get a Coke, and wait for it to process. When you came back, it might be done."

"Every month now the manufacturer is coming out with updates," added Dixie's structural designer, Brian Beyer. "Everything is getting faster, which really helps us."

The cutting dies, counter plates, male and female stripping units and a portion of the plant's blanking tools all work together. In this way, the plant has one basic design that drives production, and all the major components fit.

After the structure is perfected, the design is imported by the plant's graphics group. It is opened via a conversion process by one of Dixie's graphic designers, which enables the software that creates the structure to "talk" to the software that creates the graphics. Depending on the job, the plant is supplied anything from completed artwork on a disk to a vague concept from the customer. Increasingly finding itself in the latter situation, Dixie's designers actually prefer to develop graphics from scratch.

"We are moving more in that direction," said Laura Moore, the head of Dixie's graphics group. "The advantage to the customer is that once the design is approved, it's done. If a customer is sending in files that were created by artists who aren't familiar with folding carton requirements, we have to help them reinvent what they have."

After determining the specs, the graphic designer digitally places the artwork on the structure via graphic design software like Adobe Illustrator. Then, Dixie takes a leap into cutting edge technology.

unchartered waters While the plant owns a Film Master, which allows the designers to output their own film and then send it to a tradehouse for platemaking, Morris admits that this technology is now all but obsolete at his plant. Investing in computer-to-plate (CTP) technology about a year ago, Dixie is navigating unchartered waters. Morris warned that implementing such technology is not for the faint of heart. "The first six months were tough. You can research it for years and not do anything and justify it," he said. "It can be a treacherous investment."

However, with the impending purchase of a seven-color press, Morris was determined to make plates in-house, especially given the rate at which plates are used on such a high-speed machine. Although it took some adjustment (the plant hired an outside consultant, Pitman Co., to coordinate the effort), it has been a lucrative investment.

Morris said his suppliers, Kodak and Misomex, were key in tying the system together. Also, because the plant employed the services of a trade house prior to the purchase of its Misomex Omnisetter 7000, the initial transition was fairly smooth. No people were let go, and there were no step and repeat machines to sell. Morris hired a person who knew nothing about the carton business to manage the plate room. She studied the manuals, taught herself the system, and didn't have to grapple with preconceived notions that it wouldn't work.

Now, the plate room is a one-person operation. After the graphic designers complete the files, they are downloaded by the CTP operator, using PCC and ArtPro software. She then merges the graphic files with the die structure files, and with the push of a button, the system is ready to make plates. The system Morris chose also provides an upgrade path to producing flexo plates. Currently, the plant only runs offset, but flexo is a process Morris would consider in the future.

dying to succeed Another link that is vital to the chain is diemaking, a process Dixie has also brought in-house and automated. The plant has had an Elcede laser system for eight years, which was purchased at a time when burns were extremely costly. Although burns now cost less, the system has more than justified itself over the years and has helped Dixie to keep its costs competitive.

In addition to cost savings, there have also been time-saving breakthroughs, such as the use of thin plates. "We used to spend a great deal of time makereadying a job, and when you were through with it, you would have to tear it all off," Morris explained. "With thin plates, at the end of a job, you simply unbolt it and save the plate, so you don't have to redo it again."

While the plates are not inexpensive, they are often reused, which saves extensive makeready time every time a repeat job goes to press.

The challenge then comes in storing the materials. However, Dixie is efficient in this area as well. All dies are loaded on a computer system so they are easily tracked. The system knows how long each die has been stored and the last time it was used. The thin plate, cutting die, counter plates, stripping unit and whatever else is needed for a particular job are stored together so they are easily accessible.

To keep the process running smoothly, Dixie also places great importance on training. "Someone from Bobst comes by once a year to continually update us on how to rubber, for example," Morris said. "When blanking, if you don't have everything technically correct, you're not going to run at high speeds. Everything has to be perfect for jobs to run at 7,000 sheets per hour. We put a lot of time into our tooling, and we make sure everyone is doing things the same way."

finishing up When makeready is completed, it is time for the job to be printed and diecut. Dixie has a 51-in., four-color KBA Planeta offset press, two two-color presses and four diecutters-two blankers and two Bobst 126Es. For jobs that require 40-in. press work, Dixie relies on a marketing alliance it has with McCormick Press, a carton printer in Baltimore, which has two seven-color presses. The reciprocal arrangement equally benefits both plants, by adding much-needed volume at McCormick and a wider range of market opportunities at Dixie.

At Dixie's facility, the diecutters are situated close to the printer, so jobs can be printed and diecut simultaneously. The print quality is carefully checked with a densitometer, and the proper adjustments are made. On the diecutter, the automatic stripping unit is directly tied into the plant's scrap removal system. The scrap is brought to a cyclone on the roof, which drops it into an auto ty baler. The air created by the scrap removal process is also recycled as it moves through a cleaning and cooling unit before it is pumped back into the facility, where it is used to actually cool the plant.

Once a job is blanked, it is ready to go directly to the gluers. Dixie has a Bobst 110 for straight line work and a Bobst 90 MATIC and a Jagenberg in its finishing area. It also has a Gladiator window machine, rebuilt by Western Slope, for specialty window applications.

"We've worked a lot on the ergonomics in our finishing area," Morris pointed out. "Loads can be lifted and turned automatically to put them in exact position for gluing."

When a job is completed, the plant delivers it to the customer shortly thereafter, inventorying as little as possible.

In short, from design, platemaking and diemaking to printing, diecutting and gluing, the pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place at Dixie, creating a carton plant that enjoys seamless success.