Expand Vol. 3 No. 11

Strength through Diversification

Since 1989 PROLABdigital Imaging has successfully navigated the transition from a niche-driven photo lab to a diverse wide-format printing company.

In 1989, PROLABdigital Imaging’s work was primarily in the architectural field. Of course in 1989 “digital” was neither in its name nor in its product mix. Realizing early on that digital was pushing the entire industry in a different direction, owner Nicholas Urmossy began to move the company not only in a digital direction, but in a wide-format direction as well.

One of the turning points that showed in stark terms that the investment in wide-format would pay off, and pay off handsomely, was a large trade show project the company completed for LA Gear. “I remember spending about $25,000 on memory alone and it was ridiculous, but LA Gear gave us one order that paid for everything, and we knew right away that digital would be a big profit center,” says Joe Hill, PROLAB’s operations manager.

Since that time, the company has not looked back at its photo lab days, though those early years help inform the company’s devotion to color quality, and for its need to maximize a diverse range of products that represent the gamut of wide-format printing.

A Step Ahead

PROLABdigital Imaging’s evolution has followed the general path of the industry as a whole, but has always been one step ahead with unusual applications, such as its three-dimensional lenticular and stereoscopic anaglyph offerings. The anaglyph images require 3D glasses, and customers can actually preview the images on PROLAB’s website before they’re printed.

“We offer animated and morphing signage, a show stopper at trade shows and at retail. We also sell them to individuals as custom poster-type prints and even as big, backlit 3D prints,” says Hill. “Though our focus is on corporate graphics of all kinds, we also have a fairly large individual customer base; people who want to present their images in unique ways. For instance, a lot of people are crazy about their pets, so we’ve found a nice market for stretched canvas reproductions of their pet photos.”

Hill adds that he’s currently developing a separate photo-sharing website where photographers and others can upload images and put a price tag on the use of that image. Then, someone can browse the website, pick an image to use in their room or whatever space they want to decorate, including vehicles, import it into a template, and PROLAB will produce the image and ship it to the customer.

“We’re interested in flatbed technology because it opens up almost limitless avenues for custom decoration,” says Hill. “We’re in a holding pattern on that technology right now to see who shakes out of the industry, along with seeing what our market wants and needs. We don’t want to buy something that works today but is obsolete tomorrow.”

Currently, PROLAB runs two HP 5500s with UV/pigmented ink, a Seiko ColorPainter 64S, a Epson GS6000, a LightJet 430, and two HP-Scitex XLjets (3 meter and 5 meter). In the finishing department, PROLAB utilizes automated heat-weld, grommet, and Zund digital die-cutting equipment.

Given the diverse application environments the company prints for, PROLAB uses an equally diverse range of materials, including vinyls from Oracal for vehicle wraps, 3M vinyl, LexJet 55 Intermediate Adhesive Vinyl Semi-Matte, LexJet Gloss Banner 13 oz., FLEXmark® V 400 White Opaque A-109 Vinyl for Indoor Floor Surfaces, FLEXmark® BILBRD™ BWV White Opaque Vinyl w/ Permanent Adhesive, a variety of fabrics, static clings, and more.

PROLAB has 20 employees who handle the array of production departments employed at the company. With the range, depth, and complexity of the projects that go through the shop on a daily basis, PROLAB has been working hard to tighten up its processes, initiating a detailed work order form that each person in the process must sign as it goes through their department.

“Orders are structured in such a way that all the information that could possibly be needed during production is included. In the past the initial information hasn’t been very clear, which creates questions in production, such as which adhesive vinyl to use,” explains Hill. “Now we make sure the client tells us up front exactly what product to use, where it’s going, and the time frame for installation. If the client’s not sure of the material they want to use the job, we’ll recommend one and make sure the exact product is specified at the beginning. The customer service person fills it out and it goes out through the facility. Now it’s easy to troubleshoot problems, and if there are any mistakes the work order serves as a job tracking and QC form all in one sheet. I can go back to it, see where the operators put their initials, and I can check the requirements against what we shipped. It’s a production safeguard that’s made a huge difference.”

Hill adds that the estimating system has also been re-vamped to assure consistent profit margins and to be more competitive in the market. It was a monumental task to be sure, as each material and each department had to be meticulously documented to ensure a ship-shape system of checks and balances.

“I spent about a month and a half building a system in Excel where I plugged in the values of all of our costs tied it into each department so we could figure out our per-square-foot cost per department. Then I added the raw consumable costs – media, ink, and waste – to the overhead of the department for a bottom-line figure, and then added a profit margin,” explains Hill. “We can then plug in different mark-ups on each project, compare it to current market rates for that type of application, and quote competitively. It’s been a huge boon. Now we’re offering quotes and getting the vast majority – probably around 80 percent – because we know exactly where we need to be with each project.”

All of this attention to detail, even to the penny, has given the company a needed boost in its goal to deliver quality, trouble-free products to an ever-wider range of clientele. Hill says that diversity has been integral to the company’s survival and growth. It helps them keep up with the inevitable peaks and valleys that affect each sector they sell to at a given time.

“When we put the whole package together, someone can come to our shop and get everything they need for a marketing roll-out,” says Hill. “We have in-house design capability, so that someone can come up with an idea and we can help them with the solution. Then we can manufacture, kit, ship, and install it as a one stop solution. We have designed and wrapped barricade graphics, trash cans, postal mail boxes, cars… Your options are unlimited. Just imagine it, we can do it.”