Ah, The spec-ing. The waiting. The wondering. The nail-biting suspense. If only offshore manufacturing were as easy as stacking a bunch of multicolored Legos together or just a matter of following a one-size-fits-all blueprint. So, in the absence of such shortcuts, how does one conduct the supplier-selection process in an industry that's saturated with top-notch candidates? How does one navigate a project halfway around the world from a desk in New York or Los Angeles? Here is PW's suggestion: learn from those already in the game, especially from the following veterans who readily share their experiences.
Weldon Owen Publishing
Let's start with the company that gives us the beautifully illustrated Williams-Sonoma collection. Since it was formed in 1985, Weldon Owen has printed more than 60 million copies, virtually all in Asia.
"Between our three major printers—Tien Wah Press, Toppan and Leefung-Asco—we have produced over 16 million copies of the Williams-Sonoma titles in the last 10 years," says CEO John Owen, whose own relationship with Asian suppliers dates back to the early 1970s. Weldon Owen also produces "private label" books with major brands such as Pottery Barn, Gymboree, The Body Shop, Mayo Clinic and American Medical Association. Its Body Shop titles—requiring fairly complex production with concealed wire-o gatefolds on every page—are printed by Midas. There are also children's and adult reference titles published through its Sydney, Australia, office. Leefung-Asco recently printed its Visual Dictionary. On the average, Weldon Owen's new title print runs are around 60,000 copies, while reprints run 15,000 to 18,000.
Any nightmares working across the oceans and braving the digital communications front? "None whatsoever. We really don't have problems, at least none that can't be solved. Problems are often picked up and dealt with before we even know about them. Quality control is incredibly high. Perhaps direct communication was once an obstacle with Asian suppliers, but it's definitely no longer so," says Owen. His production staff visits suppliers in Asia 20 to 30 times per year—either for press checks or contract negotiations—and sometimes they are accompanied by the project art director or, in the case of a big job, by their client. Owen has also worked successfully through brokers as well. "It makes absolute sense to work with a broker when you first start printing in Asia. With many Asian suppliers now having overseas representation—and many located in the U.S—you basically get the same service that you would get from a broker."
Through his years of working with Asian suppliers, Owen has these wise words for newcomers in the offshore manufacturing game. "You need to make a long-term commitment to printing offshore. Perhaps you should start by using a broker. You also must be aware that price quotations received will be different from those of a U.S. printer. You are better off understanding how an Asian printer quotes than getting them to conform to your system—for example, Asian printers use metric paper weight. Also, do factor in more time for sending/receiving materials, approvals and shipping." And last but not least, he adds, "I would strongly suggest investing in a trip to oversee your first project on-press and to get to know your supplier better."
Interestingly, Weldon Owen prints in Singapore, which many would regard as having few of the cost advantages of Hong Kong/China. "Not really. The pricing from our Singapore printers is very competitive. In 2003, we project we'll print about seven million copies, half in Hong Kong/China and the other half in Singapore." And continuing with the price factor, Owen says, "We printed in Japan about 15 years ago, until the prices became too high. We have also looked into printing in Korea and Thailand, but we haven't done anything there yet. It's only fair to say that offshore manufacturing isn't always about price. Other factors such as quality, reliability, service, communication and an understanding of multilanguage co-editions are just as important."
"Color quality is one of the main reasons we print in Asia," says Owen. "We still do a lot of our pre-press work there and we get press proofs, which is unheard of in the U.S. On the minus side, the extra work means allowing time for several rounds of proofing. But as long as we factor that into our project schedule, there's no problem. Generally, once a title has been printed, we're confident that future reprints will be of the same quality."
Recently though, Weldon Owen has been using higher-cost U.S. pre-press houses, especially when CtP process is involved. "About 50% of our new projects are now on digital workflow, and that figure should reach 75% by the end of 2003," he says. "But digital workflow has its problems, especially with proofing and knowing what exactly one is approving. Having pre-press done domestically means a quicker approval cycle and allows for tighter quality control. The Asian suppliers we work with are addressing these issues, and I'm confident we'll be completely comfortable with the CtP process in another couple of years."
What does Owen think of the changes in China and its book market? "Well, in the past year, we have done some excellent business in China. For these projects, we printed mostly with Leefung-Asco, which did a superb job in speccing the book to suit the lower price demanded by our Chinese customers. Yes, we definitely see opportunities in the China book market."
Klutz
This is not your typical publisher. Its name and company credo—create wonderful things, be good, have fun—say it all. And it's aptly reflected in a recent title, The Spiral Draw Book, which puts a new spin on the classic spiral drawing activity. Explains v-p of production DeWitt Durham, "We completely reengineered the drawing wheels to improve their performance. Then we went through several rounds of technical drawings and prototypes, as well as quite a bit of research into the right plastic for the job. We ended up molding the wheels in Taiwan and printing the book in Korea. The final question of how to display the parts of the book was a challenge. But we're thrilled with the end result."
DeWitt works with suppliers in Singapore, Hong Kong/China, Korea, Taiwan and the U.S. "Every title that goes to a specific printer has more to do with the specific requirements of the title and the specific capabilities of the printer than any other factors. Our 2001 title Fairies: Petal People You Make Yourself, for example, has components sourced from several manufacturers in different countries and it was printed by Tien Wah Press (Singapore) and assembled in Taiwan. We make it a practice to get U.S. printers to quote on a regular basis. However, for a publisher specializing in books-plus, the deciding factor is usually more about hand-assembly costs than printing costs."
Klutz produces about 10 to 12 titles per year, with first print runs sometimes going up to 100,000 copies. Since many of its projects involve complicated manufacturing and/or assembly, Klutz prefers to work directly with suppliers. DeWitt says, "I think the chances of success go up if we can convey what we're thinking to the printers and learn from them their manufacturing capabilities. Some of our best manufacturing solutions have been the result of such collaboration." DeWitt's experience with Asian suppliers has not found significant problems: "The issues are really no different from selecting U.S. suppliers: You seek people with whom you believe you can learn to work well and don't waste time with those who appear not to understand or share your concerns."
"Communication is, as in so many things, the key. If you do a good job of conveying your expectations and learning your printer's capabilities, things will go well. Most people want to do a good job. Failing to do so often has more to do with poor communication than inability, incompetence or indifference."
Virtually every project that Klutz does today is in digital format. "Initially, we're struck by the differences between digital proofs and traditional press-proofs. It definitely made for some very interesting press-checks. But recently, we have seen that gap narrow significantly. Our practice remains to review physical proofs in-house and not rely on soft- or remote-proofing."
As for emerging opportunities in China, DeWitt says, "We have been amazed by the rapid growth of the English-language book market there and we are working through Scholastic to take advantage of that opportunity."
University of Texas Press
"Quality and better pricing are the two factors that makes printing overseas so attractive to us. But should the quality of the work diminish, pricing alone will not be enough to keep us interested and going back," says assistant director/design and production manager David Cavazos. Just recently, Everbest printed UT Press's English-language translation of Pedro Páramo, a classic Mexican novel that is beautifully illustrated with photography by Josephine Sacabo. There is also a large-format pictorial book from James Evans—featuring 102 duotone photographs of the landscape and people of the Big Bend region of West Texas—that was printed by Regent. And several months ago, C&C produced UT's Of Birds and Texas, which has beautiful paintings by Stuart and Scott Gentling.
Since its establishment in 1950, the UT Press has published more than 2,000 titles and today averages 80 to 90 titles annually. Approximately 20%—25% are either highly illustrated coffee-table or art/photography books. "Our projects are awarded based in a competitive-bid process and at present, we send most of our full-color and duotone projects to suppliers such as Everbest, C&C and Regent in Hong Kong/ China." Everbest, one of its principal suppliers, takes on 20%—30% of the projects.
UT Press's relationship with Asian suppliers goes back to 1982, when it started printing with Dai Nippon in Japan. "Our then—associate director and designer had experience working with Asian suppliers prior to joining us, and we've continued working with them ever since," says Cavazos. So, how often does the press visit its Asian suppliers? "Early in our relationship with Japanese manufacturers, we did visit them for press checks and factory tours. But we have not done so recently for our Hong Kong/China suppliers," Cavazos says. "One of the most important things that we do to ensure quality color management is to only work with suppliers that can produce work at a level consistent with our quality expectations." The press sends application files on disk to its suppliers, normally with only low-resolution FPO (for positioning only) scans in place. But for some projects, the house uses high-resolution scans, which its printers do ahead of time and provide for it.
"For our color-separation/prepress needs, we work mostly through our printers," Cavazos explains. "This way, the company, which is ultimately responsible for the quality of the finished book, is also involved in and shares the responsibility for all the prepress and proofing work." Cavazos asks for press proofs 99% of the time. So far, UT Press has only one or two projects on CtP. "The results were okay, but the proofing options are still not as good nor as reliable as traditional press proofs."
And what has he learned from years of experience with Hong Kong/China suppliers? "Well, working with overseas printers means learning to work with metric measurement. Understanding and developing a good knowledge of the type of papers and binding materials available in the source country is important. Then there's learning how to schedule work or push the schedule when necessary."
Random House Australia
"Most of our projects—some 180 titles and 380 reprints per year, with an average print run of 5,000 to 10,000—are printed domestically. Only about 10 to 15 titles are sourced from Asian suppliers annually," says production manager Lisa Hanrahan, who has personally worked with Asian suppliers for the past 10 years. "Of that total, 70% is done in Singapore by Tien Wah Press and the rest in Hong Kong/ China. We've also printed in Malaysia and India."
Two recent full-color titles—a coffee-table book entitled Priceless and a gift book called Drink Drank Drunk—were printed by Tien Wah Press and Wing King Tong, respectively. Hanrahan says, "Most of the titles printed in Asia can be divided into three categories: one- or two-color straight-text/gift format; full-color coffee-table books; and, occasionally, some hand-assembly products. We normally go to suppliers with compatible machinery who are able to produce our titles competitively. First print runs in certain formats and larger runs are manufactured offshore, and I don't see that changing. But smaller-quantity reprints do work domestically, and we keep them here when on-time delivery is crucial."
About 99% of Random Australia's frontlist goes through CtP workflow. For a backlist reprint, or updating of an old title that exists on films, Hanrahan continues to use the films or, sometimes, a combination of film and CtP workflow for the new sections. She says, "We love CtP. It reduces plant costs dramatically and makes full-color books much more viable. But experiments are needed. Some Asian companies are only just coming into their own or getting there on CtP. It's a big investment for them." Hanrahan sends print-ready PDF files to suppliers and relies 100% on digital proofs. "Communication between our printer and production personnel is vital to ensure that what we approve digitally is what we expect to be achieved on press."
So, what advice does Hanrahan have for those looking to manufacture offshore? "You need to work with reputable companies, or at least those whom you can trust. Word-of-mouth from counterparts in the industry is good. Be very clear in your instructions—write it all out clearly when sending artwork or requesting quotes—and follow up with a phone call to make sure the written instructions or queries are understood. Be firm in what you want, and make sure that the price you have negotiated has all specifications stated," she says.
Rockport Publishing
"We started exploring CtP workflow mainly for our Web design books, which have lots of digital screen grabs and therefore are less color-critical," says production director Barbara States. "The decision to use direct-to-plate or conventional methods of color-separation/filming depends very much on a title's subject matter and target audience. Last year, we did six titles on CtP and we'll do about 10 this year. One recent title, the two-color, icon-laden Visual Thesaurus, was one of our first direct-to-plate projects and also the first to sport a silk-screened vinyl cover. Midas did a first-rate job on both CtP and full-color printing. Another title, Fashion Icon, has a large amount of digital images and an audience with highly sophisticated image palette. It had a longer process, with the repro handled by Provision—a Singapore broker—and the films later sent to Leefung-Asco for printing. We signed off this project on press proofs," says States.
For Rockport—a publishing house known for its glossy graphic design, interior design and crafts titles—quality and color accuracy is paramount. States explains, "We have an image to live up to. Generally speaking, digital color-proofing is tricky at best, and this is where press proofing has a distinct advantage. We still output films and do press proofing for most projects because color is so crucial to our audience. Our signed-off proofs use actual printing stock, and these accompany the films to our printer. We essentially preflight every book this way."
Rockport, now under its parent company Quarto Publishing (U.K.), publishes about 80 titles per year, with only three or four titles requiring some hand-assembly. Its first print runs average 6,000 to 8,000 copies. "Currently, Hong Kong/China suppliers handle 60% of our printing. We also use a Canadian supplier for our Fair Winds list, which is pretty straightforward black text and therefore suitable for direct-to-plate," says States. "For repro, we have several options: we liaise directly with Hong Kong Scanner Arts or we use Provision, which in turn sends the projects out to Sang Choy and United Graphics in Singapore. About 20% of our repro goes to Hong Kong."
States started working with Asian suppliers about 12 years ago and got her feet wet through Regent Publishing. "After a couple of years, and with George Tai's introduction, I was able to do the sourcing myself. It's relatively easy to get to know different suppliers. I also pick up new vendors at book fairs like BEA and by talking to counterparts in the industry. So far I haven't encountered any major problems manufacturing in Asia. Even the issue of two-day FedEx lag-time is now being overcome by e-mailing files to our suppliers."
Play Bac Publishing
In 1989, this company launched Les Incollables—a series of curriculum-based q&as for 2—12-year-olds—sold 30 million sets worldwide and continues to sell one every 15 seconds! In the U.S. alone, 20 million copies were sold under its BrainQuest trademark.
Children's products, especially innovative ones, are Play Bac's forte. Here's one recent example: L'Eventail, a stack of 32 die-cut cards held together by a screw. It won the best packaging prize from Strategies magazine and is repackaged differently as Fandex in the U.S. Says international manager April Dahlberg, "Our team spent weeks working on packaging prototypes with our supplier Tien Wah Press (Singapore). We used jigsaw-like impositions to optimize paper usage and minimize tooling/die-cutting costs. The whole manufacturing process took six weeks, and we were there with our supplier every single step of the way. It's a long stretch to be away from the office, but it's definitely great for building strong client-supplier partnership."
In addition to manufacturing 35% of its projects in Singapore, Play Bac also uses Leo Paper in Hong Kong (15%), plus domestic suppliers in France (35%) and from other European countries. So, does Dahlberg intend to move some titles back now that European suppliers are reducing quotes to remain competitive? "Not in the near future, that's for sure. European suppliers can slash their pricing only so much because fixed costs remain unchanged, if not rising. Depending on the nature of the projects, some money may be saved on transportation by manufacturing domestically. But for the last few months, as the euro gained on the U.S. dollar, we saw further price reductions from our Asian suppliers. It's a good time for us to continue manufacturing offshore."
So what are the biggest minuses Play Bac has encountered manufacturing in Asia? "It's the time factor: the one-month shipping lead time can be a real handicap, and air freight is just too costly. Quotations, especially for complex projects, may also take up to three weeks. Communication-wise, 'yes' may not always mean exactly that. It takes time to develop good and clear communication. Then there's the usual issue of meeting deadlines and scheduling during peak publishing/manufacturing season."
Play Bac started using CtP a little over six years ago, and for the past three years, 90% of its projects are direct-to-plate. Dahlberg says, "We supply digital proofs with the files and our Asian suppliers run out one or two signatures of wet/press proofs for color validation. And because we have color-critical products, we do press checks for every first print run, regardless of manufacturing location or print volume."
She adds, "Desktop publishing has completely changed the pre-press and printing business. The technology used by publishers today—as well as their demands—has pushed Asian suppliers to innovate and be less reliant on their low manufacturing costs. As a result, print quality from Asia is now just as good as that from Europe, and in some cases, better!"
Chronicle Books
"We are making a calculated transition to digital workflow," says executive director for production Shona Bayley, "and right now only 10% of our projects are direct-to-plate, but we aim to increase that to 50% over the next 18 months. Our present focus is on finding the best methodology for our color-critical and varied products." "Varied" aptly describes Chronicle Books, a company best known for its beautiful design, art, architecture and photography books. It now produces some 300 new products per year: 55% trade and children's books and 45% gift/books-plus.
"We still work mainly with originals—transparencies or art—and we contract pre-press bureaus both here and in Asia to supply either films or files. Our team visits Asian suppliers two or three times a year to keep the lines of communication open for easier project development, to do press checks and discuss contracts. We also invite our larger suppliers to visit us in San Francisco once or twice annually to go over project specifics/contracts and basically to forge a closer partnership."
She continues, "We have worked less and less with brokers over the years as we learn to cultivate direct relationships with Asian suppliers. Only about 2% of our present titles go through print brokers. But that's not to say that they aren't important. For first-timers to the Asian manufacturing scene, brokers are indispensable. All the same, whether it's direct liaison with suppliers or going through brokers, the success in manufacturing offshore—or anywhere—is in partnering those who share your work philosophy and concerns about quality and ethics."
Any other advice? Bayley notes, "You must give yourself time to adjust to manufacturing offshore and to build working relationships with suppliers. It's equally important to see as many sample works as possible and ask for references if possible. Walking your chosen supplier through your workflow is crucial to making sure you're on the same page, so to speak, in terms of technology and requirements."
