Manroland in financial trouble

[Erik Nikkanen]

Manroland is in serious financial trouble. Not too surprised. I think manroland and Langley are both to blame for this situation. Manroland has not innovative enough to separate itself from the competition and Langley, as an engineering company, has failed to evaluate the technical capability of manroland's engineering abilities and in understanding the issues of the fundamental performance of offset presses. They had opportunities to investigate potential innovations but both were happy to ignore them. In a shrinking market, the only way to survive and also to grow is to provided innovation that performs better and costs less that your competition. Innovation requires valid knowledge and if you don't have enough, you need to get more.

 

[drukman]

If it weren't for innovation (the unique technical ingenuity), Evolution Roland wouldn't be in this situation. The incompetent designers killed the company.... most likely by order. The policy of limiting service, lack of information and undervaluing old staff are deadly.
I can tell you in detail how bad management has been killing the company for the last 15 years.
I installed my first Roland in 1989. I have only serviced Roland for 36 years. I can explain what happened. No one is interested. This is the tragedy.

 

[Erik Nikkanen]

If it weren't for innovation (the unique technical ingenuity), Evolution Roland wouldn't be in this situation. The incompetent designers killed the company.... most likely by order. The policy of limiting service, lack of information and undervaluing old staff are deadly.
I can tell you in detail how bad management has been killing the company for the last 15 years.
I installed my first Roland in 1989. I have only serviced Roland for 36 years. I can explain what happened. No one is interested. This is the tragedy.

My specific interest is in the design of offset presses and how that has an impact on competitiveness. Opportunities have been wasted. Your experience seems to be with dealing with the company over many years and the practical issues of installation and commissioning presses. I am curious what you perspective is on the problems they have had. Probably different from my perspective but could be very interesting. Please comment of how you see things. Thanks.

 

[drukman]

Structurally, R700 has not changed.
But: in order to be cheap, the bushings of the plate cylinder bearings have been removed. The automatic bearing lubrication on the B side of the machine has been upgraded and I now have locked bearings in both places. The face is modernized by artists. Not convenient for work, narrow and inaccessible for service.
However, these are the small problems that customers don't know about.
What is really scary is the construction of the electronics. The machine is closed for unauthorized service. (at least that's what they want to do in Roland) The service that Roland maintains is low paid = low qualified.
In 1990-2005 the customer could reinstall the software himself. Now he can't even read all the errors.
All departments at Roland strive to make themselves indispensable. They strive for complication (inaccessibility). Electronics are complicated to the point of being inaccessible. Service keys are changed every 6 months. An external service cannot buy them.
An external service cannot have information.
This attempt to take the customer's money twice. First for the machine and second for maintenance. When the service is not qualified, motivated and very fast, the customer chooses another brand.
The office managers have no interest in selling machines. There are retirees without any aspirations.

In conclusion: Expensive, non-functional, low-quality, (but locked) electronics. Mechanical modifications with a low financial result, but serious operational problems.
Intervention of artists in the external construction.

It turned out a girl with silicone breasts and lips. It has a face, no mind.

 

[Erik Nikkanen]

Thanks for your perspective. It certainly does not paint a pretty picture. The process of printing is basically squeezing ink and paper together. I am an engineer and it has shocked me to see the engineers in this industry failing to see how the process actually works and also making the process much more complicated for no good reason. When one understands the fundamental causes of problems, it makes solving them much more predictable and less costly. That is not a goal of the engineering community in the printing industry. This seems to confirm your view also.

It also does not help when the customers, the press operators and print company owners, continually praise and support the suppliers publicly and say how great the process works instead of being critical of the lack of consistency and predictability and cost of the tech that they have to use. I have found that it is impossible to help an industry that does not want to be helped. No point in trying too hard to do that.

 

[drukman]

I am not (anymore) trying to fix Roland's problems. I am sorry that this industry has gone the way of the automobile industry. I have no more than 10 years of work left. Machines manufactured before 2010 will work that long.
Europe's rush to catch up with China in producing bad and cheap goods will take it to where China left off 20 years ago.
There is no mechanic in my area who has done this. And no one wants to learn.

 

[Erik Nikkanen]

Manroland is in serious financial trouble. Not too surprised. I think manroland and Langley are both to blame for this situation. Manroland has not innovative enough to separate itself from the competition and Langley, as an engineering company, has failed to evaluate the technical capability of manroland's engineering abilities and in understanding the issues of the fundamental performance of offset presses. They had opportunities to investigate potential innovations but both were happy to ignore them. In a shrinking market, the only way to survive and also to grow is to provided innovation that performs better and costs less that your competition. Innovation requires valid knowledge and if you don't have enough, you need to get more.

Manroland is closing for good. No buyers were found to keep it alive. Apparently, parts and service will still be available.

 

[drukman]

Parts will be available as long as they are available. When 5 pieces remain, the price increases 10 times. When 3 pieces remain, the price increases another 10 times. Spare parts ARE AVAILABLE. No one has specified anywhere at what price.

 

[thunderbird press]

has it officially closed for good? i cant find that information anywhere and my friend that works there says they are still looking for a buyer

 

[Erik Nikkanen]

has it officially closed for good? i cant find that information anywhere and my friend that works there says they are still looking for a buyer

Here are some links to the story.

The clocks have stopped for Manroland Sheetfed – Print Business – for Forward Thinking Printing

printbusiness.co.uk

also

Manroland Sheetfed Closing Down - PrintCAN

PrintCAN- Canada's Graphic Arts Web Centre. Twice weekly printing Industry News, Job board targeting all printing industry jobs, internet directory

printcan.com

I am actually surprised at how few comments have appeared in the industry media about this. It is as if no one actually cares. Actually Langley and manroland did not care enough to make the innovations required to support company success. Poor management and no vision.

 

[drukman]

With such a poorly designed machine as the Evolution, bankruptcy is a fact. It's a shame, but I've never seen such a shoddy machine from Roland. I won't say what the service is like. There's no such rubbish. There's no such policy.