GNC
Sign up for updates
hp.com/go/getupdated
Case study | Great Northern Corporation
© Copyright 2017 HP Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP
products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed
as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
4AA6-9528ENW, March 2017
Challenge
Lower volumes, versioning,
and fast-turnaround
Great Northern Corporation is one of the largest
independent producers of corrugated packaging,
folding cartons and in-store displays in the US.
The company provides complete solutions to
consumer goods manufacturers and retailers,
handling everything from pencil sketch through
delivery to stores. Operating ve major manufacturing
facilities in the Midwest, Great Northern also has
extensive customer service, design and prepress
groups. “As a high-service, value-added company,
our business is based on fast turnaround, a turnkey
approach, and high quality design,” explains
Mike Schliesmann, Senior Vice President at GNC.
“Our job is to enable customers to have a fast time
to market; it’s why we do everything in-house.”
In business since 1962, Great Northern has extensive
experience in adapting to market changes, including
continuing trends toward reduced volumes, more
customization, and more retailer-specic displays.”
Schliesmann notes that those trends have accelerated
over the past 3-5 years, in part fueled by retailer
consolidation, leading to fewer promotions and
shorter run lengths. At the same time, customers
are demanding faster turnarounds.
“Those are all things that the digital world seems to
be able to address. Versioning, for example, is very
diicult with analog, but is answered very well in the
digital process.”
By 2015, having used an HP Scitex FB7600 Industrial
Press for several years, which proved the concept
of digital for retail displays, it needed to increase its
digital capacity and productivity. It was also time to
take advantage of technology advances that would
enable higher image quality and substrate versatility.
Solution
Investing and partnering with HP
In November 2015, Great Northern installed the
HP Scitex 15500 Corrugated Press at its Chippewa
Falls, Wisconsin plant, where it produces retail displays.
The goal: to gain improved image quality and higher
speed, for faster turnaround and increased capacity.
“With the HP Scitex FB7600 we were getting maybe
30 sheets an hour or 90 with the multi-loader; whereas
on the HP Scitex 15500 we’re running at 80 an hour,
giving us 240 sheets an hour with the multiloader.
That’s a more than 100% improvement in productivity,
at a higher image quality,” says Schliesmann.
More recently, Great Northern also invested in an
HP PageWide T400S Press, due to be installed in
its Oshkosh, Wisconsin laminated folding carton
production facility in early 2017.
“With the savings in waste and setup time, we really
see that this has the potential to be the mainstay
printing process for our facility,” says Schliesmann.
“Our goal is to move 50% of our current production at
that facility to digital in the rst year. Beyond that, it’s
the whole value proposition of digital that will help us
grow our business – versioning, variable data, quick
turnaround, better response to customers’ demands,
and inventory reduction.”
Results
Growing by oering new value
As a major corrugated converter, digital accounts for
only a very small percentage of GNC’s sales, but it
nevertheless plays an important role in the company’s
strategy. With the ability, using digital printing, to
provide value-based solutions to customers,
Great Northern has been able to secure a larger
portion of some customers’ business.
“Originally we touted digital as this new great thing we
do. Now, we consider it one of our work stream options.
We often don’t even tell our customers its digital.
As we upgrade our HP presses, the quality gets even
better so we have greater customer acceptance. And
the speeds get better too, which allows us to be more
production friendly.”
Schliesmann expects Great Northern’s new and
upcoming HP presses will enable Great Northern
to grow by enabling it to oer value propositions
that it can’t oer now. “For example, today we have
customers in our folding carton facility who want
four dierent packages in stores for the holidays,
which is this week. We can do it today, but it’s a very
time, labor, and oor-consuming process. With the
HP T400S Press, it doesn’t matter if they want 4, 10
or 20 versions; we can run them all consecutively and
they are all integrated in the work stream.”
In parallel with the addition of the HP Scitex 15500
Corrugated Press and the HP PageWide T400S Press,
Great Northern is active in the development advisory
group for the HP PageWide C500 Press and will be an
early adopter of the press.
“We see the C500 as a very strong evolution beyond the
15500, because of the output speed as a single-pass
digital press and also because of the quality. It’s a
suitable litho replacement that will allow us to expand
our digital quantities.”
Schliesmann comments that Great Northern’s
years-long partnership with HP has had signicant
impact at the strategic level. “Having the opportunity
to see what HP is doing and to provide input has
helped us see what we want to do with our business.
Beyond helping us to add more points of value to
our customers, it has helped us stay aware of future
technologies and how we might bring them to our
customer base.”
Learn more at
hp.com/go/pagewide
“ Digital has opened doors to
allow us to solve problems for
customers and keep a bigger
chunk of their business.
We’ve had pretty broad-based
acceptance among our
customers, so it is now one
of our converting options,
allowing us to provide
value-based solutions in
the areas we need them.”
– Mike Schliesmann, Senior Vice President,
Great Northern Corporation
Industry:
Corrugated packaging, folding cartons
Company name:
Great Northern Corporation
Location:
Appleton, Wisconsin USA
HP equipment:
HP Scitex 15500 Corrugated Press,
HP PageWide T400S Press early 2017
Website:
greatnortherncorp.com