Over 300 participants from more than 20 countries around the world attended the MPS Grand Prix of Performance, the first virtual event hosted by MPS. The event, which was held June 10, 2021, revealed MPS’ new logo and brand promise: Connect to Grow.

MPS shared its expertise in connectivity that uses unbiased data and in-depth advice to improve quality, performance, and total cost of ownership (TCO) of the printing press.

“Our main objective of the Grand Prix of Performance event was to show label and packaging printers how to get their productivity higher, losses lower, and be far more flexible,” says Atze Bosma, CEO of MPS. “We also wanted to communicate how MPS is committed to continuous performance improvements so that we can help our customers stay ahead. I am extremely pleased to hear the positive feedback from participants after the event, confirming our objective was successfully met.”

With its new brand promise – Connect to Grow – MPS looks beyond the machine together through intensive cooperation with its customers to address all aspects involving the printing press, to help them achieve the best performance and maximum return from their MPS machine.
A new logo, brand identity, and a new “MPSConnect” service that ties in with the Connect to Grow vision was revealed during the event. A new website is also in development with preliminary pages available to view here.

To highlight its new vision, MPS turned its Technology & Expertise Center into a real 8-hour label production plant running jobs provided by Dutch printing houses Eshuis, GT-Etiketten & Labels and EDNN. Introduced was MPSConnect, which showed how data from the entire production was collected and transformed into informative insights.

Bosma adds, “It was really important to us to show a real production environment, with real challenges. Not a perfectly prepared demonstration, but the real deal, where real mistakes are made by real people. We’ve honestly shown what needed improvement by the fact-based data coming directly from the printing press.”

Hans Poortinga, global manager, Technology and Expertise Centers, and Eric Hoendervangers, co-founder of MPS, shared live updates of real production data with participants throughout the event. Shown was exactly what was happening with the printing press including speed, job changeover time, downtime, waste, total production, and more insights. 

Poortinga states, “With total production of 36,054 meters, only 2,599 linear meters was total waste – around 7%, which is pretty low. But this 7% waste can be improved. With MPSConnect and the MPS performance team, we can lower the waste figure. It is an improvement process we offer.”

Illustrated by the Grand Prix theme, a special guest was invited to give an expert talk. Jan Lammers, a former Formula 1 driver and 24 Hours of Le Mans winner spoke, about the strength of winning teams, his international racing experiences and pit stop technology. “To achieve a common goal, you first have to connect within your own team.”

To learn from other industries, MPS invited Koen Uyttenhove, owner of ODYC Digital Innovation. Uyttenhove spoke about the successful use of IoT and data in the agricultural industry, and how connectivity is equally important for the printing industry.

In two sessions with four seminars, participants got tips and tricks on performance improvement from the MPS experts. Frank ten Broeke explained how to treat a changeover like an F1 pit stop; Poortinga showed the effects of running higher speeds without affecting print quality; Bosma demonstrated how to calculate TCO of the printing press; and Leopold der Nederlanden explained how to measure and reduce waste with best practices.

“All the tips and insights on performance improvement presented during the MPS Grand Prix event were shared to help printers increase their productivity. We really wanted to show the world how we are committed to Connect to Grow,” Bosma concludes. “We thank everyone who attended and helped make this a successful virtual event for MPS.”