Flexible production on demand & web-to-print

University of Miskolc logo

Flexible production on demand & web-to-print

Flexible production on demand & web-to-print

With historic origins going back to the 18th century, the public University of Miskolc in northern Hungary has today evolved into a scientific centre of regional and national importance. Earth Science & Engineering, Materials Science Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering & Informatics still are the most important faculties. However, the fields of Economics, Law, Arts, Health and Music are also covered, offering a comprehensive university education that fulfils the requirements of the Bologna System. In line with this and joining forces with Konica Minolta as their sole partner, the university achieved a comprehensive modernisation of its printing facilities that includes convenient web-to-print as well as flexible on demand production of printed materials for students, lecturers and external customers.


Historical with a modern touch

The beginnings of the University of Miskolc in Hungary go back to the 18th century, when a technical school of mining and metallurgy was first founded in the area. Today, the university is the biggest higher educational institution of Northern Hungary and a scientific centre of great regional and national importance. The university has 9 different faculties, of which Earth Science & Engineering (formerly mining), Materials Science Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering & Informatics are the institution’s strongest. Since 2006, the university has been completely restructured into an internationally oriented organisation that focuses on students being educated within the Bologna System. According to its motto, the university considers itself “a competitive member of the European higher education region.” These days, the number of students exceeds 12,000.


From rigid offset production ...

The university’s central printing facilities (CRD) are run together with the university library and the publishing department. Print production is extensive and includes all documents and materials required in larger quantities, such as


  • Educational material, e.g. lecture documentation, handbooks, examination forms, etc.
  • Marketing collateral, including flyers, brochures, newsletters, business cards, etc.
  • Student magazines
  • Course material ordered by students
  • General print orders from external customers


In the past, this CRD relied on inflexible offset technology and was staffed with a team of 7 operators. The entire setup was time-consuming and ineffective as production was based on large offset print runs so that the extensive material quantities produced lasted for long periods of time. Consequently, mistakes could not easily be corrected, prints frequently became outdated and a lot of printed material was wasted, not even taking into account the huge amount of space required for storage of the prints. In other words, the entire operation was much more costly than it needed to be!


... to flexible printing on demand

Eventually the decision was made to turn the university CRD into a profit center. The challenge was to transform the production unit into working more flexibly and productively, to streamline the order and production workflows, and to enhance the overall cost efficiency. Joining forces with Konica Minolta, two professional printing presses were introduced (bizhub PRO C6000 and bizhub PRO 1051, both with SD-506 finishing equipment). 


The second essential change was a comprehensive modernisation of the university’s IT, enabling users to transmit their print jobs via a customised University Internet page. To achieve this, Konica Minolta installed AccurioPro Flux Ultimate. With this system the CRD is no longer available only for internal use but also to students and lecturers; and print services are even offered to external customers. The Print Room operates now as a profit centre for the organisation. With the new digital presses, all of the printed products vrequired by the university are flexibly produced in small quantities and in much better quality. The fact that new “customers” could be gained increases the overall print volume and makes the operation of the CRD economically more viable. At the same time, the entire operation now only requires 4 employees instead of the 7 that were needed before.


Enhanced service and user satisfaction

The solution implemented by Konica Minolta provides comprehensive answers to all of the university’s needs and challenges. By combining hardware and software from one supplier, the university is now only dealing with a single professional and highly competent partner who provides everything – and helps Miskolc University to deliver a modern and up-to-date service to lecturers and students. Besides the gain in flexibility and productivity, the improvements achieved include for example cost savings of up to 40% thanks to the reduced manpower now required to run the CRD. In addition, green aspects and sustainability are fulfilled by dramatically reducing the amount of printed paper and especially wasted prints.