For print shops
The wrong sequence
costs more than any rush order.
Whoever schedules orders without setup-time logic loses machine hours on the offset press — and blocks the folding machine and perfect binder before the printing is even finished. Gantway shows you press scheduling, shift handovers and finishing in a single view.
Gantway Gantt — press scheduling across shifts, with zoom levels from hourly detail to the weekly view
Eight zoom levels from the 15-minute slot to the monthly view. Shift operation, machine sequence and finishing in a single Gantt view.
A typical print shop
25 people,
40 open orders, one folding machine that's too slow.
Whoever plans only the press plans only half. Finishing decides whether the order ships on time.
Das Problem
Five problems
that cost print shops money every day.
Print runs in the wrong sequence — setup time goes to waste.
A 500-sheet short-run order squeezed between two color families costs the same plate change as 50,000 sheets. Whoever doesn't sort the sequence by setup costs burns machine hours on orders that never pay off.
Offset done — folding machine full.
The press prints on time, but the folding machine is booked until Friday evening. The sheet sits there, delivery slips, the customer calls. Finishing as a bottleneck shows up in no calendar.
40 open orders across four stages — no overall picture.
Printing, finishing, packaging, shipping: which order is stuck at which station? Without a structured overview, the loudest phone call decides what runs next.
Shift change without a reliable handover.
What the early shift started, the late shift only knows from memory or a note on the machine. Setup status, paper consumption, special instructions — passed on verbally, rarely complete.
Rush order comes in — domino effect through every stage.
A regular customer needs 500 flyers by tomorrow. Sounds doable. But where does it jam in the finishing chain? Which existing order slips? Without simulation, the rush order ends as a missed deadline for three other customers.
Wie Gantway hilft
Planning
that knows the print operation from the offset press to the perfect binder.
Station utilization with traffic-light colors in Gantway
Press scheduling in 8 zoom levels — from the shift to the week.
From the hourly beat for the current shift day to the weekly overview for order planning: the digital desk shows all six machines with real utilization. Bottlenecks become visible before a deadline tips over.
View the digital deskStation overload as a conflict marker
Spot conflicts before the plate change comes too late.
When two orders claim the same machine at the same time or a setup buffer is missing, Gantway flags it immediately — not only once the printer stands in front of the empty plate.
View the conflict engineTasks with status badges inside an order
40 orders, four stages — in hand at all times.
Printing, finishing, packaging, shipping: every order has a status, a deadline and a responsible station. No more guessing, no more calling around — just facts.
View order managementPlanned and actual values as KPI tiles in controlling
Machine hourly rate per press — costing becomes honest.
Offset, digital, large format — each machine has its own hourly rate. Gantway calculates the pre-costing at the quote stage and compares it after order completion with the actual times. That way you know which order types pay off.
View pre-/post-costingEmployee pool for assigning via drag & drop
Shift planning with qualifications — the right person on the right machine.
Offset printer, digital-print operator, bookbinder: Gantway knows who is allowed to operate which machine. Shift schedules account for qualifications automatically — no staffing gap, no machine that waits because no one is assigned.
View qualificationsOrders in progress with progress bars
Paper stock live when the order comes in.
Before you give a customer a deadline, you see: is the substrate in stock? Is the stock enough for the run? No more betting between order confirmation and delivery day.
View materials & procurementPrint shop focus
Finishing
is the second bottleneck chain — and the more invisible one.
The press is the flagship, but folding, cutting, binding and packaging decide the delivery date. Whoever doesn't plan these capacities separately delivers late — even when the printing was finished on time.
Gantway digital desk — offset, digital printing, folding machine, perfect binder as stations with utilization
Folding machine and perfect binder as their own resources
When three large orders come out of the offset at the same time, a backlog builds up at the folding machine — one that shows up in no spreadsheet. Gantway maps each finishing station as an independent capacity, with real occupancy.
Calculate throughput time across all stages realistically
Print time plus setup time plus finishing time plus packaging plus shipping buffer gives the real delivery date. Gantway sums these phases automatically — so you give customers reliable dates, not optimistic ones.
Slot in a rush order without a domino effect
When a regular customer needs a brochure at short notice, Gantway shows immediately: where in the finishing chain is there room? Which order can take a slot later without breaking a deadline? That way the rush order stays an exception — not chaos.
Actual times per station — post-costing becomes concrete
How long did folding really take? How much waste occurred during cutting? Gantway captures times and consumption per finishing station. The next costing for the same order type lands much closer to reality.
Was das in Zahlen heißt
Marge, Auslastung, Termine —
an einem Ort.
Machine hourly rate per press, setup effort, paper costs — every line item documented per order. Which orders pay off? Which don't?
- Machine hourly rate per offset press
- Planned/actual color-coded per print run
- Controlling overview across all orders
Gantway controlling — planned/actual per print order with machine hourly rate and setup effort
FAQ
Frequently asked questions. Answered briefly.
How do I plan orders and utilization in a small print shop?
Gantway breaks every order into work steps with dependencies and puts them on a shared planning surface. You see utilization for the coming days and weeks — and bottlenecks stand out before a print run gets stuck.
The Digital Desk in detail Do we keep track of paper and consumables?
Yes. Requirements arise from the orders; stock and purchase orders run in the same system. Every task shows whether its material is sufficient — you order in time, not when the press is already waiting.
Materials & procurement in detail Will we know what an order really cost in the end?
Yes — through pre- and post-costing with labor, material and machine costs per order and line item. Plan versus actual, to the hour and the euro: you see which orders carry the business and which just keep it busy.
Pre- and post-costing in detail What does production planning for a print shop cost?
Gantway comes in three plans, billed by active accounts — scheduled employees without a login cost nothing. Test free for 14 days, no credit card.
See pricing Do we need new hardware or an installation for this?
No. Gantway runs in the browser on the devices you already have. Data is stored GDPR-compliant on servers in Germany and can be exported as CSV at any time.
Your question wasn't answered?
Ask us directly — in a 30-minute demo or by message. A person answers, not a canned reply.
Or by email: kontakt@gantway.com
For print shops
that know their setup times and want to keep their deadlines.
In 15 minutes we'll show you how Gantway brings your press scheduling, shift handovers and finishing chain together in a single view — no paper shuffling, no surprises.
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