The Book - According to Paul Parisi , Interviewed by Sajith

The Book According to Paul Parisi



Paul Parisi is president of Acme Bookbinding, a family-owned Charlestown, Massachusetts-based trade shop and industry icon that specialises in binding books - of all shapes and sizes - as long as the customer wants a quality product. The company traces its beginnings to 1821 and the J G Roberts Company. This makes Acme Bookbinding the oldest continuously operated book
bindery in the world.

Over the years, the company has grown from a one-person basement operation to a manufacturer with a staff of 185 operating in a modern 100,000square-foot facility that has world-class systems and machinery.

Acme binds thousands of single copy hardcover books every day, many of which are for private clients. Acme's hardcover and softcover products can be Smyth sewn or adhesive bound with hotmelt, PUR or PVA. Its products include case binding and paperback binding, textbook rebinding, and library binding. Through one of its divisions, Acme Bookbinding serves printers, publishers, libraries, government agencies and other businesses throughout the United
States. Acme'snewest division, Imaging and Digital Printing, offers facsimile reproduction
of out-of-print books and digital printing of short-run books on-demand.
(http://www.acmebook.com/)

Paul Parisi was in India on a holiday with his family, visiting Rajasthan, Agra, Kerala (God's own country ; Welbound’s too) and Mumbai.

WT met him at Mumbai. Although he was on a holiday, Parisi was keen to keep tabs with business trends in India, the methods of binding / systems etc. He visited Jak Printers at Mumbai, the award winning integrated print house to observe and discuss the state of book manufacturing in India.

Paul Parisi compared notes with Khushru Patel and Aspi ---- of Jak. His passion for book binding technology was massive. He is hands-on, as far as the techniques are concerned. Though Harvard educated, he is proud to call himself a book binder, by profession. The knowledge has been painstakingly created thanks to running a modern book binding house, as well as various
visits of leading book manufacturers world over.


WT : What is the most important equipment in your bindery ?.
PP: We have Kolbus Perfect Binding Lines, Muller Martini hard cover lines, Custom-made “ On Demand case making machines” that can make seven different cases per minute - every case being of a different size, etc, the list goes on. But the most important tool in our bindery does not occupy any floor space. It is our software custom made to oversee the complex operations.
We have 5000 jobs at any given point of time. More than 3000 unique books are delivered in a day. With such a huge variety it's very easy for things to go wrong - unless you have a strong system and a solid software.


WT : In India, its often said, that by the time the job comes to the binder, and the deliveries are required 'as of yesterday'. What is the scenario in USA?
PP: The very same. Fast deliveries are order of the day. This is a world phenomena. I think, trade binderies will have to face the challenge. There have to be systems which support quick turnaround of jobs. That's our specialty. Also, one needs to be careful. We do what we can do to avoid the temptation to break a job and do "need or urgency based supply", (like supplying 100 books out of the thousand book order - and then resetting the job for the remaining number). Instead, we try to run the entire job at one time. Set-up times are very expensive. Most of us do not calculate this in our cost estimate.

WT: What advise can you give to a book binding house, in an emerging market like
India?
PP: There are six mantras.
1 Do not compromise on Quality. The key is quality control systems. We have never lost a customer due to quality problems. It's the most critical aspect of service. When you control your bindery, you control your destiny!
2 Safety should be given paramount importance as well. It has the highest priority in our factory.
3. It's better to invest in new machines, as you will have less spoilage. You will realise that you will need just one "new machine" to take the place of 2-3 old machines. Typically in cases like folding machines, the folding roller pressure, movement of paper etc are important to ensure that good quality printed sheets do not get damaged. This is decided by the quality of parts; and definitely one cannot expect the same from an old machine. In a modern thread sewing machine one can use thinner threads, set up a job in minutes and run at high speeds, adding value to the sewn job.
4. Quality of consumables. For example, the cost of adhesive is nowhere near the cost of a book which falls apart. When you lose customers for a botched job, they never return. This can damage your reputation in the market.
5. Train yourselves. And keep training your people.
6. When you miss out on a job on price, do an internal evaluation to see if you could have achieved it, economically. There could be a shortfall in your system which made the job expensive. Use such instances for evaluating your costs.


On his way back to the USA, Paul Parisi had warm thoughts about India. "I am very impressed with what I saw at JAK. I am certain that the Indian book printers and binders can meet standards desirable in the world market by staying focused on the above points".