Kornit Web To Print (W2P) Workflow
Introduction
We produced a workflow which allows items in our platform to be managed and fed into kornit printers and out to couriers in an easy barcode driven workflow. This workflow takes into account all parts of the production cycle
- Setting up your products
- Getting orders in from Retailers
- Generating print ready artwork
- Picking stock
- Printing
- Quality Control
- Additional Branding
- Consolidation and Dispatch
This workflow utilizes the Kornit RIP integration 'Kornit QuickP Auto Crop' more information on this function can be found here.
Setting up Products
This section assumes you already know the basics of blank product setup and already have your blank products created and just need to add kornit specific setup to them, if that is not the case then before continuing you should ensure you are familiar with this area of Product Manager
Please note that the aspect print area's must be the same size as the relevant pallet's print area.
Our integration runs off file naming rather than KSF files and other methods you may be familiar with. The naming of files allows us to drive 4 elements of how a file is treated when picked up by the Kornit machine.
- Kornit Setup
- Kornit Table
- X Offset
- Y Offset
Using a combination of these on products you can ensure the right settings are passed for print with the artwork. Attributes sets are used to create the file name.
In the example below we have separated the attribute sets in to different colours , however this will differ for yourself, as standard you will probably have 3 different colour setups (white,light and dark ) and multiple sizes tables. An attribute set will need to be set up for each combination.
To create an attribute set in the platform please click in the bottom left corner and go to Settings> Attribute Sets as shown below.
Once clicking into the Attribute Sets you will be brought to the following screen, displaying your created Attribute Sets.
To create a new Attribute Set, simply click on the button'+ Add Set' button.
Within the "+ Add Set" option you must set a name and select your company from the Owner drop-down box and save.
An Attributes button will appear on the left after saving, click on it and add the attributes one by one.
If the product has one print area you will need to just set up a basic attribute set where the attribute name and the value are added to the relevant fields shown in the below table.
attribute.name | attribute.value |
| Kornit Setup | Teeblack |
Kornit Table | Standard Platten |
The Kornit Offsets for X and Y are do not need to be manually set on the attribute sets, as these are created dynamically by the system based on the image position against the print area on the product.
If you have previously set up the Kornit Offsets for X and Y these will be ignored and the dynamically created one's will be used instead.
Optional: Advanced Print Area Settings - This section only applies to advanced uses of the Kornit workflow
It is possible if required to allow you to have different Kornit attributes on your blank and virtual products per Print Area. For example the Front and Back print areas of a t-shirt will have different pallet name set up than the Sleeve print areas.
The attributes set are set up in the same way, except you have multiple 'Kornit Table' values, each referencing the appropriate Print Area (or Print Layout) name. If you do this, you MUST create one Kornit Table per Print Area (or Layout) on the product.
Example 1 - Print Area name
attribute.name | attribute.value |
Kornit Setup | TeeBlack |
Kornit Table Front | Standard Pallet |
Kornit Table Back | Standard Pallet |
Kornit Table Left Sleeve | Sleeve Platten |
Kornit Table Right Sleeve | Sleeve Platten |
Example 2 - Print Layout names
attribute.name | attribute.value |
Kornit Setup | TeeBlack |
Kornit Table Front Layout | Standard Necktag Pallet |
Kornit Table Back Layout | Standard Pallet |
The use of attributes sets allows products can be set up with multiple colour aspects and Print sizes combinations.
Product variants will be used to define which attribute set is used for each size/colour combination. each variant must be set up with the variant 'SKU', 'Aspect Option', 'Production Attribute' and 'Print Size'
On the link below there is a guide on how to create variant skus - Click Here
Setting up Order Manager and QuickP
As standard you need to make a Kornit production centre company and consolidation batches in Platform. This dynamically adds the Kornit X and Y offsets and enables you to download the files in the correct naming convention to be ingested by QuickP.
If you do not have a Production Centre company, one will need to created and the RIP integration 'Kornit QuickP Auto Crop' will need to be enabled on it.
A consolidation batch will then need to be created for each product type with all of the reliant SKU's and the Kornit production centre company added to it. The example below show a batch template for black t-shirts
Please find linked here the guide to creating Job Templates - Link
To allow quick processing of artwork from the Platform to QuickP you should set the Downloads folder in your browser to be the hotfolder location that QuickP is set to feed from. The following links are are third party help on setting up the download location on some common browsers
Workflow
A workflow diagram visually detailing the generally approved workflow is below
The actual workflow is split into the following steps
- Picking Stock
- Printing
- Quality Control
- Additional Branding
- Consolidation and Dispatch
Picking Stock
The first part of the process is to pick your blank stock for orders in the Platform. This can be done multiple times a day.
Log into the Platform and under PRODUCTION > JOBS you can see all pending order batches. For stock picking you are only interested in batches in the “Pending Production” status. You can select one, multiple or all of these batches and under bulk actions select “Download Picking Labels”.
Stock picking labels are printed grouped as logically as possible to make picking easier.
The standard stock picking label size output by the system is 100 x 35mm, an example of this is here - https://www.aalabels.com/roll-labels/rectangle/c1122/
Heat resistant stock picking labels - Labels should ideally be purchased as Heat Resistant as we are dealing with heat presses and drying on Kornit machines and this will mean the labels do not come off during any processes.
Using a site like the below you can cater to your needs depending on the label printer purchased.
100 x 35 mm recommended - LINK
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Label Printer - for stock picking labels - There are a large volume of suitable printers available and part of this depends on the type of labels you settle on, heat resistant labels generally require Thermal Transfer printers which are more expensive at their initial cost but add the benefits to production already detailed in this report. It is important to ensure you buy labels and printers compatible with each other taking into consideration factors such as maximum media width and core diameter for example. The following link is one is just an example - LINK
An example of our standard stock picking label is below.
It is recommended to set the “Stock Picking” label option under Documents in the dropship companies advanced setting to “Standard By Item Quantity”. This option allows the system to print one stock label pet item quantity on the order so each item can have its own label.
Printing
So you now have your stack of garments by the Kornit ready to print. Assuming you have completed the setup to ensure the browser downloads into the QuickP hotfolder mentioned in the “Setting up Order Manager and QuickP” section above then the process for printing is simple.
- Ensure your machine running the printer is logged into the Platform and the Print Station Scanpoint - https://platform.kornitx.net/v3/floor/item-print
- Use a barcode scanner (codebar) or type in the number from the stock picking label on the garment you need to print.
- This will bring up a screen showing you a preview and details of the area that you need to print
- Either scan the screen (only works on imaging barcode scanners) or hit the “Print Artwork” to download the artwork to the hotfolder. This will have the naming convention from the above sections.
- Load the garment onto the Kornit Table and print.
- Remove the garment and pass through any drying process you have.
Using this feature we can now set the ability for a KSF override file to now appear on a job template.
Quality Control Station Setup
The next scan point when items come off the drying process is Quality Control (QC), this is an important step because it allows operators not just a quality check touch point but also on screen guidance about the next step in this products production cycle.
The QC Station scanpoint is available here - https://platform.kornitx.net/v3/floor/item-qa
On scanning the item you will be able to see previews and details of each print areas status.
On this example the T-Shirt in question has 2 print areas, Front and Back.
- Front is in the status “IN PRODUCTION”
- Back is in the status “PENDING PRODUCTION”
To the operator they can know from this that the FRONT print area needs to be checked BUT that the product has another area needing printing so they can pass the garment back to the relevant print operator for further decoration.
To proceed with the QC of each area the QC Operator just needs to select the relevant area on the left, this will bring up a screen specific to that area with 2 large barcodes which can be scanned or clicked to pass or fail.
On fail a popup will appear to select a reason and the item will go into the “QC Query” status which should be monitored and managed by production managers.
On pass the status of the print area will change to QC Passed. When all Print areas on the item are in QC Passed the QC screen will give a visual cue as to where the operator needs to take the item in one of 2 options
- Proceed to Branding
- Proceed to Shipping
Additional Branding
This step is strictly optional but in some workflows does add a very valuable step.
The Platform has the ability to run branding stations. For example if you had a requirement to apply different branded or item specific hangtags or neck labels to garments this step can manage that for you seamlessly.
From a setup perspective this should be done through attribute sets. Each unique set of branding elements should be added to an attribute set
So for example 2 sets might be:
Set Name - Disney Garments
Attribute 1 Name - Hangtag
Attribute 1 Value - Disney (bin 29)
Attribute 2 Name - Neck Label
Attribute 2 Value - Disney (bin 30)
Set Name - Marvel Garments
Attribute 1 Name - Hangtag
Attribute 1 Value - Marvel (bin 108)
Attribute 2 Name - Neck Label
Attribute 2 Value - Marvel (Bin 12)
These attributes can be anything that might be item specific, it could be branded packaging, advertising material etc etc.
Each product in Product Manager can have an attribute set allocated to it in the E-Commerce & Data section under “Branding Attribute Set” as shown below.
As long as the product has a set allocated to this it will trigger the branding station step to be available on the workflow.
Images can also be applied to each attribute to give a visual representation (for example a picture of the neck labels)
The Branding Station scanpoint is available here - https://platform.kornitx.net/v3/floor/item-branding
The Shipping Station in the next step always follows branding so any item that has branding completed should be passed over for shipping.
Consolidation and Shipping
The Shipping Station scanpoint is available here - https://platform.kornitx.net/v3/floor/item-shipping
The Shipping scanpoint is where we connect into all of our integrated couriers and aggregators to book in and get your shipping labels / paperwork (Shipping integrations are optional but recommended).
The scanpoint will allow multi item orders to be consolidated by providing a bin number where the item should be put until the remainder of the order is complete - a more in depth article on bins and their setup is available here - Link
When scanning single item orders or the last item on the order the Platform will show a label for printing which should be applied to the box and assuming we are connected to your courier the item will be booked in with them and ready for collection. Any tracking details will have been automatically added to the order and fed back to any retailers needing to be aware of it.
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