Jan. 1, 2007—Man Roland held its annual Editors Dinner in Chicago, Dec. 5 and 6. The focus of the trip, in which editors and publishers from industry publications across North America participated, was a visit to packaging printer Accord Carton in Alsip, Ill., as well as a tour of the Man Roland Technology Center in the Chicago suburbs.

Founded in 1940, Accord remains a family-owned business, now in its third generation. The firm's current home is a facility originally built by Keebler for inventory and shipping. It features a fully automated storage system, in which robotic pallet movers, called AGVs, move pallets of printed material from the production floor to the massive, five-story-tall inventory area, and back out again at the push of a button. Everything is tracked. Not only can Accord pinpoint the exact location of any job at any time in the shop, its clients can as well.

In addition to a variety of die cutters, gluers, and other finishing equipment, the workhorse of the shop is the firm's Man Roland 700 press. It is producing enough materials that the die-cutting department is getting backed up-the company has plans to invest in another machine in the near future. However, Accord admits that once that problem is solved, the gluing department will be the one falling behind, and additional capacity may have to be added.

At the Technology Center, attendees were able to see the 700, as well as the new 500 press-which made its North American debut at Graph Expo this year-on display.