3Motion is a family run business in Zele (Belgium), specialized in wide format printing and visual communication. Femke Helon started the company together with her husband, Wouter.
In the first year they did everything manually with 1 printer but due to the rising number of orders they had to hire more employees, that’s when Wouter’s brother joined 3Motion. But the 3 of them couldn’t keep up with the orders so they had to hire even more people and then they decided to move into a bigger space. With this growth came more administrative and graphic work and they started running into problems, so they started looking for ways to automate and reduce human error.
Enfocus Switch to the rescue
With Enfocus Switch they had found the automation they were looking for. Switch wasn’t only good for them in the beginning, it also helped them tremendously when switching to a new ERP system just last year. It’s an investment that is still paying off to this day.
“Sometimes you run into problems with certain programs but if you have Switch, you’ll always find a solution.”
David Leroy, Process Manager at 3Motion, Zele
No prior knowledge necessary
Thanks to Switch’s intuitive design and user-interface, the people at 3Motion were able to start automating immediately. They start by creating a flow for short term problems and then adjust it later if necessary, thereby creating a number of ever-growing flows that can solve most of the problems they face. By automating the solutions to these problems, they save an enormous amount of time.
“There isn’t a single file that doesn’t go through Switch.”
David Leroy, Process Manager at 3Motion, Zele
Continuous growth
Recently, 3Motion moved into a bigger space for the third time, to keep up with their own growth. Thanks to Switch’s automation they are able to attract bigger clients and are now 4 times bigger than they were before they started using Switch.
“We didn’t really notice that growth in terms of workflows because we were always able to adapt through Switch’s automation.”
David Leroy, Process Manager at 3Motion, Zele
The introduction of the Enfocus Appstore
The Enfocus Appstore has also been an important tool for the people at 3Motion. Not only do they use it to find inspiration, but they have also found solutions on the Appstore that they would never have thought of themselves. The Appstore has been very important for them during their rapid growth these past 5 years.
“There’s an app made by MultiPress for our new ERP system which we’ve used constantly since we found it. If we’re looking for a way to do something differently, we look through the Appstore to find inspiration.”
David Leroy, Process Manager at 3Motion, Zele
Automating even more with Enfocus PitStop Pro
On top of Switch and the Appstore 3Motion also uses PitStop Pro for their actions and control points. One problem they had were their complex order labels which were very hard to read, especially because not all of their operators speak the same language. Now they use PitStop to create a simpler version of the order labels, massively boosting their efficiency and their productivity.
“We don’t use it solely for our production but also to edit XML files and to bill partners among other things, it all goes through PitStop.”
David Leroy, Process Manager at 3Motion, Zele
Combining Switch and Phoenix
Thanks to their growth in the past couple of years, they now get big custom orders as well. One example David gave us was an order they received for a thousand banners and all of them were customized in some way. A piece of cake thanks to the combination of Switch and Phoenix, just enter the width of the material and Phoenix will make sure you get the most efficient imposition. A job that would’ve taken hours in the past can now be finished in a couple of minutes.
“One of the flows we use constantly is our imposition flow with Phoenix.”
David Leroy, Process Manager at 3Motion, Zele
