One of my clients, family-owned Cummings Printing, located in Hooksett, New Hampshire, produces a variety of publications, including catalogs, magazines, and newsletters. They’ve been in business a very long time—since 1914—and their success reflects their long-standing straightforward commitment to “provide customers with a quality product, delivered on-time and within budget.”

Notwithstanding its dedicated and skilled employees, I would suggest that Cummings Printing’s longevity can also be attributed to a progressive and highly actionable approach to production demands, specifically:

Nurturing the past.

A focus on lifecycle management, a planful approach to asset management, has allowed Cummings Printing to make informed, timely decisions regarding how to better utilize and protect their bindery investments, now and in the future. 

For years, Cummings relied on one of Muller Martini’s premier legacy machines, the C-12 Corona Perfect Binder which we stopped manufacturing about eight years ago. Because of its advancing age, the Corona became more and more vulnerable to costly downtime. 

So I talked with them about how Muller could better support the Corona throughout the equipment’s lifecycle. Cummings then committed to MM Maintain which could keep the machine running as effectively and efficiently as possible. MM Maintain provides customized service plans that protect bindery investments from installation to their decommissioning, thereby ensuring optimum levels of availability and performance.

Investing in the future with the latest technology.

While the Corona continued to produce, Cummings business was growing, and they needed more capacity.  So they invested in a state-of-the-art perfect binding solution in 2016. The Alegro perfect binder’s innovative motion control technology not only shortened makereadies, but its highly flexible platform made it easily adaptable to changing requirements for both conventional and digital print finishing. 

Then in 2024, when it became clear that the Corona was nearing the end of its lifecycle, Cummings invested in its second Alegro perfect binder. Because both Alegro lines have fewer mechanical components (e.g. shafts, gears, chains, etc.), there’s less need for lubrication and maintenance, which means less cost of ownership. 

Optimizing uptime through data collection.

With the addition of their second Alegro line, Cummings Printing also added Muller Martini’s Connex Info Cloud to their toolbox. Connex is a data-rich software system, which lets users analyze their production in a highly targeted manner. They can identify and/or troubleshoot potential glitches which can impact and/or slow production—therefore increasing the system reliability.

Connex Info Cloud generates highly detailed—and actionable—reports which reveal what’s being produced, as well as idle times, setup times, or stop times, which can help shop supervisors detect and correct potential bottlenecks. This not only expedites machine troubleshooting but provides the hard data necessary to make changes “on the fly.” What’s more, Cummings is using Connex Info Cloud to compare the performance of one Alegro to the other. 

Cummings Printing and Muller Martini continue to forge a solid relationship that always looks ahead to the future. We’re grateful to be a part of this outstanding team.