Reasons For Investing In Automation


Workflow Automation In Order To Survive On Global Printing Market

The economic situation and the financial crisis that we feel in the last few years did not spare even the printing industry. Providers of printing services are still faced with falling demand and limited financing options. Therefore, many were forced to rethink its strategy.

workflow automation

workflow automation

The impact of global economic conditions has increased concern of printing companies for return on investments. The marketing parts measures results for every cent that is  invested and require from the printers evidence of the effectiveness of printed products.

In the meantime, the printers are facing similar challenges. To them it is important to ensure the effectiveness of the technology, find new creative approaches and offers a range of services related to printing, which provide them a competitive advantage.

Ten Major Reasons For Investing In Automation

automated production

automated production

Printing industry today is faced with a particular number of obstacles when it comes to business development. Requirements such as higher speed, greater flexibility, increasing the complexity of the jobs that has to be done… create a dilemma for entrepreneurs in the sense what is a higher priority and how to invest in development. Such firms are feeling the pressure to create new revenue from higher margin, provide value-added services and streamline work aimed at ” super productivity ” and reduce costs.

All types of production environments face similar problems when it comes to efficiency and automation of workflows in print. From advertising to packaging, print service providers ranked relatively low the level of workflow automation at key stages of production. Highest rated automated production process in the printing is usually forthcoming transfer of data, often with the help of tools such as web – to-print. The other key areas, such as prepress  and administration are areas where automation can also be carried out, but they remain largely manual  processes with many points of intervention (TouchPoints).

One of the key advantages that come with automating is the ability to “ do more with less.

In an increasingly more competitive industry, it becomes even more important to ensure customer retention and satisfaction. In addition,  automating repetitive tasks reduces the risk of error and allows time for employees to focus on new services and features that can contribute to the growth of the business.

Here is the list of  ten key reasons why providers of services in the printing industry should focus on investment in the automation of work processes.

Reduction of manual labor. Tasks that have repetitive sequence, pattern or template should be automated, so that the service is provided in the shortest time with minimum cost to maintain healthy profit margins. At the same time it frees the employees so we can add more attention to our  customers , to manage a greater amount of work or be educated to provide new value-added services.

Cost reduction. Automation can reduce the appearance of ” bottlenecks ” at the same time improving customer service and saving money. With intelligent interfaces (applications) customers can be sure that they will get better service,and also provides an opportunity for new orders with the required adjustments.

Precise information management. Being able to identify how long each process takes, and how and why there is a delay, enables businesses to offset these costs through a more precise calculation.

Faster throughput. Many providers are still faced with an increasing demand for faster service, changes at the last minute or advanced personalization, whereby permitting delays in execution time.

automated solutions

automated solutions

Reducing errors. The time that it takes from receipt of work to production often results in delays due to manual transfer of files, update of the information or communications that the task is approved and ready to be processed. Eliminating human intervention wherever possible not only reduces costs, but also reduces the amount of errors.

Directing smaller tasks to autopilot. Due to the fact that volume of jobs continues to shrink, packaging is becoming more localized, and marketing (promotional) materials are becoming more personalized, the ability to perform such tasks with little or no manual intervention will be the key to maintaining profitability.

Monitoring. With the increased focus on cost reduction, enabling customers to have self-service access to information that would otherwise call customer service or sales representatives, one can save valuable time and improve productivity.

Another key feature is the ability of centralized monitoring of CTP and digital printing devices. A central management system can automate the routine tasks and balance the workload across multiple devices in order to optimize their use. It also provides operators with better visibility over production plant.

Better billing and invoicing. Maintaining cash flow is a priority of every company. Through improving the transparency of production processes and automated data collection, invoicing can runs automatically as soon as the deal reaches its completion.

Adding new services. Whether we speak about adding a mobile (or QR) bar codes on packaging or marketing to create personalized pages as a supplement to advertising mail – printing is no longer the only service that is offered . Some services, such as web – to-print, can provide a starting point for automating job submissions and connect with automated prepress checks to ensure that the files are print ready before they are received in the production process. As we a witnessing a growing demand for connectivity and localization of printing / personalization, service providers will have to spend more time focused on value-added services, while putting the classic printing tasks on autopilot.

Printing management system

Printing management system

Web based interaction with the buyer. As e-commerce is increasingly prevalent, customers expect to have access to the latest information on the status of operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For many providers of printing services is not cost effective to have a dedicated representative available to address these issues. As a result, more and more service providers  invest in web-based systems to improve interaction with customers.