Industry experts speak out on the progress that has been made in automating postpress processes.

By Erik Cagle

Unfortunately, the tail end of the production line has a log-jam in need of automating.

‘A Manual Nightmare’

“The process of assembling orders, putting them in boxes, adding items like CD-ROMs and ensuring that everything is in order, remains a manual nightmare,” Mason says. “Machinery is available that can perform some of these functions, but these require a flexible, cell-like manufacturing operation that remains counter-intuitive to many bindery managers. Automating these areas also often requires computer skills and information technology strengths that heretofore have resided in the prepress area at many printing operations, if at all.