Banish Workflow Bottlenecks with Connected Automation
Let’s face it: Today’s print landscape is a challenging one. According to In-plant Impressions’ “The Largest In-plants (2024)” report, the top business challenges in-plants faced were finding new work and services to replace decreasing volumes; increasing productivity; adding automation to remove manual touch points; and keeping in-plants fully staffed. Demand for print MIS software, Web-to-print, and workflow and production automation also jumped significantly since the previous year, indicating that businesses are realizing that investment in this area could be the solution to addressing some if not all of these challenges
The good news is there are many ways to streamline production and boost efficiency for in-plants through workflow automation.
How Automation Can Help You Address Four Common Bottlenecks
For any in-plant, regardless of its size or the work it produces, bottlenecks can occur at every stage of production, be it artwork approval, file preparation, order visualization, color management, media optimization, or any other operational phase. Here are some ways in-plants could automate the various steps in production, removing pain points and boosting efficiency and profits.
1. Job Onboarding
Fifty percent of the time used to produce a job is typically spent before it even reaches the press. Because many steps in this part of the workflow are still done manually, onboarding and preparing jobs can be time-consuming and repetitive. Automating your file onboarding process means operators no longer need to spend time chasing files, checking according to standards, and making sure they meet the specific order requirements.
2. File Preparation
File preparation is another frequently bothersome bottleneck in print workflows. The ability to automate file prep based on order information from the MIS or Web-to-print system reduces the risk of human error and speeds up the process — and the end customer can rest assured that they have all the right information needed to give final approval.
3. Media Optimization
Media optimization is another surefire way to boost profitability and reduce waste — an important consideration since In-plant Impressions’ largest in-plants report from 2024 found 17% of in-plants see sourcing paper, ink, and materials as a challenge. Doing imposition, ganging, and nesting jobs with one click translates to higher margins because you are fully optimizing the use of your printed media. By automating this step, printers can create dynamic impositions — and even combine orders that come from two different end-buyers or that require a specific enhancement to minimize media waste.
4. Color Management
Finally, a common bottleneck and pain point for all printers — but even more important for in-plants to consider, with growing numbers of printers diversifying into areas such as promotional products and wide-format — is color management. Done incorrectly, this stage of production can affect brand reputation and credibility — not to mention it can be costly and time-consuming when reprints are needed due to inadequate color consistency. By automating prepress color management, in-plants can achieve error-free and automatic standardization of all color spaces, adaptation to specific printing processes such as CMYK plus spot colors, and ensure that all presses are color-standardized.
Connected Automation for Seamless Workflow
It’s all well and good investing in these systems to automate your workflow, but one remaining problem is that the data within is often siloed across many workflow software systems, resulting in a disconnected print production setup where all moving parts operate separately. As a result, even where individual steps in the process are automated, the efficiencies are capped by the parameters of each step. This can cause problems such as tedious data re-entry from one component to another, as well as information loss between various compartments.
One solution to this problem is the concept of connected automation, which sees different connectors “plug in” different platforms and technologies, enabling them to communicate. The goal of connected automation is to allow information to circulate and to eliminate the need for re-entry of data from one system to another, making production more efficient. For example, by connecting these systems, printers can avoid these tedious steps, consolidate data from different sources, and open up the print shop’s information system to other systems, which streamlines the process.
The result? In-plants can increase productivity, reduce the number of manual touch points, and utilize often limited staff elsewhere in production.
