Start Your Journey with Your Customer

Printers like to hear their presses running, because hopefully money is being made and customer demands are being met. But shorter runs can tie up a press with more frequent setups. Integrating short print runs into an overall business plan isn’t as easy as it might sound. To accommodate customer demand for these types of runs, a package printer must do its homework long before actually accepting the orders.

Impact of shorter runs

Print jobs that are shorter than the norm impact printers’ businesses and business operations, but not necessarily negatively as long as they are proactive.

“Our short-run sales increased by 50 percent since the acquisition of our first HP Indigo digital press,” says Pierre Roberge, owner, Profecta Labels (Boucherville, Quebec). “In terms of our overall operations, a few changes were made to accommodate the speed at which these short-run jobs are processed.” These changes include short-run estimating software and specific procedures for order entry to differentiate the short-run jobs from Profecta’s regular flow of flexo jobs.

Syracuse Label Company ­(Syracuse, N.Y.) President Kathy Alaimo says package printers delving into the short-run realm should expect to experience a few effects on business operations. Among them are an increase in the number of setups, which results in more time to set up jobs and less time running them. She also says package printers will have to reallocate duties to encompass the time needed in the setup/cleanup (changeover) process to maximize efficiencies. Also important to remember is that a contributing factor to material waste comes from the set-up process.

Once a printer has committed to integrating shorter runs into its overall business, Roberge says to expect an adjustment period of up to six months. After going through this learning curve, however, things turn around quickly. “Once the ball starts rolling and the excitement of all that is possible with digital technology comes to light, it gets everyone’s creative minds going—a major motivational boost for everyone involved,” he says.

Investments for the long haul

Investing in people, lean manufacturing principles, and equipment can go a long way should package printers decide to enter the short-run field. Training employees in lean manufacturing principles will help eliminate some of the waste associated with more frequent setups, claims Alaimo. She suggests keeping equipment in good working order, and having a preventive maintenance program. She also says to make sure printers have flexibility in staffing to ensure trained/qualified personnel are available to assist in setups/cleanups. “Explore lean manufacturing concepts to eliminate unnecessary waste and reduce non-value added steps in the process,” she says. “Be proactive in continual improvement efforts by monitoring, identifying, and implementing efforts.”

Syracuse Label has invested in lean manufacturing concepts to eliminate waste and reduce non-value-added steps in the processes, new equipment to allow faster changeovers, and training of employees in lean manufacturing and new equipment.

Roberge advises that printers do their homework first, and take the time to ­really study their existing businesses and know them well. “It usually begins with customer demand, which in turn, leads to a detailed analysis and evaluation of how the changing customer trends in various markets are affecting your businesses now and, most importantly, what future impact they will have on your business growth and bottom line,” he says. In Profecta’s case, going short-run meant going digital, but only after two years of research, testing, and an overall evaluation of its existing business. “Once all the studies came in, it was clear to us that the next logical choice was digital,” says Roberge. “It fit into our existing business, accommodated the needs of our clients, liberated our overloaded flexo equipment of short-volume runs, increased profitability on those types of runs, and improved quality for complex designs.”

To accommodate Profecta’s short-run business, it purchased its HP ­Indigo WS4500 in September 2006 with a Rotoflex Vericut 2 finisher. In April 2008, the company purchased a second WS4500. “In the last two years, we have also invested a lot of time and energy in educating our resellers to think outside the box and focus on the latest advancements in digital labels as a means to create new revenue streams,” says Roberge.

Growth is possible

Whether or not printers purchase new equipment specifically for their shorter runs is a matter of what works best for the company. Syracuse Label has always had a mix of short and long print runs. “The main focus of where a job will be run is the technical aspect of the job,” says Alaimo.

For Profecta, acquiring the two digital presses to dedicate to shorter runs was the way to go. After installing its second HP Indigo WS4500, Profecta was running two shifts on its Indigo’s. “Our investment in this technology has allowed us to expand our sales territory to other Canadian provinces where digital label technology to the trade is nonexistent,” says Roberge.

Having dedicated presses to short and long runs has been an advantage for Profecta. The longer runs in CMYK are printed on the company’s eight-color flexo units. Short-run jobs with quantities as low as one label with many SKUs would be priced as a digital job. “You can even print a one-color job on the Indigos,” asserts Roberge. “Basically the balancing is done at the estimation level where the size of the label, quantities, graphic complexity of the label design, and all the related information is evaluated and the decision of what equipment will be used is made at the pricing stage.”

Bottom line

Integrating short-run printing is not as simple as accepting the job orders. Printers must look at the impact accepting such jobs will have on their overall businesses. Package printers should look at what investments they’ll need to make in their own people, possible hires, processes (lean manufacturing), and equipment. This is no easy task, and companies should take as much time as possible to study their businesses, their markets, and then decide when and which investments to make.

Short-run printing has been around for a while. It’s not going to go away as long as there is customer demand for it. For Roberge, it all starts with the customer. “In our case,” he says, “the journey started with our customers wanting more options, more opportunities, more flexibility, and more value.” As in most cases, the customers will show you the way you should go. pP