Five Reasons Why Automation Is Essential to Print Production Workflow
- Published: January 10, 2022
By Christina Lee, Contributing Writer
Nowadays, you often hear about automation. No longer something out of a science fiction movie, automation promises to make jobs and tasks easier to do by streamlining operations, freeing up workers to do other things. This allows for:
- More productivity
- Less errors
- Less likelihood of taking on less-desirable tasks
- Allowing staff to work on more important tasks, AND
- Faster output
All these benefits are especially essential to print businesses. Believe it or not, print businesses are responsible for many tasks that take time, energy and money. With print jobs high in demand, there has to be a way to easily streamline tasks.
So, if you’re a print business looking for easier production workflows, then look to automation. Here are five reasons why you and your company should consider using automation today:
- Automation Spots and Prevents Bottlenecks
“Print businesses cannot afford to have bottlenecks in their production workflow,” said Emma Wand, a business writer at OX Essays and Do My Assignment. “First, a bottleneck refers to anything that might interfere with production. Typically, when a bottleneck occurs, production is either halted or terminated.”
Examples of bottlenecks include:
- Not enough worker input
- Power outages
- Equipment breakdowns
- Inconsistent routines
- Lack of a budget
Fortunately, automation can help print businesses both spot and prevent bottlenecks in production. By pinpointing what’s lacking or lagging, automation can replace what doesn’t work with what does work by taking over.
“Suppose you lack a team of workers for a specific stage in print production,” added Wand. “Automation can fill in the gap by taking on the responsibilities that might’ve otherwise needed manpower, and money to hire said manpower.”
- Automation Boosts Productivity and Profitability
Automation can also ensure that print production is smoother and faster. Even implementing a small amount of automation is more than enough to improve production speed and productivity.
In hindsight, automation improves the following when boosting productivity:
- Competitive agility
- Customer service, AND
- Profitability
- Automation Is Relevant Technology
Nowadays, technology is evolving, including automation. As automation continues to leave its mark in the tech world, it’s already making its way into many businesses and organizations. Thus, automation is considered relevant in businesses such as print production.
Because automation is relevant now more than ever, the following trends have resulted in print production because of this phenomenon:
- Investments in automation software
- Improved shipping and handling
- Improved billing
- Better scheduling of jobs
- Better support management
- Quick and effective job submissions in online portal
- Higher-quality print work
- Automation Promotes Shorter Run Work
“Small jobs can be tedious in print production,” said Julian Newling, a technical writer at Paper Fellows and State of Writing. “When being compared to bigger jobs which require more time and energy, small jobs only need less attention and less resources. That’s where automation can come in. When you allow automation to tackle smaller jobs in print production, then you and your team can work on larger and more important jobs. This tactic eliminates the possibility of delays and bottlenecks.”
- Automation Lets You Scale and Optimize Your Business
Finally, if you’re looking to scale and optimize your print business, then automation can make it happen. How? By tapping into your workflows. Whether you use automation for multiple workflows, or simply one workflow, it can help improve your company in the following ways:
- Speed up print processes
- Route jobs to an available machine
- Route jobs to the most efficient machine
- Optimize how you use printing equipment to prevent turnaround times, AND
- Help your business get more work done without having you invest in additional machines or staff members
Now, Is Automation Really Necessary?
The short answer? YES!
As shown by the reasons above, automation can do wonders for your printing business. Since printing is in high demand these days, there’s no reason why automation shouldn’t be used for print production.
As you can see, there is so much opportunity to be had with automation, when it comes to print production. As a recap, automation helps print companies do the following seamlessly:
- Prevent unnecessary bottlenecks
- Boost productivity and profitability
- Give your company a sense of relevancy
- Promote shorter run work, AND
- Allow for company scaling and optimization
Ultimately, automation can do wonders for your workflows in the printing industry. In fact, you can add automation in just about any part of the printing process. By allowing automation to take over some or all of your workflows, you’ll soon see great results in print production.
Christina Lee is a writer and editor at Assignment service and Do my homework. She is also a contributing writer for Boom Essays. As a project manager, she oversees many projects in various companies in her hometown of Hoboken, New Jersey. As a content writer, she writes articles about marketing trends and coding.