Many businesses are continuing to feel the effects of the staffing shortages that have come as a result of the pandemic. Some have coined this the “Great Resignation,” in which employees have voluntarily quit their jobs in hopes to re-evaluate their lives, work on their mental health, and find a different work/life balance. This shuffle of employees and the time it takes to on-board new employees has created some challenges in the workplace. The work is still there and must be done, however, the staffing shortages are adding to the delay of printed materials. Couple that with the supply chain demand and delays – your business could be looking for ways to re-invent the way your print jobs are processed.
Think about the number of times a print job is touched. Looking at this infographic, you can see there are many touchpoints in a typical print manufacturing process – from onboarding to logistics and everything in between.
By simply automating these processes, you can improve operations and be agile enough to the changing business dynamics of your clients and industry.
Benefits of Automating Print Production Processes
1. Print Automation allows for Reallocation of Resources
If you are experiencing a staffing shortage, or an increase in volume that requires additional staff, automating your production print processes will be a huge benefit to your organization because it allows you to take those manual tasks that are otherwise completed by a human and automates them so that your employees can focus on more strategic things. Even automating a small portion of your production print processes can show dramatic performance and speed results. At the end of the day, your organization’s goal is to solve a business challenge for YOUR clients, not figuring out manual processes.
2. Increase efficiency when automating print processes
Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had 5 different hands to complete tasks at the same time? That would take “multi-tasking” to a whole new level. Unfortunately, we do not, but there are more creative ways to increase efficiency. Automation of your print production processes can automate the pre-press workflow, pre-flight, submit jobs, and automate the approval process. And that’s just the beginning. Being able to pump out more jobs throughout the day because of an efficient process will increase customer satisfaction, employee morale, and in-turn, increase your bottom line.
3. Less error on complex processes when using print automation
Restructuring the way your printing processes are handled will ultimately lead to less bottlenecks and interruption. If you are, indeed, challenged with short staff, the staff that is working so hard to wear many hats could potentially have a mountain of stress. Stress can create oversight and human error in certain situations. Problematic areas of printing environments can often be due to the amount of time a project is touched throughout the printing and logistical processes. What if you had an automation tool that would detect errors in artwork or the process itself and changed that before you even knew there was a challenge in the first place? It’s like having a second set of hands (or 5) when you need them the most.
4. Reduction of manual approvals
You’ve heard the old saying, “Time is Money.” Any time a project or job takes extra time, it decreases your speed and ends up costing your organization more money. If you have a manual process that requires approvals, wouldn’t it be such a relief to put automation rules in place and lessen the chance of errors through the final print job?
Printing will always be a form of manufacturing. With customers (both internal and external) desiring more innovation in their print jobs, (think special effects, special coatings, special sizes,) being able to have a high-quality finished product with a fast turnaround time is key to succeed in this new world of work. Thanks to automation, you can do all the above and still hit your desired outcomes as a business.
Want to learn more? Send our Print Production Automation Experts a message and they will answer any questions you have!