Why Integrating Your Wide-Format Printing Tools Will Preserve You In Advance On The Level Of Competition

Wide-format print is among the most vibrant sectors from the electronic print sector, as evidenced via the 22,000 people who created their approach to Fespa London in June 2013. Three groups are driving this advancement: typical sign shops and display screen printers adding or switching to electronic printing approaches; existing wide-format end users wishing to improve ability or boost top quality and/or productiveness to meet purchaser need; and commercial offset printers or prepress professionals who're keen to seize a bigger proportion in their customers' print spend.

Business analyst InfoTrends predicts a growth sticker manufacturer in the retail price of the North American electronic wide-format print over the five-year time period 2011 - 2016 of about 46 for each cent, from US $16.one bn (&euro;12.4 bn) to $23.6 bn (&euro;18.1 bn). A late 2012 survey carried out by the UK's Image Reports magazine showed that nearly two-thirds of respondents were expecting wide-format work to become a bigger part in their businesses around the next two years, and just above half were expecting to recruit additional staff in this time period.

There is still a high rate of technological development in wide-format print. New applications continue to unfold as new substrates, inks and marking technologies are brought to sector, leading to new opportunities such as label printing, packaging and package prototyping, interior d&eacute;cor, soft signage and fabric/garment printing and a extensive range of consumer and industrial applications in ceramic printing, in addition to the established signage and display graphics markets.

While the capabilities of individual wide-format printers continue to evolve apace in terms of resolution, colour gamut, speed of production and range of supported substrates, the integration of these devices into both the production workflow and the wider environment of their owners' businesses has largely been neglected.

The majority of wide-format printers are operated as stand-alone devices, often with one particular RIP for each machine, and are isolated from other print production workflows or MIS/ERP systems. Products to facilitate this integration are available, but lack of shopper focus, awareness or trust in automation have been barriers to their uptake

Wide-format work typically requires more complex finishing than other types of print, sometimes to the point where the direct print costs are only a small part on the total job value. Complex one-off jobs will typically require creative input, management time, shipping and installation in addition to the printing process. With high levels of customisation being the norm, there may be a reluctance to believe that automation can help in what has always been a labour-intensive business.

This manual approach can lead to inefficiencies in production management, and may result in material wastage and quality inconsistencies both between devices and above time. Inability to load-balance work across different machines because colour matching cannot be achieved reliably can cause delays and waste production ability, leaving some machines idle while others are running full-time.

Every point at which manual processes occur is a point at which costs can rapidly be added and yet these costs are often unaccounted. Job costing models based on 'per square metre' pricing can lead to work being done at a loss, especially where time spent on file preparation before output is not recorded. Lack of detailed information about job set-up times and finishing operations, with missing or inaccurate media consumption figures make it difficult to analyse where bottlenecks are occurring and where money is being produced or lost.