Why Production Automation Is Important for Printing Business?

by Kevin Cook| in Printing Guide on May 31, 2021 1714 /

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Last Updated on: 29th March 2024, 11:26 am

The rapid research and development in artificial intelligence and production automation in the field of custom printing technology is at a tipping point. Today, both printing machines and software could carry more automated tasks with the least human intervention. For instance, the automatic screen printing machine has laser posting systems, electric printheads, tool-free squeegee, digital displays, and more. The upgrade in the production system enables you to focus on high-performance jobs in your sector.

When it comes to business growth. the printing industry is no exception to facing challenges. Thus, it needs short and faster print runs to deliver print orders within a short time frame. Additionally, better customer support, versatile printing methods, and flexible pricing have been the parameters for a growing custom printing industry.

It is no surprise to know that customer behavior changes within seconds. However, print shops to it as an opportunity because of frequent changes in customer behavior is dealt with by allowing them to customize the products they buy. Therefore, keeping an eye on such aspects, the online product designer tool has achieved a feat in the field of a custom printing business. Now, customers design themselves before they purchase it. That is to say, consumers get what they want.

So, if your thinking to invest in a custom product designer tool that offers sales and production automation, here you should look into some of the reasons you should grab it immediately.

7 Reasons to Invest for Automation in Print Production:

You should invest in production automation for the following reasons:

1. Faster Order Placement:

With a greater focus on cost-cutting, you can encourage your clients to take advantage of self-service access to some details about their possible order that would normally necessitate a contact with a sales professional to complete.

A web-to-print storefront, for example, may provide a real-time quotation that allows clients to enter order data such as quantity to print, artwork size, material type, and more to determine how much the printing job would cost them.

This allows people to make a decision on the purchase swiftly. Plus, giving them ready-to-print customizable templates to work with saves them money on design, resulting in speedier order placement.

2. Improved Customer Experience:

Since web-to-print automates even the most tiresome processes, the sales professionals do not have to spend time sharing the unique pricing themselves. Instead, they might focus on communicating with those clients who have checked the prices online but did not place the order and convince them to complete the transaction.

Automation reduces bottlenecks, improves the customer’s shopping experience, and saves you money. Your customers will be more excited to come back and buy from you if they know they’ll get better support with intelligent interfaces (applications).

3. Reduced Production Errors:

Many print service providers are seeing an increase in the desire for faster operations, where they may make last-minute changes or personalize items. The printing process is frequently slowed as a result of this.

Because your clients upload artwork for printing on the web-to-print shop or personalize ready-to-print templates themselves, the traditional approval process (including your sales staff and in-house graphic designers) is eliminated, shortening the purchase cycle.

The ball is in the customer’s court now, and it’s up to them to approve the design proof and get the printing process started. The streamlined design workflows and quicker approvals eliminate graphic errors while also speeding up order processing.

4. Production Management:

Customers can still get the most up-to-date information on the status of operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They may follow their order from artwork approval through payment confirmation to shipment arrival, for example. Things are made easier with automation!

Having a dedicated agent ready to handle client queries and complaints is not cost-effective for many print service providers. Furthermore, if you’re a printing company with a marketplace and a lot of suppliers selling on your storefront, you’ll need more operational visibility. As a result, a growing number of printers are turning to web-to-print technologies to improve customer and vendor involvement.

5. Accurate Production Results:

It is natural for people to make mistakes, which can occur while writing down print instructions, forgetting to assign PMS colors to print files, or feeding the sheet wrongly through the press, among other things.

Automation not only saves time but also eliminates errors, resulting in more consistently accurate output. You can complete more print orders in a shorter period of time as a result of better utilization and fewer process mistakes, lowering total operating expenses.

6. Online Payment System:

Customers can choose from a variety of payment alternatives on most web-to-print sites. The checkout procedure is one of the most common reasons why customers abandon eCommerce shopping carts.

Your clients will keep coming back for more if you automate a straightforward payment procedure with simple refund policies and no hidden fees. In today’s world, convenience is everything.

Any company’s goal is to keep its cash flow steady. By improving the transparency of production processes and automating data gathering, invoicing will run automatically as soon as the agreement is completed.

7. Value Added Services:

Assume we’re talking about using mobile (or QR) barcodes on the packaging or in marketing to build personalized landing sites as a supplement to direct mail advertising. Printing is no longer the only service offered in this scenario.

Some services, such as web-to-print technologies, can serve as a starting point for automating job submissions and ensure automated prepress checks to validate that the files are ready for printing before they are accepted in the production process.

As the demand for more transparent communication and tailored printing grows, you’ll have more time to focus on value-added services while the traditional printing processes run on autopilot.

Conclusion:

According to research, automating production operations enhances profitability per print job for 90% of print service companies. We strongly believe that automation is the key to exponential business growth, based on the seven criteria we covered above.

However, in order to flourish, your printing company will require the correct web-to-print assistance, which will enable you to market your services to a wider audience online.