Inkjet has changed how printers define themselves. For the last 40 years five categories described the print industry. Companies would say their primary purpose was transactional, direct mail, financial, commercial or specialty print. Print buyers, procurement teams, lines of business staff, and original equipment manufacturers (OEM) sought services based on the category the company fit in.

In-plants have experienced the shift to shorter runs, increased personalization, versioning and suppression of print. Your marketing and customer service teams may have explained what is driving change for print and the need to manage communications across digital channels. Data from more sources is driving marketing and customer engagement strategies across organizations in every industry.

Many for-profit and in-plant print mail operations have made significant investments in production inkjet. Each organization arrived at their decision after prioritizing the most relevant impact to their operation. The primary factors cited in the decision to move to inkjet include:

Do all your customers know everything your operation can do? I rarely get a ‘Yes’ when I ask this question. In-plant operations typically serve many customers and internal departments producing a wide range of products and services. Yet many of those same customers may have little comprehension of the full breath of services your operation can produce.

Many print operations are considering new inkjet investments to realize their strategic goals. There are many cutsheet and continuous feed production inkjet options to choose from, with more product announcements expected before the drupa trade show.

According to Peter Drucker, “Only three things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion, and underperformance. Everything else requires leadership.” Leaders in printing, mailing and fulfillment have a worthy goal of striving for operational excellence. In the last few years, the mix of applications and volume of print work has changed dramatically at many in-plants. Managers are focused on strategies to improve their operations, increase efficiency, and enhance value to their organizations.

The holiday season is upon us and 2024 is in sight. A new year, time for new thinking and new approaches. Do you have a defined plan to achieve specific goals in 2024? If your organization does not have a formal process for annual strategic planning, consider a conducting a strategic assessment for your print mail operation.

Fall is when many organizations finalize strategic plans and budgets for the coming year. What new ideas will you bring to your team and your organization? In Part Two of Leaders Driving Operational Excellence I will describe an approach to embrace three of the ten guiding principles of the Shingo Model from the Shingo Institute. The model focuses on the behavior of individuals and how to inspire teams which drives improved operational results.

Smaller in-plant operations are evaluating and installing production inkjet presses. In-plants in the manufacturing sector are migrating to inkjet to address a trifecta of challenges: labor resources, workflow automation, and printing costs.

Labor and training

Much has been reported about the ongoing labor challenges in many vertical markets and the printing industry in particular. In-plant operations across the U.S. are devising new strategies to address the convergence of:

Aging workers retiring, lack of skilled workers to run offset and finishing equipment, younger workers preferring to work with technology, and needing to onboard and train new employees without printing experience.

As leaders, we focus on strategies to improve our leadership approach and increase value to our organizations. Striving for operational excellence is a worthy goal. As management guru Peter Drucker said, “only three things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion, and underperformance. Everything else requires leadership.”

At the Hunkeler Innovationdays conference back in March, I spoke with several print service providers who shared their goals for growing and evolving their print and mail businesses. They also talked about challenges in production and how they are approaching new investments. The conversations brought to light three themes driving investments: innovation, workflow optimization and partnership.

For the last ten months my colleague, Mark Fallon, and I have been working with an in-plant to assist their team in right-sizing their print operation. In the utility sector, Salt River Project, (SRP) is a community-based, not-for-profit water and energy company. SRP provides reliable, affordable water and power to more than two million people living in central Arizona.

Many changes were underway at SRP.

Production print providers across industry segments gathered at the Hunkeler Innovation Days (HID) Conference in Switzerland. Attendees were there to make decisions about new investments in print, workflow and finishing. While predominantly a European show, US attendance also increased over 2019.

New postage rates with an average increase of 4% took effect on January 22nd. And another rate increase will likely take effect in July 2023.

How can in-plants minimize the impact of twice annual postal rate increases? By taking advantage of the USPS promotions. Start by registering for all the 2023 promotions, even the ones that may not appear relevant to your organization.

With significant growth in 2022, Ontario based book printer Maracle, began their journey to upgrade print capabilities. Their sales grew by 30% and they were unable to accept all the work their clients wanted to print in the 2nd half of the year. Under the new leadership of Alec Couckuyt, they embarked on a solution to replace one of their three digital presses, an older HP Indigo. Who is Maracle?

Maracle is a midsized, privately owned, commercial printer serving Canadian and US customers, running a 2-shift operation

How can mailers and service providers minimize the impact of twice annual postal rate increases? By taking advantage of the USPS promotions. Start by registering for all the 2023 promotions, even the ones that may not appear relevant. Promotions provide postage discounts of 3-5% over several months. Even for medium size mail campaigns the discounts have a significant budget impact. The promotions are designed to demonstrate the value of mail and have the ability to drive consumers to digital channels.

With industry news continuing to focus on omni-channel, opti-channel and improving customer experience, the question remains: how does transactional print evolve in this digital-first world?

This article is the second in a series exploring how the leading composition software companies are investing in tools and platforms for clients that still need to create and manage printed documents and content for delivery across digital channels. In part one of this series, I shared perspectives from Quadient and Messagepoint.

For the first time in three years the industry gathered at PRINTING United Expo in Las Vegas. With nearly 30,000 attendees the trade show was a success on many levels. Yet, many in the industry chose not to attend – vendors and buyers. So, it begs the question, why go to trade shows?

Business travel is not nearly as fun as it used to be. Any travel can become complicated and stressful with unforeseen delays and logistics. Yet I still strongly recommend you attend shows and conferences. My top five reasons why to go to trade shows:

With industry news continuing to focus on omni-channel, opti-channel and improving customer experience, the question remains: how does transactional print evolve in this digital-first world?

This article is the first in a series exploring how the leading composition software companies are investing in their tools and platforms for clients that still have the need to create and manage printed documents and content for delivery across digital channels.

Two leading software firms, Quadient and Messagepoint, shared their perspectives on client communications and their approach to R&D investments for their software tools.

As organizations look to streamline their print and mail operations, many are reevaluating software platforms and workflow solutions for their operation. The decision criteria to evaluate software solutions has shifted in response to many changes in the last two years. Technical resources are stretched thin – with staffing shortages and increased workloads to maintain security patches on servers and platforms.