At one time it was easy to distinguish service led print companies who might do all types of work for their customers and specialist process led industrial printers. Attitudes, customers and technology might be very different.
But advances in process control, standards, the arrival of the internet and so on has blurred the edges between the different business models, shifting these definitions.
Today the question has to be whether print is a manufacturing industry, akin to building cars or processing pizza, or is it a service industry?
To some extent print is the ultimate service industry. Its products are almost always bespoke to one client and cannot be sold to a different customer. If delivery is delayed the printed product can date faster than fresh strawberries in the punnet.
At the same time unless printers adopt all kinds of standards to achieve predictable, consistent results; unless they work at eliminating waste and instigating process controls they cannot expect to compete against those that have implemented lean management systems, nor with the online print businesses.
Technology has removed the master craftsman element from prepress, printing and bookbinding, that used to separate one company from another. What is printing: a manufacturing or a service industry?
Charles Jarrold, chief executive of the BPIF, sides with service. “While we manufacture products on behalf of our customers, the service element of that is more and more important. Service has become more targeted, more direct and that generates higher value. Therefore companies are focused around process improvement, which makes print such a great place to work.”
Press suppliers have done much to improve the process with automation in makeready, data collection and higher running speeds to enable industrialisation and, says Heidelberg UK managing director Gerard Heanue, a levelling of the playing field.
“As presses become more productive and processes more controllable through spectral measurement and adjustment, digital workflow and calibration software, the ability to produce efficiently and to the highest quality should be more of a given. So add on services which are customer driven are key differentiators.”
And the press manufacturer continues to push through developments to improve the chances of printing to the highest quality at the highest speed, backing the technology with programmes to ensure the machinery is used to its maximum potential.
Heanue names Analyze Point as a measurement tool which can pick up areas where training, logistics or consumables can make a difference. “Once I would have argued that the volume printers were all about manufacturing, but even here the arrival of web to print technology and batched printing has created an added value service to end users, personal and business print purchasers.”
Onlineprinters near Nuremberg is one of the largest of these and CEO Michael Fries agrees: “We are in a service environment because people can change to someone else very easily. Service is what people want and what they expect from you. That service is delivered by a high degree of knowledge in the industrial processing of print.” Delivery on time and to the expected level of quality, combined with the user experience in making a purchase is, he adds, more important than price.
This level of service is the result of a dedication to lean manufacturing methods, to keeping control over the number of variables, including a limited choice of papers. The company could not be effective if it had a different paper for every job, so while service is at a high level, the customer has a more restricted choice.
KBA UK sheetfed sales director Chris Scully puts print increasingly in the service industry bracket because technology like the LED UV system that KBA is championing enables that delivery on time aspect.
“With LED UV perfecting presses, a company can offer the same day turnaround and with shorter jobs. It can be just ten minutes on press from start to finish of a job or section for a job. LED UV can change printing to a totally different schedule,” he adds. It removes the uncertainty around drying times from the equation: much less work in progress around the factory and printers that can be much more confident about a service led model.
Technology, therefore, can enable a more industrial manufacturing business model, where adherence to standards like ISO 12647-2 is possible in a way it was not with previous machines. In terms of digital printing, high speed inkjet has paved the way for the automatic document factory to move from concept to reality. Relentless pressure on price caused by overcapacity is leading to commoditisation and process efficiency is the way to counter this.
James Samuels, CEO at Claritum, contributed to a LinkedIn discussion on the subject. “In any over supplied manufacturing market, the choices are get big, get niche or get out. So those who are manufacturing focused have to be the lowest cost/volume producers or niche focused (specialists) or become service oriented.
“Service providers solve client problems, way beyond delivering a printed product, which has real value, whereas manufacturers seek to fill capacity on their inhouse kit. As more and more manufacturers reposition themselves to become service providers they are adopting service based software platforms that help drive operational efficiencies and manage supply chains and a broad range of products and services.”
Whether this is to the sophistication of a full supply chain solution that Claritum might sell or a more basic web to print application, the use of such technology straddles the divide between greater efficiency and greater customer intimacy. This goes hand in hand with operational excellence for Hillam Technology Partners director Chris Lynn. In his contribution to the debate, he says: “Without operational excellence you are uncompetitive no matter how well you understand and support your customer needs. But without customer intimacy, you risk becoming a commodity.”
Compart UK’s business development manager Gary Grajcarek, adds: “For me it is both. Lose customer focus, lose customers. Don’t process correctly, lose customers. Customers will demand a service with the right price, specification, quality and according to service level agreements. The print service providers will need to deliver to these demands.
“Only by adopting manufacturing techniques will they be able to provide a service that is on time, on budget and be profitable. That is why lean manufacturing, print MIS and ADF have been adopted more and more, and significant data is required from the process to ensure everything is being produced correctly. Being from the software industry that supports this sector, it is interesting to see the difference when you can optimise a print operation.”
Matthew Peacock was part of the VIP team that introduced lean manufacturing concepts to the printing industry. Looking now as director of Active PPP, he comments: “It is a common misconception that lean is only relevant to manufacturing operations. In fact lean techniques are commonly applied (sadly, often not very well) to services such as healthcare, banking, law etc. I have one client who is an orthopedic surgeon. More than half my work is helping print companies to improve administrative processes from receipt of customer enquiries, through estimating, quoting, order processing, prepress, print, finish, dispatch, invoice and payment collection.
“The first, and in my view the most important, lean principle is to understand what adds value from the customers’ perspective. It is then possible to analyse business processes, including administrative, to maximise value for the customer, which of course includes great customer service, and minimise wasted ‘waste’. Waste in a lean context includes wasted human potential, effort, material, energy, money or any other other resources,” says Peacock.
“Incidently, manufacturing inefficiency is often more impacted by poor administrative processes than most people realise. For instance, poor quality job bag information, inefficient purchasing and bad planning make expensive manufacturing processes inefficient and are the biggest cause of material waste. But the biggest casualty is, of course, customer service. So lean techniques are as relevant to improving customer service as they are to manufacturing operations.”
For the supplier like Heidelberg, this has meant not just providing the appropriate technology, and Heanue names Inpress Control, Image Control and Axis Control, “but also by providing the right advice and consultation. Every press sale today involves a highly technical consultation. The need to differentiate means printers will look hard to find ways of harnessing press technology. Buying machines wisely with the overall equipment efficiency in mind is a key to survival. Manufacturing has to be right, but printers also need to know their market, command loyalty through reliability and show a willingness to go that extra mile for a customer.”
Heanue continues: “There are some amazing companies out there who have also created changes in demand by thinking outside the box and addressing current and potential print buyer requirements. Manufacturing or service? No printer can afford to choose one or the other. Both matter.”
But which will matter more in the years ahead? In the past production skills differentiated one company from another. It was straightforward to judge the quality of one company’s work as entered in print awards, for example. Today such distinctions are almost impossible. And over the years of recession companies have had to become more efficient and manufacturing focused in order to survive.
It means perhaps that the future will be more about the service side. Back on LinkedIn, James Shand, managing director at TriPartum, agrees: “My vote goes to print needing to be a service industry when you consider the customer centric requirements that need data, which then comes down to adequate infrastructure and controls. I am sure there will still be a place for the manufacturing side of print, but this will become limiting over time.”
James Shand, managing director at TriPartum, agrees: “My vote goes to print needing to be a service industry when you consider the customer centric requirements that need data, which then comes down to adequate infrastructure and controls. I am sure there will still be a place for the manufacturing side of print, but this will become limiting over time.”
