Aspects of Automation

Industry consultant Pat McGrew (McGrew Group) provides her insights on how PSPs are using automation to address labor challenges, and how these interventions can benefit performance and profitability.

Pat McGrew, managing director of McGrewGroup

To what degree are PSPs looking toward automation as a solution to labor challenges? Is it working?

“PSPs serve many segments, each of which have their own pressures and priorities. Labor issues impact all of them. Not just acquiring labor, but the challenge of training staff to use tools effectively. Automation can help, but adding automation tools is not a panacea. If the workflow processes aren’t well understood, you can end up automating bad workflows, draining more resources. Well-implemented automation is helping those PSPs that put in the effort to analyze their current labor use and job touchpoints before adding an automation layer.”

Among the PSPs you talked with, what are the most common automation approaches you’re seeing in the commercial space? Where are they seeing the biggest bang for their buck?

“Two areas stand out: job onboarding and prepress. Sometimes these areas are automated using a single tool set, but they can be done independently. Job onboarding is more than adding a web-to-print tool. Automating should start at estimating the job, ensuring that estimation tools have access to the latest raw materials costs, and then continue based on rules to keep the job moving. Prepress automation picks up color management, file optimization, and final client approvals. One aspect that is sometimes overlooked is the ability of many tools to automate the client approval process, which can save hours of delay in waiting on responses.”

How difficult is it to determine ROI on automation gains? What are the key considerations?

“To determine the return on investment implies that they know their current costs for each step a job moves through. Without knowing what labor cost to attribute to the efforts of each person in the job onboarding chain and the prepress team, as well as the actual time taken for tasks (not the assumed estimates), it is hard to know how to accurately attribute costs of automating those steps and calculate savings. Even at the highest level, however, the starting point is how you calculate costs today. Use the current costing model and work with the automation tool vendors to calculate savings. Most can help using calculators based on their past installations.”

To what degree do you see adding automation and tightening up on labor as essential to staying competitive in the commercial printing space?

“This is the essential consideration for every printer, regardless of the market they serve. If Printer A needs 20 hours to onboard and prepare a job for printing while Printer B accomplishes the same work in 3 hours, one has a competitive cost advantage that provides more pricing freedom. If Printer A also uses prepress automation that includes optimization tools, allowing for faster file preparation and faster time to the first page of print while Print B is waiting for jobs to render through inefficient technology, they will not have a competitive turnaround time in today’s market.”

To what degree do you see the drive toward automation as a view of the future of printing technology?

“We see generational change in the print industry on a regular cadence. New tools and technologies come into the industry as hardware and software developers continue their research and development efforts. Customers continue to use tools in ways that vendors never envisioned, causing development of more features, streamlining of functions, and process optimization. Automation is the essential requirement for print business infrastructure. Without it, faster presses and finishing cannot realize their true value.”

In the near term, how do you see AI changing production in PSPs? Where are you already seeing it used?

“Whether you call it intelligent automation, machine learning, or artificial intelligence, the processes encompassed in those terms have been in the infrastructure of many tools and machines for years. Print hardware vendors use these concepts to develop smarter digital front ends. Software engineers have used AI-based algorithms for years to create more efficiency in imposition tools and color management. Today, we also see AI leveraged for creating profiles to optimize print quality, test sentience in customer-facing communication, and reformulate source files from legacy applications. It’s already in our infrastructure, even if it’s not obvious."