In-plant Breakfast Explores the Road to Connected Intelligence

On the second day of PRINTING United Expo 2026, in-plant managers met for breakfast, an event organized by the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association and sponsored by Ricoh. Steve Webster, senior director of Product Innovations & Smart Factory Solutions at Ricoh, outlined Ricoh’s Smart Factory strategy, which aims to help print operations progress from individual islands of automation to fully connected, data-driven production environments. In his view, many print shops aren’t there yet, and because of that, they should not rush into using artificial intelligence (AI).

In-plant managers networked before the presentation.

“Very few people in this room and very few people in that hall out there are ready for AI,” he declared. “If you're not fully connected, there is no reason for you to even venture into AI, because you're just going to have efficiency gains in a part of your shop that's connected.”

In other words, AI may improve one connected portion of an operation without addressing bottlenecks elsewhere. Ricoh’s goal is to help shops connect everything — presses, finishing equipment, workflow systems, and other devices — so each can eventually become a source of useful production data.

IPMA's Mike Loyd welcomed the crowd.

“We want to help you connect everything in your shop, so that when you want to use AI, everything in your shop is now a data source,” he said.

Central to that Smart Factory strategy is Forge, Ricoh’s approach to connecting technology an in-plant already owns rather than requiring it to replace systems. Webster stressed that the problem often isn’t inadequate technology, but technology from multiple manufacturers that doesn’t communicate.

Steve Webster

Forge addresses that by creating relatively small software connectors that allow disparate hardware and software to exchange information and automate processes from end to end, whether the equipment involved comes from Ricoh or another manufacturer.

That connectivity can also provide managers with better visibility into their operations. Rather than forcing every customer into the same dashboard, Webster said Ricoh can build views around the specific KPIs an operation wants to monitor.

In-plant managers at the breakfast.

Ricoh is taking the same print-specific approach with physical automation. Webster noted that conventional industrial robots are often designed for highly repetitive manufacturing, while printing presents constantly changing sheet sizes, stack heights, weights, and finishing requirements. Ricoh’s robotics systems therefore incorporate vision technology and end-of-arm tooling designed specifically for print.

In-plant managers at the breakfast.

Webster emphasized that Ricoh does not view automation as a strategy for replacing employees. Instead, its goal is to remove repetitive, physically demanding tasks and free employees to take on work that provides greater value — interacting with customers, finding new business, and helping the in-plant grow.

“Let human beings do what they’re good at,” he said, “and let the physical automation do the hard things.”