How to maximise the automation of your production workflow

Workflow automation has evolved beyond basic file prep, now encompassing job submission, prepress, and postpress. Printers automate to boost productivity, cut waste and address skill shortages. Implementing tailored automation, from RIPs to MIS, optimises throughput and profitability, minimising human intervention

There was a time when the term ‘workflow’ simply referred to the basic file preparation immediately before sending a job to print. Inevitably this has become more complex as printers have become more capable and as everyone strives to increase their overall productivity.

And as part of this, the idea of workflow has spread beyond the production floor to include estimating and ingesting jobs at one end, through to finishing and fulfilment at the other. Nonetheless, automation is still important to improve the throughput and reduce waste in the ongoing quest to improve margins.

Automation also offers a solution for any training issues and a lack of skills. Many printers report issues in finding skilled staff but are reluctant to spend time and money training staff members who may simply move on to other employers. And of course, staff that do have particular skills will expect to be paid accordingly. Automation can remove a lot of the skill required in operating equipment or evaluating how to run certain jobs.

The degree of automation required will also depend on the mix of jobs coming in. Every job requires a certain amount of file preparation so any print company with lots of one-offs and short-run work will benefit from automating the pre-print workflows to reduce the number of operators needed. Ultimately the aim should be to match the number of jobs going through pre-print with the amount that you can physically put through the printers and post-press each day. Otherwise, there will be a bottleneck in one department or another.

However, there is such a wide variation between wide format service providers that there is no simple answer as to how to do this. Instead, each company has to ask just how much automation is appropriate for their particular set-up and what changes they want to achieve by automating their workflow, whether that means starting from the beginning again or expanding, or even replacing, an existing system.

We can split workflow into three main areas: job submission, prepress and postpress. So, the first thing to consider is how you want to define the job submission step for your business,…