The Print Room Ecosystem

The print ecosystem is complex, and though we can’t all agree on a simple definition of the term, we can agree that there is a process and specific requirements based on your customers’ needs and segments you service. For Print Rooms, each department will have their own specifications and job variables, but the print process will also have commonalities.

Now more than ever, Print Rooms provide valuable services to an evolving workplace. Remote and hybrid work environments are becoming the norm, along with employee requirements for printed materials. As a result, Print Room print operation processes must become more flexible and efficient to prove their worth. They need to position themselves as modern communication hubs, providing both printer and digital services. The modern print room is how its embedded into a business echo system, Service Now, Oracle, Coupa, SharePoint (document management) etc…

Today and going forward, employees need the ability to easily request, procure, and reconcile budgets for their print requests, whether sitting in the office, from the road, or at their homes. The solution is a robust ecosystem and smart workflow processes that keep the Print Room operationally viable and commercially successful while delighting customers.

Building that ecosystem requires attention to the five critical stages of the workflow: input, manage, prepare, produce, and output. Let’s explore the challenges, opportunities, and solutions for each stage of print production

This eBook is a preface to a 5-part series for Print Rooms that breaks down every step in a print production software ecosystem in vivid detail to simplify what can become very complicated.

The Ecosystem

01 Input

Print Request: Someone needs something printed and makes a request.
Quote: Print Room printer provides cost, timeline, and accounting details.
Order Confirmation: Customer approves the order.
Content Submission: Customer uploads or Print Room creates artwork and
any data files.

02 Manage

Job ticketing: Print Room converts the order into a production job ticket.
Manage the job inputs: Use a print MIS to manage inventory and purchase orders.
Monitor to Manage: Capture shop floor data to manage against KPIs like equipment uptime and SLA performance.
Utilise alerts and notifications for process optimisation and customer awareness.

The Ecosystem

03 Prepare

File Retrieval: Customer artwork and files are input into the production print workflow.
File and Data Stream Conversions: Convert customer’s files into the file format used in the Print Room’s workflow, if needed.
Variable data printing and intelligent template creation for personalised communications, multiple or concurrent jobs.
Preflight: Find and fix errors creating a streamlined file for downstream processing.
Colour Conversion and Management: Adjust colours and apply ICC profiles for colour matching and control.
Proofing and Approval: Get signoff from the customer.

04 Produce

e-Delivery Optimisation (if needed): Remove elements not required for e-Delivery and archiving.
Ganging/Batching: Combine smaller jobs into larger ones for more efficient print runs.
Imposition: Arrange the pages for print and finishing into final product.
Colour consistency across the finished assets.

05 Output

Print: Putting the image on the paper.
Finishing: Converting the print into the final product.
Final review: Did the job complete on time within established performance ranges?
Accounting Reconciliation: Identify any cost changes and perform any interdepartmental chargebacks.

Input

The Challenge

Receiving, responding to, and onboarding requests for prints from across the organisation is a daunting task. Print Rooms work with diverse departments, each with a unique set of print requirements to support their line of business. In order to process orders from internal departments as well as external customers, you’re going to need a brand identity and some way of generating demand without hiring sales people.

Yet, this stage is the most important for automation and standardisation since it provides the basis for all other print processes. The input stage should focus on minimising the effort for users to request print while also capturing the specifications required to produce the job.

Input

The Opportunity

People capturing job specifications creates risk because it’s easy to develop a personal shorthand for everything from paper sizes to due dates. That shorthand sets off a chain of emails, chats, phone calls, and conversations that consume time and resources for every job.

Online ordering systems, whether web-to-print or enterprise procurement solutions are ideal for improving the ordering experience for users and job onboarding for the Print Room.

Digital asset management software offers personalisation and collaboration, ensures the right assets and versions are available. Coupled with marketing asset management, printers can provide a catalogue of ready-made templates to order and can complement job onboarding depending on the organisation’s needs.

Print Rooms should use input software and processes to standardise requests for orders and reorders which would certainly reduce the processing time down to hours and also provide a better customer experience.

Manage

The Challenge

Turning your print room into a commercially successful operation involves managing the flow of work throughout while controlling costs and meeting service level agreements (SLAs) for timely delivery. Operations based on spreadsheets and physical job tickets are at a disadvantage. Using these manual tools creates operational gaps in knowing the available capacity, the status of the production floor, and timely data to monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of production.

Manage

The Opportunity

Managing your Print Room operation to a higher level of accuracy and detail requires a commitment to implement and use a print MIS solution, along with a data analytics tool, to manage operations. A print MIS is the brain of the print operation and should be the single record of truth for all customer and production information. It manages every element of customer and business records covering estimating, quoting, job ticketing, tracking, job costing, scheduling, inventory management, purchasing, and, in some cases, accounting. Data analysis through operational dashboards customised for managers and operators relies on data analytics tools or, in some cases, an additional business intelligent module of a print MIS.

Having dashboards that provide up-to-date information on capacity, SLA performance, and other critical operational metrics to help manage the overall business and course-correct where required to manage resources most efficiently.

Prepare

The Challenge

The essence of preparation is understanding the job requirements and the metrics that determine successful production and delivery, which changes based on the print application. Increasingly, Print Rooms offer design and composition services and may be responsible for creating the production files, cataloguing versions, and maintaining photo and graphic assets used in their projects. The challenge is often in preparing customer-supplied artwork and data files.

All production files need additional preparation to move smoothly into production, which is where preflighting, colour management, imposition, and batching solutions are critical.

Prepare

The Opportunity

The type of print application, along with the job specifications, determines the processing steps required to prepare the files. Direct mail needs data cleansing and postal optimisation, in addition to preparing the artwork. A static brochure, however, needs artwork preparation and proper impositioning. Common preparation steps include file retrieval, file conversions, data stream transformations, preflighting, file optimisation, colour conversions, colour management, proofing and approval, batching, and imposition.

Preparing files using a repeatable and standardised process minimises the chance for more costly errors in print and finishing. Having processes that streamline makeready files streamlines often complex prepress steps, saving time to put more jobs on press and remove the cost of unnecessary manual errors. Consistency in layout, colours, fonts and image quality are the backbone of any good print job.

Each application needs a documented workflow map identifying the processing steps and required software solutions. An automated workflow management solution can handle most of the preparation tasks and integrate with other specialist solutions for more complex tasks like data stream transformation and batching if needed.

The key is to have, and to integrate, the right tools for the highest level of automation possible.

Produce

The Challenge

Today’s Print Room operations often produce multiple types of print applications across multiple printing technologies, in addition to offering mailing and electronic delivery. For some, the standard print work may be sheetfed pages with some binding, while others may focus on print and mail that requires inserting and sorting. Still, others may use a range of wide format devices for sign and label applications in addition to their production cut-sheet and continuous feed presses. The print production channels are often augmented by e-delivery channels and requirements for archiving, which may have specific file structure requirements.

The multiple types of output strain production and make the preceding input, manage, and prepare stages critical to a smooth shop floor operation.

Produce

The Opportunity

File optimisation techniques ensure the content is normalised for its intended output channel, whether in print or digital format. Files for e-delivery and archiving contain elements that add unnecessary size and complexity, resulting in more storage and bandwidth requirements. Optimisation can reduce image resolutions, consolidate fonts, and remove objects not essential to digital delivery. Many of the same techniques can also be applied to files destined for printing.

Ganging, or batching, provides another level of optimisation for print files where files are combined based on shared characteristics. For continuous feed environments, a common paper can be the driver. For sheetfed environments, it might be the finishing. Software allows the Print Room to set rules for when and how jobs are combined. The resulting larger print jobs minimise material usage and equipment setup, allowing more efficient use of the Print Room resources.

Output

The Challenge

Conditions on the production floor vary at any given moment, so flexibility is critical for any last-minute production changes. Equipment may go offline for emergency maintenance or repair. Jobs may need to shift to another device and format size. Workflow solutions to help manage the schedule, shift work as required, and balance the workload are helpful to reach the finish line and meet SLAs.

There are still critical steps to confirm the job was delivered on time, ran efficiently through the Print Room without bottlenecks or delay, and is accounted for financially. These steps must be completed to finalise delivery.

Output

The Opportunity

The production floor workflow must excel in the face of uncertain schedules and tight turnarounds. Output management solutions keep print operations moving by smart splitting of jobs to multiple printers (for example, black and white versus colour), shifting work to the most efficient and available printing device, and management of multiple printers and queues from a single view and point of control.

Data analytics tools ensure the print shop meets or exceeds performance metrics. Supervisors can also spot and take corrective action for any bottlenecks or recurring issues affecting individual jobs or the production schedule due to issues with equipment, departments, or staff.

Ricoh & Partner Solutions:

Are You Ready?

Today’s Print Rooms have more customers to serve from more locations, with each asking for a more diverse set of print and communication solutions. Dated, manually intensive processes are hurdles to fulfilling the needs of users and the organisation. Efficiency and automation are powerful allies for success.

When jobs are onboarded efficiently, the costs go down. When job specifications are captured in templates, people are no longer needed to chase them. When systems are integrated to update stock availability and costs, estimators understand their options and price appropriately.

Across every function and process, effective use of software solutions makes your employees better at their jobs, improves the Print Room operation and unlocks value for the organisation.

It’s all in a smooth handoff. If you’re ready to start simplifying and optimising your Print Room ecosystem, watch out for the next section of the ebook, The Input, which will be send to you soon or contact us for more information.

Book a free print workflow assessment now