(Read Part One of this series here.)

More printing companies are finding opportunities in packaging production as more targeted and shorter packaging production runs increase and new digital tools help reduce the skill sets required. However, many are finding that different production tools and workflows as well as new processes are required to optimize and succeed. The added benefit is that many of these new tools can also help converters who have been entrenched in analog production technologies and processes.

Packaging production/converting has historically been relegated to analog print and converting technologies and processes like flexo, offset, and even gravure.  As the consumers continue to shift from large global brands to smaller local/regional brands, the amount of disparate packaging required will increase and the runs will get shorter. That doesn’t mean that long-run analog packaging is going away, just that it will be increasingly accompanied by digital production methods in both print and converting.