Ryan McAbee Every business has pain points that make automation and hyper-efficiency hard to achieve. Workflows are particularly prone to inefficiencies because they evolve over time and shift as new requirements emerge. Tackling the project to automate and bring transparency to each workflow element can seem daunting, but with a clear framework in hand it should be part of your 2024 plan. The most significant pain points in your print business are glaringly obvious. 
  • High labor costs. 
  • Too many reprints and waste. 
  • Not enough production capacity. 
  • Lack of experience and training in critical roles and production areas. 
  • Missed due dates and service level agreements. 
The list is as long as it is varied for many printers. The difficulty is identifying the root cause of the pain, not simply the symptom, and plotting a path to the cure. Many paint points can be improved or eliminated through some form and level of automation provided by software, equipment, robotics, AI, or a combination. Yet, the business challenges exist for many reasons. Past projects may have failed due to project management, employee buy-in, lack of customer onboarding, or failure to identify the root cause of friction. Sometimes projects fail because the technology search happens before the business goal is identified and understood. Other times, like a Rube Goldberg machine, we over engineer the solutions when a more straightforward solution suffices.  Printers recognize the benefits of automation. According to WhatTheyThink’s 2023 Business Outlook Survey, 58% of print businesses say they have implemented workflow automation in their plants, typically via software-based file processing. The following 10-step roadmap presents the steps you can follow for automation and efficiency projects. It cannot provide specifics since each project has too many variables. It is a way to approach the automation challenge, just as a pilot uses a flight path — let’s takeoff. 

Step 1: What is the problem?

You have a problem to solve. Perhaps it is an unacceptable level of missed due dates. Your gut tells you it is a capacity problem in finishing, but is that the symptom or underlying cause? The natural instinct is to shop for newer, more capable finishing equipment. The reality is that there are several contributing factors leading to the crunch in finishing. The staging area for work-in-progress jobs is a mess causing operators to waste minutes to half an hour searching for the next job. Once they find the job, its information must be manually keyed and set up, adding more time to each finishing station. Worst yet, there is too much downtime between each finishing process because operators wait on physical job tickets to know when the job is ready for their station. After a little investigation, what appeared to be an equipment capacity problem is really a process efficiency problem. How do you prevent developing biases and narrow points of view to identify and solve your pain points? Define the business objective or outcome desired caused by the problem.

Step 2: Define the business objective.

In the previous example, the business objective is to reduce the level of missed due dates so customers receive their deliveries on time. Increased customer satisfaction and avoiding possible penalty fees are bonuses but not the primary objective. Assuming your original goal was on time deliveries, just saying you want to deliver every customer’s job on time is not enough to make a difference. The goal must be quantified to be measured, monitored, and reacted to. Without something meaningful and measurable, how do you know what you are trying to solve and when you have solved it? The better approach is to set an on-time delivery rate of 99%. The best approach is to also give a timeline for when to hit that milestone so you might target reaching a 99% delivery rate within the next three months. How do you go about completing the business objective? Find the overt and covert processes that create the paint points and problem.

Step 3: Find the overt & covert processes.

Business processes and workflows expand and contract over time to solve the problems at hand. Before you realize it, the workflow is a patchwork of loosely connected tools to push the work uphill and through. The inefficiency and frustration from staff create two workflows — the overt ones you see and the coverts one’s staff create to “get the job done.” Your primary workflow is where you have been adding automation to standardize touchpoints, optimize files, and normalize handoffs from process to process. The covert workflow is the collection of spreadsheets, notes, and private chat groups to maintain the real information on every job that happens in the production trenches. In our SLA example, the supervisor in the finishing department created covert processes for the department by creating a custom spreadsheet to track jobs and work-to lists every day. She thought it was easier than using the existing scheduling and shop floor collection features of the print MIS. Unfortunately, chaos ensues during peak production and when she is not at work. Walk your workflow to confirm the overt workflow processes and tools are being used as intended and to maximize their use but dig deep to find the covert processes that create information and automation choke points. 

Step 4: What can and needs to be automated?

There are three general levels of automation. Basic automation unburdens operators by removing simple, repetitive tasks. Barcodes and hotfolders are examples of basic automation in many print shops. Process automation, sometimes called business process automation (BPA), is the second level, where multi-step processes are automated by integrating multiple systems through the exchange of data. Sending color/ink settings and the imposed files from the prepress workflow to the press or printer is second-level automation. Finally, there is intelligent information, where computing power and intelligence are used for software and machines to learn and make decisions to augment people power.  Not every workflow bottleneck or problem requires advanced automation! Consider the frequency of the automation, e.g., do you receive ten files from customers every day or 10,000? Weigh the amount of information that must be exchanged and the best technical implementation for reliability. Will a hotfolder suffice or is a REST API connection required? Remember that the technical solution is the minimum required to satisfy the business objective from step 2, nothing more.

Step 5: Sell the project and keep morale high.

Any project that will change how you work, and impact staff must be sold early on and continuously. Selling the reasons for the project and its benefits is a task for everyone in a leadership role. The owner/CEO must clearly articulate why the project is required and the expected outcomes. Each supervisor must communicate why it is essential for their department and, more importantly, how it will impact the processes, work, and people involved. If the project impacts external clients or business partners, they must also be sold, particularly when their buy-in and use of the solution is required. During the implementation and training stages, the project manager and leadership should continue communicating and working with staff to address any fears, concerns, or technical challenges that must be resolved.

Step 6: Build the team: insource, outsource, or both.

Projects fail to launch or stall because the internal staff tasked to manage and guide the project lose focus. This happens for a multitude of reasons, but immediate customer and production demands have a way of pushing longer term projects to the back burner. If this is a likely scenario, you need to leverage external resources. There are plenty of consultants, project managers, integrators, and developers for hire. Keep the important aspects of leadership and accountability with your internal team but outsource the “in the weeds” work where possible.

Step 7: Create the timeline and set meaningful and measurable metrics.

Some projects are critical where time is of the essence while others can span months or years. Quantifying the improvement to the business is how you determine the timeline. Work with your internal team and any external support to build a realistic timeline, then work backward to build checkpoints and milestones. All implementation activities should focus on achieving the business objective, but other metrics will be needed to keep any project management and development on-task and on schedule. Back to our SLA example, the business objective is to hit a 99% delivery rate within three months from the start of the project. The business metric is simple, but the metrics to implement the scheduling, shop floor data collection, and change order management in the existing print MIS system are unique to each effort. Those should be set by your project manager, lead implementor, and lead developer.

Step 8: Shop for the solution.

With the project objectives, team, metrics, and schedule in place it is time to shop for the solution if one does not already exist in the business. Existing software and hardware solutions are often underutilized while other situations require new purchases. Now that the project objectives, initial timeline, and processes to change have been identified, you can shop for the solution. Do the research to narrow the field of potential solutions online or through peer networks, industry publications, and consultants. You drive the sales engagement. Make sure the vendor knows the specifics of your project so they can demonstrate and show a proof-of-concept to solve your issues.

Step 9: Integrate and implement.

At this stage, the project team gets to work. It is a coordinated dance between development, IT, staff, and other necessary parties. Meetings should be set on a cadence based on the scope and size of the project to keep everything moving to complete the business objective. The goal is to launch fast, get real-world feedback, and fix or pivot around any issues to keep the project moving. Inevitably, there will be speed bumps and roadblocks that need to be addressed swiftly and definitively. A good approach is to schedule a roundtable with staff from each team on the project, e.g., IT, development, quality assurance, training, sales, etc. Have the team member with the best knowledge of the issue present the facts to the roundtable, then have every participant make suggestions to fix the issue. Take the best suggestions and find the best path forward.

Step 10: Test, triage, and then train.

Congratulations! You are close to the finish line. The project needs to be tested in-field with real production situations. Have customers, staff, and project leads identify and triage any usability or technical problems. Once the solution is vetted against the business metric(s) and works as intended, it is time to train customers and staff how to use it as intended. Do not overlook the effort required for training. Keep it consistent and condensed. Use this framework to guide your path to successful problem resolution that results in more workflow automation and efficiency. The goal is to eliminate the hidden workflows and bring transparency to the processes that allow your business to grow.